Rediffusion continues hiring spree; appoints Prabhakar Jampa to head design and digital function

Jampa moves in from iContract, where he occupied the position of senior creative director.

Rediffusion has brought on board Prabhakar Jampa as creative head, design and digital. He moves in from iContract, where he was senior creative director. iContract is an arm of Contract Advertising that looks into digital, BTL (below the line) and CRM (customer relationship management). Jampa spent the last six-and-a-half years at iContract.

Jampa steps into the shoes of Ashutosh Karkhanis, former national creative director, design and digital, Rediffusion WHO! (the digital and design arm of Rediffusion-Y&R), who quit the agency earlier this month to join The Brand Union (TBU), a brand consultancy.

Jampa will be based in Rediffusion's Mumbai office and will report to N Padmakumar, national creative director.

This is the fourth appointment the agency has made in the past couple of months. Earlier this month, Rediffusion appointed Parag Shahane and Dilip Marathe as creative heads, art. In April, Manish Ajgaonkar joined the agency as executive creative director.

Commenting on the reasons for his move to Rediffusion, Jampa conveys in an official communiqué, "What drew me here was the vision that Paddy (N Padmakumar) and D Rajappa (president, Rediffusion) have for the agency -- their focus on engagement ideas, coupled with the enormous opportunities that Rediffusion's brands offer in terms of scope and challenge - it is exciting."

Jampa brings to the table more than 20 years of experience. He started his career with Karishma Advertising; after spending two years at the agency, he moved on to Pressman Advertising and Marketing and soon after, moved to Maa Bozell. Jampa spent about six years at Maa Bozell before joining Result McCann, the direct marketing wing of McCann Erickson.

After a year at McCann, Jampa moved to Wunderman. Finally, after spending another four years at Wunderman, he shifted to iContract.

Addressing his appointment, Padmakumar says, "Prabhakar (Jampa) brings with him an amazing blend of classical fine art, sharp advertising thinking and a cutting edge understanding of new media, digital and otherwise. He's a great addition to the consortium of beautiful minds and genuine hearts we're attracting into Rediffusion. We're thrilled to have him here with us."

In his career so far, Jampa has worked on brands such as ECIL, ECTV, HLL, Midwest, BSNL, ITPL, AMP, Bhutan Board, Global Trust Bank, Bambino, Gromor, Decolam, Microsoft, Cabletron, Tektronix, IBM, BPL mobile, Infosys, NIIT, Tata Indicom Photon, Vaango (a South Indian restaurant chain in modern QSR format owned by the RJ Group -- bottlers of Pepsi, KFC, and Pizza Hut franchisee in India), HSBC, Shoppers Stop, Tata AIG, Bharati AXA, and VSNL, amongst others.