GREY appoints Sandipan Bhattacharyya as chief creative officer

Bhattacharyya returns to Grey Group from BBDO, where he spent close to eight years partnering Josy Paul in setting up the agency in India.

Grey Group India has brought on board Sandipan Bhattacharyya as its chief creative officer. Bhattacharyya will take charge of his duties from August 1, 2015. He will oversee Mumbai, Gurgaon (New Delhi-NCR) and Bengaluru offices across all platforms, including advertising, digital and below-the-line. He will be based in Mumbai, reporting to Sunil Lulla, chairman and managing director of Grey Group India. It is pertinent to note that this announcement comes soon after Grey Group won the award for being the third most awarded network globally at the Cannes Lions Festival 2015.

Bhattacharyya returns to Grey Group from BBDO, where he spent close to eight years partnering Josy Paul in setting up the agency in India and shaping its creative reputation. At BBDO, he served as the executive creative director and was pushing the creative mandate on several global clients like PepsiCo, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Aviva Life Insurance, P&G Gillette and Wrigley. In a career spanning over 16 years, his previous stints include Saatchi & Saatchi, Enterprise Nexus and a long run at Grey Group as the creative director of Grey's Mumbai office.

"We are delighted to welcome Sandipan back. His entry is timed to reignite Grey and drive its culture of creating 'Famous & Effective' work for Grey's clients. He brings in a terrific blend of zing & zany energy with an astute and intuitive understanding of consumers. I am delighted to have a partner who will bring transformational change to Grey Group India, with a mind and a working style, which seamlessly integrates the communication process, across platforms, media, technologies and consumer states. In an ever changing world, now Grey's capabilities will be significantly enhanced with Sandipan's leadership," says Sunil Lulla, chairman and managing director of Grey Group India.

Commenting on his move, Bhattacharyya, says, "What's interesting in today's ad landscape is what I call free-styling. No rules, no limits, just format-defying, medium-bending work. Gun shops that spring a surprise moral dilemma, car companies promoting body paint and a ridiculously simple Superbowl interception that makes everyone spending millions on a 30-second spot seem like an idiot - that's free-styling. And guess what? It's all happening at Grey. My chats with Tor and Per just made one thing amply clear - I'd be a fool to pass up this opportunity."

Grey Group ranks among the largest global communication companies. Its parent company is WPP (NASDAQ:WPPGY).