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TBWAIndia’s Benny Thomas appointed global planning director, Masterfoods

Thomas, who is said to be the ‘disruption guru’ of TBWAIndia, will move to TBWAChiatDay in Los Angeles

Benny Thomas, vice-president, strategic planning, at TBWAIndia has been appointed the account planning director for Masterfoods (the owners of the Pedigree, Whiskers and Mars brands). Thomas will move to TBWAChiatDay in Los Angeles, USA, for his new assignment.

Thomas says, “I was looking at being involved with the ‘disruption’ theory at a larger level and, as a client, Masterfoods has been very open to the disruption process. This gives me an opportunity to further the interactive collaborative process that disruption allows.”

Thomas adds, “I see my appointment as recognition of the progress that India has made in the practice of disruption. Last year alone, our trained disruption animators conducted over 15 disruption workshops for our clients and came out with unique communication solutions for our clients.”

“TBWA’s Los Angeles office was looking for someone who, besides the usual qualifications of a planning director, would also bring hands-on experience in disruption as well as a global perspective,” says Thomas.

In his new role, Thomas will be responsible for directing a team of planning supervisors and other strategic partners. He will also oversee strategy development initiatives for clients and new business.

Commenting on the development, K George John, chairman and managing director, TBWAIndia, says, “It is a matter of great pride for us to see that our home-grown talent has found global acceptance and recognition. I wish Thomas all success in his new assignment.”

Thomas started his career in 1987 at a TV production house. He then joined TBWAIndia (then Anthem). Both George John and he were involved in Anthem’s proposal to tie up with TBWA. In 1997, he moved to Lowe (then Lintas) as a creative director and worked for the company in both Mumbai and Delhi, handling the Unilever soap brands, Maruti, LG, Nestle and Parker.

In 2000, he moved to Malaysia as head of marketing for media company Astro. In 2002, he moved to Kolkata to set up radio stations there. After a brief stint with Siddhartha Basu’s company, Synergy Communications, he joined TBWAIndia in September 2002 as branch head, Delhi.

During his stint of three years with TBWAIndia, Thomas has contributed to the development of new business and has also successfully led brand campaign initiatives on clients such as Standard Chartered Bank, Adidas, Panasonic, Pedigree, Apple, Henkel, Moser Baer and Twinings.

Citing an example of how disruption has changed how one looks at brands, Thomas says, “With Pedigree, we did a global series on disruption. In India, too, we did many such series. What came out of these interactions was that we changed the perspective on the company, which moved from being seen as a company that was into feed business into one that was in the food business.”

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