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Grey sets a new role for Bindu Sethi

Sethi will now be the chief strategy planning officer for Grey Asia Pacific, in addition to her present position of national planning director, Grey India

In a recent development in Grey India, Bindu Sethi, national planning director has been assigned the role of Grey Asia Pacific's chief strategy planning officer, in addition to her present responsibility.

Sethi will report directly to Nirvik Singh, chairman and CEO, Grey Group Asia Pacific. She will work closely with planning and creative directors at local and regional levels, to help raise the bar in strategic planning and thought leadership across the Grey network in Asia Pacific.

Grey sets a new role for Bindu Sethi
Commenting on the reason behind the move, Sethi says, "Grey India is generating a talent pool.

Getting Amit Akali and Malvika Mehra on-board at the beginning of the year was part of this effort. Over the past year, we have also built a quality planning department, as well as raised the decibel on brand strategy and thinking at Grey India. Now, it's time to carry out a similar exercise in the whole region. We have lots of talent in the region; we just need to bring it together."

Commenting on the appointment, Singh says, "With Sethi's new role, I'm positive of reaching closer to our goal of becoming the most 'Famously Effective' agency network in the region."

Sethi elaborates that even in her new role; her work profile will remain more or less the same. "Planners by any other name will remain planners; and will keep on strategising, understanding consumer behaviour and driving growth," she explains.

As Grey Asia Pacific's chief strategy planning officer, Sethi will look after businesses such as GSK and P&G, other than clients from individual countries. In India, her client list will include GSK, 3M, Ferrero Group and Britannia.

"Our aim is to raise the level and quality of consumer engagement in the changing communication environment; and to actually get consumers to create communication for the brands they use and love," she adds.

Sethi joined Grey India a year ago, as the next step in a career spanning two decades. She started her career with the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB), which gave her a strong grounding in market research. Following this, she moved to strategy planning at JWT, where she rose to the position of senior vice-president and national planning director. She then joined Hindustan Lever Limited (Unilever) as general marketing manager - innovation on their hair care business.

During the course of her career, Sethi contributed to shaping brands such as Horlicks, Boost, Maggi, Sunrise, Reebok, Pizza Hut, Pears, Red Label, Sunsilk, Clinic Plus and All Clear. She also developed thinking on how consumers consume communication, and what marketers can do to break the consumption and trial barrier. Her thinking on how to change rural behaviour, and the role of communication in the adoption of new health practices amongst rural and suburban populations, led to the creation of JWT's social communications division, Thompson Social.

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