Edelman India hires Ashish Pathak as ECD

Edelman India has brought Ashish Pathak onboard to take on the newly created role of Executive Creative Director, partnering with the firm’s practice and offering leaders to deliver stronger integrated work for its clients. With nearly two decades of experience, Pathak has held roles at several of the large creative agencies, including Wunderman Thompson, BBH, BMB and Ogilvy. In his new role, Pathak will report into Tim Green, Edelman’s Chief Creative Officer for Asia-Pacific.

At Edelman, Pathak is tasked with leading creative projects for some of the firm’s largest clients and driving forward its creative’ agenda in the industry. This will involve building a creative team, mentoring fresh talent, and leveraging Edelman’s integrated capabilities to deliver even more impactful work for clients.

Throughout his career, Pathak has won numerous awards, internationally and locally. These include accolades at the coveted D&AD Pencil, Cannes Lions, The One Show, Clio, New York Festivals and most recently, a Grand Prix at Spikes Asia in 2022. He also won the ‘War of Words’ event in 2011 in London, produced by the Huffington Post and Campaign UK.

In 2003, Pathak became the first young creative mind ever to represent India at the Cannes Lions Roger Hatchuel Academy. He is also the first Indian Art Director to have his work feature on the cover of the popular advertising magazine, Archive.

Pathak is credited for several award-winning campaigns, including the launch of Sunsilk‘s Digital platform, ‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’, in the pre-social era. More recently, he was instrumental in bringing to life a category-changing product innovation, ‘The soap with a lump’, for Unilever’s Lux to raise awareness for breast cancer. Over the years, he has created many successful campaigns working across categories on brands like Unilever’s Sunsilk, Lux and Vaseline; Diageo’s Johnnie Walker and Vat69; Google; Amazon; and Bajaj motorcycles.

Tim Green, Chief Creative Officer for Asia-Pacific, said: “Ashish is a renowned creative across India and has several award-winning campaigns under his belt. He’s known for his creative talent, innovative ideas, and passion for producing work that touches a chord directly with people and culture. We are thrilled to have someone of his calibre come onboard, as we continue to craft integrated communications solutions that earn audiences’ attention and make our clients stand out. Ashish has the perfect skillset to deliver on our value proposition and I have no doubt that our India team will continue to scale new heights with him onboard.”

Rakesh Thukral, Managing Director, Edelman India, said: “I am excited that Ashish has joined us. His portfolio of work is commendable, and he will play a key role in injecting creative thinking into every communications brief. The integration of creative and strategy skillsets into digital, corporate and brand solutions in the earned space will enable us to address our clients’ challenges and needs. With Ashish at the creative helm, we look forward to unlocking even more powerful ideas and experiences for our clients.”

Pathak said: “The role of PR and communications has drastically evolved to provide holistic solutions for brands – solutions that earn attention for the brand and provide direction for setting paid strategies. The lines have blurred, but what doesn’t change is the power of an idea. I’m excited to join Edelman and collaborate with existing and prospective clients from across sectors to strengthen our storytelling approach, providing creative solutions for brand problems. Edelman’s renowned for its agility and nimbleness at producing award-winning work; the currency of earned media is what will be the driving force for the work we will look to create.”