India – Grey India has brought in the creative duo of Malvika Mehra & Amit Akali as National Creative Directors, to add weight to the agency’s creative product.
To be based in Mumbai, Mehra and Akali previously worked for Ogilvy, and will bring a fresh perspective to the agency that has been nabbing large new business, and which seeks to reposition itself as a creative leader in one of the region’s most buoyant advertising markets.
The duo will work on many notable brands that include Audi, Bharti Axa, Britannia, Deutsche Bank, Godrej Sara Lee, GSK Consumer Healthcare, ITC, Parle, P&G, Suzlon, United Spirits Ltd., Wyeth and 3M.
Commenting on the hires, Jishnu Sen, Chief Operating Officer of Grey India says, “Grey is on a path of change and we’re hungry for new business. Our global motto is to be ‘Famously Effective’ and to live up to that, we have to continuously up our game on both strategy and creative. We are always on the lookout for key people and Malvika and Amit bring us the passion, energy and creative know-how, offering clients a compelling reason to give their creative mandate to Grey.”
Of her new role, Mehra expressed, “Having met Tim Mellors, Grey Group’s Vice Chairman & WW Chief Creative Director and Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific, I realize how determined they are to change Grey’s creative reputation. The fact that Grey’s been steadily increasing its tally at Cannes and hiring some great creative people like Ali Shabaz, in Singapore, and Jay Furby in Sydney is testament to that resolve.”
“What’s more, the agency has an exciting set of accounts across interesting categories like confectionaries and automobiles that provide us an opportunity to do good work,” she adds.
Akali, as well, talks of the position, “We understand that just bringing in two people is not going to make a difference. It’s the coming together of people and culture that will make the difference. Our partners here, Jishnu and Bindu Sethi are both solid advertising individuals with a keen strategic vision and we’re sure they’ll provide the right platform for our creative teams to go forward.”
Nirvik Singh, Chairman & CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific, reiterates his commitment to boosting the agency’s creative product: “With Malvika and Amit’s creative reputation and the work they’ve been doing in creating effective and award winning campaigns versus award winning scams, we hope to add value to the agency’s creative product.”
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