Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group
Sonal has over two decades of experience in the advertising industry, working on major local, regional and multinational brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, Fiat, Tata Safari, Dove, Le Sancy, Unilever Foods, Ponds, Lakme, Panadol, Cadburys, Asian Paints, Fevicol, Virgin Mobile, Tata AIG, Prudential, GE, Nestle’s Maggi and Milo, DBS Bank, Remy Martin, Colgate, Pizza Hut, Sony, Coca Cola, DHL and many more.
A graduate of the National Institue of Design (NID), Sonal began his career in Lintas, New Delhi. After a brief stint in Mudra Delhi, he went on to have an extremely successful stint at Ogilvy Mumbai before moving to Kuala Lumpur to head Ogilvy in Malaysia and make it one of the top creative offices in the region. Thereafter, as the Chairman and ECD of Ogilvy Singapore, he helped the agency become the hottest agency in the region and the No.1 creative office of the WPP global network. In 2007 he led the agency to be the third highest awarded agency in the world at Cannes Lions. Ogilvy Singapore emerged second runner up as global “Agency of the Year”, a first for an Asian agency.
His next assignment was in a dual role, as the Regional Creative Head and Chairman-India of Bates operating out of Singapore and Mumbai.
In 1999 the Times Of India, a leading Indian newspaper had named Sonal as one of the 50 young Indians who will lead India into the next century. Perhaps to keep that promise Sonal returned to India in 2011 and started a new chapter in his career as the Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of DDB Mudra Group based out of Mumbai.
Apart from being a prolific winner in most of the Regional and International Award shows like Cannes, Clio, D & AD, One Show, LIA, Andy Awards, AdFest, Spikes etc., Sonal has served on most of the juries globally.
A popular speaker, Sonal has spoken at major festivals like LIA, Dubai Lynx, Spikes Asia Singapore, Cristal Advertising Festival, Turkey besides numerous engagements across Asia.
In his spare time, Sonal has also been a popular TV host, Bollywood scriptwriter and has also been channeling his passion for films into directing ad-films.
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