Dentsu Creative Impact makes senior level appointments

The agency has roped in Sundar Iyer as ECD, copy, while Arvinderjit Singh and Hindol Purkayastha have been brought on board as vice presidents, account management. Shveta Singh has joined as vice president, planning.

Dentsu Creative Impact, the flagship creative division of Dentsu Aegis Network, in a bid to ensure that the agency is well equipped to service its existing and new brands, has announced a host of new talent acquisitions. The beefing up of the team has happened across functions, ranging from strategic planning to account management and creative. Incidentally, the appointments come on the back of the recent client wins such as Maruti Suzuki and Carlsberg, among others.

In the creative department, the agency has roped in Sundar Iyer as executive creative director, copy. Iyer will form the creative leadership team along with Sumitra Sengupta (also, executive creative director, copy, who joined Dentsu Creative Impact about two months back) and Deepak Singh (executive creative director, art), whose appointment was announced a few months back. Both, Iyer and Sengupta join in after their recent stints at JWT, bringing in expertise from their cross-category experience.

Commenting on his new role, Iyer says, "Great work can only come from collaboration which seems to be inherent to the way this agency functions. It's a place that doesn't have to unlearn to be ready."

Talking about his new role, Sengupta adds, "Two months and Dentsu Creative Impact has already broken my preconceived notions about it. It's a great place to work at this time. The client is open to innovations, actually demanding it, and I'm working at the best place that can provide it."

On the account management side, Dentsu Creative Impact has roped in Arvinderjit Singh (previously, at JWT) as vice president, who, along with Hindol Purkayastha (previously at Publicis) also brought on board as vice president, will bolster the account management function and bring in greater depth and strength. Both Purkayastha and Singh bring in a wealth of automotive category experience from their previous stints.

Talking about his role, Singh says, "The sands of engagement as a creative partner have shifted and our industry is going through tremendous change. Working with an agency like Dentsu Creative Impact that not only recognises change, but embraces it, is very exciting."

Purkayastha shares, "It's rare that we get a chance to build and create internal ecosystems to mirror our client needs. This is exactly what we are doing around our clients. I am also excited on utilising Dentsu's strengths in digital and new media, to create advertising that actually touches people's lives."

In the strategic planning department, Shveta Singh has come aboard as vice president, planning. She will work with Kartikeya Srivastava, senior vice president, strategic planning. Coming from a pure-play digital background, Singh (ex-Cheil, ex-Havas) brings new-age skills to combine with her intuitive understanding of brands and people. Commenting about her new stint, Singh says, "For me, crossing over the digital divide was the next logical step because the future will have no such divide. A new approach to strategic planning is the need of the day and Dentsu came across as the right place with the right vision and a set of people who are already breaking the mould of traditional agency planning. I'm looking forward to some exciting work."

Talking about the new additions to the team, Narayan Devanathan, CEO, Dentsu Creative Impact Group, says, "Great work happens when people commit to constantly raising the bar. At Dentsu Creative Impact, we're doing that by first raising the bar on the talent we're bringing together, across functions. Across creative, account management and planning, we have a first-rate second rung in place at to sustain the momentum that we have going now."

Amit Wadhwa, branch head and senior vice president, Dentsu Creative Impact, shares, "It's been great going for Dentsu Creative Impact, especially in the last year or so, and one way we can really continue this upward journey is when we have the right people around. And, when we were looking to expand our team, this was precisely the thought in our head. We are excited about the fresh thinking and energy that all these guys bring, and I am looking forward to working with all of them."

Dentsu Creative Impact was set up in 2006 with a vision to expand Dentsu India's business portfolio and to focus on unexplored business potential. Using best practices from Dentsu Japan, it claims to have emerged as the fastest growing organisation within the Dentsu India Group.