(21 April 2006 1:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Lintas Media Group has announced a slew of promotions riding on the back of a successful 2005. Effective 1 April, 2006, Insight president Raj Gupta will be driving growth for all units of the group as Lintas Media Group chief strategy officer.

Gupta's new role will be in addition to his responsibilities as Insight president and Media Futures president, the latter of which was launched a couple of months back.

Speaking on his new role Gupta said, "Today, the time spent on mass media is steadily decreasing and there are more and more media options available. As planning agencies, we have to move from media planning to strategic media planning. Today the needs of the clients' are moving from contacting the consumer to connecting to the consumer. There was a need felt for strategic planning due to these fundamental reasons and we will be closely looking at bringing about these changes."

Also, Interactions executive vice president Sudha Natrajan has been promoted to Interactions president. "Sudha has been responsible for having retained and added sizeable business to our Group in the past 12 months," said Lintas Media Group director Lynn de Souza.

In addition to overseeing the accounts serviced by this unit, Natrajan will also assist de Souza in the marketing of the group as Lintas Media Group associate director.

Initiative president Kartik Iyer will also be assisting de Souza in media relations as Lintas Media Group associate director.

Insight executive vice president Sai Nagesh will continue in his position and will report to Gupta. Nagesh has now been mandated with the task of driving innovations and new media use for all accounts of Insight.

Intellect vice president Premjeet Sodhi has been promoted to senior vice president and besides continuing to drive research, technology and training for the Lintas Media Group, he will also be responsible for developing and delivering tools and analytics for Lintas Media Group's international clients.