Mumbai: WPP Media has appointed Himani Angira Sharma as Vice President – Engagement Lead (West), handing her the mandate to grow its connected television (CTV) business and build engagement-led solutions for brands.
The move closes a decade-long chapter at Sony Pictures Networks India, where she was most recently Group Head for advertising sales strategy across Sony MAX, MAX 2 and MAX HD.
A career built on premium TV sales
Sharma brings around 12 years of experience across television advertising sales, business development and key account management. At Sony, she focused on revenue growth for FMCG advertisers through customised advertising solutions, and monetised high-value programming properties such as World Television Premieres and South Dub Premieres.
Before Sony, she was associated with Zee Entertainment, handling ad sales for Zee TV and Zee Cinema with a brief to expand market share and grow fixed-time commercial revenue.
Announcing the move on LinkedIn, she described her Sony decade as a period of significant professional learning, expressing gratitude while pointing to new challenges at WPP Media.
Why a dedicated CTV lead matters
Her appointment is a clear signal that agencies now treat connected television as a practice, not a pilot. CTV offers the sight, sound and motion of television with the targeting and measurement of digital, which makes it attractive to brand advertisers trying to combine reach with accountability.
Placing a leader with deep linear TV experience in charge of CTV suggests WPP Media wants someone who speaks both languages: the premium inventory economics of broadcast and the audience slicing of digital.
What marketing teams should watch
- Agencies are building named CTV leads, so expectations around data, measurement and formats are rising.
- Engagement-led solutions point toward outcome-based packaging, not just spot impressions.
- Skills honed on premieres and FMCG accounts are likely to show up as premium, high-yield CTV inventory plays.
The takeaway for advertisers
When an agency creates a dedicated CTV role, marketers should ask sharper questions up front: what audience data underpins the buy, which measurement currency is used, and which creative formats are actually built for the living room screen. The answer tells you whether CTV is being treated as a strategic channel or an extension of the old spot buy.
Source: MediaNews4U
