Roots India, the newly formed advertising agency by two advertising industry veterans , Dias and Santosh Padhi has announced that it will handle The Times of India and Mumbai Mirror accounts .
Dias moved out from JWT where he was CCO and Padhi is ex-ECD, Leo Burnett. Dias and Padhi are known as Aggi and Paddy in the industry. The agency will be based out of Mumbai and will deal in all forms of conventional and unconventional media. The agency will start with 12 people
Dias has been associated with TOI for four years. TOI was earlier handled by Leo Burnett, when Aggi was with the agency. When, in 2005, he moved from Leo Burnett to JWT, he took the account with him. His association with the TOI brand got India its first Grand Prix, and also the first lion in the Integrated and Titanium category.
When they were at Leo Burnett, both Dias and Padhi worked on the television commercial (Pakya), which is considered to be a turning point for the TOI brand. They have also worked together on Mumbai Mirror’s launch campaign.
“Both Dias and me, started out career in advertising because we were good at writing, creating and visualizing concepts and ideas. However, in our career span, we have worked in various agencies, and not all of them were necessarily creative. So this initiative is a simple honest effort to return to the basics, our roots in the business,” Padhi explained the origins of the name.