Unveiling Marketing & Adland's Most Influential Women 2024

We have all heard the adage, "Where there's a woman, there's magic." Given the recent advancements that the country's marketing and advertising landscape is making, it calls for a sweet twist to the tale: "Where there's a woman in marketing, there's double the magic."

None will deny the delightful wonders that the women in leadership positions are presenting at the table, exhibiting resilience, grit, tenacity, acute business acumen, and still having their hearts in the right place. This is especially true for the Indian marketing and advertising sector, which is witnessing a wave of brilliant bosswomen, driving business results, associating themselves with impactful initiatives and forging a healthy ecosystem.

With International Women's Day 2024 focusing on 'Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress' this year, BW Marketing World's 'Most Influential Women 2024', an initiative supported by BW Businessworld, celebrates these powerhouses that are breaking the ceiling, following their dreams, and fearlessly writing their own stories. The list features women icons from the marketing and advertising fraternity for not just their overall work done, initiatives undertaken, and always-on avatars, but who have also steered their companies towards growth in the years gone. It is also a reminder that empowering them will only build a nation that holds diversity and inclusivity at its core.

Super Marketers

The FMCG sector rules the chart, with the maximum number of women leaders growing and holding more important positions. In it, the influential marketing leaders feature Deepika Bhan, President, Packaged Foods (India), Tata Consumer Products; Harman Dhillon, Executive Director - Designate, Beauty & Wellbeing, HUL; Kavita Chaturvedi, COO, Snacks Business, ITC; Mukta Maheshwari, CMO and VP & Category Head – Fabric Care, P&G India; Nadia Chauhan, Joint Managing Director & CMO, Parle Agro and Somasree Bose Awasthi, CMO, Marico.

Next in line is the food and beverage sector, where Aanandita Datta, CMO, Pizza Hut India; Aparna Bhawal, CMO, KFC India & Partner Countries and Saakshi Verma Menon, Senior Marketing Director, Africa Middle East South Asia, PepsiCo make it to the prestigious list.

The tech sector is not far behind, with Mayuri Saikia, Director- Marketing (Consumer and Small Business), Dell Technologies; Neha Barjatya, Marketing Director, Google India and Roshni Das, GM, Regional CMO, Asia Pacific Japan Marketing, Intel demonstrating exceptional contributions.

In the BFSI sector, Anuradha Aggarwal, Director - User Growth and CMO, Amazon Pay and Sujata V Kumar, Head - Marketing, Visa India and South Asia have emerged as two of the most brilliant minds.

Other noteworthy women leaders who are making an impact beyond marketing include Anurita Chopra, CMO, India SubContinent, Haleon; Deepali Naair, Group CMO, CK Birla; Deepika Warrier, Head - Marketing, Bajaj Auto; Pragya Bijalwan, CMO, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals; Ruchira Jaitly, CMO, Diageo India, and Sujala Martis, Director - Consumer Marketing, Platinum Guild International.

Advertising Mavericks

Women leaders who are at the helm of media and creative agencies are rewriting the rules of Indian advertising and catalysing a never-seen-before shift in the ecosystem. These creative geniuses include Anisha Iyer, CEO, OMD India; Anita Kotwani, CEO Media - South Asia, dentsu; Anupriya Acharya, CEO -  South Asia, Publicis Groupe; Babita Baruah, CEO, VML India; Hephzibah Pathak, Executive Chairperson, Ogilvy India; Monaz Todywalla; CEO, PHD India; Rathi Gangappa, CEO, Starcom India; Sanchayeeta Verma, CEO, Carat India; Shubha George, Chief Client Officer, WPP India, and Vaishali Verma, CEO, Initiative India.

Advisory Council

The Advisory Council for this initiative includes doyens from the marketing and advertising industry, whose experience and expertise remain invaluable to the ecosystem.

Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India

Ashish Bhasin, founder, The Bhasin Consulting Group

Nandini Dias, independent advisor and board member

Rajesh Ramakrishnan, former MD, Perfetti Van Melle India

We congratulate all who made it to this esteemed list and look forward to seeing them shine brighter in the years to come.