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Hungama hires two senior hands
Nikhil Shimpi and Sunil Nair have joined the company as head of mobile marketing and head of planning respectively
Five years ago, Neeraj Roy-promoted Hungama made a humble beginning with a three-member team and a basic concept of providing interactive games and online promotions. Cut to the present. The company has dramatically scaled-up operations, and is a strong player in the experiential marketing arena and has two media properties – hungama.com and indiafm.com.
Last week, the 95-member-strong company inducted two senior hands – Nikhil Shimpi and Sunil Nair, who have joined as head of mobile marketing and head of planning, respectively.
Mobile marketing, for the uninitiated, is one of the many verticals that the company operates on in the experimental marketing space. Mobile along with Internet comprises the digital marketing vertical, while events and promotions, entertainment marketing, direct marketing (CRM, to be more precise) and loyalty programmes are the company's other areas of activity.
Shimpi, who has eight years of work experience and was formerly the all-India marketing manager at Siemens Mobile, has the task of creating innovative mobile marketing opportunities that can effectively complement a brand’s regular media plan, says Neeraj Roy, MD and CEO, Hungama.
Nair, on the other hand, will look at brands closely and provide marketing solutions keeping in mind the retail revolution in India, Roy adds. Pushing the brand planning cell is a key mandate for Nair, who has 12 years of experience having last worked as the general manager, strategy planning at Headstart. Also, devising brand-centric promotions marketing initiatives will be a part of his agenda, and Roy is clearly optimistic about this sector. One reason for this is the 25-30 per cent year-on-year growth of promo-marketing in India.
“Two years ago, promo-marketing in the US crossed traditional advertising, which was pegged at $213 billion,” he says. Promo-marketing, in contrast, stood at $ 231 billion, which marks a major shift in how advertisers/marketers want to reach consumers today.”
Hungama has worked with 300 brands across 18 industries in the last five years. It is funded by ICICI ECONet Limited.
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