Neeraj Bassi comes on board as Chief Strategy Officer at Cheil

Cheil India has announced the appointment of Neeraj Bassi as Chief Strategy Officer. He takes over from Sonal Narain, who has quit the agency. In this role, Bassi will be responsible for the planning and strategy product of the agency across all its business divisions.

Narain had joined Cheil India as Chief Strategy Officer in June last year. Prior to that she was Head of Planning at Ogilvy Singapore and also Head of Ogilvy Change, a behavioural sciences practice under the Ogilvy & Mather Group.

With over 19 years of experience in connecting brands and consumers, Bassi is one of the most recognised and awarded names in the business. He has been associated with Ogilvy, JWT and McCann in the past, where he lent his expertise and insights on various brands to drive and deliver successful campaigns.

He had launched his own consultancy, Coffee&Chocolate in Delhi last year. Coffee&Chocolate is designed to be a catalyst at the brief definition stage. Before that, he was President – Planning at Ogilvy & Mather.

Bassi has been awarded at various effectiveness platforms such as Effies (India & APAC), AME &WARC. He has also helped develop award winning campaigns for brands such as Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Voltas, BMW, Honda, Philips, HSBC, Max Life, Vistara and WeChat, to name a few.

Commenting on the appointment, Shiv Sethuraman, Group President, Cheil South-West Asia, said, “We are going for a massive acceleration in our capabilities in 2016 and I am delighted to have Neeraj on board at this critical juncture in our evolution. His passion for integrated communication, combined with his gravitas and deep knowledge of brands and consumers in the Indian context have impressed us. We look forward to some great work together. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Sonal Narain for her contribution over the past year.”

Neeraj Bassi, Chief Strategy Officer, Cheil India, added here, said, “Today, we need a completely new approach to communication. You need to think like an entrepreneur and keep on redefining the communication paradigm. Cheil’s transformation journey in the short span of 14-15 months is testimony to the intent and momentum of the company. When John and Shiv told me about the specific focus on promoting entrepreneurship and driving integration at Cheil, it was an instant meeting of minds. With good understanding of what it takes to be successful in the age of networking, I am looking forward to bring these learnings to clients of Cheil, especially Samsung.”