AD Agencies
Concept PR hires biz journo Apurv Gupta, Lifestyle specialist Charu Benegal
MUMBAI: Seeking to strengthen its teams, Concept PR, announced the appointment of two senior communication professionals –financial journalist Apurv Gupta and lifestyle PR specialist Charu Benegal.
While Apurv will head the IPO PR vertical, Charu has been appointed to lead the Lifestyle & Entertainment practice.
Apurv Gupta is an experienced financial journalist having worked with premier media houses. He comes with significant exposure to the financial services and capital markets and has also been a capital markets lawyer with leading law firms. Prior to joining Concept PR, Charu Benegal worked as India Practice Chair (IPC), Brand and Consumer Practice for WPP’s Genesis Burson Marsteller. Her international exposure in New York at Star TV has furthered her professional development.
Welcoming the duo on board, Concept PR, CEO & Director, Ashish Jalan said, “Both Charu and Apurv bring with them rich experiences in their verticals. We are confident that our client servicing capabilities will now acquire a new dimension. With a string of successes in client acquisitions, the timing of these two veterans joining us could not have been better.”
Charu Benegal said: “I am looking forward to the business growth of the lifestyle and entertainment vertical in line with Concept’s strategy. Our endeavour will be to provide direction and ensure high quality of service, delivery and customer satisfaction.”
Apurv Gupta said: “It is a new challenge as well as an opportunity for me as I take this plunge from journalism and law to public relations. I look forward to exciting times as Concept PR is posed for a new era of growth.”
Concept PR, the multi-award winning agency, is headquartered in Mumbai with offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Nagpur, Kochi, Ranchi and Pune employing over 250 professionals. In addition, the agency has a strong stringer network across 35 cities in India.
Though agnostic to any special industry or segment, Concept PR has a significant and growing presence in the domains such as Diversified Corporates, Auto, Engineering, Power, Oil & Gas, Education, Healthcare & Pharma, Sports, Entertainment, Media, Lifestyle, Telecom and IT, Aviation, BFSI, Real Estate, Infrastructure, apart from its acumen in managing crisis communication.
Concept PR boasts of one of the finest media presence in the industry with journalists and PR professionals heading media relations in every centre. It is also a fully integrated PR agency in the true sense offering a full spectrum of services including Corporate PR, Online Reputation Management, BTL activities, Business Intelligence, Financial PR, Investor Relations, Sports, Entertainment and Lifestyle PR and Crisis Communication.
AD Agencies
Publicis Brazil’s creative chief Mauro Ramalho lands the jury chair at Abby Awards 2026
Mauro Ramalho brings 25 years of global advertising firepower to the new creative commerce, use of data and B2B category at Goafest
GOA: The Abby Awards 2026, powered by The One Club and The One Show, has appointed Mauro Ramalho, chief creative officer of Publicis Brazil, as jury chair for its newly launched creative commerce, use of data and B2B category. The announcement, made on 18 March, signals the awards’ intent to bring serious international muscle to a category that sits squarely at the intersection of creativity and commercial performance.
Ramalho is not a name that needs much introduction in global advertising circles. Over 25 years spanning three countries, he has worked at some of the industry’s most creatively restless addresses. At AKQA in San Francisco, he worked across McDonald’s, Nike, Fox, Target, Kraft Foods and GAP, and helped lead “The Lost Ring” for McDonald’s, one of the first alternate reality campaigns and among the most awarded projects of its era. He later moved to Organic in Toronto, bridging the Detroit and Toronto offices on Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler, before spending over a decade building CUBOCC into one of Brazil’s most iconic and innovative independent agencies, which subsequently joined the IPG network.
A stint at FCB followed, where Ramalho led integrated work bridging online and offline, before he joined R/GA São Paulo as vice-president and executive creative director, stitching together the São Paulo office with New York, London, Portland and California on global clients including Verizon, Google, Meta, Samsung, American Express and Heineken. He now heads Publicis Brazil as its chief creative officer.
His trophy cabinet includes Clios, Effies, TikTok awards and MMA Smarties, and he has served on juries at the Andys, TikTok and the Lisbon Awards.
The Abby Awards 2026 is scheduled to take place at Goafest 2026 on 20, 21 and 22 May in Goa.
For Indian advertising, landing a jury chair of Ramalho’s calibre for a category built around data-driven creativity and commerce is a statement of ambition. Goafest just raised its own bar.
