VivaKi, a strategic unit created by Publicis Groupe to weigh the combined scale of its media and digital operations, has announced two key leadership appointments in India.
Ambika Srivastava, CEO, Zenith Optimedia, India, takes on additional responsibility as Chairperson, India Media Exchange (IMX) and Srikant Sastri, MD, Solutions Digitas, becomes the VivaKi Country Chair, India.
Sastri will be working collaboratively with the regional and local leadership of Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia to strengthen the agencies. Country chairs will work with the brand leaders to drive cross-brand growth initiatives for VivaKi in India, as well as deliver against operational and financial goals. Sastri will report into the VivaKi board of directors.
Srivastava will preside over IMX, a media investment unit formed in 2007 to leverage the combined scale of Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia. She will continue to work with the marketplace and the VivaKi brand leadership to deliver textured, different and context-specific solutions from media owners.
David Kenny, Managing Partner, VivaKi, said, “There are two strategic opportunities for VivaKi to leverage its powerful scale in India. One is to leverage our significant media buying clout, and the other is to aggregate additional resources and investment dollars to deliver new tools, digital capabilities and technology platforms to clients.”
Kenny adds, “We are fortunate to have two proven leaders uniquely qualified to deliver on the full potential of our scale in this robust and growing market. Srikant’s digital expertise and capacity for activating solutions will benefit our brands in market. Ambika will bring her investment acumen and a reputation for innovation to IMX.”
Sastri was an active member in establishing Solutions Integrated in 1995 after spending 10 years at Unilever on the Pond’s business, and also McCann-Erickson. He led Solutions to a leadership position in the market by offering an integrated suite of CRM, digital, experiential, and shopper marketing services.
As chairperson of IMX, Srivastava brings with her more than 25 years of experience, working with India’s premiere advertising agencies such as McCann Erickson, Lintas and HTA (now JWT). During her expansive career, she has launched and established brands for a number of clients, including Coca-Cola, Gillette, General Motors, Fidelity, HP, Nestle and Unilever, to name a few.
Srivastava said while speaking about the new responsibility, “I am very happy at being given the opportunity to lead India Media Exchange in what are challenging and exciting times. Today, IMX enjoys a formidable reputation as a strong buyer which is focused on delivering great value to the clients of both Starcom Worldwide and ZenithOptimedia.”
“The challenge of creating synergies for the business, whilst enabling SMG, Digitas and ZenithOptimedia to flourish in their own right is one that I relish. We have great opportunities to offer end-to-end digital marketing services by combining the strengths of the three brands. The Indian digital market is poised for take-off, and we want to be positioned well for this,” said Sastri.