Lowe’s Farzana Suri to replace Vikas Kumar at Euro RSCG

Farzana Suri, associate vice-president (Idea business), Lowe, is all set to join Euro RSCG as vice-president. She will replace Vikas Kumar, who recently headed over to Ambience Publicis as vice-president.

Suri will report to Suman Srivastava, president, Euro RSCG. Her mandate will be to consolidate the existing businesses of the agency and develop strategies for its growth.

On being quizzed about her move from Lowe to Euro, Suri quips, “I didn’t like the view from my window!” On a more serious note, she cites professional differences as the main reason. “Besides, I will get to work with Suman (Srivastava), from whom I hope to learn a lot. He is well known in the industry for his leadership skills. Apart from that, Euro has a good set of clients and I’m hoping I can contribute to the agency’s growth here,” she says.

Suri has 14 years of experience in the advertising industry. She started off as a chartered accountant and did her internship at a firm for a brief while. She soon realised the profession wasn’t meant for her and moved into advertising with daCunha Communications, where she worked on brands such as Frooti and Appy.

She moved on to Clarion Advertising (which is now part of Bates Enterprise), where she was on the client servicing team for Moti soap, 501 detergent and TOMCO. A year later, she joined Image Ads, where she spent six years working for clients such as Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India.

Her next move was to RK Swamy/BBDO, where she spent five years as a director, client services. She worked on accounts such as SBI, Raymond and the three-wheeler, Piaggio. Following that, she joined Lowe as associate vice-president on Idea at the all-India level. There, she had Lowe executives from eight circles in India reporting to her.

According to Suri, her most rewarding experience till date has been her work on Piaggio at RK Swamy/BBDO. The communication in the three wheeler light commercial vehicle segment was rather drab in those days. In addition, with rival company Bajaj Auto getting more and more aggressive, Suri and her team felt that it was time to shake up the stagnant category a bit.

The team came up with the idea to induce test drives on the insight that such vehicles are used for intra-city transport (in areas that cannot be reached by heavy vehicles). Extensive road shows were organised in over 700 towns across India. “This resulted in huge brand awareness and Piaggio almost became a generic term for three-wheelers,” recalls Suri.

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