Mudit Jaju, global head of ecommerce at WPP agency Wavemaker, has left the company for a newly-created global role at Publicis Groupe, The Media Leader can reveal.
Jaju, one of the UK ad industry’s most prominent experts on ecommerce advertising strategy, and it is understood he will start the new role of global commerce media lead in April.
He will be based in London and be responsible for expanding and scaling the organisation’s performance and retail media capabilities.
Jaju will report directly into Publicis Groupe’s global chief commerce officer Ali Nehme.
This move ends an 11-year stint at WPP. In his most recent position at Wavemaker he was instrumental in an exclusive ads partnership deal with Amazon and regularly made the case for retail media as an “exploding” medium.
In The Media Leader Podcast, he described retail media in 2022 as a “massive explosion in every way. I like to say it’s like we are one second after the Big Bang which is why it is just growing and growing, and changing its shape very quickly.”
Podcast: Wavemaker’s Mudit Jaju on ‘the Big Bang’ in retail media
Jaju started his media career at Comscore in 2006 as a manager, before moving to Ogilvy & Mather in 2011 as director of global digital strategy.
Since then he has been an integrated marketing communications director at ad agency VMLY&R, then digital strategy director and senior partner and head of MEC Commerce between 2013 and 2017.
MEC then merged with Maxus to become Wavemaker in 2017, and Jaju became the media agency’s global head of ecommerce.
Throughout his career he has worked on brands including Danone, Tiffany & Co, L’Oréal, Michelin, Colgate-Palmolive, IBM, Unilever, American Express, and Coca-Cola.
Toby Jenner, global CEO at Wavemaker said of the move: “Mudit has been part of Wavemaker since 2013. He has built himself a great career at Wavemaker, as part of our thriving global commerce practice which is best in class across our industry.”
He added: “I think it’s testament to how we develop talent and what we’re doing at Wavemaker that he’s been asked to take on this role. We wish him all the best for the future.”
