A graduate of the National Institute of Design, Sonal Dabral started his advertising career at Lintas, New Delhi.

After 5 years, he moved to Mumbai to join Piyush Pandey at Ogilvy Mumbai. Then followed breakthrough work on brands like Cadbury’s and Fevicol. Together, this partnership drove O&M India from the creative wilderness to the number one creative agency in the country garnering awards from top regional and international shows along the way.

The next stop was Malaysia, where Sonal was offered the post of ECD at O&M, Kuala Lumpur, in 1999. Within 3 years, Ogilvy’s KL office became one of the top creative offices in the region. In 2000 one of his spots won the Grand Prix at the Asian Media awards. Soon followed Malaysia’s first One Show Gold.


In May 2004, Sonal took over as Chairman and ECD of O&M Advertising, Singapore, the top creative agency in the Asia-Pacific region. With major wins in almost all regional and international award shows, Ogilvy Singapore soon became the No.1 creative office in Ogilvy Worldwide and in the entire WPP network.

To top it all, as Chairman and Executive Creative Director, Sonal led Ogilvy Singapore to be the third highest awarded agency in the world at Cannes in 2007. Ogilvy Singapore emerged second runner up as global “Agency of the Year”, a first for an Asian agency!

After a long stint with Ogilvy, Sonal joined Bates 141 in late 2008 as the regional creative head for Asia. During his 4 year stint he helped create breakthrough work across the network.

March 2012 saw Sonal start a brand new chapter as Chairman and Chief Creative Officer.
of DDB Mudra Group India.

In his spare time, Sonal has been a popular TV host, Bollywood scriptwriter and has also been channelling his passion for films into directing ad-films.