Sonal Dabral, Chief Creative Officer South & South East Asia and Vice-Chairman Ogilvy India, has stepped down. According to a statement from Ogilvy, Dabral wants to look at “content and content creation”, an area of keen interest to Dabral. “With so much happening now in this space, he felt the time was right to follow his passion and explore storytelling not confined to advertising. Ogilvy thanks Sonal for his many years of contribution to our offices across India and Asia, and wish him all the best on his next adventure,” the statement read.
Talking about Dabral’s decision, Piyush Pandey, Chief Creative Officer Worldwide & Executive Chairman India, Ogilvy, said: “Sonal was one of my key partners in the creative renaissance at Ogilvy India in the early 1990s. He later moved on to do successful stints as the creative head of Ogilvy Malaysia and Singapore. Sonal came back to India as Chairman of Bates India and, after exploring DDB Mudra for a few years, joined Ogilvy again. I wish him well and am certain he will make the content world shine.”
Most recently, Dabral was named one of the jury presidents for the 2020 edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, where he will head the ‘Direct Lions’ jury at the top festival that will take place between 22-26 June 2020.