Contract ropes in Manoj Jacob as ECD

Jacob was earlier running his own creative consultancy firm. This is his second stint with the agency.

Contract Advertising has announced the appointment of Manoj Jacob as executive creative director at its Bengaluru office. Before joining Contract, Jacob was running his own creative consultancy firm for four years in Chennai. He will head the creative work from Bengaluru and will report to Ashish Chakravarty, national creative director, Contract.

This is Jacob's second stint at Contract after a span of six years. Jacob will work along with Monojit Ray, who was recently appointed as the agency's Bengaluru head.

On the new appointment, Chakravarty says, "Manoj is extremely passionate about his craft, very driven and a hands-on kind of leader. Having worked with him in the past, I won't be surprised if he dives straight into the deep end from Day 1 itself. It is a challenging role, but I am positive he will shine."

Jacob, commenting on return to the agency, says, "It's an awesome new team, across disciplines, that is getting together at Contract and I am very happy to be a part of it."

While operating his own consultancy firm, Jacob worked with brands including Nova Specialty Surgery, Apollo Hospitals, Simply South Restaurant and Abs Fitness. In his 17 years of experience, Jacob has worked with Soho Square (formerly known as Meridian Communication, sister agency of O&M), McCann Erickson, SSC&B, Euro RSCG (now Havas Worldwide), Orchard Advertising, Publicis Ambience and Bates CHI & Partners.

Some of the brands Jacob has worked on include IBM, Air Deccan, Cavin Kare, Mitsubishi Motors, Wipro Consumer Care and Weekender. He has also won many national and international awards. Apart from an advertising professional, Jacob is a singer, songwriter and guitar player. In fact, he has created and recorded two albums and a few jingles for some of the brands he has worked on.