Dentsu Communications appoints Rajendra Singh to head Citizen Dentsu

Dentsu Communications has decided to renew its focus on Citizen Dentsu in a bid to break the mould of traditional advertising and leverage the power of 'innovation' for social communication.

With a renewed impetus on Citizen Dentsu, Dentsu Communications has roped in Rajendra Singh to head the division that primarily focuses on social communication by government and semi-government organisations. Singh joins Dentsu Communications as senior vice-president and will report to Arijit Ray, CEO, Dentsu Communications. He will be based in Delhi.

It may be recalled that Dentsu India launched Citizen Dentsu in April, 2009 to serve its social communication, government and semi government clients as well as for the corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes of its corporate clients.

Ray says, "Social and development sector communication needs to be re-looked at through a different filter and therefore, conventional communication strategies will not be enough. Hence, we are bringing in a renewed impetus on Citizen Dentsu."

Unlike the earlier times, Citizen Dentsu will have a distinct team wherein people who specialise only in social communication will be part of the team. Earlier, Citizen Dentsu members also worked on regular brands.

Singh says, "We are currently in the process of putting together a strong team. We believe we need to break the mould of traditional advertising and leverage the power of 'innovation' for social communication, by employing technology as much as possible. That's the only way to beat the din and build strong currency for a cause. This is going to be the Citizen Dentsu differential."

Adds Ray, "At a time when consumers are bombarded by myriad messages and time and attention are at a premium, social issues, with limited means, often have to combat the challenges through innovative, effective communication strategies and tools. Citizen Dentsu's endeavour would be to tap the power of technological innovation, across touch points on the back of our knowledge and understanding, to continuously generate currency for issues that are socially relevant."

Prior to this, Singh was with JWT where he worked for 10 years. There, apart from a set of mainstream clients, Singh headed JWT's social communications division, Thompson Social, for five years. He worked on a multitude of social programmes ranging from issues such as HIV/aids, polio, child health and safe motherhood, health and hygiene to causes such as environment, education, food safety and drug usage, safe water and ozone layer. The clients that he worked on include UNICEF, World Bank and Nike Foundation.

Armed with 22 years of experience, Singh has worked extensively on political advertising. Starting with the Congress campaign for the Lok Sabha Elections in 2009, he has handled numerous state elections for the party.

An MBA from Calcutta University, has also worked with Lowe and McCann Worldgroup.