Venke Sharma is a digital marketing practitioner, recognized by SAP as India's Most Influential Digitalist Thought Leader in the domain of marketing (2015). He had begun advocating digital brand strategy at a time when most brands didn't even have websites, and he built Tribal DDB India, one of India's first digital agencies. He subsequently built Leo Burnett's integrated marketing services agency Arc Worldwide (India); under his leadership, the agency won Cannes Lions for campaigns on Luxor (first Cyber Lion from India) and Tide. During his stint in Jakarta as Leo Burnett's Head of Digital, he set up the social media practice for Samsung and Coca Cola Indonesia. In a career spanning 18 years, he has championed breakthrough creative thinking with big ideas to build brand demand for clients such as P&G, McDonald's, Citibank, British Telecom, Air France--KLM, Carrefour, IIM Ahmedabad, HDFC Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Philip Morris, Reliance, Madura Garments, etc. He believes that social intelligence is key to shaping business outcomes with actionable insights mined from consumer social media conversations. Venke lives in Mumbai with his wife Haripriya and six-year-old daughter Anupama. He practices Sahaja Yoga meditation and is also a swimming enthusiast.
