Mumbai: The year 2023 witnessed a significant upliftment for all industries, and advertising experienced noteworthy changes on the people movements' front. Indiantelevision.com observed it as a year of churn for the advertising industry, marked by numerous exits and entries to and fro Ogilvy India, Dentsu India, BBH India, Havas group, Omnicom, and more…

Before we go ahead with the list, here’s our heartfelt tribute to some of the advertising veterans we lost in 2023.

Most recently we lost advertising veteran Helen Anchan who passed away on 3 December. She was the former head of media planning at Lintas. Anchan is highly esteemed in the industry, serving as a role model for numerous young media professionals. With over 50 years in the media, she witnessed significant transformations, many of which occurred during her dedicated tenure at Lintas.

Advertising veteran and Chairman of daCunha Communications - Sylvester daCunha, who designed the iconic 1966 Amul Girl 'utterly butterly' campaign, passed away in Mumbai. He was a doyen of Indian advertising industry who was associated with Amul since 1960s.

We then lost another man who played a key role in shaping advertising in India who is none other than Pratap Bose. Bose was the former DDB Mudra and Ogilvy veteran and lastly the founding partner and chairman of Social Street.

Ad and marketing veteran Aurobindo Mohanty passed away on October 24.

Following are some of the key people movements:

Ogilvy India:

Ogilvy India announced an important leadership transition that will take effect from 1 January 2024. Piyush Pandey, currently chairman global creative & executive chairman of Ogilvy India will serve as the chief advisor.

Hephzibah Pathak will take on the role of executive chairperson of Ogilvy India. She will be Ogilvy India’s first-ever woman in this role.

SN Rane, group executive co-chairman India & COO South Asia, will work as business advisor to Ogilvy Asia Pacific.

The Advertising Club:

The Advertising Club elected Rana Barua as president. Partha Sinha will serve as immediate past president on managing committee for the ensuing year.

IAA:

Avinash Pandey was re-elected as president of India chapter of IAA.

BBH India

BBH India appointed Ashwin Palkar as ECD and head of experience. Palkar is a seasoned creative leader with 17 years of experience in advertising.

BBH India appointed Anupam Chauhan as senior vice president – account management. He has over 18 years of proven success in leading advertising agency teams across India, Southeast Asia, the UK, and Canada.

Havas media group:

Havas India chairman and chief creative officer Bobby Pawar stepped down from his role. He joined the network in November 2018.

Havas Worldwide India appointed Kundan Joshee as managing partner & head – West & South. He has nearly 25 years of experience in the advertising industry and stints at Wunderman Thompson, Ogilvy, FCB, Cheil Worldwide, and Grey Group.

Mohini Varma has joined as executive vice president & planning head – North, and Jasravee Kaur Chandra has been appointed as senior vice president of Havas Worldwide India.

dentsu:

Dentsu Creative India appointed Shweta Khosla and Punit Singh as executive vice president (EVP) – strategy & planning.

Dentsu Creative India appointed Aneesh Jaisinghani as Sr group executive creative director.

dentsu X, the media agency from dentsu India, appointed Jose Leon as chief executive officer (CEO).

Dentsu Creative India onboards Surjo Dutt as CCO - West & South.

Shisham Digital

Shisham Digital onboarded Ankoor Dasguupta as their chief marketing officer.

QYOU Media India

QYOU Media India CEO Simran Hoon stepped from her current role at the company.

QYOU Media Inc appointed Raj Mishra, as group CEO of QYOU Media’s India.

Sociowash

Sociowash has appointed Amisha Gulati as its new business head to lead Mumbai operations. He has over 13 years of extensive experience as a seasoned marketing professional.

Omnicom

Aditya Kanthy as CEO of the newly formed Omnicom Advertising Services group in India.

Alex Lubar has been elevated as global CEO of DDB Worldwide.

Leo Burnett

Dheeraj Sinha stepped down from his roles of Leo Burnett South Asia co-chief executive and BBH India chairman and joined FCB as group CEO India & South Asia.

Publicis Groupe appointed Rajdeepak Das as South Asia CCO and Leo Burnett, South Asia Chairman.

Enormous Group:

Moumita Pal joins Enormous as head of creative Delhi