Rajat Gandhi to head Zed Digital

After spending 14 years with the Times Group, Gandhi comes in to head the agency's digital function

Rajat Gandhi, head, business and marketing, Times Business Solutions (TBS), has been appointed head, Zed Digital, a full service interactive and digital unit of ZenithOptimedia.

With the growing focus of digital across the agency board, Gandhi will be primarily involved in strengthening the digital function. Based in Gurgaon, Gandhi will report to Pavan Chandra, managing director, West and South, ZenithOptimedia.

Gandhi flagged off his career with the Times Group in 1995 and has been there until now. He joined in the response department of the company and was looking after media sales. After spending four years on that role, he moved to a corporate role – as executive assistant to Vineet Jain – for three years.

For a brief period of about a year, he worked on Indiatimes.com and launched its marketing department.

Subsequently, he moved on to Times Business Solutions (TBS), where he was looking after the business and marketing activities of the three portals that fall under the purview of TBS – Timesjobs, Magicbricks and Simplymarry. Apart from marketing, he was also responsible for the product development for each of these websites to some extent.

On his first agency stint, Gandhi tells afaqs! that it is not much of a shift for him. “At TBS, too, I was handling a similar business. Challenges are primarily the same. In my previous stint, I have been on the media sales side, so it’s not much of a difference.”

He explains that with ZenithOptimedia, considering that its major clients spending on traditional media should also be grabbed into the online media space, his focus will be primarily on adding clients and value to the digital function.

“New tools will be launched, along with getting international learning to India, and metrics to gauge the habits of the Indian consumer. These are some things which are on the anvil.”

In an official statement to the press, Ambika Srivastava, chief executive officer, ZenithOptimedia, says, “Gandhi brings vast experience and expertise to ZenithOptimedia. His expanse of knowledge in the digital space is widely recognised in the industry. India is one of the focus markets for ZenithOptimedia and we continue to invest aggressively in the digital space. With his appointment, we are certain of further consolidating our presence in the digital space.”

Gandhi is an MBA in marketing and a Political Science honours graduate from the Delhi University.

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