Lowe Lintas, one of India’s premier advertising agencies, has appointed Kedar Teny as its CEO. Kedar moves from – Avataar.me – a leading visual discovery platform, where he served as Senior VP & Country Head.
Spanning a little over two decades, Kedar’s career is a rich blend of advertising and marketing. He first joined Lintas in 1999 and built his decade-long career in advertising. While at Lintas, he led account management and strategic planning functions for key businesses in multiple geographies across India and SEA. Later, he held senior marketing and business leadership roles across blue chip organizations such as Airtel, HUL, McDonalds and Sony Entertainment Television. He has also shaped early-stage startups such as Tilt Brand Solutions and Avataar.me.
The leadership at MullenLowe Lintas Group envisages a very different future for the industry and Lowe Lintas in the years to come. While creativity will continue to thrive and be at the center of marketing, it is data, technology, social media, customer experience and design that will drive relevance and scale in the new digital economy. Today, brand-building has become a complex and challenging affair, and the rules of the game are changing rapidly. Leadership that has the vision and the proven capability to navigate the new marketing landscape is necessary for an agency if it wants to succeed in this new reality.
Speaking about Kedar’s appointment, Amer Jaleel, Group CCO & Chairman, MullenLowe Lintas Group said: “As Lowe Lintas we are partners to marketing. And there’s no better way of serving that than getting leadership from marketing. It’s almost as if Kedar’s education and achievements with marketing were ordained and timed beautifully for Lowe Lintas’ transformation and make us best placed to be both hub and spokes to brand needs. His insider understanding of the requirements of brands alongside his belief and grooming on the strategic centrality of brand visioning to business success is quite unmatched in industry today. Kedar’s leadership has bounce, energy and a light touch. Exactly how we like it at Lintas!”
Virat Tandon, Group CEO, MullenLowe Lintas Group added: “At Lintas, our transformation journey started a few years ago with focus on “Hyperbundled solutions” to bring our strategy, creative, PR, social, content production, design and experiential services together in the service of the brand. Lowe Lintas has the leading position in the country and boasts of a client list that includes some of the largest and the most successful brands in India. We have built our reputation on work that works with the consumer and in the market, and as true partners to our clients. It is now the right time to change gears in our transformation journey and unlock the magic of “Hyperbundling” for all of our clients at Lowe Lintas. Over my interactions, I found that Kedar was totally made for this job as he has strategic clarity on the future of our industry. He brings with himself an invaluable expertise of marketing and a passion for brands and the creative product. Moreover, he is a great believer and practitioner of technology in marketing to drive growth. And of course, he is a great fit culturally and is fun to work with. So, he fits perfectly into our vision for the future of Lowe Lintas.”
As CEO at Lowe Lintas, Kedar will spearhead transformation and widen its sphere of impact through Hyperbundled solutions to clients and brand owners. His proven track record in advertising and marketing as a business and brand leader makes him the ideal candidate to take on this mandate.
Looking forward to his new role, Kedar says “I am really excited as I return to Lowe Lintas after 14 years. It’s a rare opportunity to be tasked with driving transformation for one’s alma mater and I am humbled and honored to be given this responsibility. 22 years ago, I was clear that if there was an advertising culture to be part of it had to be Lintas and 22 years later I still feel the same. Lowe Lintas is not an advertising agency; it is an institution that has built some of the most iconic brands by not only helping them stay relevant through different eras but also winning hearts and winning in the marketplace through effective creativity. I look forward to working closely with the accomplished MullenLowe Lintas Group leadership team as well as partnering with some old friends and new collaborations to build brands for the future.”
Kedar Teny will take over his responsibilities as Lowe Lintas’ CEO starting 1st September 2021.