Tag: Rajiv Gopinath

  • Rajiv Gopinath named chief product & solutions officer at Publicis Groupe

    Rajiv Gopinath named chief product & solutions officer at Publicis Groupe

    Mumbai: Publicis Media Services has bolstered its leadership team and elevated Rajiv Gopinath to the position of chief product and solutions officer. The company has also promoted Ajit Gurnani to chief growth officer, media services.

    Gopinath steps up as a chief product and solutions officer from being a chief client officer at Starcom, where he has been instrumental in building strategic functions and upscaling the business. In his new mandate, Gopinath will be leading product development and fortifying the existing offerings while acquiring new products at Publicis Media Services. He will also be helping brands to strengthen their digital offerings, enabling data partnerships, data collection, research, and tools said the agency.

    While Gurnani was spearheading the role of chief client officer at Zenith. In his new role as chief growth officer, Publicis Media Services, he will drive the ‘Power of One’ initiative with non-media entities and agencies of Groupe. 

    The new appointments are part of the agency’s goal to realign its media capabilities and strengthen its growth vertical to create a single-minded focus on new business development. The structure is strategically built to encompass clients and drive the synergies between data, tech, and digital to deliver scaled media solutions, the agency said in a statement.

    Publicis Media Services CEO, Tanmay Mohanty, said, “I am delighted to have Rajiv Gopinath and Ajit Gurnani as a part of Publicis Media Services. Their deep understanding of data, digital, tech, and media tied with a proven track record in business growth will help us in the realignment of our media services. In our continuous efforts to strengthen our team, we are confident that Rajiv and Ajit’s expertise and vast experience will add significant value to the organization.” 

  • Rajiv Gopinath new CCO at Starcom India

    Rajiv Gopinath new CCO at Starcom India

    MUMBAI: In a bid to enhance strategic product and delivery and usher in greater opportunities, Starcom India (Starcom) has appointed Rajiv Gopinath as its chief client officer (CCO). Gopinath will interface with key clients and will bring in perspective on businesses, enabling the company to develop strong client relationships.

    Gopinath’ s last stint was in East Africa where he headed planning on Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and other local businesses across seven sub-Saharan African markets. Prior to that, he was in China where he did extensive planning on P&G.

    “The dynamic marketing communications landscape is both a challenge and an opportunity. It calls for upstream strategies that bring in radical business transformation for brands,” said Starcom India group CEO Mallikarjun Das. “Starcom today is as much a business partner as a communications partner, offering deep-level category insights, data-driven personalised communication, real-time marketing and predictive models. We map the full consumer journey and come up with effective, media-neutral, integrated solutions.” Das said that Gopinath, with his experience and thought leadership, would enhance Starcom’s strategic offering still further and deliver the desired business results for clients.

    Said Gopinath, “Starcom is one of the few agencies that has truly has a pulse on the consumer and can leverage the power of integrated communications. It has great expertise on the evolving media product and a wonderful set of clients. I am delighted to get this opportunity and look forward to it.”

  • GroupM launches MEC, MediaCom & Mindshare in Sub-Saharan Africa

    GroupM launches MEC, MediaCom & Mindshare in Sub-Saharan Africa

    MUMBAI: GroupM has launched its MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare media agencies in sub-Saharan Africa, supplementing GroupM’s existing offering in South Africa and Northern Africa and strengthening its position as the global leader in media investment management.

     

    This development follows the lead of GroupM parent company WPP, which last year increased its stake to a controlling interest in Scangroup, the leading advertising and communication services group in East Africa.

     

    Based out of Nairobi, GroupM and the three media agencies will manage all sub-Saharan entities and client relations managed out of Nairobi. Monica Kambo, Rajiv Gopinath and Mac Machaiah will serve respectively as the agency leads for MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare. Kambo comes over from Ogilvy & Mather Africa where she was the general manager of media services, Gopinth joins from MediaCom Singapore where he was responsible for running the P&G account in China and Machaiah previously led Mindshare in Southern India.

     

    Clients who work with MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare will benefit from the consolidated media management of GroupM, while receiving best-in-class client leadership, communication strategy and executional delivery deeply connected to the agencies’ respective global networks. This will provide clients in sub-Saharan Africa with the market’s most advanced media capabilities and give access to training and development on the latest strategic planning, media tools and technology.

     

    “Sub-Saharan Africa is a key growth priority for many of our clients and we are increasing our presence and capabilities across the region,” said GroupM CEO EMEA Dominic Grainger.

     

    These operations will have a market-leading position and the overall network, along with its affiliates, shall comprise a team of more than 150 people across sub-Saharan Africa. The evolution of the company’s media offering supports its growth strategy, client growth, and fast-changing opportunities for brands.

     

    Nandu Buty will assume day-to-day leadership of GroupM in sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to his responsibilities as COO of Scangroup, with the management team of each of the operating agencies.

     

    “This is an important development for us as it means we can advance our media agencies aligned to their respective global networks,” said Buty.