MAM
Grey Group’s Nirvik Singh gets expanded role
MUMBAI: Grey Group Asia Pacific’s chairman and CEO Nirvik Singh has got an additional role. Additionally, Singh will also oversee the company’s business in the Middle East and Africa. In his newly elevated role, he will continue to work closely with Grey Group chairman and CEO Jim Heekin and Grey Group global president Michael Houston.
Under his leadership, Grey Group APAC was featured among the leading communications networks and his trademark business acquisitions has been instrumental in the development of Grey’s digital and shopper offerings in the region. He has played a monumental role in the growth and development of the network’s comprehensive offerings across Asia.
“Nirvik has been a prime mover in our dynamic growth and development in Asia. He has been relentless in building our geographic footprint with premier acquisitions, accelerating our offerings in a host of disciplines including digital and shopper and raising the creative bar. He has won every major professional award in Asia. I know he will bring the same single-minded dedication and achievement to his added responsibilities,” said Heekin.
Singh is a 27-year industry veteran of the global advertising and marketing agency headquartered in New York City. His highly-regarded business acumen has led to numerous additions to Grey network including; RC&M (Rural Communications & Marketing services) in India, Yolk (Interactive & Digital media network) in Singapore, DPI (Shopper), Star Echo (Marketing Services) and ArtM (Integrated Communications) in China, Vinyl-I (Creative Digital agency) in South Korea and nudeJEH (Advertising & Digital agency) in Thailand, etc.
AD Agencies
The smell that told Mumbaikars which station was next
Tata AIA turns Mumbai’s Parle-G memory into a sharp, city-wise outdoor play
MUMBAI: When a biscuit factory became Mumbai’s unofficial station announcement. Long before smartphone maps and automated announcements, commuters on Mumbai’s Western line relied on their noses. As trains rolled into Vile Parle, compartments filled with the warm, sweet smell of baking biscuits from the Parle-G factory. It was a cue to gather bags, wake dozing children and shuffle towards the door.
Now that memory has been pressed into service by Tata AIA Life Insurance as part of its 25-year anniversary outdoor campaign — a city-by-city salute to the lived moments that shape urban life.
One hoarding, mounted close to the old factory site, reads: “We have been protecting Mumbaikars since Vile Parle smelled of freshly made biscuits.” Spare. Local. Loaded.
The broader campaign, rolled out across major metros, leans hard into contextual storytelling. In Kolkata, it nods to trams. In Pune, to Magarpatta’s transformation. In Bengaluru, to a time before IT parks. In Chennai, to OMR before it led to tech corridors. Each line anchors the brand’s longevity to a shared civic memory.
The Mumbai execution is the most evocative. For decades, the Parle-G factory was more than a production unit. It was a sensory landmark. Residents nearby set their clocks by the factory horn. Office-goers marked their commute by the waft of glucose and flour. When the plant shut, the city lost more than jobs. It lost a rhythm.
By placing the hoarding beside the former factory, the insurer collapses distance between copy and context. The site does half the storytelling. The rest comes from commuters who remember opening steel tiffins packed with Parle-G, or jolting awake as the train slowed.
It is a neat piece of brand positioning. Rather than trumpet balance sheets or policy counts, Tata AIA borrows emotional equity from the city itself. Twenty-five years becomes less a milestone and more a presence — steady, local, embedded.
Outdoor advertising is often a blunt instrument. This one is anything but. It whispers. It remembers. And in doing so, it sells trust without sounding like it is selling at all.
The scent may have faded. The memory has not.
