Dentsu Creative India’s chief creative officer (GCCO) Ajay Gahlaut has quit. Multiple sources close to the development have confirmed the news to Storyboard18. Gahlaut was not reachable for comment at the time of filing this story. He joined the Japanese ad network in September 2021.
Gahlaut, who reported to Amit Wadhwa, chief executive officer, Dentsu Creative India, was responsible to run the network’s creative businesses under one optimised service line. Prior to this, Gahlaut was the chief creative officer and managing director of Publicis Worldwide, India (PWW). He has also worked with agencies like Ogilvy India, McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi, among others in his over two-decade-long career. During his tenure in Ogilvy India, Gahlaut wrote the line ‘Do Boond Zindagi Ki’ that anchored the famous Pulse Polio Immunisation campaign with the superstar Amitabh Bachchan.
In 2020, Dentsu cut the number of global brands from 160 to six as part of a major transformation of the Tokyo-based group’s international operations. The Indian unit of Dentsu Group Inc has been rocked by a series of senior-level exits since August 2021, potentially causing more departures and deepening turmoil at the advertising company. Storyboard18 has learnt that a couple of more senior-level executives are on their way out. The firm has several vacant spots; the network company still has no CEO to run the show in India. An agency insider hinted that the agency is shortlisting candidates for the India CEO role.