Publicis One Indonesia Appoints Shailesh Iyer as Chief Strategy Officer

Brian Capel, Chief Executive Officer, Publicis One Indonesia, announced today, the appointment of Shailesh Iyer as Chief Strategy Officer, effective as of 30th June 2017. The appointment of Iyer, most recently regional strategy director at Leo Burnett Dubai, will see him oversee the strategy function across all agency brands in Publicis One Indonesia including Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis, Starcom, Zenith, Performics, Blue449, SapientRazorfish and Arcade, a strategic alliance partner.

Iyer has almost a decade and a half experience in the communication industry, leading strategy for some of the biggest global and regional clients. His experience spans, Ogilvy, Contract advertising, Jack in the Box Worldwide, Leo Burnett and now Publicis One Indonesia. Having worked with the industries’ top agencies, he has also worked on a diverse portfolio of clients including Marico, Cadbury, HSBC, Shoppers Stop, Tata Indicom, P&G (SK-II), IKEA, Friesland Campina, Samsung and more recently Philip Morris for MENA and Pakistan. As one of the most hybrid strategists today, Iyer has experience across digital and mainline with the right mix of creative, content and consumer behaviour. These skills helped Leo Burnett with some big wins over the past 6 years, including campaigns on Philip Morris.

Commenting on Iyer’s appointment, Brian Capel, CEO Publicis One Indonesia said “There is no better time than now for Shailesh to arrive. As Publicis One is strengthening its offerings and capabilities to clients, his strength and passion in data, insights and strategy to understand human behavior will enhance the creative
business solutions Publicis One is able to provide its client partners. Having worked with Shailesh in his previous Asia Pacific role at Leo Burnett, it was an easy decision to have him on board as he brings an immense understanding of the Indonesian market. His role as Chief Strategy Officer for Publicis One Indonesia highlights the fundamental importance of strategy in driving Publicis One’s vision of Data Driven Creativity, Integrated Creativity and Effective Creativity."

Iyer said, “No words can describe how excited I am to come back to Asia and join the leadership team at Publicis One Indonesia. I started advertising at the young age of 19 and have had the opportunity to witness some paradigm shifts in the way people behave, consume brands and their services. In order to connect with people, we need to understand them and adapt & change our ways quickly and efficiently.

That’s why I believe that Publicis One is the agency model of the future because we have changed the way we approach our client’s business keeping them at the core of our offerings, making sure that we don’t compromise on quality, creativity and business results,” Added Iyer,“Publicis One amalgamates all practices, skillsets and talent under one roof, one P&L and one door making our services simple, integrated and more importantly, effective. As Chief Strategy Officer of Publicis One Indonesia, my job is to make sure that we put data, insights, innovation and creativity at the centre of everything that we do in order to grow our client’s business. This means grooming and equipping talent that have a passion for data, insights and behavior to create a richer creative business solution.”

Iyer began his career in Mumbai India at Ambience Publicis and Ogilvy & Mather advertising in account management. His journey into planning started at Contract Advertising, a part of JWT. His first job in strategy was to lead an ethnographic cultural deep dive for Tata Indicom, the largest mobile service provider at the time. He then completed his Masters in Digital Marketing from the UK whilst being a digital marketing manager for a financial services company in London. He then moved to Leo Burnett Singapore to work on SK-II digital, IKEA, Friesland Campina and on the Samsung Social Media Centre for APAC and MENA where his contributions won both creative and effectiveness awards for the agency. Prior to Publicis One, he has been at Leo Burnett Dubai leading strategy for Philip Morris MENA and Pakistan. Iyer was on the jury for the WARC MENA Strategy prize 2017 that recognizes the best strategy-led campaigns in the MENA region.