Unilever has elevated Amrita Purkayastha to Chief Marketing Officer for OZiva and Liquid I.V., putting a marketer known for beauty, entertainment and FMCG brands in charge of its digital-first wellbeing portfolio in India. She assumed the expanded role in September 2026.
The new mandate
Purkayastha now leads brand strategy, consumer engagement and growth for two distinct brands in Unilever’s wellbeing stable.
- OZiva is a clean-label active nutrition brand that blends modern nutrition science with Ayurveda.
- Liquid I.V. is positioned as a science-backed functional hydration brand.
The brief is to build culturally relevant, performance-led marketing that strengthens consumer connect and accelerates growth in the wellbeing category. That wording matters: it points to a model where local insight and measurable conversion sit side by side, rather than a traditional awareness-only FMCG campaign.
Why the move matters
Unilever is signalling that India’s health, nutrition and wellbeing market is a priority, and that it intends to scale through digital-native brands. OZiva and Liquid I.V. are not legacy mass-market launches; they are brands built for a consumer who researches, buys and talks about products online. Handing them to a single CMO consolidates strategy and gives the portfolio a shared growth narrative.
The appointment also reflects a specific leadership profile. Purkayastha brings more than a decade of experience across FMCG, entertainment and technology. Her previous Unilever roles include Marketing Manager for Lakmé and, most recently, Senior Global Brand Lead for TRESemmé, where she led brand strategy, communication and innovation for South Asia from January 2024 to October 2026.
A career built across categories
Before Unilever, Purkayastha held marketing leadership positions at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, including Associate Director and Brand Lead for Zee TV, with responsibilities spanning show launches, content marketing and brand campaigns. She also spent six years at Godrej Consumer Products, working on Goodknight, BBLUNT and premium hair-care innovation. At Godrej, she contributed to the launch of BBLUNT Salon Secret, worked on first-in-India hair-care innovations and led digital and integrated marketing campaigns.
What marketers can take away
The hire is a useful signal for teams building D2C or wellness brands. The blend in Purkayastha’s CV maps closely onto the demands of modern brand leadership:
- Brand-building skills from beauty and haircare, where positioning and desirability drive pricing power.
- Content and audience instincts from television, useful for the always-on, story-led world of digital brands.
- FMCG discipline from Godrej, where distribution, claims and innovation have to work together.
For marketing leaders, the implication is that digital-native growth increasingly rewards marketers who can combine cultural insight, content fluency and performance measurement, not specialists in only one lane. Watch how OZiva and Liquid I.V. activate Ayurvedic, hydration or fitness-related cultural moments while staying accountable to growth metrics.
The appointment also sets up a practical test: whether one marketing leader can scale two niche wellness brands without blurring their distinct identities.
Source: MediaNews4U
