Carsome appoints new chief marketing head

• Comes from AirAsia with data analytics expertise
• Heads multi-disciplinary functions, including brand, social media

Carsome has appointed Ravi Shankar Mallavarapu as its chief marketing officer (CMO). His role will include heading multi-disciplinary functions and continue driving Carsome’s leadership in all marketing-related aspects.

In a statement, Carsome said Ravi will oversee brand, marketing, digital, social media, public relations, growth, market research and customer experience.

Ravi (pic) will also work closely with Carsome’s chief brand officer, Derek Tan, on brand, creative, production and sponsorships.

Carsome co-founder and group CEO Eric Cheng said this appointment is an important move to strenghten Carsome’s leadership team to achieve greater heights.

“Ravi is a data-driven marketer who balances creativity with excellent execution.

“We are very excited to have him onboard to accelerate our business growth and help establish Carsome’s mission in the market, which is to create a new standard of buying and selling cars,” said Cheng.

Ravi brings with him close to 15 years of experience in digital, brand and growth marketing, the company said.

He spent six years across multiple firms in India, before moving to Malaysia, where his last role was AirAsia’s chief growth officer.

At AirAsia, he successfully built an in-house digital marketing team and transformed it into a growth team, which runs ads to develop marketing products, in line with the company’s business direction of pivoting from an airline to a super-app, Carsome claimed.

“I am thrilled to be a part of Carsome’s journey of building a trusted car ownership ecosystem using data and technology.

“I look forward to making Carsome the top-of-mind brand in this region and connecting the dots between brand, marketing, technology and data,” Ravi said.