Benny Thomas

Los Angeles

Benny has 25 years of leadership in creative development, brand strategy, innovation, and consumer marketing, in Asia and the US. He has been a creative director and head of strategic planning at some of the world’s leading agencies, working on brands like Sony, Electrolux, Panasonic, Unilever, Suzuki, Standard Chartered Bank, Mars, Nissan/Infiniti, Bacardi, Chevron, LG, Microsoft, American Express and Best Buy. He has led creative and strategy departments for TBWA\India as well as a diversified marketing department at Measat Malaysia.

He began as a writer and went on to become a creative director at two of India’s leading agencies. He then headed marketing at Asia’s leading satellite broadcaster and helped set up two FM stations for them, before re-joining advertising as a strategic planner.

In 2006, Benny headed to the lead office of the TBWA network, TBWA Chiat\Day in Los Angeles as global head of planning on Mars petfoods, notably Pedigree. He then led the global expansion strategy for the Infiniti marque, as the brand agency representative on the global cross-functional team.

He is an experienced workshop designer and moderator and was a ‘Disruption blackbelt’ at TBWA, conducting Disruption workshops for clients around the world, including Mars, Pioneer and Nissan. These workshops spanned agendas as diverse as making mergers work, driving new product innovation, defining brand identity and developing new marketing campaign ideas. They involved working with cross-disciplinary senior management teams as well as external experts and stakeholders.

He then moved to Y&R New York where he was the global strategic planning leader on LG Electronics, Chevron and Bacardi. On Bacardi, he was the lead planner for the WPP SWAT agency team, responsible for thought leadership and orchestrating brand identity and behavior to develop integrated idea-based marketing campaigns.

Benny was selected as the first-ever Executive Planning Director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Santa Monica, spearheading our invasion of the West Coast and working with clients including American Express, Best Buy, Microsoft and Charles Schwab.

Bnny entered the world of entertainment

  • Work
    • Advertising
  • Education
    • St. Stephen's College