South Indian media giant, Sun TV Network, filed with the exchanges that the Board of Directors of the company announced the appointment of R Mahesh Kumar as an Additional Director as well as Managing Director, Kaviya Kalanithi Maran as Additional Director and Executive Director, Sridhar Venkatesh and Desmond Hemanth Theodore as Additional Directors (Independent) with effect from April 1, 2019.

The appointments will last for a period of five years, and is subject to the approval of shareholders of the company through postal ballot.

Maran is the daughter of promoter Kalanithi Maran, this marks the entry of one more next gen entrepreneur into the industry.

K Vijayakumar, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company has resigned from the post with effect from March 31, 2019 but will continue as an Executive Director of the Board.

Amit Shah, YES Bank Ltd’s Group President & Country Head, Corporate Strategy, Marketing & Communications has stepped down from his role. 

Shah confirmed this development to exchange4media.

He has been instrumental in creating and strengthening YES Bank Ltd’s brand equity over the last eight years through an integrated Knowledge Banking approach. During Shah’s tenure, the bank emerged as one of the Top 500 Banking Brands globally.

His responsibilities at YES Bank Ltd included business strategy, planning and analytics, marketing, internal and external communication, branding, digitalisation, public and social policy advocacy, CSR strategy and responsible banking initiatives.

Under his leadership, YES Bank Ltd has won many awards and accolades in the last few years. In 2015, the bank was honoured and included in the top 10 recognised brands in Paul Writer’s Mumbai Hot 50 list, recognised as a “High Performance Brand” by the All India Management Association and as “Most Promising Brand, India” by the World Consulting & Research Corporation. 

Prior to joining YES Bank Ltd, Shah worked with organisations like TSMG and L&T. He has done his MBA from NITIE – Mumbai and Engineering from NIT – Surathkal.

YuppTV, the OTT platform for South-Asian content, has acquired the digital broadcasting rights for Vivo IPL 2019 outside of India. With this development, cricket fans across the globe can catch all the action of Season 12 of the world’s biggest T20 tournament, right as it unfolds. 

YuppTV is bringing the highly engaging action to all of its existing and new users in Australia, Continental Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and RoW including South & Central America and Central & Southeast Asia.

 Commenting on the announcement, Uday Reddy, Founder & CEO, YuppTV, said, “We are glad to acquire the digital broadcasting rights for the IPL 2019 and would be enabling on-the-go-access to all the action unfolding in the Season 12 of IPL. We are determined to provide our global audience with convenient and real-time access to their favorite sporting action, through a wide gamut of internet-enabled devices.”
 As one of the biggest and most-awaited cricketing extravaganzas, Season 12 of Indian Premier League will finally hit the stands on March 23. Promising an enthralling season, the 8 teams will be headed against each other in a total of 60 matches. The season will open with the defending champions, Chennai Super Kings taking on Royal Challenger Bangalore. 

Cricket fans in Australia, Continental Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and RoW including South & Central America and Central & Southeast Asia can catch all the action from IPL 2019 on YuppTV. The may log on to the website or access the same via the YuppTV app.

The ThickShake Factory, India’s first premium milkshake brand is one of the most awarded & fastest growing shakes brands in the country, having 105 outlets currently operational in 26 cities including one in the US. The QSR chain specializing in retailing shakes had its 1st advisory board meeting at the ITC Maratha, Mumbai. The brand is founded and run by brothers and entrepreneurs M. Yeshwanth Nag & Ashwin Mocherla.

The advisory board of The ThickShake Factory comprising of a stellar panel of industry stalwarts is headed by serial entrepreneur Dr. Anurag Batra, chairman of BW Business World and founder of media group Exchange4Media. The advisory board consists of mavericks like Dr. Velumani Arokiaswamy, the founder of the Rs 3000 crore valued healthcare Thyrocare, Jayant Kocchar the ex MD, Founder of Lacoste India, Barista, India’s 1st Coffee Café chain, Sagar Daryani of Wow! Momo, Srinath Sridharan, the head of GroupChairman’s office of Wadhawan Global Capital, which manages $22 billion in assets, Rohit Bayana Co-founder of Lumis Partners, a Private equity fund and Preeti Vyas Chairwoman &founder of VGC - one of India’s top design agencies.

“We are having the vision to build a large consumer brand in the foodservice sector and are aiming at doubling our stores and revenues this financial year. This board meeting provided an excellent platform to discuss the strategic direction of the company in our segment”, says Ashwin Mocherla.

The food tech and the QSR sector has increasingly seen rising investor interest off late with multiple deals happening in this space. Backed by the trust and confidence expressed by the stalwarts of the industry, we can surely expect the brand to shake things up in the coming months!

Social Kinnect has won the digital mandate for Raymond Custom Tailoring and Raymond Rewards, an offering custom-tailored to ensure a unique bespoke experience. The mandate was won following a multi-agency pitch and will be operated out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

Under the mandate, Social Kinnect, the independent digital marketing agency, will be responsible for carving a social media roadmap for both the brands across creative, media and ORM-led services.

Established as a pioneer of premium clothing for occasion wear, Raymond introduced Raymond Custom Tailoring to provide customised clothing with a sense of personal style. Taking ‘perfect fits’ very seriously, Raymond Custom Tailoring offers garments that are crafted just for you. Currently available in four cities including Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Bangalore, Raymond Custom Tailoring aims to expand its services rapidly across the country within the year using digital as a medium. 

Alongside custom tailoring, Raymond also offers Raymond Rewards - a loyalty program that lets you earn and redeem points across stores in India under the brand names of ColorPlus, Parx, Park Avenue and Raymond. 

Commenting on the appointment of a new agency, Sudhanshu Pokhriyal, President, Textiles, Raymond Limited said, “In today’s internet consuming world, digital marketing is critical to bring in eyeballs and subsequent conversions for any business. We were looking for a partner to help us on this journey of redefining men’s fashion through Mass Personalization that is technologically enabled. Getting Social Kinnect on board, who bring in a gamut of new ideas and concepts, will help us in achieving our set objectives through innovative digital marketing ideas and help us build robust ORM platform.”  

Rohan Mehta, CEO, Social Kinnect added, “Raymond is one of the first brands any Indian associates with well-made and timeless men’s clothing. Raymond Custom Tailoring brings the brand into the new-age, to appeal to younger consumers who crave customisation, bespoke clothing and are well-versed in digital. We are so excited to handle the digital mandate for such an iconic brand, and help it scale new heights of success in 2019 and beyond.” 

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) social media intermediary members have adopted a Voluntary Code of Ethics for the  2019 General Election, according to reports.

The members which include participants from Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Sharechat have voluntarily agreed to set up a high priority communication line with nodal officers appointed by the Election Commission of India. These participants have also consented to take action against content reported by nodal officers, in accordance with the law.

In addition to this, the members have established the technology which enables upload of the MCMC certification, and have also pledged to take action against paid advertisements violating MCMC certification requirement under notification by the ECI.

According to reports, the Chief Election Commissioner lauded the proactive measures taken by the Association to ensure transparency of paid political advertisements.by maintaining an archive of political advertisement with details regarding sponsors, expenditure and reach.

Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (RBNL) announces the appointment of Asheesh Chatterjee in the role of Chief Business Officer in addition to his current responsibility of serving as Chief Financial Officer of the company.

During the last year, Chatterjee has been instrumental in bringing together his rich experience and understanding of the media industry to guide the revenue and business support teams across the company apart from his usual role of managing finance, legal, IT & digital transformation. With his deep knowledge of the business since the past eight years, Chatterjee has been contributing in developing practices to help both the radio network’s external as well as internal stakeholders to increase business efficiency, manage costs effectively and deliver great services to clients.

Commenting on taking on the additional role, Chatterjee said, “It’s a pleasure to be taking on the additional position of Chief Business Officer at the company with which I have been associated for 8 years. In keeping with BIG FM’s core ethos, I intend to give it my best in taking the company into its next phase of development.” 

Speaking about Chatterjee’s appointment, Abraham Thomas – RBNL CEO said, “Since his appointment in 2011, Asheesh has been an asset to the company, significantly contributing towards developing practices that enhances business efficiency, manage costs effectively and deliver great value to clients. Over the last year, he has driven the Revenue, Finance and Business support teams to meet the company’s objectives.”

PhonePe, the payments platform has announced Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan as the face of its brand. PhonePe is also an official co-presenting sponsor for the television broadcast of VIVO IPL 2019, and will be launching a series of new TV ads featuring Khan during this season. 

Khan’s presence in the TV ads and his mass appeal as a national icon will help PhonePe create awareness about the benefits of digital payments for users across India. 

Commenting on the announcement, Sameer Nigam, CEO and Founder, PhonePe said, “Aamir Khan is among the world’s biggest superstars today. He is a highly renowned actor who is known for doing path-breaking work in his industry. In his personal capacity too, Aamir has been instrumental in creating awareness about many important social issues in India. His name is synonymous with sincerity, hard work and dedication to his craft. These are values that are completely in sync with PhonePe’s ethos of trust, security and reliability, therefore we felt that Aamir is the perfect brand ambassador for our company as we look to introduce Digital Payments to a billion Indians.”   

He further added, “We are also very excited to be part of VIVO IPL 2019. Cricket is the most popular sport in the country and VIVO IPL is the biggest sporting event of the year. Thus, we feel it is a great platform for us to launch our new brand campaign with Aamir and create awareness about the PhonePe platform.”

Khan said, “PhonePe stands for innovation and trust and has been instrumental in simplifying digital payments for millions of Indians in a very short span of time. I have closely been following PhonePe’s amazing journey and am delighted to be a part of their phenomenal growth trajectory.” 

According to news reports Proctor & Gamble has put its Secret deodorant account up for review. The business was handled by Wieden & Kennedy after it won the account from Publicis Groupe-owned Leo Burnett in 2015.

It is not yet known which agencies are in the running for the Secret business, although reports suggest WPP's Berlin Cameron could be a contender as it has recently done a campaign for the brand in support of equal pay for women.

 As per reports, P&G said in a statement, "We are exploring options for our Secret advertising as we seek to more effectively and efficiently connect with our consumers," "This decision is consistent with P&G's broader agency reinvention effort. We still very much value our partnership with W&K. They remain a close and important P&G partner on Old Spice and Olympics."

Wieden & Kennedy has handled the Old Spice business since 2006 and took over P&G's corporate Olympics advertising in 2010. 

M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment has appointed Seth Jones as creative director, as per media reports.

Prior to this, Jones was with AnalogFolk. He will be responsible for the agency’s total creative outputs and will be reporting to UK chief executive Jamie Wynne-Morgan.

Jones has worked with brands like Nike, PepsiCo, Lucozade and Sainsbury’. 

Before Analog Folk, he has worked with Tribal Worldwide and Elvis Communication.

This comes closely to the agency’s other changes at the senior level.