Asia-Pacific Power List 2023: Madhav Nayak, Yum! Brands

Madhav Nayak 

Chief marketing officer
KFC Asia
Singapore
New member

Madhav Nayak was appointed chief marketing officer for KFC Greater Asia in 2021, which includes top global markets such as Japan and Indonesia. His role sees him lead marketing for KFC across $2 billion+ systems sales business in Greater Asia, with responsibility for sales performance, brand strategy and execution, consumer insights, ecommerce, and media.

Nayak is passionate about building distinctive brands that make people’s lives more enjoyable and less complicated – and believes in the power of creativity to achieve these goals. This creative flair has indeed been demonstrated in recent standout KFC campaigns, including the #SorryNotSorry series of short videos for social and digital channels that promoted KFC's bunless chicken sandwiches, the 'Double-Down' and 'Triple Down,’ which skilfully persuaded purveyors of fast food in Singapore to permit themselves to eat something that they know they probably shouldn't.

And in a playful Hong Kong campaign last October, the fast-food giant devised a gadget to analyse one’s stress levels. The "Brainwave Bucket" was created to persuade stressed-out Hong Kong residents to "stop overthinking." The device, a smart helmet designed to resemble the iconic KFC bucket, has a built-in headband that monitors users' brain activity.

The information coming from the helmet is linked to a mobile application that offers "real-time biofeedback" to show how engaged the user's mind is. Naturally, the user must be chowing down on a bucket of chicken, and this behaviour is anticipated to signify a decrease in stress in one's brain activity. If that is the case, they will be "rewarded" with additional chicken.

Meanwhile, in China, KFC opened its first green KFC outlets in Beijing and Hangzhou as part of its commitment to building net-zero restaurants by 2050.

Prior to taking up the mantle at KFC, Nayak was the APAC partnership lead, global marketing solutions for Facebook where he oversaw marketing programmes for the Facebook family apps and services. Before his stint at Facebook, Nayak was the former senior global director of Unilever. During his time there, Nayak led the global marketing programme including innovation, communication and brand strategy.

He was responsible for markets such as Southeast Asia, Europe, Turkey, Latin America and China. He was also a member of Unilever's global leadership team and Southeast Asian ANZ cluster leadership team.