KINNECT ELEVATES LEADERSHIP WITH COO AND CBO APPOINTMENTS

Kinnect has elevated Ankit Banga to COO and appointed Gaurav Dudeja as CBO to strengthen operations and client partnerships. The agency, part of Omnicom Advertising India, aims to accelerate growth through integration, creative excellence and cultural relevance, positioning itself for sustained impact in India’s dynamic advertising landscape.

Kinnect, part of Omnicom Advertising India, has announced two significant leadership appointments aimed at strengthening its operational and client partnership frameworks. The agency has elevated Ankit Banga to Chief Operating Officer and appointed Gaurav Dudeja as Chief Business Officer, marking a decisive step in its ambition to accelerate growth and deepen integration across capabilities.  

As COO, Banga will focus on streamlining operations, building agile delivery systems and ensuring seamless collaboration across teams. He emphasised the importance of creating structures that can handle complexity without slowing down, highlighting the need for consistent, high-quality work delivered at speed. His elevation reflects Kinnect’s commitment to operational excellence as it scales in a competitive market.  

Dudeja, who joins from FCB Interface where he served as CEO, will lead business growth, client partnerships and cross-capability integration. He praised Kinnect’s momentum in both business and creative reputation, noting the agency’s deep care for clients’ businesses and its ability to deliver impact through a full-funnel stack of capabilities. He described his role as connecting the dots across teams and ensuring that partnerships remain collaborative, ambitious and value-driven.  

Kinnect has grown fourfold over the past six years despite challenging market conditions, underscoring its resilience and adaptability. Originally a digital-first agency, it is now positioning itself as a fully integrated player within Omnicom Advertising India’s ecosystem. CEO Chandni Shah explained that the industry is moving away from siloed capabilities towards connected systems, and Kinnect’s next phase will focus on scale and relevance. She stressed that the agency’s solutions must be collaborative by design and impactful by default, aligning creative excellence with business outcomes.  

On the creative front, Chief Creative Officer Neville Shah reinforced the importance of cultural relevance in modern marketing. He noted that audiences can instantly spot performative marketing, making authenticity and integration critical. “You can’t force relevance anymore; you have to earn it,” he said, adding that integration protects the integrity of ideas across touchpoints. Kinnect’s creative philosophy is rooted in making everything feel connected, ensuring that campaigns resonate meaningfully with audiences.  

Together, these leadership changes signal Kinnect’s intent to build a stronger, more integrated operating model that balances operational rigour with creative ambition. By aligning delivery frameworks with client partnership strategies and embedding cultural relevance into its creative output, the agency is positioning itself for sustained growth in India’s evolving advertising landscape. The appointments of Banga and Dudeja represent not just a structural shift but a cultural one, reinforcing Kinnect’s ethos of solving real business problems through integrated thinking while staying true to its creative roots.