Redhill appoints new regional senior director for SEA and India

Global communications agency Redhill has appointed Sunita Kaur Gill (pictured) as its regional senior director. In the newly created role, Gill will be overseeing the Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand), India and Japan businesses at Redhill. 

This includes managing the agency's existing clients, new business opportunities as well as team management. In addition, Gill will be supporting Redhill's business in its Singapore headquarters, when it comes to new business opportunities with regional mandates for execution.

She will be reporting directly to Manisha Seewal, the president of Redhill. 

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Gill has over 13 years of experience in media and communications across Asia. Most recently, she was a regional director for Southeast Asia at Priority Consultants for five years, with a focus on enterprise technology.

Prior to that, she had stints with Suppagood PR as its general manager and business development director, and also with PRecious Communications as a consultant. 

Her portfolio spans global brands such as Redhat, Citrix, Dell Boomi, Pure Storage and SAS, as well as key public sector clients in Malaysia. She has also worked with clients across Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Japan, Korea and Australia. 

In conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Gill said that she is looking forward to working with regional markets. "The skillsets that I bring to Redhill would be my extensive experience and understanding in client management and delivery, regional team management, as well as regional business understanding especially in markets that are very diverse like Southeast Asia and India," she said. 

Speaking on the communications and PR landscape, Gill noted that the industry has evolved to be more integrated in nature. "Businesses want to be more visible on social and digital platforms, and rightly so, because the audience today wants to consume content in the fastest manner possible," she said. 

"So that is where social media, videos and podcasts come into focus. That said, I still do see a lot of value in traditional media because there is still an enormous amount of credibility in having your brand’s coverage in reputable media outlets including the broadcast media," Gill explained. 

She also added that across the region, she has noticed the number of media and publications shrinking, some markets faster than the rest due to the inevitable result of a digital first world.

"Instead of solely focusing on earned media opportunities, PR professionals need to educate their clients to see the value in paid media opportunities too such as advertorials, campaigns, and more," said Gill. 

"Only when businesses support the publications from a revenue standpoint will they be able to keep the lights on and continue to run the media organisations successfully," she added. 

It is an ecosystem, and we all need to play our part to keep the industry going.

According to Gill, it ultimately boils down to striking a balance between having the right publicity, presence and exposure via traditional and digital media for a comprehensive and successful communications campaign. 

Gill's appointment comes on the back of Redhill's most recent hire of Dave Prem as its senior director for Malaysia in February this year, as the agency looked to strengthen its offering in the market. Prem worked in the communications industry for over 11 years, working across several boutique agencies in Malaysia.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, the agency appointed Windy Anindya Putri as country head of Indonesia to oversee operational functions and develop new business as Redhill seeks to strengthen its presence and expand its local network. 

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