MAM
Chinese Wok appoints Havas as creative & media partner
Brand eyes 500 stores with unified youth-first campaigns across ATL, digital and social.
MUMBAI: Chinese Wok just spiced up its marketing game because when you’re scaling to 500 stores, even the wok needs a fresh stir. Chinese Wok, India’s largest Desi Chinese QSR chain from Lenexis Foodworks, has appointed Havas Creative India and Arena Media (Havas Media Network India) as its integrated creative, social, and digital media partner. The move, announced in late February 2026, comes as the brand accelerates beyond 260 outlets toward its target of 500 stores across Tier 1, 2, and 3 markets.
The partnership signals a shift to platform-led, integrated brand building moving away from campaign-led bursts toward consistent, culturally sharp storytelling that resonates with young consumers. Havas will handle creative strategy, brand campaigns, social media ecosystem development, digital performance marketing, media planning and buying, and orchestration across ATL, digital, and in-store touchpoints.
Lenexis Foodworks founder & director Aayush Madhusudan Agrawal said, “As Chinese Wok scales nationally, we are investing in integrated brand building that matches our growth ambition. Havas will partner with us in shaping the next chapter of our journey.”
Lenexis Foodworks marketing head Vikas Iyer added, “Chinese Wok has always been a culture-first brand, and as we deepen our connect with Gen Z, integration becomes critical.”
Havas Creative India managing director & chief creative officer Anupama Ramaswamy commented, “Chinese Wok is pure fire, fast, flavourful and completely plugged into pop culture. Our role is to bottle that energy into a living brand platform that fuels everything, from big campaigns to cheeky social chatter to irresistible in-store experiences.”
Havas Media India & Havas Play COO Uday Mohan said, “Chinese Wok understands culture, speed, and the pulse of young India. By bringing together creative, media, and performance under one cohesive vision, we aim to build a brand ecosystem that is culturally sharp, digitally agile, and built for scale.”
The appointment aligns with Chinese Wok’s sharpened youth-first positioning and expansion of cultural IPs such as Wok FM and Crush Hour, alongside content collaborations. In a competitive QSR landscape where Desi Chinese remains a crowd favourite, the brand is betting big on a unified narrative that keeps the wok sizzling and the customers coming back for seconds.
AD Agencies
WPP Media elevates Dipti Gulati to vp, client growth for APMEA
Singapore-based executive to commercialise AI-powered solutions business across the region
SINGAPORE: WPP Media has promoted Dipti Gulati to vice president, client growth, handing her the mandate to lead the commercialisation of its solutions business across APMEA.
Based in Singapore, Gulati steps up after serving as senior director, client growth, where she drove expansion across APAC spanning programmatic, search, social, CTV, DOOH and cross-channel offerings. Now, she is tasked with translating advanced AI, data and technology ecosystems into scalable growth strategies for global brands across FMCG, luxury, F&B and financial services.
“I commercialise the future of media — at scale, across APMEA,” Gulati said, announcing her appointment. She added that she turns advanced data, AI and technology ecosystems into real commercial outcomes, shifting the conversation “from a pure media play to owning business outcomes”.
Her brief is unapologetically future-facing: addressable, accountable and AI-powered media. She will work with cross-market teams across APMEA, bringing together diverse perspectives and cultures to accelerate growth and build what she calls the “future of media”.
Gulati’s rise caps nearly two years at WPP Media and follows a six-month stint as regional director of growth, APAC, at Mindshare, where she led new business development and expanded capabilities for existing clients. Earlier, as global account director for integrated marketing communications on the Unilever business, she drove communications strategy for multi-million dollar beauty and wellbeing brands across Southeast Asia.
Before that, Gulati spent close to two years as associate director at Warner Bros. Discovery in Singapore. She also served as director, strategic partnerships and market development at TrustSphere, leading go-to-market and growth initiatives across Asia and evangelising relationship analytics to C-level executives. TrustSphere, credited by industry and Harvard Business School case studies as a pioneer in relationship analytics, became a springboard for her deeper engagement with data-driven growth.
Her board and evangelist roles at the Asia Cloud Computing Association and its Asia Analytics Alliance further sharpened her regional policy and analytics credentials. Earlier chapters include marketing consultancy at Blockchain Foundry and a seven-year run at Warner Bros. Discovery in India, where she led ad-sales and business development for HBO and WB across north and east India, delivering record billings. She began her career at Diligent Media Corporation Ltd and Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd..
From ad-sales floors in Delhi and Mumbai to boardrooms in Singapore, Gulati’s arc mirrors the industry’s own shift — from selling spots and slots to engineering outcomes through data and AI. At WPP Media, the brief is clear: scale smarter, move faster and turn algorithms into advantage.
