MAM
Mindshare appoints John Thangaraj as head – strategy (North)
MUMBAI: Mindshare has appointed John Thangaraj as the head of strategy for the Northern region. In his new role, John will be responsible for the Mindshare strategy product across Delhi clients.
Commenting on what he hopes to achieve at Mindshare John said, “First and foremost, I hope to future proof myself. I have a strong belief in the fact that ‘advertising‘ as is currently practiced in India does not have a shelf life of more than a decade (at the very most).”
Announcing the appointment, leader – strategy (South Asia) Alok Sinha said, “We are glad to welcome John to Mindshare and the extended GroupM family. He’s got category and industry experience, and is a great team leader. I am confident he will be able to lead the strategy division to even greater heights.”
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John will be responsible for the Mindshare strategy product across Delhi clients
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Mindshare leader South Asia Ravi Rao said, “I am pleased to welcome John. He has the combination between being imaginative, strategic and entrepreneurial that our strategy community and clients need. Consumption of information and entertainment is rapidly moving screens and I feel that Mindshare is on the cutting edge of optimizing and leveraging this. ‘Digital‘ has become a buzz word we all love to throw around, and I am looking to Mindshare to help me make the journey from ‘thinking about digital‘ to ‘thinking digitally‘. Perhaps most of all, Mindshare represents a new journey for me- new skills to acquire, new people to meet and new challenges to deal with. Which is what excites me the most about it.”
John has over 12 years of work experience spanning a marketing role at Adidas, a research role at Quantum and as head of strategic planning for Redifffusion Y&R. In his last role John was vice president – strategic planning at Lowe, where he was responsible for the product planning on a cluster of brands that included Wills Lifestyle, Nestle Confectionary, Hindustan Times, Dabur Real, Shine.com, Woodland, Expedia.co.in and OLX.in.
John is extremely proud of the Effie’s and Cannes that he has worked hard to win over the years. These include – Effie 2010 for Hindustan Times‘ ‘It Is Time‘ brand campaign, Effie 2012 for Hindustan Times‘ ‘You Read, They Learn‘ campaign, and Media Lion at Cannes 2013for Best Use of Print for Hindustan Times‘ ‘You Read, They Learn‘.
He is also very proud of the work that he did when he led a global strategic project for LG Korea in 2009 on understanding the super affluent consumers in India.
Brands
Himanshu Khanna joins CKA Birla Group as group chief marketing officer: report
Former Raymond lifestyle CMO to lead group-wide brand and marketing strategy
MUMBAI: According to a media report citing industry sources, senior marketing leader Himanshu Khanna has joined CKA Birla Group as group chief marketing officer.
Khanna moves from Raymond Limited, where he served as chief marketing officer for the lifestyle division since August 2021, overseeing the marketing transformation of the company’s nearly $1 billion lifestyle business. His tenure featured a sharper consumer focus, a digital-first operating model and large-scale retail and brand modernisation.
At Raymond, Khanna led brand strategy and growth across a broad portfolio including Raymond suiting and shirting, Park Avenue, ColorPlus, Parx, Ethnix by Raymond, ready-to-wear, Raymond Home and Raymond made-to-measure. His remit also covered retail marketing, digital marketing, consumer insights, visual merchandising and brand protection.
Before joining Raymond, Khanna was business head for the FMCG division at RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, with full P&L responsibility. During this period, he scaled the snack brand Too Yumm!, drove rapid revenue growth, led the integration of Apricot Foods following its acquisition and executed a business turnaround.
Khanna’s career spans over three decades across global consumer companies, with senior leadership roles at Beam Suntory, Wrigley, PepsiCo, Cadbury and Nestlé.
Widely regarded as a seasoned marketing operator, Khanna is a familiar presence at leading industry forums and is considered among the most in-demand marketing leaders in the country.
