iB&W beefs up its creative team

iB&W has appointed two new creative directors following the exit of Amar Ghatpande, who has gone on a sabbatical. The two new members in its team are Sanjay Sakarkar and Romeen Yarkhan, both from Percept, where they together served as creative directors for the last ten months.

This duo has worked as art director-copywriter team previously in two instances. First, at JWT for two and half years and then at Percept for the last ten months. And now, at IB&W, they are all set to work on brands such as Skoda, Crocodile International, Ace Financial, Victorinox, Dhan Dhana Dhan lottery and so on.

According to Mukesh Gupta, chairman and managing director, iB&W, this duo will be instrumental in the company’s growth plans specifically in the international markets. However, when quizzed further, Gupta declined to reveal any details.

Sakarakar, who started off as a visualiser with Sphere Communications in 1992, has also worked with Lintas as a senior art director and then as creative group head with O&M. Later, he worked with agencies such as JWT, Law & Kenneth and Percept as creative director.

When quizzed on his big plans for iB&W, Sakarkar says, “My focus will be winning a lot of awards and apart from that bagging new businesses.”

Ask him about his advertising work, and he says that the work he did for Lakme, Pepsodent, ITC’s Essence De Wills, DTC and Gold Star have been close to his heart. Besides he was also instrumental in the rechristening of Law & Kenneth from St Luke’s.

Yarkhan’s first job in advertising was as a trainee copywriter with Lowe (then Lintas) Kolkata in 1995, from where he later moved to Everest Delhi. From Everest, he moved to JWT as a creative supervisor , shifting his base to Mumbai. Since then, he has also worked for agencies such as McCann Erickson, where he moved up the ladder to become a creative director. He has also taken up a few international assignments with Max Advertising in Jakarta.

He has worked on brands such as Star News, DTC, Sunsilk, Esteem and claims that he was actively involved in the re-positioning of Babool toothpaste from a cheap toothpaste brand to a toothpaste offering value for money.

As Yarkahn says, “The first challenge is to get the house in order and then work intensely on new businesses.”

© 2006 agencyfaqs!