Santosh P. Kumar

About Santosh P. Kumar

Entrepreneur turned CXO with 20+ years of experience across India, Singapore, Southeast Asia & the Middle East.I bring a rare blend of entrepreneurial agility and corporate leadership discipline — combining creativity, data, and technology to drive sustainable business growth.I’ve built three ventures from the ground up, with two successful exits, and held leadership roles at Hindustan Times and Publicis Groupe before taking on larger transformation mandates.At Innocean India, I’m driving Innocean 2.0 — an ongoing journey to evolve the organisation into a truly integrated marketing solutions company. Our goal is to bring together advertising, media, content, data, and Mar-Tech within a unified ecosystem — powered by emerging AI-led automation and analytics — to enhance creative excellence, operational efficiency, and brand experiences.With anchor clients such as Hyundai and Kia, we’ve strengthened our foundation while adding 10+ new brands across healthcare, real estate, CPG, technology, and lifestyle. The focus spans horizontal expansion through new hubs in Bengaluru and Mumbai, and vertical expansion via new practices in Digital CX/CRM, Content, Data, Mar-Tech Consulting, and AI-driven marketing solutions.In 2025, we launched Canvas Worldwide India — a specialised media unit dedicated to delivering outcome-based, performance-led media solutions ( canvasworldwide.com.in).My leadership philosophy is rooted in clarity, collaboration, and continuous learning. I believe transformation is not a milestone — it’s a mindset. It’s about empowering people, simplifying complexity, and using technology to elevate creativity and performance.

Experience

1. Chief Operating Officer

   INNOCEAN India

   Jan 2023 — Present · Gurugram, IN

   Innocean is a global marketing communications agency headquartered in South Korea, operating across 23 countries with a mission to craft innovative brand experiences powered by technology and data.At Innocean India, serving as the Master Agency for Hyundai and Kia globally, while also managing Creative and Media AORs for brands including Hamdard, Sony, KEI, Valvoline, Narayana Health, DLF, Nayara Energy, Swiss Beauty, Realme and more. Responsible for driving growth, managing operations, and leading the transformation into a digital- and AI-first integrated marketing solutions company.Building Innocean India 2.0: Focused on making the agency digital-first and future-ready, embedding best practices across media, communication, CX, experiential, sports, space marketing and retail. Continuously enhancing capabilities in creativity, tech, and data, while building high-performance teams to deliver innovative campaigns, measurable ROI, and customer-centric experiences. Currently spearheading the AI transformation of the agency, laying the foundation for an AI-first organisation while sustaining strong revenue growth across all functions.Notable AchievementsDriving high revenue growth (~40% comulative) since 2023 with 10+ new brand acquisitions, while optimising operating profits through continuous efficiency and productivity improvements.Expanding non-captive business (3x) and scaling space marketing & CX solutions Ranked among Top 10 agencies in India by revenue, consistently featured as a Best Place to Work, and winning numerous awards across Creative, Digital, Media, Integrated, and Innovation categories.Established 5 Centres of Excellence (COEs) – Innocon (Content), Innodata (Analytics), Innolab (AI & Tech), InnoCX (CX/CRM) – strengthening capabilities across data, creativity, and technology and building new revenue streamsEstablishing and scaling Canvas Worldwide India -Specialised media agency with Digital & AI first focus, launched in 2025)

Education

• Institute of Rural Management (IRM)

  PGDM (MBA), Marketing

  2002 — 2004

• CCS (Chaudhary Charan Singh)University

  Bachelor of Business Administration - BBA, Management

  1998 — 2001

• Indian School of Business

  Leadership in AI

Skills

• Entrepreneurship
• Business Operations
• P&L Management
• Team Leadership
• International Business
• Digital Strategy
• Mobile Marketing
• Media Planning
• Online Advertising
• Digital Media
• Digital Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Media Buying
• Analytics
• Strategy
• Business Development
• Sem
• Facebook
• Business Strategy
• Advertising
• Ppc
• E-Commerce
• Competitive Analysis
• Brand Development
• Brand Management
• Start-Ups
• Social Media
• Mobile Advertising
• Marketing
• Mobile Devices
• New Media
• Web Marketing
• Marketing Management
• Resource Management
• Business Relationship Management
• Board Relations
• Investment Strategies
• Investor Relations