MAM
PointNine Lintas launched, Vikas Mehta named CEO
MUMBAI: MullenLowe Lintas Group has announced the launch of its new independent full-service agency in India, PointNine Lintas. It would offer omni-channel marketing capabilities including creative (on and offline), PR, activation, experiential, social, media and digital transformation; all under one roof.
PointNine Lintas will commence operations on 1 August, 2017.
The existing marketing services of the Group will be aggregated under this new agency and will operate as its divisions. These include GolinOpinion – PR, reputation management; LinTeractive – digital marketing & transformation and LinEngage – activation, experiential & shopper. These divisions will come together to offer full-service horizontal offerings to clients of PointNine Lintas, while continuing to retain their vertical offerings for existing clients. The new agency has a roadmap to further expand its capabilities by adding new offerings to its service stack, including creative, media, technology and platforms.
Announcing the new agency, Joseph George (Joe), Group Chairman and CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group said, “We made our intentions to go full-service clear four years ago. While the list of companies and industries pursuing full-service (under different labels) has grown tremendously in this time, the approach to it remains more or less the same. PointNine Lintas is a fresh take at an agency model that’s multi-faceted at its core. So far, only holding companies have seen some success with this approach, but it’s restricted to a handful of very large global clients. An agency network doing this would be a first, and we believe it could broaden the base of clients who can tap into it.”
Along with Lowe Lintas and Mullen Lintas, PointNine Lintas would be the third independent agency of the MullenLowe Lintas Group in India. Vikas Mehta, currently Group CMO and President, Marketing Services for MullenLowe Lintas Group, has been named CEO of PointNine Lintas.
Vikas has been with the MullenLowe Group for over a decade in various local and regional roles in the APAC region including Managing Director – Lowe Viet Nam and Regional Growth Officer – Lowe Asia-Pacific. He moved to MullenLowe Lintas Group India in 2013 as the country’s first agency-CMO. In 2014, he took an additional mandate to rebuild the group’s digital business by relaunching LinTeractive. Since 2015, he’s also been President of the Group’s Marketing Services divisions. Prior to his management stints, Vikas was a planner and he authored strategies, papers and case-studies that have won over 50 international awards for marketing effectiveness. Major ones include Effie (India, Singapore and APAC), Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards, APAC Tambuli Awards, WARC Asia Prize for Strategy, 4A’s Jay Chiat Awards, among others.
Speaking of the appointment, Joes said, “I have worked closely with Vikas the past four years and I am absolutely certain that he is most qualified to deliver on this ambition. Not just because of his subject matter competencies required for a multi-service agency, but also for his passionate, stubborn and informed belief in ‘full service’ being the only way to go!”
Vikas said, “We have gone from the age of communication to the age of experiences. While the market has evolved at a furious pace, the agency models haven’t. The opportunity to take the Lintas pedigree and build an agency for the experiential economy is an inspiring one. Hyper-bundling is our biggest priority as a network and I’m grateful for the challenge to build a new agency that’s hyper-bundled from day zero”.
PointNine Lintas will work on an operating model that’s designed to evolve, much like the OS of your preferred device, to reflect the accelerated pace at which the marketing landscape is shifting. In fact, the name PointNine reflects exactly that; a philosophy of ‘forever beta’, by choice.
MAM
Navi releases new ‘Hurrypur’ film focused on speed and simplicity
Auto breakdown turns F1-style pit stop in campaign film set to Baalti’s track
MUMBAI: When life’s in the fast lane, Navi wants even your breakdowns to be over in a blink. Navi has rolled out a new film under its ongoing ‘Hurrypur’ campaign, doubling down on its core pitch speed and simplicity in everyday transactions.
The film opens on a familiar hiccup, an autorickshaw breaking down mid-ride. But what follows is anything but ordinary. The repair unfolds like a Formula 1 pit stop swift, precise, almost cinematic. Within seconds, the tyre is replaced, the vehicle is back on the road, and even the fare negotiation wraps up in record time.
Set to US-based musical act Baalti’s track “123”, the film uses rhythm and pacing to mirror its central idea, in a world that moves fast, everything around it must keep up.
The narrative builds on Hurrypur, a fictional world where time is treated as currency and delay is almost obsolete. Through exaggerated yet relatable scenarios, the campaign reflects a broader behavioural shift consumers increasingly expect instant responses, whether from people, platforms or payments.
Navi Limited MD and CEO Rajiv Naresh said the Hurrypur universe is designed to highlight the company’s focus on delivering seamless, time-efficient experiences. Meanwhile, creative agency Sideways and director Ayappa KM leaned into humour and visual energy to push the story beyond a typical product-led narrative.
Instead of listing features, the campaign sticks to storytelling turning a routine inconvenience into a high-speed spectacle.
Because in Navi’s world, even a pit stop refuses to slow things down.
