MUMBAI: GroupM India on Monday announced the restructuring of its media buying function- Central Trading Group (CTG). With GroupM’s vision to constantly strive towards leveraging its expertise and delivering greater client value, this restructuring will bring new leadership with a fresh outlook and thought leadership to continue delivering client excellence, the company said.
Pratik Rathod who has been leading buying for Wavemaker will be taking on an elevated group-level role of national broadcast head, GroupM India. Rathod’s expertise, vast experience and approach to creative solutions will help the company further leverage one of the largest mediums, the company said in a statement. He will help strengthen GroupM’s OneVoice priorities and strengthen media partnerships. Muralidhar T is taking on an elevated role of leading buying function for the whole of Mindshare. Murali’s strategic thinking and astute commercial acumen would help the overall agency further enhance the buying product and enable higher value unlock for the clients.
K Srinivas Rao takes over the Wavemaker buying mandate from Pratik Rathod. Rao has been leading the Mediacom buying function for the past few years. For MediaCom, Rao has built a strong integrated buying team and strengthened the overall buying products by adopting strong processes. Rahul Satoskar, currently the region buying lead for Mindshare west, gets elevated to lead Mediacom buying nationally. “Rahul is a unique blend of buying, strategy and execution excellence, which we see as a strong foundation to benefit both- clients as well as Mediacom,” the agency added.
“This restructure is a part of an evolving transformation for GroupM. We constantly recognise and invest in talent across functions for our team members who have helped evolve key areas like the media buying practice. The relentless commitment to delivering value to its client’s business is what truly defines team CTG, and I am privileged to lead a multi-dimensional team of leaders who are passionate about media and our client’s business. I am delighted to see these leaders grow and take on larger responsibilities in shaping the GroupM CTG transformational journey,” Sidharth Parashar, president – investments and pricing, GroupM India, stated.
