VaynerMedia has announced three senior leadership appointments in India, spanning strategy, creative, and media, as the agency continues to scale its operations in the market.
The agency said the appointments signal its intent to build integrated creative and media capability in India at a moment when, according to VaynerMedia, the rules of brand marketing are being rewritten. The agency pointed to AI reshaping how consumers discover brands, platform algorithms increasingly rewarding cultural relevance over paid placements, and the traditional performance marketing playbook losing its edge.
P Sai Bhardwaj joins as Group Creative Director. He has 19 years of experience in brand storytelling, social-first ideas and creative leadership across Prime Video and RPSG Media Group, and has led brand mandates for Amazon, Google India and Pernod Ricard, among others. He will shape VaynerMedia India’s creative output, with a focus on social-native work.
Suruchi Makhija joins as Senior Director, Strategy. She brings more than two decades of experience at the intersection of strategy, creativity and content across GroupM, Publicis and Cheil Worldwide. Her mandate is to build a strategy practice rooted in VaynerMedia’s Platforms, Algorithms and Culture framework, which the agency says connects brands to culture in real time by translating consumer behavior on modern platforms into business outcomes.
Aveek Gupta joins as Senior Director, Media. He has more than 20 years of experience across the agency, media and brand sides of the business at DDB Mudra, GroupM, Carat and Havas Media. According to VaynerMedia, his appointment reflects the agency’s view that media strategy and creative thinking must work as a single system rather than in parallel silos.
“These appointments are a deliberate statement about where we are taking this agency in India,” said Salman Moin, Country Manager, VaynerMedia India.
“We are not building a team to carry out campaigns. We are building a team to transform how brands market themselves in a market that is moving faster than most brand playbooks can keep up with. India is one of the most social-native, culturally dynamic markets in the world, and the opportunity here for brands that get this right is enormous. We intend to be the agency that helps them get there.”
