Published on: April 20, 2026
Mumbai, 20th April, 2026: Publicis Groupe India today announced the appointment of Diwaker Chandani as Managing Partner, Influential India, to lead and scale its influencer capability in the market. Chandani’s mandate will be to build and scale this capability, integrating data, creators, media and commerce to drive measurable business outcomes.
The appointment comes alongside the rollout of Influential — the groupe’s global creator marketing solution — in India today, marking a significant step in transforming influencer marketing from a fragmented, creator-led channel into a data-driven, full-funnel growth engine.
While influencer marketing remains the fastest-growing channel, the ecosystem in India however, is largely fragmented, with limited measurement, duplication of creators, and an over-reliance on organic reach. With the rollout of Influential, Publicis Groupe India is strengthening its approach to influencer marketing in the India market, enabling brands to move beyond fragmented execution towards greater precision, more consistent and measurable outcomes.
At the core of this offering is Publicis Groupe’s Connected Identity, a robust data backbone of consumer profiles, enabling deterministic audience mapping and precision-led creator selection. Powered by Connected Identity, the Captiv8 platform, and Influential’s global network, this integrated approach enables brands to plan, activate and measure influencer marketing more effectively.
Diwaker Chandani is appointed Managing Partner, Influential India, to lead and scale its influencer capability. This move is anchored by Chandani’s mandate to transform influencer marketing in India into a data-led, outcome-driven growth engine, integrating creators, media and commerce at scale. Chandani brings close to two decades of experience at the forefront of digital and platform ecosystems, with a proven track record of building and scaling creator partnerships and shaping content-led media transformation across leading global and Indian organisations including Meta, Zee Entertainment and the Network18 group amongst others.
Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia, added, “Influencer marketing in India has reached scale, but it still lacks a unified, data-led foundation. With Influential, we are fundamentally changing that by shifting from a creator-first approach to a cohort-first, identity-led model powered by Connected Identity. By integrating creators, media and commerce on a single data backbone, we are enabling brands to move beyond fragmented execution to precise, measurable and scalable business outcomes.”
Leading this in India, Diwaker Chandani, Managing Partner, Influential India, will lead the build-out of an advanced influencer ecosystem connecting data, creators, media and commerce. He said, “Influencer marketing in India has reached scale, but not maturity. Brands are investing heavily, yet struggling to drive consistent, measurable outcomes. Our focus is to fundamentally change that. By combining data-led audience intelligence with creator ecosystems and media amplification, we are building a model that delivers consistent, measurable outcomes for brands.”
Read more: Publicis Groupe Appoints Naomi Michael As Chief Communications Officer APAC
