M&C Saatchi Indonesia beefs up strategy team with new chief

M&C Saatchi Indonesia has appointed Kunal Sinha (pictured) as its group chief strategy officer, effective immediately. The appointment comes in part of the agency's expansion plans. Sinha (pictured) will work alongside Elki Hendria, co-founding partner and executive strategy director, and report directly to Anish Daryani, founder and president director of M&C Saatchi Indonesia.

According to Daryani, Sinha will help to strengthen the agency's strategic thinking across all its specialisms that include brand consulting, digital marketing, shopper and experiential marketing, reputation marketing, as well CRM and big data analytics.

"I’ve been an admirer of Sinha’s work since I was an account executive back in Ogilvy, about two decades ago. Having built M&C Saatchi Indonesia as the fastest growing agency in the country, we’re set to establish ourselves as one of the most effective agencies in the world," he added.

Sinha comes with three decades of experience, two of which were spent living and working in Mumbai and Shanghai. He was formerly executive director, advisory at Kantar for close to three and a half years. According to a statement by M&C Saatchi, Sinha has worked with leading agencies such as JWT, Ogilvy and McCann and data consultancies such as The Futures Company. He led projects involving trend forecasting on the future of technology, India’s top 50 growth markets for Tata Sons, the future of AI for Mastercard, beauty and grooming futures for Google, and identifying generational opportunities for Nissan in India. Additionally, he ran Ogilvy Asia’s consumer and cultural trends program, and sustainability practice Ogilvy Earth.

Over the years, Sinha has delivered branding and consumer solutions for companies such as BAT, Unilever, Intel, Diageo, Mondelez, SC Johnson, VF Corporation (The North Face), International Hotels Group, The Economist, Visa, Arla Foods, Spotify and Smithfield Foods in key Asian markets. He also drove market innovation engagements for firms such as Ceat Tyres, Godrej Consumer, Aegon Life, Amazon and The Times Group, among others. 

Sinha said, "Joining the ambitious team at M&C Saatchi Indonesia gives me just the kind of rush one needs to put Indonesia on the world's advertising and marketing map.” MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to M&C Saatchi Indonesia for additional information.

Separately, M&C Saatchi Indonesia appointed Adri Zainuddin, formerly creative director at Iris Jakarta, as its creative director last September. Zainuddin said then that the opportunities and challenges presented at M&C Saatchi are an ideal cultivating ground for great and buzz-worthy work. “You can sense an ambition to reach the stars here, and I’d love to help them get there,” he added. M&C Saatchi has also hired other senior talent across disciplines. The agency also appointed Eva Luntungan and Femmy Fabiola Caroline as business director and group integration director respectively. Other hires include Rachmat Rionaldi as digital lead, Muhammad Yusuf Syafriansyah as digital creative group head, and Yunendra Adi Putra as creative group head.

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