Publicis Communications launches branded content and entertainment marketing arm

Publicis Communications has announced the launch of Publicis Entertainment, its new entertainment marketing unit in India. The unit was formally set up in June 2018. Publicis Entertainment will help all of Publicis Communications’ agencies (Leo Burnett India, Leo Burnett Orchard, Publicis Worldwide, Publicis Capital, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, MSL Group, Indigo Consulting, Publicis Beehive, Digitas, Sapient.Razorfish, Prodigious India) collaborate with big players in the content and entertainment space by leveraging social and digital marketing.

Publicis Entertainment will look after brand integrations for film and TV series, IP creations, partnerships between brands and clients, and celebrity management. It aims at being a one-stop-advisory for business solutions in the branded entertainment and entertainment marketing space.

Pranay Anthwal, Executive Director at Publicis Entertainment will head the division. He will report to Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications, India.

Speaking about the launch of the new division, Varma said, “Great storytelling is happening around us, even in an attention-deficit economy. We believe this is the biggest opportunity for our brands. We want the stories of our brands to intersect organically with the beautiful human stories already being told in popular culture. And we want to go beyond. Our unique model will unfold over the next 18 months. Pranay brings an incredible amount of expertise and passion to make our ambition a reality.”

Pranay is a multiple award-winning branded content and entertainment specialist. His career boasts of stints at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Starcom Worldwide, The Times of India, Star TV, DHL and Zee Interactive, among others. Pranay has marketed over 150 successful films such as Munnabhai MBBS, Lagey Raho Munnabhai, Viruddh, and Krrish, to name a few. He has worked for key clients – Sony Pictures, Columbia Tristar, Buena Vista, Disney India – in the span of his career.

Speaking about his new role, Anthwal said, “I am happy to be back to the Publicis family. For far too long, branded entertainment and entertainment marketing have been in the cost-per-deal space. This is because not many creative and strategy ad agency majors were involved in this process. So far it has been, and still is, a supply side market model. We hope to play a role where we curate and recommend entertainment industry partnerships from a brand lens, in addition to focusing on brand objectives instead of deal objectives.”

“Our focus products for the first few years will be entertainment marketing, branded entertainment and co-creation of branded entertainment IPs for our big brands. We hope to move some big investments from the expenditure column to the assets column for some of our key clients,” he added.

Publicis Entertainment is already associated with key brands such as Fox Star Studios, HDFC Life, and Avon Beauty, among others. For Fox Star, the unit has already conceptualised and created a very successful social and digital campaign for blockbuster film Sanju.

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