ASIA-PACIFIC – SINGAPORE, DECEMBER 10, 2010 – Grey Group has appointed Kavita Gadkari as vice president, Planning to further strengthen the robust planning function at the Mumbai office. Kavita joins Grey from Stellar Search in Dubai where she single-handedly led a successful entrepreneurial start-up. Prior to that, she headed Strategy and Insights at Inca Tanvir Advertising, Sharjah, U.A.E.
In India, Gadkari’s planning career spanned over 15 years at FCB Ulka, Mumbai. Prestigious accounts handled during Gadkari’s planning tenure at FCB Ulka included Tata Motors, Amul, ITC, Wipro Consumer Products and Tata Internet Services. She was also responsible for winning the agency key accounts such as Unit Trust of India, Tata Corporate, Sundaram Home Finance (Chennai), Organon and Johnson & Johnson’s Nizoral businesses. At FCB Ulka, Gadkari worked in various divisions including FCBi, the direct advertising arm of the agency as well as the healthcare division.
Among Gadkari’s noteworthy accomplishments during the early phase of her career were to develop the positioning for Amul Ice Cream based on thorough qualitative research, Mind & Mood and product testing. The positioning “Real Milk. Real Ice Cream” has stood the test of time and continues to fuel the brand, making it a formidable player in the ice cream market. Other achievements included convincing the client to resist changing Santoor’s (Wipro Consumer Products) promise of ‘younger looking skin’ – it is probably the only soap brand to have kept to the same positioning platform for over a decade and now owns that position.
In addition, Gadkari was also closely involved in rolling out FCB’s much acclaimed ‘blue-sky’ projects of FCB Grid, Mind & Mood, Brand Relationship Style Monitor and Womanmood 2006 in India. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Hindustani Shastriya Sangeet.
This year has seen much positive change in the planning function at Grey India. A lot of high quality talent have been inducted and trained in the Brand Acceleration process, Grey Group’s proprietary planning tool which has led to award-winning work across the region. To add, Bindu Sethi was appointed Chief Strategy Planning Officer in Asia Pacific, in recognition of her huge contribution to India and her unparalleled strategic expertise and understanding of the consumer.
On Gadkari’s appointment, Bindu Sethi, Chief Strategy Planning Officer, Grey Asia Pacific, said, “I am delighted to have Kavita as part of the planning team. With Kavita in Mumbai and Divyapratap Mehta in Delhi, I am looking forward to seeing great strategic insights leading to more Famously Effective communications for our clients.”
Gadkari said, “I am pleased to join Grey at this exciting stage in its growth. I am particularly looking forward to working with Bindu on a wide range of clients across industries as well as being back in advertising.”
