GroupM’s agency Essence has announced three new appointments to strengthen its services and presence in India. Bharati Joshi will lead the agency’s product offering as vice president, product, India from its Bengaluru office. While Kunal Danda will head the agency’s Mumbai office as vice president, client services, India. Based in Delhi, Vinish Mathews will lead the agency’s partnership with Google as vice president, client services, India and Southeast Asia. They will report to Sonali Malaviya, managing director, India, as part of Essence’s leadership team.
“Bharati Joshi, Kunal Danda and Vinish Mathews’ appointments are key in strengthening Essence’s India leadership team. I am looking forward to partnering with the three in their new roles, and drive continued growth for our people, capabilities, clients and business across India,” Sonali Malaviya, managing director, India, said.
Bharati Joshi brings to the firm over 17 years of industry experience, joining from Initiative where she served as assistant vice president, strategy and insights. Previously, she held practice and client leadership positions at GroupM’s Wavemaker and Maxus. In her roles, she worked towards development of agendas, frameworks, playbooks and tools, in areas related to data and measurement, integrated media planning and optimisation, content marketing and creativity. “Essence is currently in a very interesting space with a client roster of established as well as new age brands. Leading their growth charter with our differentiated products, platforms and thinking, all rooted in data, technology, analytics and creativity, is what I am looking forward to doing,” Joshi stated.
With over two decades of experience, Kunal Danda has worked in multiple media and marketing agencies such as OMD, Edelman and Digitas, and organisations such as DBS Bank, Energy Central and Arab Insurance Group. In his previous stint at Mindshare he served as the principal partner, heading digital media, integrated marketing and business development for the firm. “Here, we also have brilliant talent with a special culture of testing and learning, collaboration, as well as integrated media strategy and planning, with client centricity at the core of everything we do,” Danda highlighted.
Prior to this appointment, Vinish Mathews was with Mindshare where he was overseeing teams across Beijing and Shanghai as its managing director. He has over 18 years of industry experience in China and India and has led client relationships across sectors such as ecommerce, fast-moving consumer goods, tourism and vision care.
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