Cheil India strengthens digital team

The agency has brought in Ranjan Nautiyal as group creative director and P Murali Gopal as senior creative director.

Cheil Worldwide SW Asia today announced an expansion to its digital team in India. The agency has brought in Ranjan Nautiyal as group creative director and P Murali Gopal as senior creative director. They will report to Rajesh Bhatia, SVP and head, digital services and Nima DT Namchu, creative head and executive creative director of the agency.

Nautiyal moves in from Ogilvy & Mather, where he was senior creative director and Murali comes from Rediffusion-Wunderman, where he was creative director. Both will work closely with the creative and digital teams at Cheil India.

Nautiyal started as a mechanical engineer and has worked in advertising for more than 15 years. He has been a witness to how technology is changing the way brands communicate. Over the past seven years, he has worked in mainline and digital agencies, learning from one and applying it in the other. Nautiyal has worked on several brands across categories, like Hyundai, Maruti, Seagrams, KFC, Yahoo, Mint, Motorola, LG Electronics, Dabur and many more.

Murali comes with 20 years of experience across various product categories, market groups and communication media involving films, print advertising, direct marketing and online communications. Other agency brands he has worked with are Purple Focus, Caffeine Interactive (a brand he set up in 2009), Wunderman International, Madhyam (now Publicis), Rediffusion DY&R and Clarion (now 141 Sercon) among others. Key accounts managed over the years by Murali include Microsoft, Airtel, Nortel, Times Jobs, Nokia, Eicher, Hathway, Bajaj Auto (3-wheelers), Big Magic, DLF, Indian Airlines, NTPC, Oasis Cellular, Hero Honda, Apollo Tyres, Citibank, Essar Cellphone and Madhya Pradesh Tourism, among others.

This latest infusion of talent is a strategic move by Cheil India to address the growing role of digital media in the overall advertising pie. The digital team at Cheil India, with the addition of this talent, is already a 50-member strong outfit.

Speaking on the appointments, Hari Krishnan, COO, Cheil Worldwide SW Asia, says, "Ranjan and Murali are valuable additions to Cheil's integrated creative team. They bring with them combined sensibility of insights, ideas and technology - all these dimensions are critical to create sparkling digital work within the context of the overall consumer journey. We will be able to better deliver our promise of 'Ideas That Move' with these new talent additions."

Bhatia says, "We have always believed that excellence in digital can be truly achieved only if a layer of creativity is added to technology. These two appointments are in keeping with our goal of becoming the foremost digital and integrated set ups in the country."

Cheil India has been on an aggressive growth plan over the last two years, almost doubling its size in its employee strength and billings. Cheil set up the agency office in India in 2003 with just 12 team members and today has more than 350 team members.