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Pillai hails from Vision Time, a television production house, where he was national business head. He has worked across Radio One, Turner International, Mindshare Fulcrum and Anandabazar Patrika
To cater to the growing needs of its clients, Mediacom has created a new designation in the organisation - that of national buying director - and to fill it, has brought aboard Avinash Pillai. Based in Mumbai, he shall oversee Mediacom's national planning function.
Divya Gururaj, managing director, Mediacom, remarks, "Our clients have ambitious plans, be it Dell, P&G or Volkswagen. For a while, we were looking for a senior planning person in our agency and Avinash fits the role perfectly as he has worked across various media, including TV, print, activation, content and radio. Therefore, he shall bring a holistic perspective to Mediacom."
Pillai tells afaqs!, "Mediacom already has a good talent pool; I hope to bring my experience, particularly my ad sales experience, to plan and implement better media buying across all our clients."
Pillai started off his career with the Anandabazar Patrika Group (ABP Group) in the ad sales function, where he spent four years. He moved on to a media agency, Mindshare Fulcrum, where he spent another four years in the media buying department. In the first year, he headed the radio and print buying functions, while for the next two years, he headed down South to deal directly with key media vendors for Hindustan Unilever (HUL). In his fourth year at the agency, Pillai headed the entire regional television buying portfolio, including South, Bengali and Marathi. He also oversaw activation for HUL brands.
Subsequently, he moved on to Turner International, where he was the senior sales director across Cartoon Network and Pogo. His next calling was at Radio One, where he was vice-president, ad sales for two years in a national capacity. Later, he moved on to Vision Time, where he spent a year-and-a-half.