Indranil Datta appointed as Head-Marketing, Sakal Group

Talking to Adgully about his new appointment and the newly created post for him, Datta says "In a competitive media market, the role of marketing is increasingly becoming important. Today an audience has multiple opportunities to access his/her preferred content. So the role of marketing is to deliver that in a most compelling manner so that he finds it refreshing as well as easily accessible when he needs it most."

Elaborating more about his responisibilties, he explains, "Too early to comment. But initial months will go in understanding Sakal Media Group's strong values and taking a deep dive into the portfolio of brands. Each brand is uniquely positioned in the market place catering to its own loyal audience. So I have a lot of home work to do. Also it is a group role. I need to do leverage the strength of Print effectively to build the other platforms."

For Datta growth seems to be coming from beyond metros. "We need to ride on the emerging market story. Today most of marketers are going beyond metros and large cities to pursue growth. So, the media sector is not very different. Maharashtra being one of the economically affluent and progressive state, marketers will always look at it differently. So be it print or TV, there is a huge scope to grow here," he adds.

Datta's 22 years of experience has spanned across various agencies, basically handling media duties, providing strategic planning and developing integrated marketing solutions.

Datta started his career with FCB Ulka Advertising, Mumbai and later moved on to Clarion Advertising Services Mumbai. He has also had work experience at agencies like Lowe India (then Lintas India) Mumbai, Initiative Media Kolkata and Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai.

He has also been associated with Mudra Radar (earlier known as Optimum Media Solutions) and handled duties as a Vice-President and National Head, Strategy and Knowledge. Prior to which he was Executive Director at Starcom Worldwide, Bengaluru.

He is credited with the re-launch of Zenith Media in India and streamlining the Nokia account. He also set up Zenith Media's Delhi branch and helped increase the company's business in two and half years to a stupendous rise of upto US$39 million. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]