Vandna Verma named executive vice president of new specialist unit – Leo Burnett Experience

The Leo Burnett Group India has launched a new offering – Leo Burnett Experience, a specialist unit that will focus on rural marketing, activation, events and exhibitions across metros and 5,000 small towns and cities.

Leo Burnett Experience has a pan-India presence with a team of 40 professionals working on some iconic brands in the country such as Dabur, Vodafone, Uninor, McDonald’s, ITC Foods, OnePlus, Amazon, P&G, Fiat, Axis Bank, Ruchi Group, and Bajaj Discover.

Vandana Verma, Executive Vice President, Leo Burnett Experience, will oversee the division’s operations. She will report to Group CEO Saurabh Varma and will be based out of Leo Burnett India’s Mumbai office.

Apart from Verma, the leadership team of Leo Burnett Experience includes Nishith Sharma (National Creative Director), Ankit Grower (Head of North and East), Pratik Maitra (Head of South), Sandesh Shetty (Head of National Operations) and Kiran Dodiya (Head of West).

Commenting on the occasion, Varma said, “One of our key HumanKind pillars is participation. It is my belief that the future is in creating experiential platforms. Our unique methodology of PLAY, BUY, SHARE gives Leo Burnett Experience a truly differentiated offering. Already it is the fastest growing part our business. And our ambition is to add technology to create immersive experiences for consumers.”

Verma, Head of Leo Burnett Experience throws some light on the division’s unique offering, “ROI is the biggest black hole in India’s experiential industry. None of the existing agencies seem to effectively manage crisis and identify likely risks that affect ROI. At Leo Burnett Experience we give foremost importance to foreseeing risks and managing real time crisis to maximize the output for clients. Our revenue growth has been significant in the last 18 months. Going forward we will build on this momentum and surpass the industry average growth of 25%. We define our objectives clearly and develop strategies based on Human Kind’s philosophy of building brands and changing human behavior using creativity. As for the most exciting opportunity – it is the rural markets, where brands are increasingly demanding strategy based experiential services – a big gap in the industry which we will address. These are surely exciting times at Leo Burnett Experience.”

Photo caption: L-R: Kiran Dodiya, Vandana Verma, Saurabh Varma, Ankit Grover, Sandesh Shetty, Pratik Maitra, Nishith Sharma.