Roopak saluja biography channel

Indian businessman (born 1975)

Roopak Saluja (born 25 July 1975) is an Indian media entrepreneur and angel investor. He is the Founder & CEO of BANG BANG, a Mumbai-Los Angeles production company, and the Founder & Chairman of The 120 Media Collective, a communications & content group comprising subsidiaries, Jack in the Box Worldwide and Sooperfly.

He has been featured in every edition of Campaign India's A-List of the Most Influential People in India's Advertising, Media & Marketing Industry since 2010, Campaign Asia-Pacific's "40 Under 40" in 2014 and IMPACT Magazine's Digital Power 100 since 2014.

Roopak is a Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network at The Aspen Institute, serves on various company and advisory boards and is an angel investor in early-stage businesses. In 2011, CNNGo listed him among 20 people to watch out for in Mumbai.

Early life

Saluja was born on 25 July 1975, to a Punjabi Sikh father, Ambassador Satnam Jit Singh, an Indian diplomat to several countries. His mother, Rinku Singh is of Nepalese origin, is a social worker and a top bridge player. He completed his schooling at the Doon School in Dehradun, India and went on to earn his MBA from the prestigious INSEAD in Singapore and France.

Career

He started his advertising career at 23, in account management at Young & RubicamBudapest. After that he moved to Ogilvy & MatherParis to work for Motorola Europe, Middle East and Africa. He quit Ogilvy in 2003 to go to business school at INSEAD.

As his father was a diplomat and an ambassador to many countries, Roopak considers himself a "diplobrat", having

Minter Dialogue Episode #89

This interview is with Roopak Saluja (@RoopakSaluja), founder and CEO of The 120 Media Collective as well as Bang Bang Films, a film production company, and the Jack in the Box agency. Based in Mumbai, Roopak is also a part of the Angel Investor Network, a renowned Trance DJ and has been consistently voted one of the most influential leaders in India. In this conversation, we discuss some of the new technology and marketing initiatives happening in India, a most dynamic market.

By the way, you can also sign up to the Minter Dialogue podcast here via iTunes.

To connect with Roopak Saluja

Sites mentioned by Roopak Saluja

• VuClip – democratizing access to mobile video
• RockeTalk – SMS enabled voice platform for feature phones
• Little Eye Labs
• Reference Jugaad (for the lassi made in a washing machine)
• Speaking Tree (the guru social network)
• Shayari poetry (an example here)

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Further resources for the Minter Dialogue podcast:

Meanwhile, you can find my other interviews on the Minter Dialogue Show in this podcast tab, on Megaphone or via Apple Podcasts. If you like the show, please go over to rate this podcast via RateThisPodcast!

And for the francophones reading this, if you want to get more podcasts, you can also find my radio show en français over at: MinterDial.fr, on Megaphone or in iTunes.

Music credit: The jingle at the beginning of the show is courtesy of my friend, Pierre Journel, author of the Guitar Channel. I invite you to take a spin!

Not everyone may like it, but everyone’s singing it—this new campaign is a roaring success

Campaign

The new campaign for Bharti Airtel Ltd by Taproot India showcases a classroom of college students singing a jingle about why every friend is important.

What did you think of the advertisement?

The core concept itself, of depicting the importance of friends, their networks and how a mobile operator ties it all together, is old hat in the mobile sector space across various markets for more than a decade now. What sets this one apart, though, is the manner in which the idea was fleshed out. The newly appointed agency on Airtel’s roster, independent hot shop Taproot India, seems to have brought back on track an otherwise iconic advertising brand that I feel was losing its way.

Talking of execution per se, ad film-maker Ram Madhvani (of the Happydent ad fame) has skillfully tied all the elements together to deliver a very memorable film. Though I should mention that I find the casting to be a bit of a missed opportunity. 

And most importantly, the spot really works. Not everyone likes it, but everyone’s humming it. Today, an accomplished adman from the agency that handles Airtel’s biggest competitor told me how people at his office are even slotting their friends into “ghadi-ghadi kaam aaye” and “ghadi-ghadi call kare”.

Do you think this campaign works for the brand?

It does. As I was saying before, the brand seemed to have lost