Sanjay Sipahimalani joins Bates 141 as ECD

Sanjay Sipahimalani has joined Bates 141 as executive creative director. Prior to this, he was creative head at Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC).

In the advertising world, Sipahimalani is fondly called Sippy by colleagues and friends alike. He says, “My stint at VGC was fruitful, especially so when I recall that as part of a team, we won prestigious accounts such as Travelocity and Religare. But now, I am excited and looking forward to working with Subhash Kamath (chief creative officer, Bates 141), with whom I share a wonderful working equation. My association with him goes back to my earlier stints at Ogilvy and Trikaya (now Grey Worldwide).”

Sipahimalani’s new role will see him dividing his time between Bangalore and Mumbai. His mandate at Bates 141 is to raise the long overdue qualitative changes in copy writing. Besides this, Sipahimalani adds, “I would love to be involved in the larger process of, say, pitching to the client and fully using the resources of the organisation to come up with the best quality work for the clients. It is going to be a enriching experience working in close association with experienced people such as Sonal Dabral (chairman, Bates David Enterprise, and regional executive creative director, Bates Asia Pacific) and Rajeev Raja (executive creative director and head, Bates 141 creative, Mumbai).”

Interestingly, Sipahimalani’s move into advertising was a fallout of him getting disillusioned with chartered accountancy and, to some extent, journalism. He started off as a copywriter with Ogilvy Benson & Mather, in Mumbai. Thereon began a wonderful journey that took him to agencies such as Trikaya Grey (now Grey Worldwide), Lowe, SSC&B Lintas, Euro RSCG and Publicis.

Over the years, Sipahimalani has worked on a wide array of brands such as Philips, Saffola, Kinetic Motorcycles, Kotak Mahindra, Nestle’s Maggi, ABN Amro Bank, BBC Worldwide and the Aditya Birla Group. He has won awards at the New York Festivals, Graphis Awards and been a Clio and Cannes finalist twice.

Advertising is his profession and passion, but Sipahimalani has other equally creative and stimulating interests that keep him busy. He co-scripted the film, Let’s Talk, a film that explored the complex web of human emotions (along with Ram Madhvani, Maia Katrak and Boman Irani), which did the rounds of the Locarno and Mill Valley film festivals in 2002. Sipahimalani also does book reviews for publications such as Time Out Mumbai and Hindustan Times.