JM&C Saatchi has announced appointment of Hemant Sapre as new senior creative director and vice-president at its Mumbai branch.
Sapre takes the reins from Samir Chonkar, who left the agency to join Ulka. He will report to Shaikh and Rajiv Sabnis, executive director, Mumbai.
Sapre started his career as an adman with Lintas (now Lowe), moving on to Trikaya Grey (now Grey Worldwide) after three years, and subsequently to Contract Advertising. During his 11 year stint at Contract, he rose to become creative director. His interest in design helped him take charge of the design specialisation, Design Sutra, at Contract in 2003. From there, he moved to Collage and DMA, before coming back to mainstream advertising now at M&C Saatchi. He has a total of 18 years’ experience.
Sapre was taking a break after resigning as creative head from Collage and DMA. Talking about his decision, Sapre tells afaqs!, “M&C Saatchi came to me with an interesting plan. It matched my own plans and having worked with Shaikh at Contract earlier was a plus.”
Speaking about his previous experience with Shaikh and his plans for the agency, Sapre says, “It was great working with Parveez and things always turned out to be good. We hope to repeat that history and, as part of the core team, we look forward to putting our collective talent to good use.”
His career trail has taken him from advertising to design and now back to mainstream advertising. Sapre says, “Design is a discipline in itself. It requires fine detailing. In design, you start with limitations and then go on to find solutions. Advertising has a completely different approach. When I moved to designing, my experience of advertising came in very handy. Hopefully, it’ll work the other way round, too.”
Sapre has worked on brands such as Cadbury, ITC Foods, Johnson & Johnson, Bajaj Auto, BPCL, Kinetic Motors, Dunlop, Allianz Bajaj, Franklin Templeton, Prudential ICICI, Asian Paints, ACC Cement, The Telegraph, BBC, the Disney Channel, Renaissance/JW Marriott, Intercontinental, Shoppers Stop, Godrej Foods and Lakme.
The work that stands closest to his heart is the campaign he and Shaikh did together for the lingerie brand, Lovable, which won them a number of awards. Sapre has also won many other awards and nominations for print, outdoor and film work at Cannes, the New York Art Directors Club, the AAAI and the Ad Club.