“I believe that all our learning as a creative person happens outside the four walls of our cabins by observing life and by immersing oneself in as many diverse creative experiences as possible”
Sonal Dabral is the Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of the DDB Mudra Group, India’s first and largest integrated marketing communications and services network. Dabral has over two decades of experience in the advertising agency.
Sonal Dabral was born in India and studied Visual Communications at the National Institute of Design, India’s foremost design school. He joined Ogilvy Mumbai in 1991 and, in partnership with Piyush Pandey, drove the agency from anonymity to India’s top creative agency. Then came Ogilvy Kuala Lumpur in 1999, where Dabral spent some of his most memorable years. He helped Ogilvy turn into the most awarded agency in Malaysia and one of the top creative offices in Asia within three years as its ECD. In 2000, one of his advertisements won the Grand Prix at the Asian Media awards, followed by Malaysia’s first One Show Gold. He then moved to Ogilvy Singapore, where he led the team that turned the company into the top creative office in Asia and the third highest award-winning office in the world at Cannes 2017.
In 1999, the Times of India named Sonal Dabral among the fifty young Indians who will lead India into the next century. Dabral returned to India in 2011 and started a new chapter with his career in the Mumbai-based DDB Mudra Group. He has worked with major local, regional, and multinational brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, Ponds and Pizza Hut.
A popular speaker, Dabral has spoken at major festivals like Spikes Asia, Dubai Lynx and Cristal Advertising Festival. He has been a TV host on prime time television and a Bollywood scriptwriter. He has also been channeling his passion for films into directing advertisements. In an interview with Kulzy, Sonal Dabral revealed that not many people knew that he had been Sachin Tendulkar’s voice in his first ever TV advertisement. His story is an illustration of the success that creativity can bring us.
Volunteers at Manipal 