DDB Group Singapore appoints Subodh Deshpande to Chief Strategy Officer role

DDB Group Singapore has appointed Subodh Deshpande as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), effective 4 March. Working alongside CEO Jeff Cheong and CCO Vinod Savio, Deshpande will spearhead the agency group’s strategic product for local and regional clients.

Deshpande is renowned as co-author of Utopia Brands published in 2023. Shortlisted for Marketing Book of the Year by the Belgian Association of Marketing, the popular book charts the path for brands to achieve both growth and impact. He joins from a near-decade at global consulting firm Innate Motion, where he led teams to build human-centric brand narratives for leading global companies like Unilever, HP, Kellogg’s, Upfield, Suntory, and Reckitt’s across India, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Prior to that, Deshpande spent time at Mullen Lowe and McCann Worldgroup in Singapore and McCann Erickson in India.

As a passionate advocate for humanising brands to better resonate with increasingly discerning consumers, Deshpande’s appointment comes as the perfect catalyst for DDB Group Singapore’s ambitious growth agenda. Last year, the agency group launched its Behavioural Intelligence Group (BIG) in partnership with Temasek Polytechnic. The offering adds to DDB’s proprietary suite of core consulting practices, Total Experience (TX), which blends technologists, CX and UX experts, data managers, mobile engineers, and social content producers to deliver data-led and digitally run content creativity. Deshpande’s global experience and strategic acumen are set to fuel expansion plans for DDB’s growing roster of regional clients.

Deshpande’s appointment follows that of Vinod Savio announced in October last year to lead the development of next-generation creative skills, expand DDB’s regional client base, and solidify Singapore’s position as a hub for global clients.

Cheong said: “We welcome Subodh to our leadership team with wide open arms. We have experienced his fresh thinking first-hand and cannot wait to see what his strategic prowess achieves for our clients.”

Deshpande added: “I look forward to working with our dynamic team here in Asia to create sustainable roadmaps for brands that will not only achieve growth but also create impact within the societies and communities they serve.“