MAM
Dentsu bags creative mandate for Maruti’s Kizashi
MUMBAI: Automobile major Maruti Suzuki has awarded its sports sedan Maruti Kizashi‘s creative mandate to Dentsu Creative Impact. Interestingly, Maruti‘s roster agencies like Lowe, Dentsu and Publicis Capital were called to pitch for the business last month.
Said Maruti Suzuki chief general manager marketing, Shashank Shrivastava, “Dentsu has won the creative mandate for Maruti Kizashi while the media duties will be handled by Lintas Media Group. We are expecting the launch of Kizashi in March next. The account size cannot be determined right now.”
Though the price of the car hasn‘t been decided as yet, however industry experts say that the car would be priced in the region of Rs 10-12 lakh.
Maruti had displayed the production model of the sports sedan at the Auto Expo held in Delhi this year. Suzuki Kizashi is currently sold in the US and Japan by Suzuki, the Japanese auto major and parent company of Maruti India.
With the launch of this car, Maruti Suzuki will be making its foray into the luxury sedan segment and by offering more features for the price of a Honda Civic, Maruti expects a good response for Kizashi.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
