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TME finds national strategy head in Raghu Venkatraman
Working across the country, Venkatraman moves in from OOH Media, where he was looking after the strategy function
TME, the media arm of Rediffusion Y&R, has appointed Raghu Venkatraman as national strategy head. He moves in from Out Of Home (OOH) Media, where he was vice-president, strategy. Based in Mumbai, Venkatraman will report to Divya Radhakrishnan, president, TME.
With almost 16 years of experience, Venkatraman began his journey in the advertising industry with Strategen Media, a media planning outfit set up by Sandeep Nagpal, in 1993. Venkatraman recollects, “At the time, satellite television had just taken birth and many companies were looking for media partners. I remember Onida as one of our clients.”
After a year, he took up the role of media supervisor at Contract Advertising in 1996. In 1999, he joined Euro RSCG’s Bengaluru branch as senior media manager, planning. The key accounts he worked on were Intel, Weekender and Cricinfo.
He shifted to the client's side – to Cricinfo – towards the end of 2000 as head of audience monetisation.
In mid 2002, he moved to ESPN STAR Sports as senior manager, research and planning. He was part of the core team that launched Mobile ESPN in India. His stint at ESPN STAR Sports lasted for about five years.
OOH came his way towards the end of 2006. His task there was developing multiple quantitative and qualitative research modules, with a challenge to market a medium where standard research is not available.
Interestingly, Venkatraman's changing roles in different companies took him across the length and breadth of the country. The only metro city where he hasn't worked is Kolkata.
Hailing from Mumbai, he completed his graduation in commerce and went on to pursue the advertising and marketing course at Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC), Mumbai. His stints at Strategen Media and Ogilvy were in Mumbai, too.
Euro RSCG took him to Bengaluru, which was the beginning of his journey towards the South. Chennai was next in line, with Cricinfo. ESPN brought him to the capital.
Radhakrishnan says in an official media release, “With his background, Venkatraman is the ideal lead for the strategic output of TME and its approach to consumer connect with the unique offering of 'market contact planning'.”