GroupM appoints new Senior Director for Media Consulting
Weeks after being merged with Kantar to facilitate a global Kantar Analytics practice, GroupM now has a new Senior Director for its Media Consulting arm in India. Amit Nevrekar will now occupy this role, having joined from the Broadcast Audience Research Council in India, where he was Vice President for the digital division.
British media, advertising, and public relations company WPP is substantially ramping up its service offerings across the globe. The firm – which is worth over $20 billion and owns a large roster of global media agencies – has been rearranging its global operations to form a Kantar Analytics division, which is being primed for a leading position in the global customer insights business.
In India, this restructuring involved the merger of two of WPP’s subsidiaries – namely Kantar and GroupM – to form a multidisciplinary team of experts in the field of branding and marketing. The former is the consulting and insights subsidiary of WPP, while the latter is the largest media and marketing firm in the world in terms of billings.
To ensure the effectiveness of the merger, the pair now seems to be making strategic alterations to its personnel. Amit Nevrekar, who has nearly two decades of experience in marketing and consumer insights, will now join GroupM as a Senior Director for its Media Consulting division.
Having graduated in Physics from the University of Mumbai, Nevrekar began his professional career at the WPP group itself, specifically in its Kantar IMRB subsidiary, which offers market analysis and consumer consulting services. Over five years spent at Kantar IMRB, Nevrekar eventually ascended to the position of Manager for Client Services.
Neverekar then spent a prolonged period in research, joining the Media Research Users Council in Mumbai, and spending two years there as Research Head. He then joined TAM Media Research – an analytics agency specialising in studying radio audiences – where he spent three years as the Head of Radio Audience Management.
Leveraging this expertise gained in radio consumption patterns, Nevrekar took up the position of Head of Knowledge & Consumer Insights at Mumbai-based radio channel RedFM. He then broke into the senior executive ranks, having been appointed Chief Operating Officer at Adoroi.
Neverekar’s second association with WPP came through GroupM, when he joined the latter’s advertising subsidiary MediaCom. Here, he was put in charge of strategic planning for P&G’s Homecare & Healthcare division, in his capacity as Senior Business Director. Since 2015, he has been the Vice President of the Digital division at the Broadcast Audience Research Council in India – a position that he has now vacated for his new role in the senior ranks of GroupM.
In terms of market demand, Neverekar will have a monumental audience to work with, given that India’s investment in digital advertising and other media & entertainment features is set to skyrocket over the next few years, particularly as the number of people with internet access surpasses the 850 million mark.