Dheeraj Sinha, who recently stepped down from his roles of co-chief executive officer of Leo Burnett South Asia and as chairman of BBH India, is likely to join FCB Group as chief, as per agency insiders. Storyboard18 has reached out to Sinha and the agency for a comment.
Leo Burnett is part of the French advertising and marketing communications company Publicis Groupe, while FCB Group along with creative and media stablemates IPG Mediabrands, McCann Worldgroup and MullenLowe Group, is part of Interpublic Group, which is based in the US. Effectively this move would have Sinha going over to a rival ad holding company.
It’s still unclear what leadership changes Sinha’s rumoured appointment would affect at FCB Group in India, which is led by chairman and CEO Rohit Ohri. Storyboard18 has also reached out to Ohri for comments on the matter.
Insiders suggest Sinha’s appointment at FCB Group is a factor of his leadership and contribution in turning around Leo Burnett’s fortunes, bringing fame and awards to the agency, and turning it into a future-ready firm. Something many legacy agencies have been struggling with is keeping up with the pace of change in the media and technology landscape, including advances in fields like Artificial Intelligence.
Sinha had been leading five businesses for the Publicis Groupe in India and South Asia – Leo Burnett, Leo Burnett Orchard, BBH, Publicis Business and Publicis Health. He had set the vision for Leo Burnett to be India’s No.1 new-age agency in 2018. By 2022, Leo Burnett had grown 40 percent in revenue over 2018 and almost 30 percent of its revenue came from new-age clients. In the last four years, Leo Burnett has transitioned from being a mid-tier agency to a top-tier agency.