WPP Media has brought in Ankit Dhameja as Senior Vice President – Strategy, with a remit to lead strategy for the Google India account. The appointment was announced from Mumbai and adds a senior consulting voice to the agency’s leadership as it sharpens its AI-led and data-led offering for a high-profile client.
From consulting to agency strategy
Dhameja joins from Deloitte, where he spent six years as Lead – Technology and Media. Earlier in his career, he worked with BBC News, Network18, Mindshare and Lodestar Universal, giving him a mix of media agency, newsroom and advisory experience.
In the new role, he will focus on bringing together business and media strategy, AI-led transformation, consumer intelligence, data and innovation to solve complex business challenges and identify new opportunities for growth.
Why the Google India mandate matters
Google is not only a media spender; it is also a platform, adtech player and AI company. Leading strategy for Google India therefore means navigating marketing, media and technology conversations at the same time. For WPP Media, this makes the role a useful test of how integrated strategy can become.
Dhameja underlined that shift in a LinkedIn post, saying:
As AI continues to reshape consumer behaviour, marketing and the media ecosystem, I am particularly excited about helping translate that change into clear strategic direction, scalable solutions and measurable business impact.
For marketing professionals, the appointment is a signal. When agencies hire consulting talent for a key client, the brief typically moves beyond media planning into the following areas:
- Connecting brand strategy with business outcomes, not just campaign metrics.
- Using AI and consumer intelligence to spot growth opportunities early.
- Translating complex data and market signals into executive-ready recommendations.
- Building go-to-market plans that span media, platform and product conversations.
What this signals for India’s agency market
India’s agency landscape is seeing more leaders with consulting backgrounds step into strategy roles. Clients increasingly want partners who can handle ambiguity, structure difficult problems and make strategy actionable. Dhameja’s profile matches that demand: his work spans strategy, market intelligence, go-to-market planning and executive storytelling.
For brand-side and agency-side marketers, the takeaway is to strengthen the same muscles. A simple framework is to treat every major campaign or platform decision as a business case: define the outcome, map the data signals, pressure-test the strategy and make the recommendation easy for leadership to act on.
With AI changing how consumers discover and choose brands, having a leader who can connect those shifts to strategy is becoming less of a luxury and more of a competitive necessity.
Source: MediaNews4U
