Grey has appointed Uddalak Gupta as executive creative director (copy) and joint creative head at Delhi.
Gupta has been brought in as Amit Shankar’s copy partner.
Gupta or UG (as he’s commonly known) has nearly two decades of experience, during which he’s worked in Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi and with agencies like Contract, Equus Red Cell and Ogilvy & Mather. He’s worked on brands like Honda Motorcycles & Scooters, Daewoo Motors, SpiceJet), The Indian Express, The Telegraph, India Today, NIIT, HCL, Oracle, Ten Network, ESPN, InterContinental), Max New York Life, Dabur and Spice Telecom, among others. Apart from national awards like the Abbys, he has also collaborated on campaigns that won a Spikes Asia Gold and two Cannes Finalists in 2011 (for JK Tyre), two Cannes Silvers in 2008 (for Children of the World) and a One Show Design Merit.
On his appointment, Gupta said, "We want to be a rock band that makes their own music and get heard. There’s lots of energy here and good vibes. I come in as rhythm guitar and backing vocals. It’s also a chance to get it cooking with my old mate Amit Shankar. Thanks to Amit Akali and Malvika Mehra for giving it a shout. You’ll hear from us."
Amit Akali, senior vice-president and joint national creative director, Grey India, shared, "Amit Shankar has been one of our best hires at Grey. Under him the Delhi team has grown from a five member team to a 17 member one and picked up both awards and businesses. With UG coming in as Amit’s partner, we hope to take the Grey Delhi creative offering to the next level."
Malvika Mehra, senior vice-president and joint national creative director, Grey India, said, “UG seemed like a perfect partner for Amit Shankar; they’re good friends and have worked together earlier, more importantly UG is a great writer, the kind of talent that attracts other talent to join an agency.”
