L&K Saatchi & Saatchi names Avinash Jakhalekar as group creative director
L&K Saatchi & Saatchi on Tuesday announced that it has appointed Avinash Jakhalekar as group creative director. Jakhalekar joins the agency from Lowe Lintas and will be based out of Mumbai. He will report to Kartik Smetacek, joint national creative director, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi. “Avinash embodies the perfect qualities that I look for in creative person – equal parts talent, energy and resilience. We look forward to him putting his amazing craft and can-do attitude to work on some of our key businesses,” Smetacek said.
Over his 14-year professional career stint, Jakhalekar has worked with some of the leading advertising hostshops in India. He has managed creative output and rendition for a host of brands across agencies including UltraTech, Mumbai Indians, ICIC Pru, Zee TV, Citibank, Skoda, MX Player, Brand Factory, Burger King, Nerolac Paints among others. “It’s an exciting opportunity to be working for an agency that has been making heads turn with its noteworthy work over the past two years. The entrepreneurial spirit within the agency is one of the reasons that made me want to join. I can’t wait to get started and work alongside a fantastic team in producing some great work,” Jakhalekar stated.
Jakhalekar has worked across Lowe Lintas, Publicis Ambience, DDB Mudra and Network Advertising in various creative roles. After spending three years at Network Advertising, he moved on to DDB Mudra where he managed creatives on brands like Top Gear & Lavasa. His next career move was with Publicis Ambience as senior creative director – art where he worked on brands like Zee TV, Nerolac, Skoda, Citibank, SonyLIV, Brand Factory, among others. He then moved on to Lowe Lintas where he was associated with brands like Mumbai Indians, Ultra Tech, Jameson Whiskey, ICICI Pru, Freecharge, among others.