Vidhya Sankarnarayanan joins Saatchi & Saatchi, Mumbai

Sankarnarayanan joins as vice-president, integrated brand strategy. She will work closely with Sourabh Mishra, chief strategy officer, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Saatchi & Saatchi India has appointed Vidhya Sankarnarayanan as vice-president, integrated brand strategy, Mumbai. As strategy head, she will play a key role in driving brand solutions and creating brand opportunities through multi-channel experiences.

Sankarnarayanan comes from SapientNitro, where she was working as director, marketing strategy and analytics. She will work closely with Sourabh Mishra, chief strategy officer, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Speaking about his new team member, Mishra says, "Sankarnarayanan is one of the best account planners in the business today. She is passionate about great ideas that can positively impact our clients' businesses and brings a very strong digital perspective. This combination of skills and attitude epitomises the way forward for Saatchi & Saatchi India."

Sankarnarayanan believes that this is a time when people, companies and brands in India are being revolutionised by technology and new media. She adds, "I join Saatchi with a mandate to drive brand solutions and create brand opportunities through multi-channel experiences that hinge on social, cultural and human truths. Given Saatchi's rich creative heritage and current focus on India, it is at the same time the most challenging and most exciting assignment I have had till date. In the current scenario, the greatest imperative for Saatchi as a brand as well as for the brands we will shape in the future, is the opportunity to be agents of this revolution, as we will inevitably be products of it."

In an official communiqué, Nisha Singhania, general manager, Saatchi & Saatchi Mumbai, says, "We are in the middle of a huge makeover at Saatchi India. Sankarnarayanan's consolidated experience of unearthing human truths along with her recent digital experience are just what we need at Saatchi because we believe we are in the Age of Now. She is going to be one of the critical change agents for the new Saatchi."

Sankarnarayanan started her career with All India Radio as a radio jockey in 1998. About a year after that, she went ahead with post graduation, specialising in brand communication from Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA). Subsequently, she joined Leo Burnett, Mumbai in 2001, as senior account executive. She stayed there for about two and a half years before moving on to join Contract Advertising as brand planner in 2004.

Sankarnarayanan joined McCann Erickson in the same capacity in 2005 in Mumbai. Later, she shifted to Publicis Advertising as senior brand planner in 2006. Two years later, she moved to represent the clients' side and joined Futurebrands India as group head, brand consulting in Mumbai.

In 2010, she moved to Delhi to join SapientNitro as director, marketing strategy and analytics. Here, she was integral in establishing the global start up tech-agency's business in the country over the last two and a half years. With the new assignment at Saatchi & Saatchi, she will relocate to Mumbai.