Havas Media bags media duties of Aspiring Minds

Gurgaon-based Aspiring Minds, an employability solutions company, has appointed Havas Media as its media planning and buying partner. The agency's Delhi office will service the company. Till now, the company's media duties were handled locally in the cities where it carried out AMCAT or Aspiring Minds events.

Himanshu Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO, Aspiring Minds, says, "We want to expand and take the AMCAT (the company's employability assessment product) advantage to every youth of the country by investing substantially in media." He adds that Havas Media understood its customers - students and corporate - with its media skills and cross-sector knowledge.

Aggarwal informs that the media campaign will address its target group, which comprises about 40 million youngsters entering the job market each year. "The aim is to address their employability needs in a credible, scalable and inclusive mechanism. So, we were looking for a partner who could provide the in-depth research, experience across genres and innovative solutions to meet the challenges of our first large scale campaign," he says.

Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media Group, India and South Asia, says, "The best students today need direction even after their degree in choosing the industry suited to them and the employer needs his fit. Aspiring Minds has positioned itself strongly in the recruitment space and in getting job seekers a job on merit. They are activity-focused and research based."

Agreeing with Nayyar, Mohit Joshi, managing director, Havas Media says that the agency's mix of media and digital expertise in reaching a younger audience across India will bring in the momentum. "The team at Aspiring Minds is smart, young and open to ideas so it will be an interesting association," he states.

According to Aspiring Minds, it has pioneered in creating the education-employment segment and has established a pan-India operational presence in a short span of time. The core team members have an impressive education background including MIT, IIT and IIM. And this, the organisation feels, is its strength as it enhances the quality of talent it recruits through its employability assessment product, AMCAT. The test assesses a candidate's ability to translate concepts and knowledge to ground level problems and analyses the competency level.

Earlier this month, Aspiring Minds had awarded its creative duties to abm communication.