Dentsu India appoints Anubhav Sonthalia as CEO

The announcement brings together Data Transformation, Digital Transformation, and CX Consulting into one unit to create the brand Merkle.

Following the restructure of its creative and media businesses in India, dentsu has now announced the launch of a unified Merkle-led CXM proposition in the market. The announcement brings together Data Transformation, Digital Transformation, and CX Consulting into one unit to create the most specialised CX practice in India under brand Merkle.

Part of the network’s global organisational redesign, the dentsu India CXM business will now house the agencies - Sokrati, Fractal Ink Design Studio and Merkle B2B, under one umbrella. Anubhav Sonthalia will lead dentsu CXM in India as its chief executive officer (CEO) in addition to serving his current role as CEO, Sokrati. He will continue to report into Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, dentsu India, and Z Shen, CEO, dentsu CXM, APAC.

Anubhav will be responsible for the integration, co-ordination, and implementation of dentsu CXM's overall strategy across the country. The CXM business will be aimed at building differentiated customer experiences through data, design & technology transformations, and will work with partners like Salesforce, Adobe, Google Cloud & AWS.

Speaking on the launch, Anand Bhadkamkar said, "Keeping up with our #onedentsu strategy, the new CXM business will help us move closer towards our growth journey. CXM is growing rapidly, and it is soon expected to become 35% of our overall business in India. By 2025, we project that this growing field will have a 50% contribution to our business. With this new CXM line of business, our clients will see a host of benefits as it will be a one-stop solution for all their CXM needs. I have complete faith in Anubhav’s leadership and in CXM to create numerous opportunities for clients as well as for the network.”

Commenting on his new role, Anubhav Sonthalia added, “I am looking forward to leading dentsu India CXM and to develop newer strategies to up our customer experience game. We aim to provide world-class services to our clients and prioritise data-driven experiences & personalisation of the entire end-to-end customer experience. Our key focus will be to create a holistic view for the clients, and a focused strategy for delivering personalised experiences that they demand.”