MAM
Abhishek Malik joins Virtue Worldwide as associate creative director
Mumbai: Virtue Worldwide, the agency powered by VICE Media Group, proudly announces the appointment of Abhishek Malik as associate creative director (Copy) for Virtue India. This strategic move underscores Virtue India’s commitment to enhancing its creative leadership with forward-thinking and culture-driven talent. Abhishek Malik’s journey in the advertising industry began in 2017 at DigitalLB Delhi, working on clients such as Canon, Tinder, Fortis, Comedy Central, and MTV Beats.
Taking a break from advertising in 2018, Abhishek embarked on a storytelling tour across 20 cities with Foundonallfours, an artist collective. During this time he created more than 20 spoken-word pieces, poems, podcasts, and theater scripts, that were performed in diverse settings such as streets, cafes, living rooms, art galleries, classrooms, and boardrooms. Notably, he spent a month in Gunehar, Himachal Pradesh, as part of an artist residency, where he ran a storytelling workshop called ‘Kahani Ki Dukaan,’.
Returning to advertising in 2019 with Schbang, Abhishek started as a Sr. creative strategist and swiftly rose to become a group creative manager in 2022, working on brands such as Fevicol, Ashok Leyland, Amazon Prime, Castrol India, and Dabur. In 2023, Abhishek Malik was recognized as one of the winners of Impact’s “TOP 30 under 30” young agency professionals in the A&M space.
Virtue India creative head Hayden Scott shared his thoughts on Abhishek’s appointment, stating, “Abhishek, or Toto as we fondly call him, is exactly the kind of talent we hope to nurture at Virtue India. He understands India and Bharat with an intuitiveness that is incredible. I’m certain that his diverse experience as a storyteller across formats will help bring a unique nuance to the stories we create for our clients. I am so excited to have Toto on board and I can’t wait to see how his own story unfolds here at Virtue.”
In response to his new role, Abhishek Malik, commented, “As a part of the VICE network, Virtue applies a distinctive cultural approach to building brands. This coupled with my own keen interest in Indian culture and insights, offers me the chance to create work that not only distinguishes itself but also tells stories that matter.”
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
