Nitin Alawadhi quits Cheil

By Abhishek Chanda , afaqs!, New Delhi | In Advertising | December 01, 2008

Alawadhi will join The Times of India as deputy general manager of the Response Development Department

Nitin & #BANNER1 & # Alawadhi has put in his papers at Cheil Communications to assume a larger role at Bennett, Coleman & Co.'s The Times of India (TOI). He was serving Cheil as a client servicing director (CSD). At TOI, he would be the deputy general manager of the Response Development Department and will be based out of Delhi.

Commenting on his new role, Alawadhi tells afaqs!, "360 degree communications, over the years, have become more of a clich�. It's easy to talk about it in presentations; but to convert it into a cohesive functional reality, one needs to transform one's thought process. The approach has to be induced in the marketing plan, as an irrevocable philosophy of delivering customised solution to a defined brief."

"This," he says, "is the only logical response to the changing brandscapes in India. In simpler terms, nearly all agencies provide standalone specialised services, such as event management, on-ground promotions, product demos, retail activation and the like. The need of the hour is to take the path of 'Media Wholism' to offer backward integration."

According to Alawadhi, taking on the challenges of building the brand and helping in generating incremental sales volumes is a double edged sword. The idea is to help the marketers to capture the consumers' imagination and let them experience the brand in the most persuasive manner.

Alawadhi has work experience of 12 years on pan India projects across industries, conceptualising and executing events, promotions, seminars, exhibitions and direct marketing assignments with SIS, retail and OOH media. He has worked with Percept D' Mark, where he later formed his own outfit, called Speed Events and Promotions. He has also worked with Amway India and Ogaan Publications, before he joined Cheil Communications in August 2004.