Byju’s marketing team reunites at Pocket FM as Adityan Kayalakal joins as VP, Brand

New Delhi: Days after BestMediaInfo.com reported that Adityan Kayalakal had quit Jupiter Money as Head of Marketing, he is set to join audio platform Pocket FM as Vice-President, Brand, reuniting a core set of former Byju’s marketing leaders under one roof.

With his move, the senior brand and creative leadership that helped turn Byju’s into one of India’s most visible consumer brands is now largely clustered at Pocket FM.

Vineet Singh, who served as VP and Global Head of Brand and Creative at Byju’s, is currently SVP and Head of Marketing, Communications and Partnerships (global) at Pocket FM.

Kayalakal was Senior Director and Global Digital Lead, Brand Strategy and Sports at Byju’s before moving to Veera as Head of Marketing and then to Jupiter Money. He has now returned to working with former colleagues in a new category.

On the creative side, Vishal Sagar, earlier AVP and Head of Creative at Byju’s, is now Director overseeing brand, creative strategy and social at Pocket FM.

Priyanka Bajaj, formerly Director and Head of Design at Byju’s, is Creative Director – Branding and Communication at Pocket FM.

With Singh, Sagar, Kayalakal, Bajaj and a set of frequent collaborators back together, the core of what many in the industry regarded as Byju’s “dream marketing team” is now tasked with building Pocket FM’s brand story.

The team rose to prominence in mid-2021, when Byju’s made a decisive push to build its in-house creative capability. That unit went on to win major accolades, including creating the first-ever in-house campaign by an Indian brand to win a Cannes Lion in 2022.

During that phase, Byju’s became one of India’s most visible advertisers through high-impact bets such as the Indian cricket team jersey sponsorship, a global presence at the FIFA World Cup 2022 and the signing of Lionel Messi as brand ambassador. The company simultaneously invested at scale in regional-language campaigns, performance marketing and influencer-led content to deepen penetration in Tier-II and Tier-III markets.

The backdrop today is very different. Byju’s is grappling with the after-effects of rapid, debt-fuelled expansion, mounting losses and governance concerns that have hit investor confidence. A series of costly acquisitions, softer demand in the post-pandemic period, and board-level disputes have together pushed the edtech major into a cash crunch and reputational crisis, prompting a steady outflow of senior talent.

Pocket FM, meanwhile, has been steadily stepping up its brand presence. Earlier this month, it released a light-hearted film, ‘Sorry Shaktimaan!’, featuring Sania Mirza and Shikhar Dhawan in nostalgic banter to promote ‘Shaktimaan Returns,’ on the platform.

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The company positions itself as an audio series platform with a global community of over 200 million listeners, an average daily listening time of more than 125 minutes and a catalogue of over 100,000 audio series powered by more than 3 lakh writers worldwide.

With a high-profile marketing and creative bench now in place, the industry will watch closely to see how Pocket FM leverages this Byju’s-hardened leadership to scale its brand and content in India and beyond.