MAM
Leo Burnett appoints nine new creative directors
MUMBAI: What with the positive buzz in the economy Leo Burnett is aiming to creatively cash in on it.
Double digit growth is what the industry is looking at this year and to stay ahead of the pack Leo Burnett India has overhauled its creative department with the appointment of nine new creative directors.
According to a company statement, Leo Burnett has dropped its “orthodox” top-down hierarchical structure and handpicked nine new creative directors. Out of the nine, five have been chosen from within the agency. All nine will report to (or work with as the company puts it) executive creative director Agnello Dias, who has been heading the creative department in the Mumbai office for the past few years.
The nine are Russel Barrett, Nitesh Tiwari, Kainaaz Kamakar, KB Vinod, Shormishta Mukherjee, Nishant Gangadharan, Harshad Rajadhyaksha, Syed Mohammed Talha and Santosh Padhi. This is what Leo Burnett national creative director KV Sridhar had to say of the nine, who were chosen after a stringent selection process: “Eeach one of them is a highly motivated self-starter – a one man agency.”
Leo Burnett claims that the impact of this move is far reaching. With the younger, fresher minds working on a far smaller set of accounts the creative directors can provide more personalized attention to the clients and their business. Also the company plans to focus on the teams specialized skill sets like art direction and copywriting. Each individual will be evaluated and rewarded against those specific core strengths, thereby making a system where a talented art director or copywriter could get paid more than a creative director. The creative director will be paid for his ability and not his job function.
The benefits of such an arrangement are that clients will have a team of far more dedicated and motivated people working on their brands rather than a high ranking creative person who is only peripherally connected to the actual working of the brand and its advertising.
The agency claims that this move is a wake up call for the industry as a whole and will create a new advertising order – “where designations are a reflection of what function you perform and salaries are a reflection of how well you perform them.”
Brands
From mega bills to spontaneous dates: Swiggy Dineout Valentine’s report
From mega bills to last-minute plans, India celebrated love with flair
MUMBAI: Valentine’s Day 2026 was a feast for the senses and wallets alike, according to Swiggy Dineout. India’s on-demand dining platform revealed how the nation celebrated romance with big gestures, lively nights out, and plenty of spontaneous bookings.
Metropolitan hubs continued to rule the roost with Bengaluru, Delhi, and Hyderabad seeing the most reservations. Emerging cities aren’t far behind, with Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Chandigarh joining the party. Growth was particularly striking in Surat (up 180 per cent), Vadodara (155 per cent) and Bhubaneswar (145.5 per cent) compared with the previous Saturday.
Mumbai stole the headlines with a single customer splashing out Rs 130,155 – the highest bill in the country. The city also hosted the largest single group booking, with 30 diners coming together to celebrate in style. Most Valentine’s transactions took place between 10pm and 11pm, proving love, and hunger, strike late.
Mumbai stole the spotlight with a mega-spender whose bill made everyone else blush, while savvy diners were cashing in on discounts, including a Pune customer saving 60% and another in Bengaluru saving 50 per cent. Fine dining was on fire, with bookings up 121 per cent year-on-year, though pubs, bars, and lounges remained the crowd favourites, accounting for 30.6 per cent of all reservations. Last-minute romance was the order of the day, with 66 per cent of diners booking within two hours of heading out. Together, India saved over Rs 6 crore, proving that love can be grand, yet thrifty.
Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi led the premium dining rush, showing a growing appetite for curated, high-end experiences. Meanwhile, spontaneous bookings reinforced modern lifestyles, where convenience and instant gratification rule the day.
Whether it was big spends, huge groups, or a last-minute romantic dash, Valentine’s Day 2026 proved love and dining go hand in hand – and sometimes, they go all out.
