Cheil's focus on non-Samsung business is very high: Sanjeev Jasani

Almost a decade ago, when digital was just becoming a mainstay in industry conversations, Cheil Worldwide announced a strategic move for India. The Korean agency merged its ‘chief digital officer’ management position into the chief operating officer’s role and elevated Sanjeev Jasani to take charge.

He seemed the obvious choice then to spearhead digital for the agency. In 2015, he had joined Cheil India as chief digital officer. Prior to that he was with Ogilvy India. where he led OgilvyOne Worldwide’s transformation from an offline CRM agency to a full-fledged digital outfit and drove the brand to cross 200% revenue mark during his 14-year journey at the firm.

Cut to 2024, one year short of completing 10 years at Cheil India, Jasani is the man behind agency’s transition to a digital-first company and its seamless progression from “a vertical to an integral cross-functional role horizontally.”

“A lot of agencies speak about integration, it’s very hard! We have been working on it and now, we don’t have a digital department, the entire agency is digitally equipped,” Sanjeev Jasani, group COO, Cheil South-West Asia, tells Campaign.

Popularly known as the Samsung-agency globally, Cheil India has been on a mission to grow its client base beyond Korean electronics giant. The launch of Cheil X in 2017, a full-service independent outfit, was a testimony to its strategic positioning in the Indian market.

While emphasising on Samsung’s contribution to agency’s learning curve, Jasani also explained how its robust experience works for the non-Samsung clients as well. “Our learnings from Samsung business is immense and it helps us in leveraging those in other client categories. A lot of clients sit up and acknowledge that Samsung is our biggest client and we don’t shy away from it either. It’s an asset!”

From charting a business strategy with technology at its centre to eyeing an acquisition in media space to increase footprints amongst non-Samsung clients, Jasani talks about Cheil India’s path forward and why it likes to call itself a “business-connected agency.”