Akbar S.

Experience

• 

  Ammirati Puris Lintas

  Jan 1995 - Apr 1997

  Media Planner

  Managed Strategic Media Planning for Unilever's laundry detergent portfolio.Worked on the national launch of Surf Excel in India.

• 

  McCann Erickson

  Apr 1997 - Dec 1998

  Media Manager

  Managed Strategic Media Planning for Perfetti, Air Canada, Microsoft and Bacardi, working across confectionery, travel, software and alcoholic beverages categories.

• 

  Fortune Promoseven

  Dec 1998 - Jan 2000

  Media Planner

  Managed Strategic Media Planning for Gillette, Jumeirah International, Standard Chartered Bank, CocaCola and Rover, working across Packaged Consumer Goods, Hospitality sector, consumer finance products and automobiles.

• 

  Mindshare MENA

  Feb 2000 - Apr 2004

  Associate Media Director

  Managed Strategic Media Planning for Unilever Arabia’s portfolio of Skin Cleansing and Laundry categories.Planning consultant for development of Unilever’s media operations software.Led strategic planning and implementation for hospitality brands of Jumeirah International.Led strategic planning and implementation for cigarette brands of British American Tobacco.

• 

  Unilever Arabia

  May 2004 - May 2016

  Led the media trading & procurement negotiations with all media vendors and representatives as the Media Trading Lead for North Africa and Middle East, Unilever being one of the top advertisers in the Middle East.Achieved significant over delivery on inflation management targets for media planning costs .Improved credit terms with media vendors resulting in business savings, winning business recognition awards.Managed the Communication Channel Planning for Unilever’s entire portfolio of Packaged Consumer Goods including Foods, Personal Care and Home Care products.Represented Unilever on the PeopleMeter Technical Committee for United Arab Emirates and the Middle East Advisory Board for print audits by BPA Worldwide.Trained Brand Management and Agency Teams. Show less Founding member of Unilever’s in-house media planning and buying team which established the department responsible for managing strategic media planning and implementation.Customized the media operations software for managing a multi-brand and multi-million dollar budgets across the markets.Led a team of planners and buyers responsible for delivering optimal strategy and plans following Unilever’s established principles, delivering outstanding results and award winning campaigns.360 planning for the regions including Digital, TV, Radio, Cinema, Print and Out-of-Home media with innovative work.Achieved and over-delivered targets on Return-on-Investment for the communications budgets, inventory management and communication budget management. Significantly improved credit terms, winning multiple business awards and established controls for minimizing budget forecast variances. Worked closely with Brand Management, Creative Agencies and Consumer Insights Teams with complete knowledge of market research and insight tools and techniques. Show less

  • Media Trading Manager - North Africa Middle East

    Jun 2013 - May 2016

  • Media Manager - KSA Gulf

    May 2004 - May 2013
• 

  Mindshare

  Dec 2016 - Dec 2017

  Client Lead

  Client Lead on the Kimberly Clark business, leading the KC Media Strategy and Planning Team, responsible for Digital and Traditional Media strategy, planning and execution for a portfolio of CPG brands across Baby and Child Care, Family Care and AFC.

• 

  M/SIX

  Feb 2018 - Oct 2018

  Client Business Lead

  As Client Account Lead on the Manulife business, responsibilities include providing thought leadership, strategic insights, resource management and leading the client-agency relationship.

• 

  Curry Peepal

  Jan 2020 - now

  Co-Founder

  In the process of building an e-commerce retail venture - Curry Peepal. A one man show trying to build from everything I have learnt over the last 25 years working with industry titans like Unilever and GroupM. From Creative Development, Procurement, Digital Marketing and Analytics, the buck stops here.