Himanshu Saxena swings from McCann to T.A.G.

In his third year with McCann Worldgroup, Saxena takes up the role of vice-president and general manager for the group’s second agency

Himanshu Saxena, who was the group business director at McCann until now, has assumed a new role in the McCann family. He will take on the national reigns of T.A.G. -- the second agency of McCann Worldgroup.

As vice-president and general manager for the agency, Saxena will currently look after the Delhi and Mumbai offices. Based out of the Capital, he will report to Sanjay Nayak, president, McCann Worldgroup, India.

Saxena joined McCann in September 2006. In his three-year stint with the agency, he headed the Marico and Barclays portfolios. For Marico, he worked on brands such as Saffola, Mediker, Parachute and Shanti Amla; while for Barclays, he looked after retail and credit cards.

Himanshu Saxena swings from McCann to T.A.G.

Talking about Saxena’s elevation, Prasoon Joshi, executive chairman, McCann Erickson says in a release to the media, “We are committed to make T.A.G. a cutting-edge brand, which provides effective out-of-the-box solutions. And we’ve taken a call to entrust Saxena, a home grown McCann Worldgroup talent, with this responsibility. His wealth of experience will ensure that T.A.G. grows from strength to strength.”

A Mumbaiite since day one, Saxena started off his career in marketing. In 1992, he joined Sterling Resorts in the sales function, where he continued for two years. He later switched to the marketing side in the company, where looked after regional marketing for about a year.

In 1995, as Saxena puts it, “the advertising bug” bit him. He joined Grey Worldwide (then Trikaya Grey) in account management. In 1998, he left the agency in the role of an account supervisor.

Towards the end of 1998, he joined Lintas. Spending about six years there, he put in his papers in 2004 as associate vice-president, and moved to Reliance Energy as head, branding.

After spending a year in that role, he took up the role of associate vice-president for Unilever at research company, IMRB International.

For Unilever, he worked on the household panel, which quantitatively measured purchase behaviour of consumers and helped Unilever in developing marketing, distribution and advertising insights.

In his 12 years in the advertising business, Saxena has worked on brands such as Mauritius Tourism, Ambuja Cement, The Bombay Store, Otis, Idea Cellular, HSBC, Shaw Wallace and VIP luggage.

Some of his memorable assignments include working on Idea Cellular, as he was involved right from its inception. The Bye-Bye campaign for VIP luggage is also among his many efforts.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com