Mumbai: dentsuMB (formerly Dentsu India) planning and strategy head Vishal Nicholas will now also lead strategy for Dentsu Impact, a dentsuMB company.  Under this expanded mandate, Nicholas will manage planning & strategy - South, Mumbai, and Delhi for both the agencies. He will continue to report to dentsuMB Group CEO Sidharth Rao.

Armed with 16 years of experience, Nicholas has had stints at Lowe Lintas and McCann where he worked on Flipkart, Tata Tea’s JaagoRe platform, Myntra, TVS Motors, ITC Aashirvaad, and Britannia. He is a multiple EFFIE award winner across the India and APAC regions, said the agency on Monday.

Speaking on the elevation, Sidharth Rao said, “As we continue to strengthen and reshape our creative offering in the Indian market, we needed a planning leader who has experience with both traditional and new-age businesses; and Vishal was the obvious choice to steer the strategy product for both dentsuMB and Dentsu Impact.”

Vishal Nicholas added, “Ever since I joined dentsu, I’ve always been excited about the Eastern approach to building brands with simplicity and second-order thinking at its core. With dentsuMB, the combination of the East and West make it even more compelling. And with Dentsu Impact’s fantastic roster of clients, I look forward to achieving greater business outcomes for them.”

For the record, Dentsu Impact and dentsuMB are part of the dentsuMB Group in India that also houses the agencies Dentsu Webchutney, Dentsu One, and Taproot Dentsu.