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Virtue Worldwide appoints Ayushi Saria as associate creative director
Mumbai: Virtue Worldwide, the agency powered by VICE Media Group, has appointed Ayushi Saria as associate creative director. This strategic move emphasizes Virtue India’s focus on bolstering their creative leadership with future-focused and culture-forward talent.
Saria’s professional journey is marked by a diverse background, with contributions ranging from impactful campaigns for COVID vaccinations at Aster Hospitals to the creation of engaging games for the Singapore Tourism Board during her tenure at Wunderman and Hungama. Before joining Virtue, Ayushi dedicated her talents to illustration, where she focused on projects centered around skin and body positivity. Notably, her international experience includes collaborations with esteemed clients such as Vicks, Red Lobster, Metamucil, and Heineken at Publicis New York.
Saria’s work has garnered widespread recognition and has been featured on prominent platforms like Design Taxi, Ads of the World, AdAge, and Brand Care. She has received accolades from Young Guns, New York Festivals, Art Directors Club, Applied Arts, and Summit Awards.
Virtue India creative head Hayden Scott shared his thoughts on Ayushi’s appointment, stating, “Ayushi is a great example of the kind of exciting hybrid talent we want to grow at Virtue. She is a passionate advocate for design and a strong leader. I am certain her diverse skill-sets will help bring a wonderfully fresh perspective to our work. And did I mention, she’s also a damn nice person? I can’t wait to see how Ayushi helps shape Virtue India’s next growth phase.”
In response to her new role, Saria commented, “”I’ve always been fascinated by culture and how brands become a part of this in a progressive and meaningful way. To have the opportunity to work at a place that’s powered by culture – it’s incredibly exciting. To work with some very unique and talented people, even more so.”
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
