News Just Arrived | Dentsu India picks Soumitra Karnik as National Creative Director

Soumitra Karnik joins Dentsu India as National Creative Director from his creative consultancy company. Prior to that he was with JWT, Delhi where he was Executive Creative Director. In his over eleven years with JWT, Soumitra worked on brands like PepsiCo, Nestle, Hero Honda, Sony, GSK, Congress and Airtel. Among the campaigns he is known for creating include "Youngistaan' for Pepsi, "Aamsutra' for Slice, "Yaari ki Gaadi' for Hero Honda and "Dil jo chahe paas laaye' for Airtel to name a few.

Welcoming Soumitra to Dentsu, Rohit Ohri, Executive Chairman, Dentsu India said, "Soumitra is a truly gifted creative and great leader. He will partner the creative leaders at Dentsu India and me to take our creative product to the next level. Soumitra believes in integrated communication solutions and as a key member of the India leadership team, I see him helping us effectively deliver this core Dentsu belief to our clients."

Speaking on his new role, Soumitra Karnik, National Creative Director, Dentsu India said, "As far as my role is concerned, my first priority shall be to build a solid network of talented creative teams across Dentsu companies and to create a "boredom-less' and fearless creative culture. I will also partner our clients in developing thought leadership and strategic superiority in their respective markets by the process of collaboration and co-creation."

Soumitra added, "We have pressed the "Refresh' button at Dentsu and are pretty serious about being the very best, both for our clients as well as our own people. We want to be known as a place with a large heart where people with great minds work. And I can certainly promise a lot of action around us in the coming times."

Soumitra started his career in 1991 with a really small sized advertising agency called Pace. While working at Pace, Soumitra learnt everything from the printing process to delivering release orders for ad releases to various newspaper offices. Next, Soumitra joined Percept in 1993 as creative group head from where he moved to a boutique agency Rightangle in 1995. Over his rather eventful stints at Percept and Lowe (then known as Lintas), Soumitra has worked on accounts like Hero Honda, Nestle, Maruti Suzuki, The Oberoi Group, Joyco, Xerox and Wills Sport.

After a two-year stint at Rightangle, Soumitra joined Lintas in 1997 as associate creative director, and worked with the agency till 2000. Next, he moved to JWT as creative director, and was later promoted as executive creative director and vice-president.