AD Agencies
Samir Shanbhag steps up as executive director at Saatchi & Saatchi India
MUMBAI: Saatchi & Saatchi India has strengthened its senior leadership bench with the elevation of Samir Shanbhag as executive director, effective January 2026. The move caps a steady rise at the agency, where Shanbhag has spent the last two-and-a-half years shaping business, clients and culture.
Shanbhag was most recently executive vice-president at Saatchi & Saatchi India, a role he held from August 2023 to December 2025. In his new position, he will play a wider leadership role across client partnerships, strategic direction and agency operations from Mumbai.
With a career spanning close to three decades, Shanbhag brings deep experience across markets and categories. Before joining Saatchi & Saatchi India, he was a founding leader at Rain Creative in Dubai, where he helped build the agency into a respected independent creative outfit. He spent nearly a decade there as director, overseeing operations, business development, profitability and strategic output, while also championing planning and integrated thinking in a young agency set-up.
Earlier, Shanbhag was business director at DDB Dubai, where he led the agency’s largest and most profitable business group. His portfolio included marquee brands such as PepsiCo, Emirates, Henkel and Abu Dhabi Media. In his final full year at DDB Dubai, the unit delivered annual revenues of $4 million, including 35 per cent year-on-year growth driven largely by organic expansion.
His career began in Mumbai in the mid-1990s, with stints at Ogilvy and Contract Advertising. At Contract, he was part of the founding team that built iContract Mumbai into one of India’s leading direct and digital marketing agencies within four years. Notably, he was also part of the team that won India’s first Gold Lion for Direct Marketing at Cannes in 2002 for the ICICI Children’s Growth Bond campaign.
A post-graduate in banking and finance from the University of Mumbai, Shanbhag entered advertising in 1995 and never looked back. Over the years, he has worked across categories ranging from snacks, beverages and dairy to banking, insurance, travel and logistics, combining strategic rigour with creative ambition.
Outside work, he is an avid reader, traveller, food explorer and cricket watcher, interests that mirror the curiosity and range he brings to his professional life.
With Shanbhag’s elevation, Saatchi & Saatchi India signals its intent to double down on seasoned leadership at a time when clients are demanding sharper thinking, deeper partnerships and business-led creativity. For Shanbhag, it is a homecoming of sorts, and for the agency, a clear bet on experience that knows how to turn ideas into impact, fast.
AD Agencies
Microsoft shifts global media account from Dentsu to Publicis Groupe: Reports
Closed review ends decade-long tie-up; Xbox remit may remain with Dentsu
MUMBAI: Microsoft has reassigned its global media planning and buying business to Publicis Groupe, according to media reports, ending Dentsu’s long-standing stewardship of one of the advertising industry’s biggest accounts.
The move follows a closed review and marks a notable shake-up in the global media landscape. Dentsu, which managed the account through Carat, had held the mandate since 2014 and successfully defended it in a 2018 review.
While the broader business is shifting, Dentsu is expected to retain media responsibilities for Xbox, according to media reports, though the exact contours of that arrangement remain unclear. None of the parties involved have publicly outlined the transition timeline or the full structure of the handover.
The scale of the account underscores the significance of the change. Estimates from COMvergence, cited by Ad Age, peg Microsoft’s global media spend at roughly $700 million last year.
For Publicis Groupe, the win deepens an already expanding relationship with the tech giant. Earlier this year, Microsoft Advertising partnered with Publicis Media Exchange and Epsilon to integrate Epsilon’s data into its platform, aiming to sharpen targeting across search, native and display formats.
The decision reflects a broader industry shift, as large advertisers increasingly favour agency partners with strong first-party data capabilities, AI integration and platform-led solutions. Publicis Groupe has been leaning into this model, positioning its data assets and technology stack as a central differentiator.
For Dentsu, the loss is significant. Media remains a core pillar of its global business, and the development comes close on the heels of leadership changes, including the appointment of Takeshi Sano as global chief executive officer.
The shift also carries a touch of irony. Microsoft and Dentsu have worked closely beyond the client-agency relationship, including collaborations around AI tools such as Copilot to support media and creative workflows.
As the dust settles, the message is clear: in today’s data-driven, AI-powered media world, relationships may be long, but they are rarely permanent.
