August 02, 2021 | Nairobi, Kenya – Leading marketing and communications network, Ogilvy Africa has today announced the appointment of Sumanta Ganguly as the new Chief Strategy Officer for the region.
In his new role, Sumanta will be responsible for strengthening the network’s strategy capabilities across its markets, and client portfolio. With this appointment, Ogilvy Africa continues its transformational journey by adding data-led solutions to its offerings. The role reports into the Ogilvy Africa CEO, Vikas Mehta, with a team of analysts, strategists, and strategy directors, based in various locations, covering 39 African countries.
The office of the CSO would house the agency’s competencies in data, technology (and tools), including partnerships. The strategy team will operate like a unified think tank across Ogilvy’s disciplines including Advertising, Brand communication, Content, PR & Influence, Social | Digital, Experience, Media, and Digital (business) Transformation.
“In our region’s context, the strategy function in agencies is developing, and very siloed. In service of our One-Ogilvy ambition, we are breaking down these siloes to create a unified strategy team that can work through the entire user journey straddling several disciplines. We believe this approach will make a significant impact in helping our clients’ brands become more consumer-centric. Building, and running a think-tank of this nature requires someone with width, and depth of knowledge. We are delighted to have found such an ambidextrous leader in Sumanta.” Said Vikas Mehta, CEO, Ogilvy Africa.
Sumanta joins Ogilvy Africa from Mullen Lowe Lintas Group (IPG), where he spent over six years in various leadership roles. He was instrumental in establishing several practices in Performance marketing, Technology and Omnichannel Strategy as centres of excellence. He believes in “solving for culture and scaling with platforms”.
On his appointment Sumanta said “Africa and African business have been at the forefront of human-first approach to solving for growth; be it fintech or agritech, Africa is a true demonstration of solving for people and scaling with technology. This is an exciting backdrop for any strategist. When you add the giant talent and inclusive culture of Ogilvy Africa to that, my role is simply to provide the right page, and the solutions write themselves.”
In a career spanning more than two decades, Sumanta has played multiple roles in technology and strategic planning. Starting with early day internet start-ups, where Sumanta went to work with business plans and securing VC funding; to finally settling in Strategic Planning roles. Besides IPG, Sumanta has worked in the past with organisations such as Ogilvy, Experience Commerce, M&C Saatchi and Cyber Media.
A background in technology coupled with data; Sumanta has worked with clients in multiple categories to develop strategic frameworks that enable businesses to draw insights and measure effectiveness. Notable achievements are his work on retail customer matrix for a grocery retailer in India using the RFM modeling, use of real-time health data to build a disease tracking app in India’s fight against the dreaded Dengue & malarial infections and more recently developing the first of its kind AI based voice bot for India’s top auto company Tata motors, that recently won an award at the APAC Smarties.
Besides being guest faculty at premier management institutions such as IIMs in India, Sumanta has been a speaker at International forums that include Ad Tech, AMES Singapore among many others. He also mentors several early stage mar-tech start-ups.
About Ogilvy Africa
Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency on the continent catering to 40 countries with a team of ~900 people across Central, East and West Africa. Headquartered in Nairobi – Kenya, Ogilvy Africa manages a portfolio of over 100 brands for clients such as AB Inbev, Airtel, Africa CDC, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Distell, Equity Bank, Exxon Mobil, Kenya Airways, Mondelez, NCBA, Nestle, Philips, PWC, SAB Miller, Sanlam, Total, UNICEF, Unilever and WWF amongst others.
It offers services across the full spectrum of marketing domains including Communication (Advertising, branding and content), Consumer Experience (Technology & e-Commerce), Growth Consulting (incl. Digital Transformation), PR & Influence and Media; all under one unified setup. The agency has also created proprietary marketing products in areas such as real-time marketing, social intelligence, virtual experiences, influencer management, e-commerce enablement and content hubs. It’s unique operating model, One Ogilvy, allows clients and brands to cut the complexity of agency structures and create seamless omni-channel experiences for their consumers, across touchpoints. Fuelled by the holy trinity of content, data and technology; Ogilvy Africa strives to be the best-practice agency model, for Developing & Emerging markets.
With 20+ years in Africa, Ogilvy Africa has won the highest number of regional and global awards for the region including Cannes Lions, Clio awards, Dubai Lynx Festival, SABRE Awards (Global and Africa); to name a few.
Ogilvy is a leading global creative network of WPP, founded by David Ogilvy in 1948.
