Asia-Pacific Power List 2020: Sukhleen Aneja, Reckitt Benckiser

Sukhleen Aneja

Chief marketing officer, hygiene home, South Asia
Reckitt Benckiser
India

Sukhleen Aneja is one of the most visible CMOs in India, having been featured in two 40 under 40 lists and scooping many awards throughout her career for brands such as Harpic, Durex and Dettol. 

The FMCG expert—whose impressive CV includes time at Unilever and L'Oreal—now overlooks hygiene home brands at Reckitt Benckiser (RB), and manages strategic and operational management of end-to-end marketing with full P&L responsibility. When she joined RB, she and her team created a five-year vision for South Asia, including building strong purpose-led strategy as well as driving digital and e-commerce transformation. 

During COVID-19, with hygiene products needed more than ever, Aneja has ensured continuous communications with consumers including the launch of #DisinfectToProtect, a nationwide awareness campaign for disinfectant brand Lizol. 

Perhaps the most memorable campaign under Aneja's leadership is 'Five Status Words' for toilet cleaning brand Harpic, which went on to scoop a bronze award at Cannes Lions. In India, many families—especially those in poorer communities—don’t prioritise building and maintaining toilets, and this sanitation crisis disproportionately affects women who are at higher risk of contracting disease. 

So Aneja and her team swooped in with a campaign—brought to life by agency partner McCann India—to ensure that Indian women were also demanding for clean toilets in their new residences by way of a prevalent Indian custom: matrimonial ads in newspapers. Results showed an increase in grooms building toilets in their homes to woo brides and, in fact, asking for clean toilets has now become accepted lingo in matrimonial ads. Talk about making a difference.

Aneja can be found on Twitter at: @a_sukhleen