MAM
Souraav Deb joins Dentsu India as vice president
GURGAON: Souraav Deb has taken over as vice president at Dentsu India, marking another senior leadership move in the country’s fast-consolidating media and marketing business. With nearly 15 years across digital, television and integrated media, Deb arrives with a reputation for scale, structure and performance.
At Dentsu India, Deb will be responsible for driving integrated media strategy, digital acceleration and large client mandates at a time when advertisers are demanding sharper accountability and measurable growth. His appointment underscores Dentsu’s push to deepen its leadership bench as brands rebalance spend across digital, video and TV-plus ecosystems.
Deb joins from EssenceMediacom India, where he served as senior director, strategy, leading a client cluster with a focus on data-led planning, performance optimisation and growth outcomes. Before that, he spent nearly two years at Haleon, formerly GSK Consumer Healthcare, managing the repeatable growth model across EMEA markets. His remit covered category and consumer analysis, media effectiveness, in-channel optimisation and allocation of offline and online media budgets linked directly to net sales upside.
Earlier, at Publicis Groupe, Deb held senior leadership roles across strategy and revenue management, overseeing portfolios worth over Rs 150 crore and managing P&L responsibilities while driving new business wins. His career also includes a long stint at Wavemaker, where he led digital strategy and buying for marquee clients including Hero Motocorp and Pernod Ricard India, scaling digital spends and winning industry recognition for performance-led campaigns.
Deb began his career in media planning, buying and operations at Starcom and iAvatarZ Digital, working across categories such as mobile handsets, telecom and automotive. Over the years, he has handled brands including Samsung, Aircel, Hero Motocorp and Motorola, building expertise across display, mobile, social media, programmatic and TV-plus video and OTT.
Known for blending strategic rigour with executional discipline, Deb brings a rare mix of hands-on digital depth and boardroom-level perspective. As marketers chase efficiency, reach and growth in equal measure, Dentsu India has placed a proven operator at the centre of the action.
MAM
Lego brings Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Vinicius together
Campaign clocks 314 million views ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 buzz.
MUMBAI: Four legends, one frame and not a single tackle in sight. Lego has pulled off a crossover few thought possible, uniting Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior in a single campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 only this time, they’re building dreams brick by brick.
Titled “Everyone wants a piece”, the campaign features the quartet assembling a Lego version of the World Cup trophy, before placing miniature versions of themselves atop it, a playful nod to football’s ultimate prize. Shared widely across social media, the ad carries a pointed disclaimer: it is not AI-generated, a subtle but telling signal in an era where even reality is often questioned.
The numbers tell their own story. The campaign has already crossed 314 million views on Instagram across the players’ accounts, with fans hailing it as a rare, almost nostalgic moment particularly for the reunion of Messi and Ronaldo, whose last shared campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup became one of the platform’s most-liked posts.
Beyond the film, Lego is extending the play with exclusive, player-themed sets tied to each of the four stars, part of a broader football-led programme designed to ride the global momentum building towards 2026. The idea, as echoed by the players themselves, leans into the parallels between football and play experimentation, creativity, failure, and triumph.
Messi described the sets as a way to bring on-pitch moments into an imaginative, hands-on world, while Ronaldo called the transformation into a Lego figure a rare honour, blending sport with storytelling. Vinícius, meanwhile, struck a more personal note, recalling childhood moments of building with Lego and framing creativity as a universal language that transcends borders.
The timing is no accident. With the 2026 World Cup set to run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and featuring an expanded 48-team format, global anticipation is already building. Argentina, led by Messi, will enter as defending champions, adding another layer of intrigue.
For Lego, the campaign does more than celebrate football, it taps into its mythology. Because when icons become figurines and rivalries turn into play, the beautiful game finds a new kind of pitch. one built, quite literally, by hand.
