Brands
TCS promotes Tiwari to global head of marketing tech and digital
NEW DELHI: Some 20 years ago, Amit Tiwari was plotting media strategies for noodles and cigarettes. Today, he’s orchestrating a symphony of marketing technology at Tata Consultancy Services, where algorithms meet ambition and data drives desire. The man who once launched John Players and Wills Lifestyle has traded fashion for function—and he’s rather good at it.
Tiwari’s recent promotion to global head of marketing technology and digital at TCS this January caps a career that reads like a classy career graph staying ahead of the curve. Before TCS, he spent over four years building its marketing demand centre, wielding a cross-functional machete to hack through legacy systems and plant cutting-edge tech in their place. His mission? Drive revenue for commercial solutions whilst keeping senior leaders aligned and customers delighted.
The real plot twist came at Havells India, where between 2017 and 2021 he juggled a $60m budget with the finesse of a Hindi film stunt coordinator. He didn’t just market fans and refrigerators; he created an entire data sciences department, deployed deep learning like a weapon, and dragged the organisation kicking and screaming into “100 per cent digital” territory. Lloyd refrigerators, Havells water purifiers, and personal grooming gadgets all launched under his watch. The payoff? Havells landed in Brand Equity’s top 75 most valuable Indian brands. Not bad for a chap managing four power brands simultaneously.
Before that, Tiwari spent nearly nine years at Philips India, climbing from country manager to director whilst steering celebrity management, media planning, and breast cancer awareness campaigns (the “Dhappa” initiative, for those keeping score). His knack for squeezing 33 per cent more efficiency from media spends didn’t go unnoticed—nine countries across multiple continents adopted his blueprint.
The early years were grittier. Media planning roles at Lintas, Zenithoptimedia, and Maxus saw him gross Rs 560 crore in media buying and launch Maggi Dal Atta Noodles. One imagines conference rooms thick with negotiation and thin on sleep.
Then came the book. Mar-Tech: A Marriage Made on Earth isn’t your typical corporate memoir. Tiwari penned it to bridge the chasm between traditional marketing romantics and tech-obsessed futurists. His thesis? Technology isn’t replacing marketing; it’s marrying it. And like any good marriage, someone needs to explain how it works.
These days, Tiwari describes himself as “content and fulfilled,” having surpassed his own benchmarks. It’s a refreshingly un-Linkedin thing to admit. He’s a self-proclaimed pragmatist who believes in data-driven operating models, B2C and B2B lifecycle wizardry, and making strategies trend before they’re cool.
The bloke who started planning ads for chocolates and coffees now shapes how global enterprises think about customer engagement. Twenty years, dozens of brands, and one book later, Amit Tiwari has proved that in marketing, the medium isn’t just the message—it’s the entire conversation.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
