Dentsu announces more senior re-structuring at Dentsu Marcom

After the recent spate of key resignations, it is time once again for Dentsu to pull up its socks. The agency has announced further senior-level re-structuring at Dentsu Marcom, one of its three full-service flagship agencies. While naming Titus Upputuru as the new national creative director (NCD) to replace Nitin Suri, four other appointments have also been made.

afaqs! had reported last week that Upputuru was on his way to be named NCD and also hinted at more senior-level appointments that were in the pipeline.

Shaleen Sharma has been appointed as vice-president, strategic planning, Dentsu Marcom, while Sunita Prakash has joined the agency as vice-president, account management. While Sharma joins Dentsu Marcom from R K Swamy BBDO, Delhi, where he led strategic planning and business consultancy at The Hansa Group, Prakash in her previous role, worked with Solutions Digitas, where she was the vice-president on FMCG, IT and Insurance verticals.

All personnel will report to Hiroshi Omata, chief operating officer, Dentsu Marcom.

Commenting on his new role at the agency, Upputuru says in a press statement, "Globally, Dentsu comes up with really innovative, new-age ideas and sweeps most of the shows. I look forward to bringing in and building that unique creative culture within India. We are sprucing up teams across the board, and I am excited at taking up all sorts of unique marketing and communication challenges that our current and future clients may have in order to give them a great bang for every buck that they spend."

Agarwal leads the Honda cars and two-wheelers businesses at Dentsu Marcom. Agarwal, who holds an MBA degree in marketing, and has 14 years of experience in the industry, began her advertising career with Draftfcb Ulka, in Bengaluru. The brands she has worked on include Wipro Consumer Care, United Breweries, Himalayan Water, The Economic Times, Singapore Tourism, Reebok, Nestle, and PepsiCo's Kurkure. She has worked with agencies such as Rediffusion-Y&R, Mumbai, JWT, Delhi, and McCann Erickson, Delhi, before joining Dentsu.

"These are exciting times at Dentsu. The transformation that is underway makes it almost like working in two different places at once -- in an entrepreneurial set-up with its hunger and drive, and a global conglomerate, in terms of its scale and ambition. Such an environment gives me the best of both worlds, and I am looking forward to playing a larger role in Dentsu's growth in India," says Agarwal.

Gupta joined Dentsu Creative Impact in 2008 as vice-president. He was later promoted to senior vice-president. He began his advertising career at Clarion, Kolkata, and worked on ITC's Capstan cigarettes. He has also worked at Lowe Lintas, HTA, and Rediffusion-Y&R and SSC&B Lintas, handling brands such as ITC, Bharti Airtel, United Spirits, Tea Board of India, Maruti Suzuki and Paras Fertilisers among others.

Gupta says that his mandate, in addition to ensuring top-of-the-line service deliveries to clients is to expand the agency's footprints in India.

With 13 years of experience as an advertising and brand communications professional, Sharma's brand experience includes work on brands such as Sony, Samsung, BMW, Microsoft, Google, Disney, Audi, Starbucks and Vodafone, among others. He has worked in various capacities in strategic planning with Mindshare, JWT, and the Boston Consulting Group.

"My remit here is two-fold. On the client front, it is about building a solid planning product, especially on brands that encapsulate technology, and how it intersects and enhances human lives. And, internally, it is about spawning and inspiring a culture of curiosity, innovation and best-in-class thinking," says Sharma.

Finally, Prakash, who prior to Solutions Digitas has worked with Hakuhodo Percept for eight years (first, as branch director, Bengaluru, and then as business director, Delhi), has 17 years of experience, of which 15 have been in mainline advertising. She has also worked across agencies such as Contract Advertising and Interact Vision, and her brand experience includes work on brands such as PepsiCo, Nestle, ITC, HP, Panasonic (Batteries), Epson, HMT and Larsen & Toubro, to name a few.

Saying that she has always admired the Japanese way of working, which according to her, is precise, disciplined, system and process-oriented, and yet delivers clutter-breaking work, Prakash says her biggest motivation is client delight -- an ideology that matches with Dentsu's "client-centric approach".