Pallavi Deb Burman joins STAR India as V-P marketing

Pallavi Deb Burman has joined as vice-president, marketing at STAR India. She moves in from Fever 104 FM, which is a collaboration between HT Media and Virgin Radio.

She replaces Prem Kamath, who moved on to look after the group’s music channel, Channel V. Deb Burman will report to Anupam Vasudev, executive vice-president, STAR India.

Deb Burman had been with Fever FM since its inception and was instrumental in setting up its first radio station and the team. She started as the station head of Delhi, moving on to become the national sales head of the radio network. Fever FM marked her foray in the media space.

A management graduate from IIM Calcutta, Deb Burman’s first job was in the marketing function at Seagram, where she spent five years. In 2001, she moved to Bharti Airtel, where she donned many hats.

She initially looked after the brand and communications portfolio for the western region at Bharti Airtel. Later on, she handled the prepaid acquisition for the cellular service provider, which involved devising pre-paid schemes for acquiring customers and communicating with them. She also handled the marketing for the value added services portfolio for a while.

Fever, she says, has given her the required grounding in the media business. She believes that radio as a medium is more open to experimentation. “It’s a more flexible medium, where there aren’t many content guidelines; it enables creating customised advertising packages for advertisers,” she says.

At STAR, she hopes to incorporate some of her learning from the other stints, such as facilitating interactivity by developing consumer engagement and luring the younger generation audience.