Kartik Sharma named Omnicom Media India CEO, Amardeep Singh appointed COO

Kartik Sharma has been named CEO of Omnicom Media India, according to people familiar with the development. Amardeep Singh will take on the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO). Shashi Sinha, who was executive chairman of IPG Mediabrands, has been appointed Strategic Advisor of the combined entity in India.

The move places one of India’s most experienced media leaders in charge of integrating the two groups’ planning, buying, data/tech and commerce capabilities under a single India leadership once the global merger completes.

Sharma has led Omnicom Media Group (OMG) India since 2020, after more than a decade at Wavemaker/Maxus (including CEO–South Asia) and earlier stints at Madison Media and Mindshare.

 His elevation comes against the backdrop of Omnicom’s all-stock acquisition of IPG, a deal valued at more than $30 billion that will form the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company by revenue. The transaction announced in December 2024 with targeted cost synergies of about $750 million has been securing regulatory clearances through 2025 and is widely expected to reshape competitive dynamics across creative, media and specialty services. For India, the combined portfolio spans marquee media brands across both holding companies and a deep client roster in FMCG, auto, tech, BFSI and e-commerce. People tracking the integration say Sharma’s immediate task will be to preserve marquee agency-of-record mandates during the transition while unifying trading, measurement and identity infrastructure across linear TV, CTV/OTT and performance channels. The intention, they add, is to bring pooled buying power to a softer GRP market, standardise brand-lift/attention frameworks for multinational clients, and unlock outcome-linked mandates in retail media and commerce.

Market observers expect the merged India operation to run a unified P&L with a common trading desk and conflict-management protocols for sensitive categories; legacy agency brands are likely to continue facing the market in the near term while back-end tech, analytics, finance and billing are consolidated. Execution risk remains, in stitching together platforms, reconciling data taxonomies and aligning commercial terms but the scale story is clear: a broader toolset and more negotiating muscle for clients if the integration lands as planned.

Globally, Omnicom has framed the merger as creating the industry’s broadest and most innovative platform; in India, that ambition will now be tested under Sharma’s stewardship. With regulatory sign-offs progressing in key markets during 2025 and the deal guided to close in the second half, attention will turn to Q4/Q1 pitch outcomes, CTV and retail-media wins, and whether the combined bench can convert scale into share gains in a year of cautious FMCG spending and rising performance budgets