Linterland announces changes in its senior management

Lowe Lintas had recently announced a change in its name, moving back from Lowe India to its old identity. This was seen to be a precursor to more changes at the agency. Now, it has been announced that the senior management of Linterland, Lowe Lintas’ specialised rural marketing arm, has been overhauled in a major way in order to meet growth challenges.

Sujit Nair has been promoted as president of Linterland. Nair has 17 years of experience and has worked in most areas of advertising. He has worked across mainline advertising (Trikaya and Rediffusion DYR), direct marketing (Zest Connect), activation (Leo Activation) and rural marketing. He has won Linterland many new businesses, such as Tata, Idea Cellular and Castrol. He has also been instrumental in leveraging his association with top brands such as Axe, Close-Up, Tide, IOCL, Ministry of Defence and Surf.

Keshav Chandorkar has been promoted as national operations director. Chandorkar has been with Linterland for nine years and has worked with clients such as Tata Steel, Hindalco, Tata Teleservices, Castrol and Idea Cellular at a pan-India level.

Other senior management staff who have been promoted include Sharad Varshney, who is now national planning director, international services; Amit Rangra, who is regional director, North; and Bhavneet Bhalla, who is regional director, South.

Varshney, who was earlier head, strategic planning, Linterland, has handled clients such as ICICI-USAID, Heinz, Pfizer and Castrol. Rangra has been with the agency for nine years and has handled some high-profile clients such as NACO, BBC and UNICEF. Bhalla has been working with clients such as Britannia, TI Cycles and Bangalore Traffic Police.

R Balakrishnan (Balki), national creative director, Lowe Lintas, in a chat with afaqs! earlier, had remarked, “In a way, this is a reintegration of the agency. We had gone into a division mode, which is good as it brings in expertise, but with more flow among the divisions – it makes things easier.”

These changes may well be a follow-up to the statement made by Balki during the recent rebranding of the agency as Lowe Lintas.

Some of the major clients handled by Linterland are Idea Cellular, Tata Steel (Wiron), Hindalco, Castrol India, Heinz, Pfizer, NABARD, Allergan India, Anchor Health, Berger Paints, Britannia, Carrier Aircon, DKT India, Godfrey Phillips, Nokia, Piramal Enterprises, Radiohms, Reliance (Relogistics) and BBC.