MAM
TBWA’s Integer Group debuts in India
MUMBAI: The Integer Group, a sister agency of TBWA and a key member of Omnicom Group Inc, has announced its official launch in India.
The promotional, retail, and shopper marketing firm has announced that it will begin its Indian operations by opening an office in Mumbai, making it the group‘s 16th global office.
The outfit will be headed by Sreejit Nair who was appointed as managing director of The Integer Group India in May 2011.
The group will make its debut in the country armed with clients including PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble and will serve both its global and Indian clients.
Nair said, “We have noticed that brands in India are increasingly recognising the importance of having a deeper understanding of shoppers. Integer uses this knowledge to develop shopper marketing programmes that result in an improved shopping experience for the shoppers and better conversion at retail for the brand.”
Integer Group regional managing director Asia-Pacific Dan Paris observed that over the last few years there has been a big shift in the media spending habits of brands across Asia. Also shopper marketing has evolved into a powerful new philosophy for these brands, such that they can tap into a whole new arena of insight presented by this discipline and also place a fundamental consumer role across all their main spending.
He added, “It is fast becoming the future methodology for consumer engagement, and we now have a great team in place in India to complement our Asia-Pacific footprint.”
Integer president International Marc Ducnuigeen said, “It is important for the group to continue to develop offices across the world to not only service the global needs of its existing clients, but also tap the demand for retail solutions from an increasingly sophisticated local client base. The launch of Integer India represents a significant milestone in the ongoing development of our global network as we continue our international growth.”
Besides the launch of its Mumbai office, Integer has also announced the release of the Indian leg of the group‘s shopper study – ‘The Checkout International: Indian Shoppers‘ designed to understand motivations and attitudes, rituals and factors that influence shopping.
The Checkout is a global newsletter that publishes results from an ongoing survey conducted by The Integer Group, where consumers are quizzed about their shopping attitudes, shopping behaviours, and economic outlook.
The Integer Group, which was first launched in the US, already has a presence across Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, and West Asia. The group is positioned as one that resides at the intersection of branding and selling. Some of Integer‘s leading clients include MillerCoors, Procter & Gamble, Pernod Ricard, Kellogg‘s, 7-Eleven, Michelin and Nissan.
Brands
LINC Limited appoints Hitesh Singla as head of marketing
The writing instruments giant has hired Hitesh Singla as head of marketing, betting on his two decades of brand-building firepower to ink a bolder consumer story
KOLKATA: LINC Limited, the Kolkata-based writing instruments manufacturer with a footprint spanning more than 50 countries, has appointed Hitesh Singla as its head of marketing, a hire that signals the company’s intent to fight harder for consumer attention in one of India’s most fiercely contested stationery categories.
Singla arrives with over two decades of marketing muscle behind him, having built, revived and scaled brands across consumer durables, personal care, healthcare, retail and houseware. His CV reads like a tour of Indian and global brand management: he introduced and grew Stabilo, UHU and Rapid in the Indian market, helped revive product categories for Revlon, and most recently served as head of marketing at KAI India, where he sharpened the brand’s presence in personal grooming and houseware.
Before KAI, Singla held leadership roles at Godrej & Boyce and the Avantha Group, among others, organisations where scale, complexity and consumer diversity are non-negotiable realities.
At LINC, he will own the company’s end-to-end marketing strategy: brand equity, integrated campaigns and consumer engagement, all calibrated to a market that is shifting fast. His approach blends data-driven insight with what he calls creative storytelling, precisely the kind of bilingual fluency that legacy brands need when nostalgia alone will no longer do the heavy lifting.
“LINC Limited holds a strong legacy in the writing instruments category,” said Singla, “and I look forward to building on this foundation to further strengthen its brand relevance in a rapidly evolving market. The focus will be on driving sharper consumer insights, innovation-led marketing, and creating deeper engagement across touchpoints.”
An alumnus of Punjab University with a master’s degree in international business, Singla is said to be as comfortable with cultures, languages and history as he is with a campaign brief, a disposition that may serve him well as LINC pushes deeper into global markets.
For a company that already sells pens across five continents, the real challenge now is making consumers care which pen they pick up. Singla’s job is to make sure it is a LINC.
