AD Agencies
Maxus strengthens global board with three additions
MUMBAI: Maxus has announced the strengthening of its global senior management team with three new appointments to its executive board.
Benedict, Rudi Symons and Pam Sullivan are joining the ExCo. Benedict and Symons have both been promoted to new roles. Benedict becomes worldwide chief client officer, while Symons has been named worldwide chief talent officer. Sullivan, will continue in her role as managing director of Maxus Los Angeles.
Benedict joined Maxus as a managing partner in 2014 from MEC where he was the global client lead. In his new role, Benedict will continue to help develop both the ever-expanding Maxus global Huawei relationship and GroupM’s global L’Oréal account across 19 markets, as well as spearheading the Maxus Client Leadership practice.
Rudi Symons, newly appointed worldwide chief talent officer, joined Maxus in September 2015 as EMEA head of talent and culture. In her new role, she will be responsible for developing the global talent and culture strategy across 55 markets. Since joining, Symons has launched a number of HR initiatives at Maxus.
Pam Sullivan joined Maxus in 2011 as the managing director for Maxus Los Angeles, leading the launch of the new office. She also heads Maxus’s largest client in North American, leading the NBCU film and television business, for which she oversees and leads strategic planning, implementation and stewardship for all products. In her five years at Maxus, Sullivan has increased the Los Angeles office’s billings fourfold.
Lindsay Pattison, worldwide CEO, said, “Our talent delivers highly creative, award winning campaigns that grow our clients’ businesses.”
Dan said: “With Maxus’ unique client-centric culture my new role is firmly about supporting clients through this time of peak complexity. The key is ensuring local knowledge delivers global impact.”
Sullivan will continue to be based in Los Angeles and report into both Steve Williams, Maxus Americas CEO, and Lindsay Pattison, Maxus Worldwide CEO. Benedict and Symons will continue to be based in London and report to Pattison.
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.
