DDB Mudra Mumbai elevates Aditya Kanthy & Amit Kekre to National Strategic Planning Heads

Aditya Kanthy (pictured top) and Amit Kekre (picttured below), currently Senior VPs, DDB Mudra, have been elevated to the role of National Strategic Planning Heads, DDB Mudra. In their new roles, Aditya and Amit will jointly take on the national mandate of looking after strategy and planning for all of DDB Mudra offices in the West, North, South as well as Tribal, Rapp and Remedy.   Arun Sharma in Delhi and Rajesh Sharma in Bangalore will work closely with Aditya and Amit respectively. 

Said Madhukar Kamath, Group CEO & Managing Director, DDB Mudra Group, “Aditya and Amit make a formidable team, both thorough with all facets of strategy planning, yet each with their unique worldview. They have both contributed greatly to strengthening the agency’s creative-effectiveness credentials and I am sure together they will take it to greater heights.”

During his decade long stint with the DDB Mudra Group Kanthy has contributed to some of India’s most loved brands and trusted companies including Johnson & Johnson, Wrigley’s, Volkswagen, Future Group, Godrej, Dabur and ITC. He has also led the effort to secure campaigns from Nestle, Philips, Reliance BIG TV, L&T, Femina, Yamaha and Emirates. Featured in BusinessWorld magazine’s cover story on the ‘best and brightest’ in Indian advertising, he has over a dozen wins across categories (including health & digital) at the Effies.

Kanthy studied Economics in St. Stephen’s, Delhi and graduated at the top of his class from the Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA). He is now a guest lecturer at MICA. His views on celebrity advertising were published in WARC’s Ad Map last year.

Kekre began his planning career in 2001, working with Lowe, JWT, Ogilvy on Unilever, Tata Motors, before leaving for a 4-year international turn to join Grey Malaysia in a regional planning role on P&G, from where he moved to Grey Australia as Planning Director. Returning to India in 2009, he worked with McCann in Mumbai as VP, Planning before joining the DDB Mudra Group in 2011. Apart from Unilever & P&G, Amit’s career spans large international brands like Johnson & Johnson, GSK Sara Lee, Emirates, Lipton, Simplot Australia, Standard Chartered, Govt. of Australia and Indian multinationals such as Marico, ITC, Godrej, Future Group, Union Bank of India to name a few. Featured as one of ’10 best planners’ across Asia Pac by Media Magazine, Amit is a Microbiology graduate and holds a degree in Advertising & PR Management from Institute of Management Studies, Indore. His real education, though, he believes comes from his rural roots and his occasional yet deliberate moonlighting in the world of art, theater and fashion.

On his new role, Kekre said, “Imagination is the beginning of all planning. The last two and a half years I’ve been with DDB Mudra, I am glad this personal belief has found a turf on which it flourishes. Ours is a truly remarkable team – as adept with tools and processes, as it is with the most fundamental aspect of all communications- exploring people, imagining a different reality, imagining newer narratives. I am proud of our unique and in more ways than one, ‘total’ planning offering. Aditya is an amazing mind. The two of us together are only one of the visible signs of DDB Mudra’s core pillars, Together, we are better”.

“DDB Mudra has a legacy of putting strategic thinking at the heart of the work we do. Over the years our management has displayed a serious commitment to planning by investing in an excellent team across the country and it’s been paying off. The product’s improved, our clients vouch for the quality of the thinking and the planners have forged deep partnerships with the creative and account management teams. With top class brand, media and activation planning under the same roof, we could lead the way in shaping the discipline. Amit’s a terrific partner, we enjoy working with each other and we’re raring to go”, said Aditya.