Yum! Brands appoints CMO for KFC Asia

Yum! Brands has appointed Madhav Nayak as CMO of KFC Asia, according to his LinkedIn page. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE understands that Nayak (pictured) will oversee the Greater Asia region which includes Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, and South Korea, among other countries. Meanwhile, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong are understood to be under the Asia Central region. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Yum! Brands for comment.

Before this, he was the APAC partnership lead, global marketing solutions for Facebook where he oversaw marketing programmes for the Facebook family apps and services, his LinkedIn said. He also developed data-driven solutions to brand challenges across the marketing funnel, delivered business impact and ROI, and partnered CEOs and CMOs on business priorities. 

Prior to joining Facebook, Nayak was the former senior global director of Unilever. During his time there, Nayak led the global marketing programme including innovation, communication and brand strategy. He was responsible for markets such as Southeast Asia, Europe, Turkey, Latin America and China. He was also a member of Unilever's global leadership team and Southeast Asian ANZ cluster leadership team. 
Meanwhile, Nayak also worked in Unilever's Asia operations as marketing director and senior regional brand manager for Southeast Asia and ANZ. As marketing director, Nayak said on his LinkedIn that he led the fabric care brand Comfort to amass a double-digit growth. Meanwhile, as the senior regional brand manager, he developed and landed about US$60.6 million in incremental turnover innovation across Southeast Asia and led the turnaround of two of the categories of key business cells in Vietnam and Australia, his LinkedIn said. At the same time, Nayak is also currently a visiting marketing professor at ESSEC Asia Pacific, his profile added.

In 2016, Nayak shared with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE several risks of the digital world then that could be seen as deadly traps and the ways it could be avoided. In the conversation, Nayak dived into detail about the traps brand may fall into an how brands need to be careful of who they share their intimate data with especially given the rise of ad fraud in the world of digital then.

The brand brought back its "Finger Lickin' Good" slogan last month after pausing its advertising last August due to COVID-19. KFC said previously that the slogan did not quite fit the environment last year due to the pandemic. The slogan resurfaced with the launch of its  UK and Ireland "Love you too" campaign where a YouTube video showcased customers displaying their love for KFC by dawning KFC related costumes. However, in Singapore, it is understood that the brand has been using the slogan in its campaigns' sign off since last year when phase two of the circuit breaker kicked in. The liner currently used in Singapore is "Now it feels Finger Lickin' Good".

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