MAM
Lowe Lintas names Shayondeep Pal as Delhi creative head
MUMBAI: Lowe Lintas has named executive creative director Shayondeep Pal as its creative head in Delhi. Pal takes over from Shriram Iyer, who was recently named Mullen Lintas NCD.
Pal will report to Lowe Lintas chief creative officer Arun Iyer.
Pal has been part of the creative team in Delhi for more than six years and is involved in the creative execution of a number of campaigns for clients in the region like OLX, Micromax, Hindustan Times, Maruti Suzuki, Google and Pernod Ricard.
Iyer said, “Delhi has been surging ahead with creative offerings that are top-notch and Shayondeep Pal has had an integral role to play in its success. With a creative firepower that’s palpable and the thirst to do more, I cannot wait to see what he has in store to drive the office in Delhi. I wish him the best in his new role at the agency.”
Pal has been the creative lead on Micromax for the last four years and has worked on campaigns like Sliver 5 with Hugh Jackman, Qube, Canvas HD and Canvas 2. In fact, he has also directed a few commercials for Micromax.
He has also worked on the Hindustan Times campaign ‘You Read, They Learn,’ which went on to win an award at Cannes Lions in 2013.
Pal said, “I am lucky enough to be part of a great team in Delhi. The opportunities are endless and I want to approach it with an open mind. The great thing is that the mandate is clear: how to make our brands famous and therefore, how to make our people famous. I want to make this place a talent magnet where people would line up to join us. One clear approach would be to look at the creative output from a holistic angle – through new media, unexplored media and not just 30-second commercials.”
MAM
Smytten appoints Shishir Varma as CEO of Pulseai Research
Rebranded AI platform scales with 150 plus clients and 30 million users.
MUMBAI: In a world obsessed with what consumers say, Smytten is betting on what they actually do. The company has appointed Shishir Varma as chief executive officer of Pulseai Research, signalling a sharper push into AI-led, behaviour-driven consumer insights. The move comes as Smytten rebrands its insights vertical from Smytten PulseAI to Pulseai Research, marking a shift away from traditional, project-based research towards a more continuous, intelligence-led model.
Varma brings over 30 years of global experience across APAC markets, including India, China and Japan. Most recently managing director, Insights at Kantar Japan, he has built and scaled consumer insight businesses across geographies, including playing a key role in establishing Millward Brown in India. His mandate now: turn Pulseai into a category-defining platform in a space still dominated by surveys and static reports.
The pitch is straightforward but ambitious. Instead of relying on claimed responses, Pulseai Research taps into observed behaviour leveraging Smytten’s ecosystem of 30 million users built over a decade of product discovery, trials and purchases. The idea is to close the long-standing gap between what consumers claim and how they actually behave.
The numbers suggest early traction. In under 18 months, the platform has onboarded over 150 enterprise clients across sectors, pointing to growing demand for faster, more reliable alternatives to legacy research models.
Under the hood, the platform blends behavioural data with AI and large language model-led analysis to deliver real-time sentiment tracking, scalable qualitative insights, faster quantitative studies and always-on brand intelligence. In practical terms, that means compressing research timelines from weeks to days without sacrificing depth.
The ambition extends beyond FMCG. Pulseai Research is positioning itself as a cross-category intelligence layer, spanning auto, education, gadgets and emerging consumer segments anywhere behaviour-rich data can sharpen decision-making.
For Smytten, the leadership hire is less about optics and more about direction. With Varma at the helm, the company is leaning into a simple but powerful premise: in the age of AI, insight isn’t just about asking better questions, it’s about watching more closely.
