NEW DELHI: Dentsu India has appointed Aalap Desai to lead the organisation as chief creative officer (CCO), Taproot Dentsu, a dentsuMB company. Erstwhile national creative director for isobar India, Desai has also been promoted to the role of CCO for the agency. In both the roles, he will report to Ajay Gahlaut, the group's chief creative officer for India (GCCO) for Dentsu Creative India.
In addition to leading isobar India’s creative team, Desai will also be responsible for Taproot Dentsu’s transformation into a digital-first agency.
Desai has won more than 150 international and national awards that include Cannes Lions, D&AD, Spikes and One Show, the company said in a statement. In addition to this, he has co-headed the creative team at Dentsu Webchutney, Mumbai, and was behind some of the most notable works like Code Name: Uri, The 8-bit Journo for Vice and The World's Most Reported trailer for Thappad.
Desai has also been part of the creative teams at Disney+ Hotstar, Leo Burnett, JWT, DDB Mudra, Ogilvy, and Publicis Ambience. He has helped build brands like McDonald's, Complan, Huggies, Nerolac, Videocon d2h, and some youth-centric ones like Early Salary and MTV India. At rank 41, Desai was recently the highest rated Indian creatives in the global creative listing of 2022 by ‘The Drum’ and was also part of the jury at Spikes Asia 2022, the company said.
Additionally, Titus Upputuru, earlier Creative Head, has now been elevated to the role of NCD, Taproot Dentsu, Gurgaon. Upputuru will lead the agency's Gurgaon creative team and will report into Desai. Upputuru has also been entrusted with the additional charge of leading integrated solutions for Dentsu Creative India. In this role, he will report into Gahlaut.
Sidharth Rao, CEO, dentsuMB Group said, the decision is vital to the growth of dentsu Creative in India and aligned with the network’s global ambitions. "Talents such as Desai and Upputuru come with unmatched expertise and experience...Over the years, they have been groomed with the proficiency to build brands from scratch and are excellent at measuring and matching the market pulse with client needs."
Ajay Gahlaut, group chief creative officer, called them creative geniuses who have delivered fantastic campaigns over the years. "Their brand-building approaches are contemporary and fresh. I feel that's the need of the hour. All the conversations around us are evolving and it is inevitable for brands to evolve their conversations too. They are perfect for that task," he said.
