BBDO Group India names Ankit Singh national strategy director

Mumbai: BBDO Group India is adding another brain to its strategy bench. The advertising network has appointed Ankit Singh as national strategy director, reinforcing its leadership team as it doubles down on strategy-led business growth.

Singh will work alongside Saad Khan and Shashank Lanjekar to shape the strategic direction across BBDO Group India. The trio will focus on helping clients tackle business challenges through culturally relevant ideas that deliver commercial impact.

Singh joins from Cheil X, where he led integrated growth strategies across creative, commerce and customer experience. During his tenure, the agency strengthened its standing in the Effie rankings through award-winning campaigns and business-focused planning.

Bringing nearly two decades of experience, Singh has built a career at the intersection of consumer insight, brand strategy and business transformation. He has worked with global brands including Apple, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Uber, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Airtel, Haleon, Tinder, Reckitt, Ferrero and Hilton, helping drive long-term brand growth while contributing to award-winning work recognised at the Effies, Cannes Lions and WARC Awards for Asian Strategy.

BBDO Group India chief executive officer Jitender Dabas said the appointment aligns with the agency’s ambition to solve larger business challenges through stronger strategic thinking.

“Our ambition at BBDO Group isn’t just better advertising. It’s solving bigger business problems. That’s exactly the school of planning Ankit comes from, defining the right problem, finding the deep human truth and building ideas that live at the edge of culture. He joins Saad Khan and Shashank Lanjekar as we build one of the strongest strategy communities in the industry,” Dabas said.

Ankit Singh said the opportunity to help shape the agency’s next phase of growth was a key factor behind his move.

“The opportunities that excite me the most are the ones where you get to build, and BBDO feels like exactly that, a chance to join a story that’s still being written. As part of the world’s largest creative network, it has a strong legacy and, more importantly, a shared ambition to shape what’s next,” Singh said.

Before joining Cheil X, Singh held senior leadership roles at Leo, BBH Group and GREY Worldwide. He also led brand marketing for Hilton across South Asia, giving him experience on both the agency and client sides of the business.

The appointment also reflects the strategic direction set by Dabas since taking charge of the group. Before becoming chief executive officer, he served as chief strategy officer at McCann Worldgroup India, where he helped build one of the country’s most awarded strategy teams. With Singh’s arrival, BBDO Group India is signalling that strategic thinking will remain central to its growth plans and client partnerships.