MAM
SoCheers scales up leadership team with key elevations
Mumbai: SoCheers, a digital-first full-service advertising agency has elevated some of its core team members across verticals, namely content and brand experience. The newly elevated members will now be a part of the senior management team, playing a pivotal role in the decision-making process, said the agency.
Shivani Kamdar, who completed seven years with the agency this month, has been elevated from the head of content to associate creative director. In this new role, she will be extending major support to all creative departments, with a core focus on growing the teams, harnessing talent and helping cultivate bigger and more meaningful campaigns for the clients. Keeping a business-centric approach, she will add value to the top as well as the bottom line through her initiatives.
Tanvi Bosmia, who has been associated with SoCheers for more than eight years, was elevated from the position of group account manager to associate account director of the brand experience team. She will be handling the overall clientele of the agency, in charge of bringing in more revenue from a business point of view.
Aakash Gopalani, who was the account supervisor, has now been appointed as the group account manager in the brand experience team. He will be handling the client communications along with managing a team of 20+ account management professionals. He will also be leading the strategic initiatives of 15+ brands’ digital presence, followed by exploring newer revenue streams for the organisation.
“Whether it’s client management or content development, each of these newly elevated individuals bring something unique to the table with their wide-ranging industry experience,” said SoCheers co-founder and CEO Mehul Gupta. “As we look forward to expanding our client base, catering to brands across different industries like finance, FMCG and D2C, and onboarding new talent this year, these elevations will be instrumental in achieving our target of 75 per cent growth in 2022.”
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.
