MAM
IAA Debates: Are agencies rapidly reinventing?
MUMBAI: There is need for both advertising agencies and marketers to reinvent themselves. This was the basic message from the IAA Debates held in Mumbai earlier this month.
The topic of the discussion of the second of the new season of IAA Debates was: ‘Agencies are not rapidly reinventing themselves to stay relevant to changing advertiser needs.’
At the start of the debate, the overarching view of the audience was that agencies must reinvent to stay relevant. At the end of the debate, the view moved to that agencies are reinventing themselves and indeed more relevant than the initially held view.
Speaking for the motion (‘Agencies are not reinventing themselves’) were Dentsu Aegis Network chairman & CEO South Asia Ashish Bhasin and Marico chief marketing officer Sameer Satpathy.
Speaking against the motion (‘Agencies are reinventing themselves’) were Madison World MD and chairman Sam Balsara and Godrej strategic marketing group COO Shireesh Joshi.
IAA India Chapter president and IAA vice president-development, Asia Pacific Srinivasan K Swamy said, “The fact that some of the leading lights of the industry participated in the debate ensured that we had discussion of the topmost quality. By bringing in practising leaders of the industry, the IAA Debates has become a must-attend event from all section of the advertising, media and marketing fraternity.”
D B Corp chief-marketing and corporate sales officer Pradeep Dwivedi added, “We are delighted to partner IAA Debates in bringing about discussions around current, thought provoking subjects which have a bearing on the industry and our marketing, media and advertising community. As marketers figure out ways to maximise value from their agency engagements and vice versa, as was the subject of the recently concluded second debate of the season, we at Dainik Bhaskar remain committed to contribute to the spirit of discovery and discussion to help bring about change and evolution.”
The IAA Debates hosted so far have been in Mumbai, Goa, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. The debates have featured senior advertising, media and marketing professionals such as Prasoon Joshi, Vikram Sakhuja, Lloyd Mathias, Josy Paul, Pratap Bose, Deepika Warrier, Anupriya Acharya, Arun Anant, Arunabh Das Sharma, Partha Sinha, Monica Tata, Vikram Chandra, Punitha Arumugam, Mahesh Murthy, Virginia Sharma, Ashok Lalla and Zerin Rahman, Sadashiv Nayak, Atul Phadnis, Ronita Mitra, and Amitabh Pande amongst others speaking for and against the motion.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
