Tarun Kumar promoted to group creative director at McCann

MUMBAI: Tarun Kumar has just picked up the biggest title of his career, and it comes after more than eighteen years of proving why creativity still wins business arguments. Kumar has been elevated to group creative director at McCann, capping a six year run at the agency that began as senior creative director in 2021.

Kumar has spent his career building integrated campaigns across finance, FMCG, healthcare, telecom, entertainment, automotive and real estate, working with brands including Asian Paints, Tata Capital, PhonePe, Reliance Jio, Kinder Joy, SBI Life, Birla Estates, Hero MotoCorp and Sony Entertainment Television. At McCann alone, his work has spanned campaigns for Jio-bp’s launch, Mirabai Chanu’s Har Ghar Mein Star, and Vovilup, alongside earlier stints steering Bajaj’s LED launch and a dementia awareness campaign that picked up a nod at Spikes Asia 2020.

His path to the top ran through some of Indian advertising’s best known rooms: L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Worldgroup, Leo Burnett, Havas Worldwide, Draftfcb and Percept AMO, working across brands from G-Shock and Skybags to Glucon-D, CignaTTK, Parachute and the Kaun Banega Crorepati franchise.

Kumar credits curiosity as the constant thread through it all, one that has carried him from traditional art direction into digital experience and generative AI, without losing sight of the craft that makes an idea land. His ambitions remain global: work built to stand alongside the best at Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia, with recognition already banked at the MADDYS and the CubeX Healthcare Marketing & Creative Awards.

Eighteen years in, and Kumar’s curiosity shows no sign of running out of road. As group creative director, he now gets a bigger canvas to keep proving that great ideas, built on craft and grounded in human insight, are still the sharpest tool in the business.