MAM
GroupM India names Ashwin Padmanabhan as president – investments, trading and partnerships
Mumbai: GroupM India announced on Wednesday that Ashwin Padmanabhan will be promoted to president-investments, trading, and partnerships. Padmanabhan, who earlier led ‘Trading’ and ‘Partnerships’ will now also be taking on the ‘Investments’ portfolio from Sidharth Parashar. Parashar will be joining the APAC Mindshare leadership team as chief investment officer, Mindshare APAC, and will now be based out of Singapore.
Padmanabhan will continue to report to GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar and be based out of the Gurgaon campus. Over the next three months, Parashar and Padmanabhan will work closely to ensure a seamless transition into their respective new roles along with their key leadership team.
GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar said, “Sidharth has had a phenomenal career journey where the organisation has witnessed his evolution from a practise expert to a leader over the last 18 years with GroupM. He has successfully led investment mandates across all media, elevating the practise through innovative products and exceptional value for our clients. I would like to wish him the very best and will continue to work closely with him as he drives the regional investment strategy for Mindshare.”
“I am also excited to see Ashwin taking over this additional role. He has a deep understanding of the business, and we continue to benefit from his knowledge of the media ecosystem. Focusing on cutting-edge innovation backed by his solid process orientation is a value-add for clients. His ‘start-up’ mindset has helped GroupM venture into new practices, deploying creativity to our products and solutions, keeping client delight at the helm,” he added.
Parashar will report to Mindshare APAC chief executive officer Helen McRae, and work on enhancing Mindshare’s local market investment strategy and driving thinking on the opportunity of good growth and intentional investment for the region.
Helen McRae said, “I am very pleased that Sid will be joining our regional team. He brings a tremendous depth of expertise and will be a great champion of good growth for our clients.”
Sidharth Parashar said, “It has been an amazing journey at GroupM, and I am delighted to now take over this new Mindshare APAC investment role. I look forward to this opportunity in new markets to build value for our client’s business.”
Ashwin Padmanabhan said, “GroupM has been a fertile ground for innovation and creating value in a highly entrepreneurial environment. This expanded remit motivates me to renew my focus on the GroupM value proposition for our clients, media partners, and technology partners. We want to keep the momentum up with these relentless efforts toward improving today for a better tomorrow.”
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
