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CNNIC taps Rob Bradley and Cathy Ibal to lead ‘Audience First’ strategy
NEW DELHI: CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) has appointed Rob Bradley and Cathy Ibal as joint-heads of the organisation’s international advertising sales business as part of its ‘Audience First’ strategy.
In these new positions, Bradley and Ibal will be focused on creating and delivering solutions for clients that have the most impact with defined audiences on a global scale and enhancing our audiences’ advertising experience across all CNN platforms. The ‘Audience First’ strategy supercharges putting audiences at the heart of every campaign rather than focus on platform or geography.
Bradley leads advertising sales across the Asia Pacific, including Australia, and Latin America and will now be responsible for CNNIC’s international digital and data development. Corinna Keller, vice president for advertising sales, Latin America, and Tini Sevak, vice president, audiences & data, will report to him. Bradley will be relocating to Asia in 2021 and continue with his global role while remaining close to key clients and markets.
Ibal is in charge of advertising sales for all EMEA and will take over CNNIC’s international client development. James Hunt, senior vice president, global client solutions, will report to her while continuing to oversee all client servicing functions within CNNIC, including its Create brand studio.
Both Rob Bradley and Cathy Ibal will continue to report into CNN Worldwide Commercial president Rani Raad.
“We are optimising how we partner with brands to have maximum impact with audiences at a time of accelerated change in both consumer behaviour and the way advertisers are connecting with customers,” said Raad. “Cathy and Rob have an excellent track record in working collaboratively with clients and across CNN to develop and execute sophisticated campaigns that no other media can match.”
Cathy Ibal has been at CNN since 2001, originally working in research and then in sales since 2006 where she manages some of CNNIC’s largest partnerships. Rob Bradley joined CNN in 2015. Since then he has led CNNIC’s digital revenue, strategy and operations as well as advertising sales for the UK, Nordics and US.
eNews
PNB partners Kiwi to launch credit-enabled UPI for users
Targets 180 million customers; RuPay card offers 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent cashback
MUMBAI: Swipe, tap, or scan credit is quietly slipping into the rhythm of everyday payments, and Punjab National Bank wants in on the action. The state-run lender has partnered with Kiwi to roll out credit-enabled UPI payments for its 180 million customers, marking a significant push to blend traditional banking with India’s fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.
At the centre of the collaboration is the launch of the PNB Kiwi Credit Card on the RuPay network. The card is designed with a digital-first approach, offering fully online onboarding and seamless integration with UPI, allowing users to transact via scan-and-pay while accessing credit.
The offering also brings in a rewards layer, with cashback ranging from 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent on online transactions, positioning the product as both a convenience play and a spending incentive.
The move comes as UPI continues to dominate India’s digital payments landscape, increasingly blurring the lines between debit-led transactions and credit access. For PNB, which operates over 10,000 branches around 60 per cent in semi-urban and rural areas, the partnership signals a targeted effort to extend formal credit to segments that have traditionally remained underserved.
The collaboration also reflects a broader industry shift, where banks and fintech platforms are converging to embed credit directly into payment flows, reducing friction while expanding access.
With RuPay credit cards gaining traction and UPI evolving beyond peer-to-peer transfers, the PNB–Kiwi tie-up positions both players at the intersection of scale, accessibility, and the next phase of digital finance in India.
