MAM
Industry veteran Ajay Gahlaut joins dentsu Creative as group CCO
Mumbai: Dentsu India has announced the appointment of creative veteran Ajay Gahlaut as group chief creative officer (GCCO), spearheading creative excellence across dentsu India’s award-winning creative agencies.
Gahlaut will report to dentsu Creative India, chief executive officer, Amit Wadhwa and will be responsible for accelerating dentsu India’s creative businesses under one optimised service line, said the agency in a statement.
Dentsu India initiated the formation of a new structure for its creative service line in June this year. The redesign – part of the network’s global plan to transform into the most integrated group in the world by 2024, brings together some of India’s best agencies under one umbrella and catapults Dentsu India into its fresh journey to 2.0. The agency brands that come together under this new creative design are Dentsu Webchutney, Taproot Dentsu, WATConsult, Perfect Relations, Isobar, Dentsu One, Dentsu India, and Dentsu Impact, said the statement.
A creative genius with over 27 years of experience in advertising, Gahlaut wrote the line ‘Do Boond Zindagi Ki’ that anchored the famous Pulse Polio Immunisation campaign with the superstar Amitabh Bachchan. He also created more than a dozen commercials for the campaign and played a significant part in eradicating polio from India. He was also behind the line ‘Make It Large’ for the whiskey brand Royal Stag that transformed its fortunes and made it the highest-selling whiskey in its price range. He created the character ‘Mr Murthy’ for Voltas air conditioners and catapulted Voltas to the number one position in the category.
Gahlaut has also created work for the whiskey brand Imperial Blue with the famous ‘men will be men’ sign off. He has won multiple Cannes Lions, One Show and D&AD awards in his more than a quarter-century journey in this business. He also led Ogilvy Delhi to win eight Lions at Cannes in 2013. Some of the most significant brands that Gahlaut has worked on are Pernod Ricard, BMW, HT Mint and KFC at some of the world’s best-known creative shops.
“Dentsu India is in the midst of an exciting transformation journey towards dentsu India 2.0 and Ajay’s joining is a critical part of the plan,” said Amit Wadhwa. “Ajay is a well-respected creative leader with years of experience across categories and the right mindset that matches with dentsu India 2.0. With the brilliant creative minds in our business, we will be a force to be reckoned with, delivering growth for our clients while continuing our creative evolution at pace and scale.”
“Dentsu’s creativity defines generations. When the opportunity came to join Amit and his team, I could not refuse. Creativity is in the spotlight, with brands looking to differentiate themselves in a disrupted marketplace – it has never been a more exciting time to work in this field rich with opportunity. I am excited to join dentsu, Amit and the creative teams, delighting clients and creating era-defining work together,” said Gahlaut.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
