PepsiCo has promoted Harjyot Singh Arora to Head – Media, Digital & Investments, recognising his impact in strengthening integrated media strategy, digital capabilities, and data-led commerce. The move underscores PepsiCo’s focus on insight-driven decision-making, digital innovation, and strategic investments to accelerate consumer engagement and growth.
PepsiCo’s decision to elevate Harjyot Singh Arora to the role of Head – Media, Digital & Investments signals more than a personal career milestone; it reflects the global food and beverage major’s sharpening focus on integrated media leadership, digital transformation, and data-driven growth in an increasingly complex consumer landscape. The appointment comes at a time when brands are rethinking how they connect with audiences across fragmented platforms, balance creativity with performance, and build long-term value through smarter investments in media and technology.
Arora’s journey within PepsiCo has been marked by a steady expansion of responsibility and influence. In his previous role as Sector Lead – Media, Data & Commerce Capabilities, he was at the centre of the company’s efforts to modernise how media, digital platforms, and commerce ecosystems work together. At a scale as large and diverse as PepsiCo’s, this has meant moving beyond traditional silos to create unified strategies that link brand storytelling, consumer data, and measurable business outcomes. Colleagues describe his contribution as pivotal in strengthening the organisation’s media strategy while embedding data-led thinking into everyday decision-making.
Over the past few years, the media and marketing landscape has undergone a profound shift. The rise of digital-first consumers, the growing importance of e-commerce, and increasing scrutiny on return on investment have forced marketers to rethink old models. Within PepsiCo, Arora played a key role in responding to these changes by helping build integrated, insight-driven frameworks that allow teams to act faster and smarter. His work focused on enabling scale—ensuring that best practices in media planning, digital activation, and commerce could be applied consistently across brands and markets, while still allowing room for local relevance and creativity.
Arora’s elevation to Head – Media, Digital & Investments places him at the intersection of strategy, execution, and long-term value creation. The expanded remit underscores PepsiCo’s belief that media and digital are no longer just communication tools, but strategic levers that influence everything from brand equity to supply chain efficiency and consumer loyalty. Investments, in this context, are not limited to media spends alone, but extend to partnerships, platforms, and capabilities that can future-proof the business.
A seasoned consumer marketing professional, Arora brings with him a broad and balanced perspective shaped by experience across brand strategy, advertising, digital, media, and new business development. This breadth has been a defining feature of his career. Rather than specialising narrowly, he has consistently operated at the crossroads of creativity and analytics, understanding both the art of brand building and the science of performance marketing. This duality has become increasingly valuable as marketers are expected to deliver not just compelling narratives, but also demonstrable impact on growth.
His professional foundation was built across some of India’s most respected corporate and agency environments. At Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd, where he served as Marketing Manager, Arora gained hands-on experience in consumer marketing within a highly competitive category. The role exposed him to the challenges of building differentiation, driving preference, and managing large-scale campaigns in a market where distribution reach and brand trust are critical. It was here that he developed a strong grounding in brand fundamentals—an understanding that continues to inform his approach to media and digital strategy.
He later joined the Mahindra Group as Assistant Manager – Media, where he further deepened his expertise in media planning and execution within a diversified conglomerate. Working across multiple businesses and categories sharpened his ability to think holistically about audiences and touchpoints. It also gave him an early appreciation of how media investments can support not just marketing objectives, but broader business goals, from reputation management to new product launches.
Arora’s stint at Starcom MediaVest Group added another important dimension to his career. In the agency environment, he built strong capabilities across media planning and brand-led growth, working closely with clients to translate business challenges into effective media strategies. The experience offered a front-row view of how media ecosystems function, how data and insights can be leveraged to optimise outcomes, and how collaboration between agencies and brands can drive innovation. This agency-side perspective has since proved invaluable in his client-side roles, enabling him to engage with partners as a strategic collaborator rather than a transactional buyer.
At PepsiCo, these varied experiences have come together in a role that demands both strategic vision and operational rigour. As Sector Lead – Media, Data & Commerce Capabilities, Arora was instrumental in aligning teams around a common agenda: using data and technology to enhance consumer engagement while maintaining the emotional resonance of PepsiCo’s iconic brands. His efforts helped embed a culture of integrated planning, where media decisions are informed by consumer insights, commerce data, and long-term brand objectives.
The promotion to Head – Media, Digital & Investments also reflects PepsiCo’s broader organisational priorities. As the company continues to evolve its consumer engagement and growth engine, integrated leadership in media and digital has become essential. Consumers today interact with brands across a multitude of touchpoints—social platforms, e-commerce marketplaces, physical stores, and owned digital properties. Managing this complexity requires leaders who can connect the dots, ensure consistency, and make informed investment choices that deliver value over time.
Industry observers note that roles like Arora’s are becoming increasingly critical in large organisations. The convergence of media, digital, and commerce means that decisions made in one area can have cascading effects across the business. By bringing these functions together under a single leadership umbrella, PepsiCo is positioning itself to move with greater agility and coherence in a fast-changing marketplace.
For Arora, the elevation represents both recognition and responsibility. Leading media, digital, and investments at a global major comes with the challenge of balancing short-term performance pressures with long-term brand building. It also requires staying ahead of rapid technological change, from evolving privacy regulations to advances in artificial intelligence and automation. Those who have worked with him suggest that his strength lies in his ability to remain grounded in fundamentals while embracing innovation—an approach that has served him well throughout his career.
As PepsiCo looks to the future, the emphasis on integrated, insight-driven decision-making is likely to intensify. Arora’s appointment signals confidence in leaders who can navigate complexity, inspire cross-functional collaboration, and turn data into meaningful action. In an industry where change is the only constant, his journey underscores the value of adaptability, breadth of experience, and a clear strategic lens. For PepsiCo, the move reinforces its commitment to building robust capabilities that can sustain growth and relevance in an increasingly dynamic consumer world.
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