MAM
Ogilvy’s bronze is India’s first Cannes metal of 2012
MUMBAI: In the first list of winners announced at Cannes Lions 2012, India‘s claim to fame came in the form of a Bronze to Ogilvy in the Direct category for its iFold campaign for telecom provider Vodafone.
The Grand Prix winner in this Direct Lions category is ‘The Small Business Day Campaign‘ started by American Express to help out the small shop owners by Crispin, Porters and Bogusky.
However, there were no India wins in Promo and Activation and PR categories. There were four Indian entries in Promo and Activation and one in PR categories.
Ogilvy‘s iFold campaign was aimed at spreading awareness about saving paper. The idea was to encourage people to fold their bills and other extra correspondence in order to use smaller envelopes, thus saving paper. The entry had been shortlisted in the Best Low Budget Campaign sub category.
Commenting on the win, executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey said, “A little idea from a young team in Ogilvy Mumbai was supported and implemented by Vodafone India to its India customer base. This award belongs more to Vodafone than to Ogilvy India.”
A total of seven Indian entries were shortlisted in the Direct Lions category involving six agencies – McCann World Group, BBDO India, Leo Burnett, DDB Mudra Group and Cheil Worldwide.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
