Hires & Promotions: Zenith, Xaxis, Zee5, DDB

Zenith Appoints Priyanka Kapur As Vice President

Zenith India has appointed Priyanka Kapur as vice president to lead its Nestlé business. She will be responsible for media planning, relationship-management and supervising the complete and integrated offering for the client. Her key focus will be on strategy, digital transformation, data, analytics, implementation, and buying.

A post graduate from NMIMS, Kapur has over 18 years of experience in media and marketing. Her last assignment was with Lodestar UM for almost 10 years as connections lead for its key client Coca-Cola. Her role involved spearheading the strategic planning product across portfolio brands and in crafting solutions, connecting brands to consumers. She was also responsible for research, insights and staying updated on the latest consumer trends and building them into solutions for brands.

Throughout her career, she has performed extremely well across verticals and platforms which include working as a marketer with NDTV, leading new business development at Balaji Telefilms and as a media planner on some prestigious accounts like Tata Motors and Zodiac, to name a few.

Announcing the appointment, Jai Lala, chief executive officer, Zenith India said, “I am delighted to have Priyanka on-board. Priyanka’s diverse work experience in the field of media and strategic approach towards the business will help provide impactful and effective solutions to our clients, in an evolving media landscape.”

Kapur added, “I am really excited about Zenith’s unique ROI plus and digital-first approach that delivers maximum business results for clients. Also, I am delighted to be part of Publicis Groupe and look forward to the PowerOfOne advantage.”

Xaxis Promotes Silvia Sparry As The Global COO

Xaxis, GroupM’s outcome-driven media company, has promoted Silvia Sparry to global chief operating officer, reporting to Nicolas Bidon, global chief executive officer. Sparry previously served as vice president of global operations and platforms.

In her new role, Sparry will lead Xaxis’ global operations and will be focused on accelerating Xaxis’ journey to become an artificial intelligence and data science first company. Responsible for technology platforms, partnerships, operations and process excellence, Sparry will work to maximise synergies across Xaxis’ 47 markets, as well as across the wider group, including GroupM and WPP.

Working closely with GroupM agencies, Sparry will help translate how differentiating capabilities such as Xaxis’ proprietary AI platform Copilot or GroupM Choreograph can be consistently leveraged by clients to deliver better outcomes from their digital media investments.

Bidon said, “To help our clients seize the opportunities presented by this ever changing and complex ecosystem, it is more important than ever for Xaxis to have a strong global operational leader who can drive operational excellence and innovation across the globe. Silvia has a proven track record of driving transformative initiatives, and I could not think of anyone better to help us continue our 10-year journey of innovation and growth.”

Sparry added, “I’m excited to take on my new responsibilities at Xaxis at such a momentous time of change. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Nicolas and the talented Xaxis teams around the world to further transform the business into an AI and data first company, that equips its people with the capabilities and know-how to deliver the very best outcomes for our clients over the next decade and long into the future.”

ZEE5 Appoints Manasi Sapre As Head Content

Former Vuclip Sr. Director- Content Manasi Sapre has joined ZEE5 as Head Content. Prior to joining ZEE5, Sapre was with Vuclip for over three years. At Vuclip, Sapre looked after content strategy and programming on the Viu app and across multiple distribution platforms and multiple territories.

Viu had shut down its India operations in December 2019. She was also responsible for original content productions with premium filmmakers and production houses across Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu languages.

She also secured output acquisition deals with premium content partners in Thai, Burmese, Korean, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu languages. During her stint, Sapare also took care of programming, acquisition, and content strategy for VIU's newly launched OTT platform in Myanmar.

Prior to Vuclip, she was Head of Acquisitions, strategy, and content partnership - Indian Subcontinent for Lebara Play- one of the leading Ethnic SVOD OTT platforms across Europe, Australia, NZ, SEA, and Canada. Responsible for strategic bundling, packaging, and communication to country managers, wholesalers, and end consumers.

Pallavi Chakravarti Roped In As Creative Head (W), DDB Mudra

DDB Mudra has appointed Pallavi Chakravarti as the Creative Head of the West office. Pallavi will work closely with Rahul Mathew, CCO, DDB Mudra Group to take on the responsibility of driving the agency’s creative product. Her last stint was at Taproot Dentsu, where she led the creative function for the Mumbai office as Executive Creative Director. 

In a career spanning over 17 years, Pallavi has worked on brands like Facebook, Airtel, Parle, Uber, Pepsi, Times of India among others. Previously, she has worked with Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT and Grey. 

Speaking on Pallavi’s appointment, Rahul Mathew said, “Over the last couple of years, we’ve been slowly gathering momentum as an organisation – No.2 at Effies, topping the new biz league, back-to-back Grand Prixs at Spikes Asia and our more recent performance at Kyoorius. And Pallavi is just the person to help us keep this momentum going and add more kick to it. She strengthens our belief and our ambition to do unexpected work that gets disproportionate results for our clients.” 

Pallavi Chakravarti added, “I’m here to build, to enjoy the creative process, to love the business of advertising even more than I already do. I’m here because it felt like the right place to be. And I’m looking forward to the journey – there’s really nothing else to say, is there?” 

Pallavi has over 100 awards to her credit. Over the years, her work has been recognised at coveted platforms such as Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD, New York Festival, Adfest APAC, Spikes Asia and The Dadasaheb Phalke Awards. She has also served on the jury panels of creative festivals including Cannes Lions, Dubai Lynx, New York Festival, Global Awards, Gerety Awards etc.