Samir Miglani quits McCann to join Unitech Wireless

Miglani will join Unitech as head – Brand, from September 1

Samir Miglani, group business director, McCann Erickson has put in his papers at the Delhi branch of the agency. He is all set to move to Unitech Wireless as head - Brand, and will join office from September 1, 2009.

He is currently serving his notice period at McCann.

Miglani has spent 15 years in the industry. He started his career in advertising in 1994 with Interact Vision, Delhi. Thereafter, he moved to FCB Ulka (now Draft FCB Ulka) in 1997. His next move was to Mudra, where he spent more than five years. Following this, Miglani had a brief stint at Everest Brand Solutions in 2004 as part of the team that was to put together the relaunch of the new Everest. In 2006, he moved to Cheil to work on Samsung Mobile. His last stint at McCann Erickson lasted for a year.

Samir Miglani quits McCann to join Unitech Wireless

Miglani has spent a long time working on Samsung and its products, first at Mudra, where he handled Samsung's product advertising as well as the Team Samsung campaign with the Indian cricketers. Later, at Cheil Communications, he handled Samsung Mobile and played an important role in the relaunch of the brand, with Aamir Khan in the 'Next is What' campaign.

Talking about his decision to move to Unitech, Miglani says, "It was while working at Samsung Mobile that I developed an interest in telecom as a category. The sheer dynamics of the industry and the role of building a brand in a highly cluttered market with high-profile brands with deep pockets excited me."

At McCann, he used to handle the Metlife, Microsoft and Nescafé accounts. Besides, he has worked on Compaq Presario, JK Tyres, Hitachi, Videocon, Tata Lucent, Yamaha and Mother Dairy during his career.

As head – Brand, his job would be to put together an exciting and high-impact launch of the Unitech Telenor brand in India.

He explains, "Brands are built by creating positive stories around them over a period of time. As part of the marketing team at Unitech Telenor, our mandate is to create and communicate stories that bring across the values that the brand stands for."

Interestingly, in the last few weeks, Unitech Wireless has been in the news for various reasons. First, the account, estimated to be in the region of Rs 200 crore, fell into the lap of Leo Burnett Delhi, making it one of the biggest wins for the Delhi branch. Then, senior people like Loveleen Raina from Ogilvy headed for Burnett, to head the business. Now, on the client side, Miglani will take care of the brand.

Unitech Telenor is a joint venture company of India's second largest diversified real estate major, Unitech and the world's sixth largest mobile services provider, Norway-based Telenor Group. At present, the Telenor Group has already invested Rs 2,620 crore through new shares in the joint venture, with an agreement to raise this to Rs 6,120 crore, to hold a 67.25 per cent stake.

Unitech Wireless holds a pan-India UAS license to offer mobile telephony services in each of India's 22 circles. It has also received spectrum to roll out these services in 21 circles. It intends to launch its services in select circles by the end of 2009.

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