AD Agencies
Upbeat with ’16 billing, Dentsu Aegis aims to be No. 2 in ’17
MUMBAI: Large account wins and a number of acquisitions in creative, digital and PR segments, Dentsu Aegis Network is on a roll with an approximate 2016 billing of Rs 4,500 crore.
Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia chairman and chief executive Ashish Bhasin is upbeat about his target of dislodging IPG from the number two spot by 2017. Industry experts however believed that while Dentsu could be on a growth path, overtaking IPG might be a distant dream.
DAN has managed to beat British and American advertising conglomerates such as WPP and IPG in rapid acquisition. Now, its real challenge will be to ensure integration of acquired companies in its network.
Dileep Cherian-owned Perfect Relations was acquired by DAN last September for an estimated Rs 200-250 crore, followed by creative marketing agency Happy Creative acquisition for an estimated Rs 300 crore followed by experiential design studio Fractal Ink purchase for Rs 250 crore. DAN earlier acquired Milestone Brandcom, WAT Consult, Fountainhead-MKTG, Webchutney and Taproot.
Bhasin hoped that that 50 per cent growth would come from acquired businesses.
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
