Shaon started his advertising career in 1999 with Redifusion DY&R, Delhi and then joined McCann Erickson, Dhaka in 2001 as the Head of Strategic Planning. Being a rare breed with both planning and creative capability, he then took over the responsibility of Strategic Planning and Creative Department at GREY Dhaka as General Manager in the beginning of 2007. Today he heads the agency as the Managing Partner and the Creative Chief.
During this journey so far, he has taken Grey Dhaka to a height where others are only aspiring to reach. Today, Grey Dhaka is the most sought after strategy and creative agency of the country and handles numerous big brands of the market. The only Bangladeshi agency to win prestigious Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia, first to win APAC Effie, 9 times “Agency of the Year” and highest number of metals in the local award show certainly speak for his excellent leadership all the way.
Aside advertising, he has expanded his creative foray into the arena of films, theatre, digital content, acting, et al.
He is also passionate about Table Tennis, voluptuous about books and obsessive about movies and music. He is happily married and blessed with two angelic son and daughter.
Tariq has professional advertising experience of nearly 19 years. First half of his career grew first with Bitopi Advertising Limited and then with Cogito Marketing Solutions. From 2010 onwards, he has stayed with Grey Dhaka and been a very instrumental player in growing the business.
Tariq has the keen interest and ability to learn the clients’ business way and inculcate those into the agency’s internal teams. He can arrange a focused march for everyone involved toward a common goals.
He has experience of handling clients like GlaxoSmithKline, P&G, Coca-Cola, Berger Paints, United Commercial Bank, ACI, Akij Foods & Beverage, MGI, Independent TV, AB Bank, Citycell, GPH Ispat, Romania, IDLC, Bashundhara Group, Singer, HeidelbergCement, BD Foods, and many more throughout his career.
A known face in the industry, a passionate event person with 18 years of proven track record of handling all events and activation of the leading national daily ‘Prothom Alo’ joined Grey Marketing Services Team as Director, Operations in 2014. Today he heads the events and activations wing of Grey Dhaka.
Having a Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising, Media & Events from National Institute of Event, Mumbai, he has widened his area of expertise in this field as one of the most professional event persons in the industry.
He has got a very wide range of resource network in Bangladesh as he was the key driver of Prothom Alo Bondhushobha managing 237 committee presidents directly under his supervision nationwide
His experience bag includes events like Merril Prothom Alo Awards, Prothom Alo Sports Award, Arranging Round tables, GPA 5 celebration, Bhasha Protijog, Anti-Drug campaigns and a list of 20 more Prothom Alo regular events.
Imrul started his financial learning in the Chartered Accountancy profession in the member firm of BDO Moore Stephens, UK in Bangladesh named M J Abedin & Co.. He completed MBA in Accounting and Information system from University of Dhaka. He is partly qualified Chartered Accountant.
After spending thousands of hours in auditing in the CA farm for three and half years he joined in country’s first JCI accredited international chain hospitals - Apollo Hospitals Dhaka. Later on, he served in world’s largest MNC shipping lines The A.P. Møller – Mærsk A/S as Section Chief, He became the Head of finance in WAC Bangladesh Limited, one of the largest freight forwarding company in Bangladesh .
Before joining GREY Group, he served as Group Finance Head of Bitopi Group as General Manager, One of the largest exporter of Apparels, having their advertising affiliation with Leo Burnett & Starcom, and event management companies , Agriculture, consisting of 7,000 staffs and an annual turnover of $150 million.
Having a diversified industrial experience in healthcare, shipping and forwarding, apparel manufacturing, advertising, events, activation & agriculture his main focus is towards target oriented financial administrator to achieve organizational mission with strategic policy making and implementation. He also contributes to the achievement of the company objectives by providing advice and guidance on financial strategy. He can harmonize the day to day challenges with proper decision making and leadership.
Imrul is familiar with change Management and understands the role of transformation of finance function to expedite business efficiency. He is keen to learn regularly to develop himself more up to date and bring global standard in local practices.
At Grey Dhaka he has brought significant improvement in liquidity and profitability, internal control process, internal client profitability, resource utilization, corporate tax and VAT planning, separate procurement system, WPP compliances and in many more areas.
He is married and has two kids. He enjoys travelling and has a great interest in technology.
With 14 years of experience in Media, Kafi is one of the most prominent figures in the industry. A home-grown resource of Grey Dhaka’s media team, Kafi has risen to head the media team and expanded his horizon from traditional media to digital, mobile, PR.
Besides his core expertise in Media Planning, he also mastered audience research and analysis, web analytics, media buying, digital communication, and mobile marketing (SMS, WAP, iPhone/Android apps). His skill in mathematics and love for numbers and data has made him an expert in media research, planning and buying. He thrives on challenges, particularly those that expand the company’s reach.
He has handled accounts like Proctor & Gamble, New Zealand Dairy Product Ltd., Bangladesh Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Kollol Group of Companies, Symphony Mobile, Reckitt Benckiser (Bangladesh) Ltd., Axiata Bangladesh Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline Bangladesh, HEMAS Consumer Bangladesh Pvt. Ltd. and ACI Bangladesh and many more.
Jaiyyanul Huq’s career spans a whopping 17 years! With a unique eye to looking at solutions to business problems rather the run-of-the-mill advertising, he has helped build some of the most successful integrated campaigns within the country and around the region. In 2016, Jai (pronounced ‘Jay’ is also what his friends call him) helped Bangladesh and Grey Dhaka win its first Cannes Lion with a Gold in Product Design for the Eco-Cooler. After a 3-year stint across Southeast Asia he joined back at the Dhaka Studio as the Executive Creative Director to spearhead the creative mandate for JTI, Grameenphone and a multiverse of clients. With a primary focus to transform and embed digital and experiential thinking into the agency’s creative team. His last role was to head the APAC creative team for the largest on-demand food delivery brand across Asia. This helped him understand how brands – regardless of industry - need to embody performance marketing and digital first thinking in their everyday creative solutions.
With 12 years of experience in brand communications, Bitop Das Gupta is a hybrid strategist with expertise in strategic thinking, creative communication, digital strategy and content. He has been with Grey Dhaka for more than a decade and has risen up to be a home grown planner believing in the credo of solving business problems with creativity and producing famously effective works. He has played an instrumental role in helping the agency to enhance the depth and breadth of their total integrated offering and fully leveraging off digital and data. His strategy style starts with the exploration of cultural forces and analysis of behavior, then gets to the root of the real problem, and solves that with creative ideas in tandem with digital and data. His contribution has helped Grey Dhaka win local and international awards at Cannes Lions, Warc Prize for Asian Strategy, Spikes Asia, AdFest, AdStars and many others. In 2016, he helped his agency, Grey Dhaka and his country Bangladesh win its first ever Cannes Gold Lion in Product Design Category for the Eco Cooler project. In 2019, he played a crucial role in winning 2 Silver Lions and 1 Bronze Lion for the UCB & Shwapno AgroBanking project. In 2020, he won his first ever WARC Grand Prix award and Category Disruptor award at WARC Prize for Asian Strategy. He has been published in various marketing publications including WARC. He has contributed to Campaign Asia’s insights on Bangladesh brands for their Asia Top 1000 Brands series. He has been in the esteemed jury panel of Tangrams Strategy & Effectiveness 2021, AdFest 2020 & 2021. He has also been invited to judge in APAC Effies 2021 and Warc Prize for Asian Strategy 2021. Bitop has extensive insight and experience across a diverse range of industries, and he has created several campaigns for Grameenphone (a Telenor Company), Coca-Cola, GlaxoSmithKline, Nestle, International Cricket Council, United Commercial Bank, Godrej, New Zealand Dairy products Ltd. and many more. Aside from his passion for advertising and all things creative, Bitop also has a keen interest for culture hopping and sports.
Quote: