Agnel Jude Bankien joins Sportskeeda as VP, sales and marketing

Bankien has been associated with advertising and marketing for 12 years.

Sportskeeda.com has appointed Agnel Jude Bankien as vice-president, sales and marketing. He will expand the website's audience base and revenues through innovative marketing and ad sales.

Speaking about his plans Bankien says, "We would like to create unique engagement with our consumer through branding, advertising and leverage that engagement to the point of monetizing it."

He adds that sports is still a virgin territory in online content and the company looks forward to create value for organizers and brands.

A sports enthusiast himself, Bankien strongly believes in Sportskeeda's plans to promote lesser-known sports such as kabaddi, volleyball, cue and others through its articles and posts. He says, "Sports in India is changing. Apart from cricket and football, people are following other sports such as golfing, adventure sports and racing. The choices of people are going from mass to niche and keeping in mind the trend, we need to slightly tailor our offerings."

He further adds that digital is the most effective way to reach out to the audience. Sportskeeda will also consider trans-media routes, wherein it will partner with stakeholders from conventional media and may also take it on ground.

Bankien brings in 12 years of experience in advertising and marketing. He began his career in 2000 and has worked at Ogilvy & Mather and McCann Erickson. He joined Bengaluru International Airport as senior manager for advertising and marketing in 2007.

Bankien says, "In India, we consume sports. One per cent play the game, 9 per cent talk about it and the remaining 90 per cent just consume it. Though cricket and football have huge fan bases, there are opportunities with other sports that can be leveraged, too."

Sportskeeda is headed by Porush Jain and has organised the Sportskeeda Writer Awards, which confers awards to writers from its 1,500-strong writer community who blog for the website.

The company claims that on a daily basis, the website posts more than 150 articles on 34 sports popular across the country; it caters to a huge audience that belongs to different ages and demographics.