Ex-Pantaloons CMO, Zahid Shaikh, joins Motivator

Shaikh will head Motivator's South operations and be responsible for building up a comprehensive product portfolio, driving growth and enhancing business performance

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | April 1, 2016

Zahid Shaikh

Media agency Motivator, known to work with global and Indian corporates, along with technology enabled startups, has appointed Zahid Shaikh, as its Head of South Operations. Shaikh is a former CMO of Pantaloons. In his new role, Shaikh will focus on three key areas – building a comprehensive product portfolio, driving growth and enhancing capability in data, CRM, retail, marcom effectiveness and business performance.

V. Narayanan

Motivator has been rated India's fastest growing agency in the last three years in RECMA 2015. Commenting on the new appointment, V. Narayanan, Chief Growth Officer, Motivator, said, “Over the last year, we have focused on bringing in the brightest and most diverse talent into Motivator, with a vision to deliver solutions that drive clients, business performance and growth. We have created a team of partners who work closely with clients on not only their core media and advertising opportunities, but also delve deeper to understand and contribute positively by addressing their business challenges. Zahid, who comes with a wider business and marcom experience, is the fifth key hire over the last six months.”

Speaking of his new role, Zahid Shaikh said, “What excited me the most about this opportunity is Motivator's client centricity and performance orientation. Enabled with a strong foundation from GroupM, and access to domain expertise in media and marketing, Motivator has a proven record of accomplishment to drive our clients' business in a unique way. I look forward to working with our brilliant team and roster of clients in the South.”

Zahid Shaikh joins Motivator from United Breweries, where he was responsible for data analytics to primarily optimize business results for the company. Prior to that assignment, Shaikh had been CMO, Pantaloons, where he transformed the brand, which was initially perceived as a male brand, into a unisex brand.

He worked closely with Pantaloons stakeholders and Kishore Biyani's Future Group, to build a fashion image for the brand. Under Shaikh's leadership, Pantaloons marched past a turnover of Rs 1,000 crores (across 100 stores) from a turnover of Rs 100 crores (from 11 stores). His efforts in restructuring the CRM engine, had resulted in superior cost efficiency. On the whole, Shaikh comes in with rich marketing, communication, retail, CRM, data and business experience to enable deeper and broader partnerships with clients.

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