Publicis Groupe firm Digitas India ropes in ESPN STAR Sports marketing head Nirmal Dayani as COO

Chennai-based Digitas India, the Indian arm of the digital marketing agency Digitas which is a part of the French MNC Publicis Groupe, has appointed Nirmal Dayani as its chief operating officer (COO). Prior to this appointment, Dayani was working as head of marketing at ESPN STAR Sports. He will now report to Kanika Mathur, president of Digitas India.

Speaking on his appointment, Dayani said, "This is an amazing opportunity and I am looking forward to working closely with our clients. In this new digital era, we have a great opportunity to integrate our offerings and add value to our customer/client portfolio."

Dayani has more than 21 years of experience in the field of advertising and marketing. He holds an MBA degree from Birla Institute of Technology and earlier worked with companies such as McCann Erickson and JWT. At ESPN STAR Sports, he led the company's diversification into new properties like espnstar.com and ESPN Mobile. He had also played a significant role in launching a number of new channels including STAR Cricket, ESPN HD and STAR Cricket HD.

"We are looking forward to Nirmal leading Digitas India. He will play a key role in nurturing client relationships and driving growth," said Mathur.

Digitas India has a team of 100-plus creative and technical professionals and its key clients include companies like Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Pepsi, Sony Ericsson, Adidas and ITC, among others. The company had earlier roped in Saugata Bagchi as its vice-president to head its Mumbai office.

Interestingly, Publicis Groupe, the parent company specialising in advertising and communications, is looking to expand its operations across India where it aims to double its size by 2015. Only recently, Publicis has acquired Mumbai-based digital marketing startup Resultrix Media and in April this year, it had acquired another agency called Indigo Consulting.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)