MUMBAI: Mindshare have appointed R. Gowthaman as Chief Client Officer for the Asia Pacific region, effective 1 January 2012.
In his previous role, Gowthaman was leading Mindshare for South Asia.
Gowthaman will be based in Singapore and report to Mindshare APac CEO Ashutosh Srivastava. He will lead a team of regional client leaders who provide strategic direction and coordination for Mindshare’s work on key regional and global accounts across all Asia Pacific countries.
His appointment to this new role comes at a time when Mindshare has expanded the scope of services it provides to its existing clients – especially in Marketing RoI management, research and insights, communications strategy, performance marketing, digital media, branded content creation and distribution, and newer and more innovative media trading approaches.
Unlike the industry trend towards launching new specialist companies and silos, Mindshare has placed its strategic bets on integrated client teams featuring talent from all these streams, customised to each client’s needs. There have been a string of appointments across the region in the specialist skills areas reflecting this trend over the past few years.
Srivastava said, “with the fusion of technology with media and the accompanying deluge of data, marketers are seeing more specialist talent and agencies involved in their business than ever before. They have to manage a far more complex ecosystem to get value from all their partners. So they see huge value in strong agency client leaders – people with sound understanding of their brands and of media & technology, who can help them facilitate more impactful and integrated marketing solutions working with various specialists. We are attracting new talent and developing broader skills amongst our key client leaders so we can do this on bigger scale. Gowthaman’s appointment is a reflection of the importance Mindshare has placed on this breed of talent.”
GroupM CEO for South Asia Vikram Sakhuja said, “Gowthaman has done a fine job of laying the architecture of the new MindShare in India, by re-shaping the organization into one capable of delivering business planning, integrated communication solutions and robust media implementation for its Clients via highly customized offerings. In the process he has re-enforced Mindshare’s supremacy in India as being not only India’s largest Media Agency, but also the best.”\
Mindshare’s Ravi Rao will succeed Gowthaman in the position of Leader, South Asia effective 1 January 2012. In his previous role, Rao was leading the South Asian operation for Team Unilever since 2009.
Sakhuja said, “In the last two years Ravi has run the Team Unilever operation successfully on the back of securing the business in 2010 across South Asia. Since then Team Unilever has won various awards in Content, Digital, Communication Planning across local, regional and global making it one of the crown jewels in the media world. In his new role as Leader South Asia, Ravi Rao will bring in his wealth of experience in Strategic Planning, Research, Content, Digital and forming Strategic Alliances to position Mindshare as their clients’ lead business partner in South Asia.“
