Dentsu Media gets Divya Gupta as CEO

Gupta, among her prime responsibilities, will consolidate Dentsu's media business in India, cement its media competencies from across the agency's global network, and tighten the agency's RoI.

The Dentsu India Group has announced the appointment of Divya Gupta as chief executive officer for Dentsu Media.

Gupta will drive Dentsu's media presence and consolidate its media business in India, and cement its media competencies with global proprietary tools, knowledge, and the best practices from across Dentsu's global network.

Earlier, as an independent consultant, Gupta worked closely with marketers, media agencies, and media owners.

Gupta conveys in an official communiqué, "One of the key imperatives from computing mere eyeballs to an engagement metric will also be to tighten RoI (return on investment)."

According to Gupta, the media landscape today, is a challenging space that offers opportunities to harness collective media synergies in real time. This enables meaningful brand dialogues with consumers, almost on a one-on-one basis.

Rohit Ohri, executive chairperson, Dentsu India Group, says, "Gupta is one of those few rigorously seasoned media professionals to have witnessed the evolution of the Indian media, while being a key contributor to it. Her long-drawn engagements with media -- as agency head, marketer, media owner and strategic advisor -- have given her an almost uninterrupted consciousness of the dynamic media landscape."

Ohri adds that the combination of Gupta's 'insider's understanding' of the media industry and her business acumen is a potent one.

Gupta brings to the table more than 25 of experience in the media industry, including 19 years across agencies, four years as a marketer, and two years as a media owner.

A commerce graduate from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai, Gupta has also completed the Global Leadership Program from the London Business School in 1999.

She began her career in 1987 as a media supervisor with Trikaya Grey India, where she was responsible for media planning and buying on brands such as Lakme Unilever, Holcim Ambuja Cement, and H&R Johnson.

In 1991, Gupta joined Ogilvy India as media controller, where she was responsible for O&M Media, in Mumbai. She was also involved in the inception of the Media Research Users Council (MRUC).

Following a brief stint as media controller on O&M's Media Network in the UK (where she worked on the Unilever brand), Gupta joined Rediffusion-DY&R as media director, where she led the media planning and buying for Colgate Palmolive in 1995.

In 1997, Gupta joined Mediacom India as vice-president. In 1999, following a two-year stint with Bates India as vice-president, Gupta joined The Media Edge (TME) as president, South Asia. She launched TME in India with six offices in the country and one each in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Subsequently, Gupta joined MEC, Singapore, where she led worldwide client services and solutions. In 2005, she joined the Reliance ADA Group as media advisor to the chairman's office; her mandate included providing strategic advisory on media investments for the group. In 2009, she joined Hindustan Times Media as business head (West).

Gupta has led media mandates for brands such as Tata Group of Companies, Reliance ADA Group, Colgate-Palmolive, AT&T, Citibank, Parle Products, Godfrey Phillips India, Paramount Pictures and STAR TV.