MAM
Maxus APAC names Rose Huskey as client leadership head
MUMBAI: Rose Huskey has joined the Maxus regional team as Maxus APAC client leadership head.
Prior to this, Huskey spent four years as the Maxus Vietnam managing director.
Based out of Singapore, Huskey will be responsible for ensuring that the client’s experience is world class, integrated product and thinking into brand marketing as its leans into change in the ever evolving world.
Huskey is an advertising executive with 18 years of experience across agencies, specializing in developing solutions to client’s challenges and bringing them to life in the online and offline world. Before joining Maxus, GroupM Huskey held positions at OMD in Vancouver, Canada and Future Shop where she was responsible for conceiving, managing and developing advertising and communication solutions.
Huskey said, “The media industry has never been more exciting and interesting. The convergence of online and offline experiences means that people now have more choice than ever before on how, when and where they access the media they want. Maxus helps our clients leverage a wide spectrum of media opportunities to seize opportunities and fight off competitive threats.”
Maxus Asia-Pacific regional CEO Ajit Varghese added, “We are very excited to have Rose join our regional leadership team. Given all her extensive experience in managing clients, building high performance teams and leading growth in one of our highest performing countries, she’s absolutely the right person to drive central leadership for our network clients and lead our teams to flawlessly execute across multi markets. At Maxus, we always aim to provide successful career options within the group for star performers and Rose certainly meets that criteria.”
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.
