Akash Banerji is expected to join homegrown FMCG major Marico as an executive vice president and will be leading media and digital transformation, Storyboard18 can confirm. Banerji is to join Marico from the Tata Group where he was Business Head for Tata Digital’s Tata Neu Super App. This would be his second innings at Marico.
Banerji started his career as a management trainee with PepsiCo and his first stint at Marico was from 2004 to 2008 in sales and marketing functions. He has also had stints at Star India, Viacom18 and Amazon India. With two decades of diverse experience, Banerji describes himself as a ‘Builder’ at heart, “consistently launching new brands, innovating products, crafting compelling stories, and challenging the status quo to enter uncharted spaces.”
Banerji’s career journey began with foundational roles in sales and marketing for consumer goods giants such as Pepsi and Marico, as well as media powerhouse Star TV, where he led distribution, revenue, brand positioning, and 360 campaigns across a variety of contexts. He’s driven growth and innovation for India’s leading iconic brands like Parachute, Nihar and Star Plus. Venturing into diverse markets (Middle East, Africa, Singapore), Banerji has also led revenues and business development, executing market penetration strategies.
His career trajectory took an intrapreneurial turn with the pivotal launch of the Star Sports network, expanding Star TV into a new category. The subsequent transition into the burgeoning realm of Consumer Tech positioned him as the CMO for the new OTT business within a traditional framework. “Navigating organizational change, establishing a platform brand (‘Go-Solo), and spearheading the development of new capabilities culminated in the creation of ‘Hotstar’, shaping the contemporary landscape of the OTT category,” Banerji’s profile states. Subsequently, as the CMO/Partnerships Head for Viacom18’s novel digital venture, he orchestrated the launch of leading platform Voot.
As India marketing head of Amazon Prime Partnership, Banerji led the Amazon Prime partnerships team and accelerated eCommerce flywheel through increased Prime membership subscriptions (India) growth as marketing head for IN Amazon Prime partnerships.
At Tata Digital, Banerji drove digital transformation and scaling of the B2C start-up business Tata Neu — India’s first eCommerce Super App (a one-stop shop for multiple categories i.e., grocery, health, electronics, airlines, Fashion, Financial Services, etc.) He was also a key member of Tata Neu’s executive team, while reporting to the CEO, to build Tata Neu into a commerce powerhouse.
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