Tag: dentsuMB

Mumbai, India – Heeru Dingra, current CEO of Isobar India, has also taken the new role of CEO of dentsuMB Group India as its current CEO Sidharth Rao has announced stepping down the role to return to his entrepreneurial roots. Through the new leadership movement, Dingra will be supported by business leaders Ajit Devraj, Indrajeet Mookerjee and Harsh Shah.

The new dentsuMB India leadership team will work with Sidharth through the transition, and in close partnership with Amit Wadhwa, CEO for the entirety of dentsu’s creative service line for India.

Speaking about the new leadership, Rao said, “Being acquired by dentsu has, by far, been the most important milestone in Webchutney’s journey. It has been a great, great ride. Together, dentsu India and Webchutney are miles ahead of where we started and there are absolutely no regrets. Post the acquisition, I have been around for a decade now and the credit for my journey here goes to the network’s leadership team. I would like to thank them dearly for making dentsu feel like home.|

He added, “Amit is a great leader and a fantastic comrade. He is the one to ensure that we get the best of opportunities. As I move on, I am glad that sentsu Webchutney is at a point where it is at its best; and what I take with myself is a sense of immense pride of being associated with dentsu. For my journey ahead, I am exploring a few new ideas in the exciting space of the internet. The plan for it should be ready over the next couple of months.”

Meanwhile, Wadhwa commented, “Sid is not just a colleague. He is also a dear friend; our go-to mate. He has played an instrumental role in crafting dentsu’s creative journey for India in partnership with some of our key talents who have now grown into powerful leaders; and that is invaluable. However, when he chose to discuss his new entrepreneurial ambitions with me, I realised how truly he wanted to do this.”

He added, “Sid has my wholehearted support on his next move. Meanwhile, what gives me great assurance is the fantastic set of leaders that he has mentored during this growth journey. They are already taking charge and delivering with confidence. Although I would miss catching up with Sid at the office, our banters will continue beyond work. He deserves to choose a fresh path for his next milestone, and I am sure his next venture would be an innovative one. We truly wish him all the luck for this next big leap.”

India – dentsu India has announced the appointment of Arjuna Gaur as chief creative officer of Dentsu Webchutney & dentsuMB. Gaur’s new role is to increase both firms’ creative mandate. 

He will be responsible for creative thought leadership across the network, combining the expertise of Dentsu Webchutney and dentsuMB to provide clients with forward-thinking creative solutions. Gaur will report to Ajay Gahlaut, dentsu creative India’s group chief creative officer (GCCO).

Gaur has earned over 40 national and international honours over the course of more than 16 years of experience. Prior to this, he worked as a creative director at Leo Burnett India, MNC Saatchi Kuala Lumpur, BBDO India, and Grey. 

Since then, he’s collaborated with a slew of household names in the business sector, including Coca-Cola and Amazon as well as P&G and PepsiCo and Wrigley’s as well as Celcom and Airtel and GE India and HP. He also has a background in filmmaking thanks to Equinox Films.

On his appointment, Gaur said, “The talent and energy of the creative teams at Dentsu Webchutney & dentsuMB are limitless and frankly, a little intimidating. There is no better creative role in the country right now than this.” 

Ajay Gahlaut, group chief creative officer at dentsu Creative India, said that it is a privilege to have yet another brilliant creative onboard as part of the team. He says that Arjuna is a rare creative person who is equally adept at traditional and new age media.

“We are looking forward to him significantly raising the creative quality of our output and adding even more value to the solutions that we provide to our clients,” Gahlaut adds.

India – dentsuMB, the integrated communication agency under dentsu India, has been appointed for the digital creative mandate for Social Alpha, the multistage innovation curation and venture development platform for science and technology startups, which will be handled by the agency’s Bangalore office.

Social Alpha seeks to address the most critical social, economic and environmental challenges. It supports mission-aligned entrepreneurs through a network of innovation labs, startup incubators, accelerator programmes, and seed funds, as well as market access mechanisms. 

As part of the mandate, dentsuMB will be developing the communication framework and creating campaigns that showcase the initiatives across Social Alpha’s social media assets. The focus will be on the core mission of the brand, which is to create social, economic, and environmental impact through the power of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Manoj Kumar, Social Alpha’s co-founder and CEO, said, “While we take extreme pride in what our startups do, we needed help in communicating the inspiring work of our portfolio companies with an intent to attract more innovators and enablers to this emerging sector.”

Meanwhile, Indrajeet Mookherjee, dentsuMB’s managing partner, shared that this partnership will be a unique journey given the nature of services that Social Alpha provides and the divergent startup sectors it works with. 

“At the heart of Social Alpha, is a clearly defined purpose ‘of making a difference to the lives of millions’ and we hope to collaborate on bringing these beautiful stories of impact and change to a larger audience,” said Mookherjee.

Mumbai, India – Vishal Nicholas, the current head of planning and strategy at dentsuMB, formerly dentsu India, is now also taking the role of head of strategy at dentsu Impact, where he will be managing the planning and strategy for South, Mumbai and Delhi branches for both the agencies.

Nicholas has had stints at Lowe Lintas and McCann where he worked on Flipkart, Tata Tea’s JaagoRe platform, Myntra, TVS Motors, to name a few.

“Ever since I joined dentsu, I’ve always been excited about the Eastern approach to building brands with simplicity and second-order thinking at its core. With dentsuMB, the combination of the East and West make it even more compelling. And with Dentsu Impact’s fantastic roster of clients, I look forward to achieving greater business outcomes for them,” he said, regarding his appointment

He will continue to report to Sidharth Rao, CEO at dentsuMB Group.

“As we continue to strengthen and reshape our creative offering in the Indian market, we needed a planning leader who has experience with both traditional and new-age businesses; and Vishal was the obvious choice to steer the strategy product for both dentsuMB and Dentsu Impact,” Rao said.

Dentsu Impact and dentsuMB are part of the dentsuMB Group in India that also houses the agencies dentsu Webchutney, dentsu One and Taproot Dentsu.