MAM
Havas Media India makes senior digital appointments
MUMBAI: Havas Media India which has added a slew of wins to the kitty in 2013 has strengthened its ‘digital’ segment with two key senior appointments.
In tune with the group’s integrated structure, Havas Media India’s full services digital portfolio includes digital media planning and buying, display advertising, digital direct response, search engine marketing, SEO, pay-per-click, social media, as well as ‘Mobext’ for mobile solutions and performance marketing using data and analytics.
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Havas Media Group, India & South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar
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Havas Media India MD digital Anurag Bhatnagar
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To establish itself further in India, the company has appointed Sumit Kumar as General Manager; while S.V. Sunilkumar has joined as Business Head Digital-Mumbai, whose key responsibility will be to service the existing digital clientele in Mumbai as well as new business development.
Speaking on the appointments, Havas Media Group, India & South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar said, “Digital is a focal point for us and these appointments will further consolidate our attempt to offer the latest digital services to our clients. Both Sumit and Sunil are talented and committed digital players – we are glad to have them on board.”
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“Sunil and Sumit are mandated to entrenching and expanding the Havas Digital footprint in Mumbai and India”, added Havas Media India MD-Digital Anurag Bhatnagar.
“Mobext not only provides mobile solutions to engage the customer but can also help brands make their sales force more effective with our enterprise solutions – a unique proposition in itself. The profile is a huge challenge and opportunity to create unique experiences and expand the Mobext offering in India”, explained Sumit Kumar, General Manager, Mobext India
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Havas Media business head digital Mumbai Sunil Kumar
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Mobext India GM Sumit Kumar
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Business Head Digital-Mumbai S.V. Sunilkumar commented, “As a digital enthusiast, it is always exciting to work with an agency whose mantra is ‘Digital at its core’. Havas Media has been on an aggressive growth path and again it is good to be where the action is. I look forward to creating some of this action”.
Sumit Kumar, with over eight years of leadership experience in business development, strategic partnerships, product management and corporate sales, was earlier leading the performance and app advertising business for InMobi India. Clients worked with include – Tata DOCOMO, Vodafone, Sony Entertainment, Disney, OLX, Viacom 18, Tencent, AOL, Cleartip , Hungama, Nazara, Opera and Times Group.
Sunilkumar with 18 years of media experience was working with Infosys as a Principal Consultant and a part of the core product development team at BrandEdge (the global cloud based digital marketing platform). Also, as digital media head at DDB Mudra, he has serviced clients including LIC, Star TV, McDonalds, IDBI Bank, India First Life Insurance, etc.
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
