Hemanth Jayaraman, Head of Marketing – Loyalty and Travel Services (Malaysian Aviation Group) at Malaysia Airlines
Hemanth Jayaraman carries with him over 20 years of experience and expertise in branding and marketing. He started off his career in 2001 while he was studying in Boston in the United States as a young medical representative with Schering-Plough Pharmaceutical. Upon returning home after a successful four-year stint there, he joined Leo Burnett Malaysia as an Account Executive managing the agency’s McDonald’s Malaysia account and then transitioned to lead and manage the Johnnie Walker Malaysia business when the agency pitched and won the business. Hemanth was tasked to then focus on the brand’s Formula One agenda in Malaysia.
It wasn’t too long before Hemanth joined the client side to head up the Johnnie Walker portfolio in Malaysia. In just five years of managing the brand and collaborating with the right agency partners, he led Johnnie Walker to a market leadership position. He was then posted to Jakarta, Indonesia to lead the marketing agenda for the entire portfolio of brands under the Diageo umbrella.
Upon conclusion of his contract, he returned home and founded his own events and activation agency – Switch Strategies. The agency managed top brands, which, among others, included Audi, Lamborghini, UOB and Hong Leong. Switch was also appointed as the incumbent activation agency for Johnnie Walker Malaysia. After five years in operation, he sold the agency to a local media agency and exited the business.
He then went back Into the corporate world by joining PepsiCo Malaysia and led the marketing and commercial facets of the Lipton Ice Tea and Tropicana brand for APAC and he was Instrumental In substantially Improving the brand’s shares and volume In less than 24 months. During this time, he was headhunted by Moet Hennessy Diageo Malaysia to take over their core brand portfolio which Is Hennessy VSOP and he led and managed the brand through the pandemic to ensure brand shares and volumes are not Impacted and brand awareness remained top of mind In Malaysia.
It was during this time that he was approached by Dentsu Malaysia and offered the role of MD of DentsuX Media In Malaysia – a role he held for 2 years and led the agency to unprecedented success with double digit growth In both sales and revenue.
Today, he Is the Head of Marketing for Malaysia Aviation Group’s Loyalty and Travel Solution business unit looking after the ecommerce platform and the holiday arm of the group.
