Grey Mumbai gets new Vice President of Planning

Kavita Gadkari has joined Grey Mumbai as Vice President, Planning. She joins Grey from Stellar Search in Dubai where she single-handedly led a successful entrepreneurial start-up. Prior to that, she headed Strategy and Insights at Inca Tanvir Advertising, Sharjah, U.A.E.

In India, Kavita’s planning career spanned over 15 years at FCB Ulka, Mumbai. With her vast experience, Kavita is well positioned to provide strategic insights to Grey’s clients.

Among Kavita’s noteworthy accomplishments during the early phase of her career were to develop the positioning for Amul Ice Cream based on thorough qualitative research, Mind & Mood and product testing. The positioning “Real Milk. Real Ice Cream” has stood the test of time and continues to fuel the brand, making it a formidable player in the ice cream market. Other achievements included convincing the client to resist changing Santoor’s (Wipro Consumer Products) promise of ‘younger looking skin’ – it is probably the only soap brand to have kept to the same positioning platform for over a decade and now owns that position.

In addition, Kavita was also closely involved in rolling out FCB’s much acclaimed ‘blue-sky’ projects of FCB Grid, Mind & Mood, Brand Relationship Style Monitor and Womanmood 2006 in India.

On Kavita’s appointment, Bindu Sethi, Chief Strategy Planning Officer, Grey Asia Pacific, said, “I am delighted to have Kavita as part of the planning team. With Kavita in Mumbai and Divyapratap Mehta in Delhi, I am looking forward to seeing great strategic insights leading to more Famously Effective communications for our clients.” Bindu added, “Kavita’s experience and accomplishments in business development, coupled with her people skills will add significant value to our clients’ businesses.”