Sign up for afaqs! Newsletters
Creative duo at Rediffusion Y&R assume new roles
Both Deepesh Jha and Jaideep Mahajan were creative heads, Airtel, one of the largest accounts of the Delhi branch
Deepesh Jha and Jaideep Mahajan, creative heads working on the Airtel account, which is one of the largest accounts handled out of the Delhi branch, have assumed new responsibilities.
Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar, co-chief creative officer, Rediffusion Y&R, tells afaqs!, "Both have been working on the account for two years and have taken care of the responsibility well enough. The promotion for the two is much deserved."
Jha has been associated with advertising for the last 15 years. He started off with Bates 141 (then Clarion Advertising) as an intern. In early 1997, he moved to Euro RSCG, which had started its operations in the country then. Only four people comprised the team then. He worked on the communication for Essar Cellphone (now Vodafone).
After spending one and a half years at the agency, he joined McCann in the beginning of 1998. During his five year stint at the agency, he worked on accounts such as Reckitt Benckiser (where he launched the mosquito repellent brand Mortein); Dettol (he crafted the line, 'Fall ill less often', for the brand); Perfetti for brands Alpenliebe and Big Babol; and also put in place the first Sprite commercial with the tagline - Baaki Sab Bakwaas.
Towards the end of 2002, he returned to Euro RSCG as associate creative director. In a year, he moved to JWT, where he looked after accounts such as Glaxo SmithKline (Boost), Pepsi and Reckitt, and was there for a year. He moved to Euro again for a brief period and towards early 2005, joined Cheil as an experiment, working on the Samsung account.
In 2006, he shifted to Publicis and went on to head the Nestle and ABN Amro accounts. He was there till the end of 2007, later shifting to Rediffusion Y&R.
Mahajan, interestingly, began his career in textile and was working as a surface designer for Satya Paul. In 1996, he took to advertising when he joined DraftFCB Ulka (then FCB Ulka) as a visualiser.
In mid-1997, he switched to McCann as art director. After spending three years there, he moved to Contract Advertising as creative group head and spent three years there, too.
In 2003, he shifted base to Kuala Lumpur - joining Leo Burnett. In 2007, he moved to McCann in Kuala Lumpur.
Some of the accounts that he has worked on include Hindustan Motors (Contessa Classic Car), Usha (sewing machines and fans), LML-Vespa scooters, Microsoft, Bacardi, Coca-Cola India, Motorola, General Motors, Nestle, Reckitt, ABN Amro (credit cards), Maruti Suzuki (Grand Vitara), NIIT, Seagram's (Three Kings Brandy), Grasim Industries (Graviera), Dabur and HCL Infosystem (B2B).
During his stints with the two agencies at Kuala Lumpur, he worked on Malaysia Airlines, Johnnie Walker (Black and Blue label), McDonald's, Wall's, Cathay Pacific, MasterCard and Coffee-Mate.