Sign up for afaqs! Newsletters
Rediffusion gets creative head on Airtel
Deepesh Jha will report to Ramanuj Shastry and Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, chief creative officers, Rediffusion DY&R
Rediffusion DY&R has brought in Deepesh Jha to head the creative business for Airtel, one of its biggest accounts. Jha moves in from Publicis India, where he was creative director on the Nestle and ABN Amro Bank accounts. He has been based in Delhi since he began his career.
Confirming the news to agencyfaqs!, Jha says, “I am all geared up to take on the responsibility. I have worked with Shastry in the past and our prior association has proved to be extremely successful. I’m looking forward to making waves in the industry together again!”
With strong skills in copy, Jha began his career in 1996 with Bates Enterprise (then Clarion Advertising) as a trainee. In 1997, he moved to Euro RSCG at a time when the agency had just made its entry in India; he joined as a copywriter and, with a team of five others, was instrumental in producing the creatives for Essar Cellphone (which was later known as Hutch and recently rebranded Vodafone).
Deepesh Jha |
JWT happened in 2003 – he was roped in as creative director for GlaxoSmithKline Beecham, Reckitt Benckiser and Pepsi. In 2005, he switched to Euro, this time for a short stint of five months, to head creative. Thereafter, he joined Syed Usman, his ex-JWT partner (who was vice-president, creative, back at JWT), at Cheil. In early 2006, he joined Publicis India.
Amitesh Rao, national business head on the Airtel business at Rediff, will be Jha’s account management counterpart. He has worked with Ramanuj Shastry, chief creative officer, Rediff, during his stints at McCann and Publicis. In this role, he will report to Shastry and Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, chief creative officers at the agency.
Commenting on Jha’s appointment, Shastry and Mahabaleshwarkar say, “Jha comes to us with an enormous amount of experience from his previous agencies. With the understanding and experience he brings to the table, Rediffusion will only benefit further.”
Yesterday, agencyfaqs! reported that Amar Wadhwa, another Publicis hand, was moving to Cheil Communications as national planning head. Publicis seems to be in for a hefty bit of restructuring.