Nadkarni quits Coke marketing post

Nadkarni will be joined at his yet-to-be-named firm by longtime associate Sharda Agarwal (who was thought by many to be his successor at Coke), among others. Agarwal was identified as among the young marketing managers to watch for by The Economic Times - Brand Equity report, last year.

Nadkarni was previously with Johnson & Johnson before joining Coca-Cola.

He oversaw the remarkably successful 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' campaign, which created a larger buzz around the brand than ever before in the Indian market, and won creative accolades at the Cannes advertising festival.

Nadkarni also actively supported Coca-Cola embracing the 'economy' platform with a campaign advertising the Rs 5 price point (10 US cents), featuring popular Hindi film star Aamir Khan.

However, Coke's favourable run was cut short by a controversy about pesticides in soft drinks, which affected both cola majors, and resulted in a slackening of marketing activity and spends.

In addition, the launch of Vanilla Coke and its retro-themed campaign, featuring actor Vivek Oberoi, was nowhere near as successful as the 'Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola' campaign.

Other projects that Nadkarni was involved with, such as energy drink Shock and powder concentrate Sunfill, also failed to capture the attention of the market.

McCann Erickson regional creative director Prasoon Joshi described Nadkarni as "a dream client".

"We had a great relationship. He was also bold enough to accept scripts like Paanch, and follow his gut-feel; he was a very creative-friendly client," he said.