PITCH MARKETING 30 UNDER 30 LIST, 2021 by Adsert Web Solutions

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JUNE 2021

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MEET THE NEXTGEN OF

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of their campaigns. Britannia Industries and Mondelez India were the big winners who walked away with the maximum names—three. Britannia and Mondelez India were followed closely by Vodafone Idea Limited and WeWork India with two winners each. About 80% of the people who made it to the coveted list are between 28-30 years of age. However, the two youngest achievers on the list are 23 and 24 years of age. What’s also noteworthy to highlight is that 20 out of these 30 bright marketing minds are women. Congratulations to all the winners!

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MEET THE NEXTGEN OF MARKETERS With achievers from the marketing domain across sectors, this year’s Pitch 30 Under 30 list indicates the bright future of the marketing industry which will be led by these young marketers. BY TEAM PITCH

itch recently unveiled its inaugural ‘Pitch 30 Under 30’ list, which showcased young marketing stars who have contributed to the success of their company, displayed innovative prowess that impacted the company’s business positively and have shown true leadership potential. This year’s edition of the ‘Pitch 30 Under 30’ list is an ode to the marketing minds, aged 30 or under, who have shown sheer resilience in the tumultuous times of a pandemic, and have done exemplary work while putting purpose and impact at the core of their campaigns. Britannia Industries and Mondelēz India were the big winners who walked away with the maximum names—three, followed closely by Vodafone Idea Limited and WeWork India with two winners each. While 80% of the people on the coveted list are between 28-30 years of age, the two youngest achievers on the list are 23 and 24 years of age. The list saw representation from companies across various sectors. It is also endearing to note that 20 out of these 30 bright marketing minds are women. Winning Hearts On A Virtually Set Stage The inaugural ‘Pitch 30 Under 30’ list was unveiled at a virtual gathering by Dr Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-chief, exchange4media Group and BW Business World. The young achievers made their presence felt at the event and the Jury members shared words of advice with the winners. The young marketers also shared their future goals that they want to fulfil both personally and professionally. InMobi and ABP News were the Co-Gold Partners for the Pitch 30 Under 30 list, 2021.

JURY CHAIR

‘It’s great to see new talent emerging in the industry’ Sameer Sathpathy, Chief Executive - Personal Care, ITC and Jury Chair for the inaugural Pitch 30 under 30 list, shared a few thoughts about his overall experience of the judging process and advice to winners at his address at the virtual event

he Pitch 30 Under 30 was a very well organized event; the process, the inputs, the quality of candidates were top class and we had a great set of judges. I really appreciate that the judges have taken time over each profile and debated them across various virtual rooms, and the discussions were very enriching. Personally, it’s great to see new talent emerging in the industry. Some of these candidates are outstanding and they have achieved so much so early. If they are able to keep this kind of pace, they’re going to really stand out. This is a process that we should continue and it will become a great platform for encouraging young talent in India. Congratulations to the winners. There are a couple of things that I wanted to share with

the young kids. You’re starting out and you might want to remember - marketing is not what you know, marketing is how much you want to know. Each one of you is showing signs that you’re going beyond the brief, trying to do the best within the circumstances and that is leading to these outcomes. It’s a great time to be a marketer. Today resource is not a constraint; the constraint is the imagination of people, and the passion of wanting to do. You have the potential to be great, but remember that you’re not there yet; there is a journey to be made. when you look at the long term, it does not take only passion to win, it needs your ability to work with people, having a great interface, the ability to work in a team and in time lead a team. All of this requires not only being passionate but also showing the very best.

Earlier last month, an esteemed jury panel headed by Jury Chair Sameer Sathpathy, Chief Executive - Personal Care, ITC scrutinized over 200 nominations. The members who served on the jury were… ANIL VISWANATHAN

Senior Director - Marketing (Chocolates), Insights & Analytics, Mondelēz India

ARVIND SAXENA

Head - Marketing & Corporate Communications, NEC

DEEPALI NAIR

Director Marketing, India & South Asia (CMO), IBM

DOLA HALDER

Brand Head - Doritos, Pepsico

KETAN KULKARNI

VASUTA AGARWAL

MD, APAC, InMobi

MILIND PATHAK

Chief Business Officer, Route Mobile

AZMAT JAGMAG

MarCom Head - Linear & OTT, Discovery Inc

SUMIT VIRMANI

Chief Marketing Officer, Infosys

ASHISH MORONE

Senior VP & CMO, HDFC

KARAN KUMAR

CMO & Head – Business Development, Blue Dart

Chief Marketing Officer, DLF

PRACHI MOHAPATRA

Founder, Brand Eagle Consulting

Marketing Head, OTC, Emerging Markets, Dr Reddys Laboratories

RICHA SHARMA

Director - Brand Marketing, Phonepe

RAJAN BHALLA

RONITA MITRA

SWITA CHARANASONBOOM

Marketing Director, APAC,Taboola

VIVEK MALHOTRA

Group CMO, India Today

AMIT RELAN

Chief Business Officer & Group CMO, HT Media

Founder, MFilterit

SUJATHA V KUMAR

Director of Marketing, Unacademy

Head of Marketing - India & South Asia, VISA

TRUPTI BHANDARI

Author - Pragmarketism, Global Business Leader

TARUN JHA

Head of Marketing, Skoda

VANI GUPTA DANDIYA

Founder, Cherry Peach Plum

SONAL MISHRA

MADHUKAR UNIYAL

Director- Solution Engineering, Oracle

AMIT TIWARI

Vice President - Marketing, Havells

PUNEET DAS

President - Packaged Beverages, India & South Asia, Tata Consumer Products

SACHIN CHHABRA

SGM - Head of Brand Marketing, ACC Cement

The names of the final Pitch 30 under 30 were chosen on the basis of vision & innovation, impact & influence, commitment to industry and society and passion about their work.

AARUSHI AGRAWAL

AKHILA SHANKAR

Assistant Under Training

Director - Brand & Communications

ITC

JioSaavn

ANISHA AHUJA

Mondelēz India

WeWork India

Product Manager

Britannia Industries

Brand Manager

Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Business Innovation

ANJUM SINGHANIA

Product Manager Cakes

ANUPAMA SHARMA

AKSHAAN NAMBIAR

Britannia Industries

BHOOMICA MIDDHA

BIJAL GALA

Marketing Manager for Roadster

Assistant Marketing Manager

Myntra Designs

Ex-FCA India

CHANTELLE MENDONCA

HARINDER SINGH PELIA

MEENAL RAJDA

Manager

Marketing Lead

Brand Marketing Manager

Hyundai Motor India

Reliance Brands

MEGHNA RATHEESH

NAMRATA TIBREWAL

Product Marketing Lead

Deputy Manager, Marketing

Vodafone Idea

MG Motor India

NAVYATA NAIR

NEHA BHANDARI

NIKITA MANKANI

Digital Marketing Manager

Assistant Marketing Manager, Colors

Associate Creative Director

Vodafone Idea

Viacom18 Media

WeWork India

NITASHA SETH

PAVNI KUMAR

RAGHAV SINGHAL

Marketing Manager

Product Manager

Senior Manager Digital Marketing

Netflix

Britannia Industries

PhonePe

RATANSHARAN RAO

RITESH BANSAL

Brand Manager

Deputy Marketing Manager-Super Premium Business & TVS Racing

Mondelēz India

TVS Motors

RITIJ KHURANA

SABA RAHMAN

SANGAMITRA MANOHARAN

Marketing

Group Product Manager

Brand Manager 5 Star and Fuse

CRED

Johnson & Johnson

Mondelēz India

SHANKAR SUBRAMANIUM

SNEHA JHA

Product Marketing Manager

Senior Brand Manager – Digital & Delivery Innovation

Asus

KFC (Yum Restaurants India)

SURBHI ARORAA Independent Brand Consultant

TANMAI PAUL

VARUN KULKARNI

Co-founder and CMO

Senior Manager Digital & Growth Marketing

Bolo Indya

No Broker

VIDHU JOSHI

YUVRAJ GOGIA

Media Manager

Marketing Manager Digital & E-Commerce

Perfetti Van Melle

Wildcraft India

AARUSHI AGRAWAL A s s i s t a n t U n d e r Tr a i n i n g ( M a r k e t i n g ) , I T C L t d Age: 24

marketing professional, currently working at ITC Ltd, Aarushi Agrawal is the co-founder of two start-ups – Indore Voyage, a magazine and Kolosseum Communications, an ad agency. She is an experienced blogger, an Ascend Select Member and has also received a proposed funding of Rs 10 lakhs for an Influencer Marketing DCM capstone project at MICA. A computer science graduate and an alumnus of MICA (PGDM-C), Aarushi has also been a social science scholar for three consecutive years. Entrepreneurial and enterprising, she aims to become an industry leader in the future. Her startup agency Kolosseum Communications has worked with brands such as Mobikwik and Hero Motocorp. India Voyage, her other startup, boasts over 10 lakh views on YouTube. As a social media influencer with over

70,000 followers on Instagram, Aarushi has also collaborated with over 200 brands like Godrej, GoPro, Bajaj Almond, Plum, and MMT. In the year 2015, she launched her magazine Indore Voyage’s ‘Humans of Stories’ edition which carried interviews of people of Indore, including transgenders. The effort was recognised by the media, including newspapers in the city. A moment of pride for the team was when one of the transgenders interviewed got employed by Decathlon Indore. As an Assistant Under Training (AUT) at ITC Ltd, Aarushi is working on projects in the Trade Marketing & Distribution division. She says, “I have always made sure to be a value addition to the company, I have helped my branch achieve targets in the domain of extension of the distribution system. From appointing 300 parties in the last 3 years, we appointed 600 new parties in 3 months. I have tirelessly worked on all the new executions, launches, improvisation of system & processes and helped my branch achieve targets which my managers recognized.” Aarushi believes in making the best use of time for contributing meaningfully to the industry and making an impact in the society. “If you could nudge one person in the right direction, you are doing what the society needs today” is the mantra she follows while pushing herself and others around her towards excellence and growth. Passion and passionate people inspire her.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Aarushi is a blogger and has co-founded two start-ups –India Voyage, a magazine and Kolosseum Communications, an ad agency, all before the age of 24. At ITC, she played a key role in the extension of the distribution system appointing 600 new parties in three months.

As a marketer, Aarushi believes that taking on ‘the set mindset’ is a challenge. She says, “People should start looking at things from a different perspective and challenge the established norms set by companies, brands and campaigns. The biggest challenge is bringing that change.”

AKHILA SHANKAR Director – Brand & Communications, JioSaavn Age: 29

khila kick started her career at the young age of 17 when she co-founded her first venture TFS Podcasts, the first Indian podcast catering to metal and rock music. An art and culture enthusiast, Akhila is passionate about being in a position that allows her to shape Indian pop culture. This led her to choosing a career in media and entertainment. Having completed her Masters in Communication, she spent the past decade marketing artists, labels and live events and helped grow their footprint in India through innovative campaigns. Some of the memorable campaigns she worked on include the #HipHopMovement campaign, in 2017, spotlighting the next generation of artists across billboards in India, putting together JioSaavn Podcast Week in 2020 to empower people to

become podcasters right from their homes and working on Ankur Tewari’s Dhuaan Dhuaan that raised awareness about the falling air quality index in India cities through music. Other milestone projects in Akhila’s career include leading visual communication for Snoop Dogg’s India Tour, conceptualizing and launching Live@Saavn in 2015 - the first live streaming IP by an Indian DSP, driving the pan India marketing campaign for the merger of RIL Jio and Saavn in 2018, and leading marketing for ‘No Filter Neha’ - the first audio show of Indian origin to hit over a million streams. She has also represented India as a mentor at South by SouthWest 2019 in Austin and as a speaker at OyaFestival, Oslo. Akhila was also recognized by E4M Content 40 Under 40, 2020. Akhila strongly believes that growth comes from disruption. Several marketing initiatives she spearheaded grew into being an integral part of the business and industry. Live@ Saavn which was built as a music marketing property laid the foundation for JioSaavn’s live music business. ‘Talking Music’ was a playlist marketing IP that transitioned into one of the most streamed original podcasts on the platform. She says, “From starting my own venture at 17, working with leading marketing agencies to leading marketing for one of the largest music streaming services in the world – my career hasn’t had a conventional ladder. The one thing that has remained consistent in these years is a commitment to the art of marketing. My work

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS ‘A solution finder, Akhila led the visual communication for Snoop Dogg’s India Tour, conceptualized & launched Live@Saavn the first live streaming IP by an Indian DSP, drove pan India marketing campaign for RIL Jio and Saavn merger and led marketing for ‘No Filter Neha’ - the first Indian audio show to hit over a million streams. sits at the intersection of pop culture, data and marketing. Through my work, I’ve conceptualized and driven multiple marketing campaigns that touch the lives of millions of music lovers.”

AKSHAAN NAMBIAR Senior Manager, Digital Marketing and Business Innovation, WeWork India Age: 27

kshaan Nambiar leads the digital marketing team for WeWork in India. He is also the co-founder of ScootApp - global marketplace for taxis, an aggregator of ondemand, intercity and rental taxi services. As CMO, Akshaan led Scoot’s marketing, business strategy and digital product experience, before moving to WeWork as a member of the founding team in 2017. Having worked in the Marketing and Communications space for over six years in various roles across brand creation, communications and

public affairs, Akshaan has contributed to creating high performing, engaged teams to address complex issues and mission-critical projects. He has demonstrated a natural ability to create compelling stories and transform the way teams and organisations look at content and brand prospects. Akshaan has always been at the forefront of technology adoption in his career. He was selected as the Founder of the Youngest Startup to join the Amedeus Next Program for Mobility. At WeWork, Akshaan has been the driving force behind the company’s digital marketing growth in India. Akshaan says,” My biggest achievement was leading the digital marketing segment at WeWork. From launching the digital efforts for the brand in India to building the digital sales engine, me and my team were able to be an instrumental part of establishing WeWork in India and showcasing how accessible flexible workspaces are.” Akshaan and his team’s digital marketing efforts account for 25% of the overall sales of the company. Under him, WeWork India has been able to achieve a 1:6 cost to revenue ratio on all sales generated from digital marketing campaigns; one of the highest in this segment of the market. His philosophy at work has been focused on going beyond the job description to do things that have overall business impact. At WeWork, his endeavour is to create strong and dynamic teams that are able to think out of the box. Working with people with a similar work ethic inspires him.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Akshaan launched the digital efforts for WeWork in India & built the digital sales engine. Akshaan and his team’s digital marketing efforts account for 25% of the overall sales of the company. Under him, WeWork India has been able to achieve a 1:6 cost to revenue ratio on all sales generated from digital marketing campaigns.

ANISHA AHUJA Product Manager- Cakes, Britannia Industries Limited Age: 29

highly motivated person, Anisha Ahuja has an incredible zest for life and strives to bring positive change in the society. She is a proud Britannian who practices her beliefs to make the world a tastier place. An Economics graduate from Delhi University, Anisha did her MBA from IMT Ghaziabad.

She began her stint with Britannia Industries as a management trainee and has grown to become Product Manager – Cakes. The journey gave her the opportunity to learn from industry stalwarts and gain holistic insights into the basics of FMCG functioning. A proponent of creating longterm impact through her work, Anisha took up additional responsibilities during the pandemic. She explains, “In all my roles I have ensured to go beyond my job description and deliver high quality work that stands out. Hence I took up additional responsibility of training sales stakeholders and hiring over 30 bright and young interns; again pushing the boundaries of my jobs to be done. Successfully managing this activity in a virtual setting during the pandemic is an achievement that I am proud of.” She strongly believes that it is imperative for young leaders to create an environment for future generations and women in the FMCG industry. Her motto at work and in life is to do small things perfectly so that the big ones fall in place automatically. She is driven by the cognizance of the impermanence of things and the belief that working hard with the right intention can enable individuals to contribute to the greater good. Anisha’s challenge as a marketer is to understand the needs and desires of the customer, keeping aside personal bias. On a final note she says, “I was always a 60% thinker & 40% doer; my light bulb moment came when I changed these ratios and went onto becoming a doer instead of an over thinker.”

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Starting as a management trainee, Anisha has grown to become Product Manager –Cakes. During the pandemic she took up additional responsibilities of training sales stakeholders and hiring over 30 bright and young interns.

ANJUM SINGHANIA P r o d u c t M a n a g e r, B r i t a n n i a I n d u s t r i e s Age: 29

tarting as a summer intern, Anjum Singhania has scaled up the ladder and today leads the brand strategy, communication, operations, business planning and advertising and sales promotion for Britannia Masterbrand and its gifting portfolio. He also spearheads the task of building Britannia and its portfolio of over 20 brands across bakery, dairy & innovation categories on e-commerce. Anjum is an active learner and a passionate photographer living by the belief that journeys are more rewarding than the destination. A graduate in information technology, he went on to do an MBA from NMIMS before joining Britannia. Anjum was felicitated with the ‘Brit Best’ Award through which Britannia recognizes the best performers of the year from across the

country. He says, “Being felicitated with the ‘Brit Best’ Award was extremely special given it was for an unprecedented stint as an Area Sales Manager where I delivered a growth of 36% over the previous year against a target of 14%, resulting in over-delivery of the annual plan at 120% of target.” Going beyond his designated role, Anjum is always on the lookout for nascent digital trends and went on to execute an AR Filter for Britannia Biscuits. He also looks for new opportunities in the e-commerce space and spearheaded the Britannia-Dunzo Partnership. He also looks for new means to delight consumers and conceptualized the website for personalized Britannia Diwali Hampers. Commenting on the Diwali campaign he is extremely proud of he says, “I oversaw the end-to-end conceptualisation and launch of a campaign wherein consumers could select a Britannia festive gift hamper, personalize it with a message & a cherished photograph and have it seamlessly delivered to their loved ones’ homes within a few days.” He believes in keeping team objectives above individual ambitions and becoming a better version of himself every day. Pivoting from a sales career to a marketing career led him to realize that it is better aligned with his interests and strengths. Anjum says, “As a young marketer, I have proved my mettle in my organization and have been trusted with the responsibility of handling the marketing for the Masterbrand of one of the biggest FMCG companies in India. I am extremely dedicated towards my work and ensure that I

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Anjum spearheads the task of building Britannia and its portfolio of over 20 brands across bakery, dairy & innovation categories on e-commerce. Anjum was felicitated with the ‘Brit Best’ Award. As an Area Sales Manager he delivered a growth of 36% over the previous year against a target of 14%, resulting in overdelivery of the annual plan at 120% of target. put in everything to ensure that the objective is met. I try and bring in new thoughts and ideas and not remain bound by the traditional ways of doing things.”

ANUPAMA SHARMA B r a n d M a n a g e r, M o n d e l ē z I n d i a Age: 27

oming from a family of bankers, Anupama Sharma discovered her love for marketing early on. At 18, she pursued internships in companies like Hungama & Glitch & went on to pursue her MBA from NMIMS. Right after her MBA, she worked with ITC in marketing, where she learnt fundamentals of brand management. In her current role as brand manager at Mondelēz India, she works on building Cadbury Chocobakes & Bournvita biscuits. Passionate about marketing, Anupama utilizes her free time exploring the space and blogging about marketing campaigns. She also likes to travel, work out, and engage with NGOs. A big accolade for Anupama was being chosen as the Cannes Young Lion Marketer’18. She says, “Taking part in Cannes Young Lion in my first year of marketing was incredible. I was a newbie in marketing with less than a year of experience, when after winning the India round, I got

an opportunity to experience the work from across the globe at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. Once you’ve known and seen this awe-inspiring work, you can never again settle for average work.” She has worked on Savlon’s Global Handwashing Day Campaign, #NoHandUnwashed - a collaborative effort between Savlon, Ogilvy and MFPA (Mouth & Foot Painting artists association), which featured in the One Show Asia Showcase and won silver in Spikes Asia, Best use of VideoGold at IPRCCA for Best Public Awareness campaign. “The Savlon’s Global Handwashing Day Campaign, #NoHandUnwashed went viral with over 250 mn impressions & was shared organically across Whatsapp groups & by celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan. It inspired people to practise handwashing & also brought attention to the amazing work done by talented artists at MFPA,” says Anupama. Two of her other noteworthy campaigns are Engage #PocketfulofStories and EDW Mikkel Verde which won ‘Bronze’ at Goa fest Abby Awards’18. Anupama interest in new age media inspired her to explore domains such as performance marketing on digital and e-commerce. She worked on developing her skills through regular interactions with stakeholders from Amazon/Facebook/Google and digital agencies, while simultaneously incorporating the lessons at work. This resulted in her delivering higher than industry benchmark on Brand Lift Studies, securing bestseller ranking for Savlon

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Anupama won the Cannes Young Lion Marketer’18. She has worked on the award winning Savlon’s Global Handwashing Day Campaign, #NoHandUnwashed a collaborative effort between Savlon, Ogilvy and MFPA (Mouth & Foot Painting artists association). Other noteworthy campaigns are Engage #PocketfulofStories and EDW Mikkel Verde. Surface Disinfectant Spray (#1 on Amazon) and developing innovative AR Filters for Savlon#MaskHaiMazaakNahi campaign.

BHOOMICA MIDDHA M a r k e t i n g M a n a g e r, R o a d s t e r ( M y n t r a D e s i g n s )

Age: 30

small-town girl with big dreams; Bhoomica has spent more than half a decade in two of the most promising industries - retail and e-commerce developing 360-degree integrated marketing communications for the brands in her portfolio. A MICA alumnus, her interests include music, teaching and storytelling. She has led strategic initiatives to deliver multifold business growth on brands such as Buffalo, Shyla, Roadster, and Sztori, and also worked on impact properties such as Femina Miss India and IPL. While she had the opportunity to collaborate on many projects, Bhoomica considers her work on brand Buffalo and Roadster most significant as this made the maximum impact and registered significant brand growth. As part of Buffalo’s repositioning she worked on making actor Varun Dhawan the exclusive face of the brand and on creating the Buffalo campaign ‘One With Oneself’. The exercise resulted in the average growth of the brand by 48% YOY Consectively for three years. For Roadster, Bhoomica spearheaded the building of India’s largest community of

Road Tripper - ‘The Real Life Roadsters’, and created a content property for the community - ‘Roadster.Ok.Please’. The Season 1 of ‘Roadster.Ok.Please’ saw a phenomenal growth with 79.7 mn Impressions; 63.2 mn Reach; 1.2 mn Interactions and achieved VTR (View Through Rate) of 58%, double the industry average, with the CPM (Cost Per Thousand) 131% less than the industry benchmark. Says Bhoomica,“ ‘One with Oneself’ made me learn how to unlayer the customer sentiments and create a communication insight out of it. Roadster. Ok.Please made me learn the intricacies of online community building and driving social conversations. As an idea, Roadster. Ok.Please changed the course of the conversations we were doing as brand Roadster. Driving affinity through community building and then converting that affinity to purchase and eventually loyalty with repeat purchases is what stands out as a project in my career.” As an empathetic person who believes ‘Teamwork Makes Dreamwork’, Bhoomica has been described as sincere, hardworking, and having a take-charge attitude by her mentors. Outside of her professional purview, she has taken guest lectures in MBA colleges and institutes to groom young professionals for the corporate world, and also done business consultation for budding women entrepreneurs. The thrill of seeing ideas come to fruition keeps her inspired and going.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Buffalo’s repositioning campaign ‘One With Oneself’ with actor Varun Dhawan resulted in the average growth of the brand by 48% YOY consecutively for three years. For Roadster, Bhoomica spearheaded the building of the community of Road Tripper - ‘The Real Life Roadsters’, and created a content property for the community - ‘Roadster. Ok.Please’. The Season 1 of ‘Roadster. Ok.Please’ saw a 79.7 mn impressions; 63.2 mn reach; 1.2 mn interactions and achieved VTR of 58%.

BIJAL GALA A s s i s t a n t M a r k e t i n g M a n a g e r, E x - F C A I n d i a P v t . L t d . Age: 30

student, a teacher, an apprentice and a team leader; Bijal Gala has been on an eclectic career path ever since she commenced her journey up the learning curve in 2014, and she says that she wouldn’t have wanted it any different. An MBA by qualification and a marketer by profession, Bijal has had a progressive journey from media sales to media planning and management. She says, “My role has always demanded me to learn on the job especially during my stint at Jeep. Skilled and equipped to handle only ATL Media, I have dived into roles such as Digital Marketing, Brand Communications and CRM without any hesitation. This meant keeping a humble attitude, asking the right

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Bijal is proud of working on the launch campaign for Jeep Compass in 2017 and the launch of the brand’s first ever TV IP - Jeep Bollywood Trails in 2020. In her earlier stint, she worked on the new account pitch wins for Polycab Wires and Bosch Appliances India.

questions and not fearing to learn from agency partners and vendors.” She adds, “The automobile category has been very conventional in its media approach and with young professionals in the business, we can challenge and introduce new practices. From media choices to lead generation methods and platforms, the same investments can deliver better ROI but it takes some effort to introduce new ideas, take that risk, and streamline internal stakeholders & the dealer network and finally patience to see the effectiveness of a suggested new approach.” She is proud of working on the launch campaign for Jeep Compass in 2017 and the launch of the brand’s first ever TV IP - Jeep Bollywood Trails in 2020. Some of her key achievements include best use of print at the Abby’s Awards (2016), launch & execution of the brand’s first ever content IP Jeep Bollywood Trails (2020), funnel improvement for Jeep, increasing business efficiencies and lead quality by 40%. In her earlier stint, she worked on the new account pitch wins for Polycab Wires and Bosch Appliances India. Bijal wants to motivate Gen Z to do ordinary work with extraordinary sincerity and commitment to achieve success. She says, “As a young marketer it’s important to be unafraid of going against the tide and challenging conventional methods and practices. Sky is the limit for all those who want to learn and grow.” The quest to learn and the determination to rise keeps her inspired at all times. Her personal and professional motto is ‘Whatever you do with love is received with love’.

CHANTELLE KAREN MENDONCA M a n a g e r, H y u n d a i M o t o r I n d i a L t d Age: 28

hantelle Mendonca seeks adventure, loves challenges small or big - and has a knack for visualising the bigger picture. A commerce graduate (Symbiosis College of Arts & Commerce) and MBA in Marketing and Finance from Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, she is currently working as Manager with Hyundai Motor India Ltd. Chantelle has had many highs during her stint with Hyundai Motors. These include ‘Employee of the Year, 2020’, leading the Millennial Board Committee for Hyundai 2020-2021 to drive future demand, being the Project lead on digital and CX for more than 12 successful campaigns and product launches such as Hyundai Creta, Venue,

i20, Santro and more. She spearheaded Hyundai Venue iMT Launch campaign (2020) #LeftFree with 16 influencers across multiple categories. The campaign garnered 184 mn reach, 10 mn+ engagement, and a Brand Lift Study showed a 4.2+pts lift in brand awareness and 1.8+pts lift in brand preference. The Sales also increased by 5% above average. Other highpoints for Chantelle include the Hyundai Santro launch (2018) campaign, ‘Brilliant Moments with Hyundai’ where Indian customer’s nostalgia towards the brand was tapped. The campaign garnered over 400 Mn total views. Another key initiative was the launch of ‘Click to Buy’, India’s first automobile endto-end car buying platform. This initiative garnered over 50,000 registrations and over 10 mn website visits. She also played a key role in the launch of a new brand anthem for Hyundai titled ‘Haq Hai Humara’ with the corporate brand ambassador, Shah Rukh Khan. This achieved over 100 mn views. In a bid to break the myths around Electric vehicles, the brand created a Guinness World Record with Hyundai KONA EV reaching the high altitude of 5,731 meters - Mt. Everest base camp. This was documented and released in collaboration with Discovery. Another highpoint was winning the ‘Best Immersive experience’ award at the Auto Expo 2020 for the customer centric onground digital installations and tech innovations, and growing Hyundai India’s social media community to No.1 among mass auto brands in India.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Chantelle’s accomplishments at Hyundai Motors include winning ‘Employee of the Year, 2020’, leading the Millennial Board Committee for Hyundai 2020-2021 to drive future demand, being the Project lead on digital and CX for more than 12 successful campaigns and product launches such as Hyundai Creta, Venue, i20, Santro and more. She was also part of the launch of ‘Click to Buy’, an automobile end-to-end car buying platform and Hyundai’s new brand anthem titled ‘Haq Hai Humara.’

HARINDER SINGH PELIA Marketing Lead, Reliance Brands Ltd. Age: 30

arinder Singh Pelia’s love affair with marketing began at the age of 18 when he first laid his hands on a book by the Father of Marketing, Philip Kotler. After graduating from Symbiosis International University - Pune, he went on to do an MBA (marketing specialization) from IMT Ghaziabad. He is currently pursuing PHD in marketing from XLRI Jamshedpur. In addition to holding multiple digital marketing certifications, he has also completed eclectic online courses like Neuromarketing & Consumer Neuroscience (CBS), Introduction to Psychology (Yale) etc during the lockdown, Harinder says that the big pivot in his career was being hired as the Marketing & PR lead at DIESEL, a responsibility tad beyond his age and experience and required him to substantially level-up as a marketer. Currently as Marketing Lead at Reliance Brands, Harinder’s expanded role has him handling

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Harinder handles brands such as Hamleys, Satya Paul, Vision Express, The White Crow and The Tank. A campaign he is most proud of is the ‘DIESEL Hate Couture’ campaign which used the power of celebrities and influencers to disempower online hate and trolling.

responsibility for multiple brands including Hamleys, Satya Paul, Vision Express, The White Crow and The Tank. In his previous assignment with Micromax, he was involved in launching new categories for the brand in the consumer electronics space. Harinder believes his ability to tell good research and insight from the bad, enables him to understand and empathize with his consumers. He adds that his ability to take on big stretch projects and execute them has led him to getting additional responsibilities. Harinder says, “Being a research nut, when I joined, I linked our tactical customer communications to the recency, frequency and monetary value of their purchases, a practice that is now followed throughout the Reliance group. I developed an influencer selection model, for one of my earlier campaigns, which has percolated into the industry. One of the industry-wide projects that I worked on was the Luxury Shopping Festival, with all 50 of our brands, to not only promote their end of season sales but also elevate the conversation around luxury as a subculture.” ‘DIESEL Hate Couture’ – Using the power of celebrities and influencers to disempower online hate and trolling was one of the campaigns Harinder is proud of. He has made the most of the valuable advice he received, ‘Promote the story, not the product’ as his professional motto. Using the power of marketing to create behaviorial change at scale is his driving factor. Harinder is also building a platform, MarketersForChange where with marketers, designers, creators etc. come together pro-bono to work with grassroot NGOs to solve some of their most fundamental communication challenges.

MEENAL RAJDA B r a n d M a r k e t i n g M a n a g e r, L i n k e d I n Age: 30

eenal Rajda has been a marketer for nearly a decade. Along with her current tech role as brand marketing manager with LinkedIn for the last three years, she is also the co-founder of a Mumbai based non profit youth organisation in defence of animals, a cause which she is passionate about. Meenal began her journey executing BTL campaigns for FMCG brands across premium beverages and chocolates categories before leading media and ATL initiatives for youth brands and finally landing a tech and brand role at LinkedIn where she works with internal and external partners across the globe. At LinkedIn, Meenal has led the brand’s key student focused

programme, ‘LinkedIn MTV Get a Job’ across three seasons, and has won numerous awards for it. An agile marketer, she has also contributed to the IPL campaigns for LinkedIn in addition to working on other initiatives, activations and supporting social channels in APAC. She says, “The highlight for me has definitely been on projects and campaigns at LinkedIn! We function truly as a global organisation, the role and responsibilities are massive, very challenging, learning has been immense and extremely fun all at the same time! I’ve received quite a few awards externally and been recognised internally at the global level within the team. The most fun campaign has been the annual ones run in India during the IPL! Doesn’t get bigger than that. Two years in a row, for me.” Meenal is particularly proud of the recent campaigns that she launched and has actively been a part of at LinkedIn. Keeping the interests of the 71 million India members centre stage, she says, “LinkedIn’s vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. It’s a great feeling to be a part of that larger narrative.” As a marketer, she believes a big challenge is being relevant and creative at all times. As an absolute people’s person, working with large teams brings out the best in her. At work, a great idea, a common goal, and working with an awesome team are her driving force.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS At LinkedIn, Meenal has led the brand’s key student focused programme, ‘LinkedIn MTV Get a Job’ across three seasons. She has also contributed to the IPL campaigns for LinkedIn and is particularly proud of the recent campaigns that she launched. Keeping the interests of the 71 million India members centre stage, she is proud of being part of LinkedIn’s vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

MEGHNA RATHEESH P ro d u c t M a r ke t i n g L e a d , Vo d a fo n e I d e a L i m i te d Age: 27

eghna Ratheesh is a B2B marketing professional leading the charge in Vodafone-Idea business to simplify the complex worlds of IoT, Cloud, Mobile and Fixed Line Connectivity, to any business ranging from a multinational conglomerate to a home baker. An engineering graduate, Meghna also holds an MBA in International Business from IIFT. She was part of the three member team that conceptualized and executed the launch of the Vi business brand - the new brand post integration of erstwhile Vodafone and Idea brands – a mammoth task of launching a brand within the constraints of a nationwide lockdown. Commenting on the brand launch campaign she says, “This involved running brand campaigns as well as ensuring brand salience across all our offline and online touch

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Meghna was part of the three member team that conceptualized and executed the launch of the new Vi business brand. The brand campaign showed 3x lead generation along with 1.5 ROI when compared to earlier campaigns. It also led to a 10x increase in the social share of voice across platforms. She has led many innovative B2B product launches across categories of IoT, Security, Mobility and Communications, differentiated by the positioning, engaging content and sharp B2B Go-To-Market elements.

points. The brand campaign run for this showed 3x lead generation along with 1.5 ROI compared to our usual campaigns. It also led to a 10x increase in our social share of voice across platforms.” As a product marketer, she is actively involved in creating and delivering impactful GTM strategy, communications for customers, media, and analysts for impactful product launches. She has led many innovative B2B product launches across categories of IoT, Security, Mobility and Communications, differentiated by the positioning, engaging content and sharp B2B Go-To-Market elements. As per Meghna, marketing is about identifying a pain point and trying to resolve that and at the same time making the customer feel cared for. The challenge is constantly vying for the attention of the audience who is incessantly bombarded with information from multiple channels. When not engaged in making B2B product communications effective, Meghna spends her time reading or cooking. She is also a trained Bharatnatyam dancer. Her professional journey has been guided by the advice, ‘say yes to things that frighten you’. It has helped her grab many challenging opportunities, one such being the move from a pricing role to the brand team which became the turning point in her career. With many industry firsts in B2B brand launches, colleagues say she has a cookbook for the B2B marketing fraternity. Her seniors acknowledge her as a great role model having delivered excellence with zero defect brand launch of Vi, managing it under extreme time pressures, and having made it possible in the virtual era.

NAMRATA TIBREWAL Deputy Manager - Marketing, MG Motor India Age: 30

amrata Tibrewal leads the digital content strategy at MG Motor India. Her background in journalism acquainted her with digital and content marketing, after which she did her Masters from Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Eight years hence, she continues to grow as a marketer. “The biggest highlight of my career was being part of a five-member marketing team to launch a new brand in India. There have been many firsts in this role - many challenges including building an engaged group of community for MG, campaigns that build trust on a new entrant,” says Namrata. The two campaigns that stand out for Namrata include the award-winning digital campaign #StoriesOfMG and creation of MG Brand Anthem

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Namrata was part of a five-member marketing team to launch MG Motor in India. The two campaigns that stand out for Namrata include the award-winning digital campaign #StoriesOfMG and creation of MG Brand Anthem. #DriveHerBack, a program focussed on hiring women who took a sabbatical from work is another campaign that Namrata is proud of associating with as the project lead. Namrata also won the MG President Award in 2019.

which became an integral asset for the brand. She says, “The Stories of MG campaign focussed on owners of classic MG cars to establish the British connect of the brand in India. This is the longest and best performing campaign by MG Motor India to drive customer loyalty.” She continues, “When MG entered India in 2017, the brand was not known. We had the opportunity of creating our identity from scratch. I led the project to build MG’s sonic identity. The MG Brand Anthem has become synonymous with the brand, enhancing an emotional connection with our customers, dealers, partners and other stakeholders.” #DriveHerBack, a program focussed on hiring women who took a sabbatical from work is another campaign that Namrata is proud of associating with as the project lead. It resulted in over 22 women being hired last year in corporate roles as well as in the manufacturing facility. She was also part of the core team to promote education of EV vehicles in India. The ability to lead projects independently, within desired budgets and nurturing a fun and conducive work environment are Namrata’s strengths. For her, the need to keep up with the ‘intelligent customer is the biggest challenge. She believes that brands should be authentic and have a larger purpose to appeal to consumers. With brands now being held accountable for their actions, she says that it is imperative that marketers encourage diversity – in thoughts and in their teams, to ensure a complete perspective before any potential crisis hits. Namrata also won the MG President Award in 2019.

NAVYATA NAIR D i g i t a l M a r k e t i n g M a n a g e r, V o d a f o n e I d e a L i m i t e d Age: 29

avyata Nair is a creative marketer who enjoys reading, watching movies and following memes on social media. She enjoys the thrill of working on challenging projects and successfully completing them. Navyata worked as a tax consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers post which she completed her MBA in marketing from NMIMS. A summer internship at Vodafone India Limited (now Vodafone Idea Limited) converted to a pre-placement offer and she joined the company in June 2017. After completing her consumer and enterprise sales stint, she joined the enterprise brand team in 2018. At Vi, Navyata has been involved with various B2B marketing initiatives including managing events, product marketing, leading digital marketing and content writing.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Between Jan-March 2019, Navyata executed 18 events in a quarter. From January 2020 onwards she has also been responsible for planning, managing and governing the budget for Vi business. She is also working on launching a proposition to provide digital marketing services for SMBs.

Punching above her weight, she single-handedly led a one-of-its kind CXO engagement Golf event TeeWalk. Speaking on the campaigns she is proud of she says, “Jan-Feb-March 2019 was an eventful quarter for our team as we executed 18 events in a quarter, which included an event where we created the largest puzzle, co-created by customers, partners and employees post the merger of Vodafone and Idea, and made it to the Limca Book of Records 2020. I also worked on launching the Digital Marketing strategy - Social media, Website and Digital campaign strategy and execution - for Vi business post the recent brand launch.” From January 2020 onwards she has also been responsible for planning, managing and governing the budget for Vi business. In addition, she is working on launching a proposition to provide digital marketing services for SMBs - an essential pillar and mission for Vi business - to help empower SMBs and ensure they succeed in the digital world. This goes beyond Navyata’s brand role and helps her enter the world of product management as well. She adds, “The initiatives that I have led to reskin our website helped us achieve Rs 1 crore incremental revenue in a quarter itself, and I manage brand and digital campaigns which generate 10,000 leads quarterly, thus making a great impact on business. I have successfully managed all my responsibilities and continue to challenge myself by thinking out of the box and working on programs which are beyond my role. ” Navyata believes that her love for all things creative and analytical, and her interpersonal skills help her in standing out as a marketer.

NEHA BHANDARI A s s i s t a n t M a r k e t i n g M a n a g e r, C o l o r s , V i a c o m 1 8 M e d i a Age: 30

marketer, blogger and dreamer, Neha Bhandari has spent 6.5 years of her marketing career building five brands across two industries. She has a PGDM in Marketing Communication from KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research. Neha worked on the launch of the new channel, &flix for which she came up with creative initiatives like Twitter-powered billboard, experiential zone, and Spiderman calls. Apart from being the buzziest launch, it also set a new industry benchmark. Another highlight of her career was organizing a trade event for ZEE’s niche cluster - Zindagi, Zee Studio & Zee Café - to uplift brand perception. As part of her current stint with Colors, she came up with first-in-the-category ideas like branded sanitizer units during lockdown, extended metro train handles and tiniest press release

to further the brand reach. She says, “Having worked for niche channels like Zindagi & Zee Studio, where perception is the key; to Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC-Colors, where reach is of prime importance; I am learning & growing every single day. While I have had the opportunity to work on several brands, the one that has given me an allrounded experience has been the launch of an allnew English Movies channel, &flix.” Neha has won the ‘Execute with Excellence’ Award Q4FY20 Colors for planning unconventional show launches, ‘Top Talent’ award at ZEEL for single-handedly executing multi-media campaigns and the ‘Achiever of the Quarter’ award at Kotak Securities for B2B marketing/sales support. Neha’s journey has taught her persistence, adaptability, accountability, proactiveness & multitasking. A key learning from early on in her career has been translating consumer insights effectively. She says, “My first job at Kotak Securities gave me the opportunity to be a part of a nation-wide research on which we developed a brand campaign. Translating consumer insight into a unique proposition for the brand, which in turn helps drive sales, is a learning that will stay with me forever.” While firm in her belief that one can build & sustain a brand’s perception with a strategic approach, innovative thinking & sheer passion, she says that looking ahead she intends to disrupt the marketing ecosystem. Sharing her thoughts with two examples Neha says, “As per Google, there is a 270% y-o-y growth in voice search. Imagine the results if VOICE MARKETING were a part of your plans? - What if you could promote a purchase in a GAMIFIED manner? I want to be at the focal point in the future of marketing.”

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Neha worked on the launch of &flix and also organized a trade event for ZEE’s niche cluster Zindagi, Zee Studio & Zee Café. At Colors, she came up with first-in-the-category ideas like branded sanitizer units during lockdown, extended metro train handles and tiniest press release to further the brand reach. Neha has won the ‘Execute with Excellence’ Award Q4FY20 Colors, ‘Top Talent’ award at ZEEL and the ‘Achiever of the Quarter’ award at Kotak Securities.

NIKITA MANKANI A s s o c i a t e C r e a t i v e D i r e c t o r, W e W o r k I n d i a Age: 29

creative professional with almost eight years of experience, Nikita Mankani currently leads the creative team for WeWork India. She began her career as a writer for a fashion and lifestyle start-up. Thereafter, she worked with multiple agencies and diverse brands across industries creating content, leading campaigns, and forging partnerships and brand relationships. At WeWork India, Nikita has worked on various campaigns including ‘Reimagine Your Workspace’, ‘Make it Happen’, and ‘#PrideStreetofWe’. Throwing light on the ‘Reimagine Your Workspace’ campaign metrics she says that WeWork India launched 10 buildings in the campaign duration with an effect resulting in an average of 60%+ opening occupancy. The campaign saw over 90 mn impressions across all online platforms. The video views on YouTube & Facebook crossed 13 mn views. The View Through Rate (VTR) on YouTube was 51% (industry average 35%), VTR on Facebook was

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS A campaign that Nikita is most proud of is ‘#PrideStreetofWe’ - a social-first campaign for Pride Month in 2020 where a microsite was created to support the pride parade. It resembled an urban street and mimicked the feel of marching at a parade. The campaign aimed at providing a platform for the LGBTQAI+ community to share stories, demonstrate support and highlight challenges faced by the community in India.

8% (industry average 6%). The brand search query improved by 28% QoQ and the brand impression share reached 95% and as per the Brand Lift study there was a 5000% increase in search volume on YouTube and Google search. As for the ‘Make It Happen’ campaign, WeWork saw sales qualified leads worth over Rs 4 crore growth in the first month since its launch. The initial estimated numbers are that overall business will grow from 35% enterprise to 50% enterprise clients for WeWork. Every WeWork India handle saw above average engagement rates across platforms. A campaign that Nikita is most proud of is ‘#PrideStreetofWe’ and says, “With the help of my team, I came up with a social-first campaign for Pride Month in 2020, titled #PrideStreetOfWe. Through the campaign, we created a microsite to continue to support the pride parade. It resembled an urban street and mimicked the feel of marching at a parade. The #PrideStreetofWe campaign aimed at providing a platform for members of the LGBTQAI+ community to share stories, demonstrate support and highlight challenges faced by the community in India. This was an extremely unique campaign that highlighted the growing use of social media as a powerful tool for social change and thought provoking conversations”. Nikita is extremely passionate about storytelling. She believes that stories have the power to change people’s lives and perceptions. Having spent a significant amount of time trying to understand how people connect with the written word, she has come to the conclusion that her biggest challenge is to stand out from the clutter.

NITASHA SETH M a r k e t i n g M a n a g e r, N e t f l i x Age: 29

itasha Seth has been working with the marketing team at Netflix for the past three years, focusing on frontier growth markets India and South East Asia. She describes herself as a dataled storytelling professional with over five years industry experience across leading entertainment brands. Her strength lies at the intersection of product management, creative content, and marketing strategy. After completing her MBA from SIMC, Pune, Nitasha started out as a leadership trainee with MEC (Group M), where she was later promoted as Media Business Manager in 2016 and given the responsibility to handle Zee Network, Netflix and BBC accounts. She joined Netflix as marketing manager in 2018 as part of the marketing & communications strategy for

Netflix India (and the broader APAC region) ‘during the exciting 0-to-1 and 1-to-100 phases of building our business in the region’. Since then she has been growing the technology businesses, and building habits for new categories - namely SVOD in India. Nitasha was also entrusted the additional role of a market specialist for the APAC product team in October 2019, for which she moved to the US for a short stint. Since December 2020 she has been leading marketing strategy and analytics for India. Talking on the key moments in her journey she says, “My career highlight has been StreamFest an offer where Netflix was made free for two days for first time. I built the product idea as well as the marketing campaign and was instrumental in bringing the offer to live with cross-collaboration across product teams. The campaign and the offer drove the highest traffic Netflix had seen in India since its launch, driving sign-ups as well as social conversations for the brand. Another highlight is introducing the mobile plan in India which accounts for the majority of the sign-ups for Netflix in the market.” She also worked on launching the ‘Netflix MatchMaker’ recommendation engine on Twitter, Spotify, and Swiggy. Nitasha has also launched campaigns for titles that drove high acquisition and social buzz. These include shows Bard of blood, Sacred Games and Delhi Crime. Over the years Nitasha has won several accolades and awards such as Smarties 2020, Star Reimagine Awards, Emvies 2019, GroupM Choreos Winner, Young Spikes India - Top 10 Shortlist, YCO (Youth committee) - GroupM South East Asia 2017, Winner of Ignited Minds - Group M Digital and Data initiative and Cannes Young Lions - Top 10 Shortlist.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS At Netflix, Nitasha has built products and campaigns that have driven business growth at the back of consumer engagement (Bard of Blood, Sacred Games), new habit building (Netflix MatchMaker), enhanced brand perception, and new revenue streams (StreamFest). She has played an instrumental role in shaping the product narrative and growth in India for Netflix by bringing product and marketing together.

PAVNI KUMAR P r o d u c t M a n a g e r, B r i t a n n i a I n d u s t r i e s Age: 29

avni Kumar calls herself a peculiar combination of opposites, with her two most loved activities being a morning run and sleeping. She loves Math, Biology & Shakespeare equally. She is deeply committed to the causes of social justice and a world without prejudice. At Britannia Industries, Pavni has handled four brands - Little Hearts, Good Day, Nice Time and currently manages Marie Gold. Working across the sales and marketing verticals has given her the foundation to both create and execute various campaigns for the above brands. Particularly close to her heart is the #BreakSomeHearts campaign for Britannia Little Hearts that combined the eating experience and the new face of romance for today’s

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS A campaign close to Pavni’s heart is the #BreakSomeHearts campaign for Britannia Little Hearts that combined the eating experience and the new face of romance for today’s youth. For Good Day, she worked with the team to innovate the manufacturing process resulting in a revamped product mix at a viable commercial margin. For brand Marie Gold, she created an activation platform – MyStartup Contest –to incentivize women to fulfil their unmet dreams and also upskill them.

youth. She says, “I’m proud of my work on Little Hearts. We crafted the new positioning of Little Hearts - #BreakSomeHearts and created a #Breaksomehearts handbook- a digital, trusted guide that contains tips & tricks, dos & don’ts of modern dating. Done to strengthen the voice of the brand, the campaign captured the new generation’s perception of romance - fleeting, fun, with a bit of heartbreak thrown in.” The campaign was activated digitally and also executed across multiple platforms such as Pokkt through mini games and contextual posts on Tinder. Additionally, physical copies were placed at relevant Gen Z hangouts. The work was recognized and felicitated both internally and externally. Faced with the challenge of scaling up the mid premium offering - Good Day, due to low gross margins, Pavni worked with the team to innovate the manufacturing process resulting in a revamped product mix at a viable commercial margin. With brand Marie Gold, she has an opportunity to impact millions of women who are the key target group. With the brand purpose to enable & fuel the homemaker to do more and be more, an activation platform – MyStartup Contest – was created to incentivize women to fulfil their unmet dreams and also upskilling them. Pavni is passionate about brands because she believes they are a window into human needs, and thus help satisfy her curiosity about how people and social systems evolve through work. She also believes that the biggest challenge about being a marketer is to step into the shoes of the consumer & not let personal biases influence consumer decisions.

RAGHAV SINGHAL Senior Manager - Digital Marketing, PhonePe Age: 28

n engineer-turnedmarketer, Raghav Singhal joined PhonePe in its early stages. Having seen the unicorn being built from scratch, he is currently leading India’s biggest acquisition & digital marketing charter at PhonePe. An IITian and start-up enthusiast, Raghav is interested in data science, AI and ML related product innovations. At PhonePe, Raghav set up the digital marketing channels from scratch, while simultaneously building a team that delivered an unprecedented scale in the Indian market at over 500 million downloads, and over 0.5 million daily installs. He successfully achieved the 250 million registered users milestone for the brand. He says, “I have led the exploration of new channels

every quarter, scaled them up, and optimized them for efficiency. Some of these weren’t existing or widely accepted in the market before. To do so, I have built a framework for automation, apt attribution, fraud prevention, strategic tie-ups & product integrations. I added opportunities for organic growth by listing on alternate store listings, participating in Google & Facebook betas, ASO & SEO.” His efforts were recognized with three consecutive promotions in less than four years. In terms of role, Raghav started from performance marketing for consumer app acquisitions and now everything digital at PhonePe is managed by his team performance, branding, category marketing, web dev, SEO & ASO for both consumer & merchant app. Always on the lookout for industry changing opportunities, Raghav is a proponent of investing in new technologies. He lives by the philosophy of ‘learn fast, fail fast; one right hit can lead to exponential growth’. He says, “Marketing is the most dynamic field and evolves very fast. The best campaigns may not yield results anymore, and the poor channels might yield results in certain new circumstances. Experimentation must goon and in absence of sufficient data, making assumptions is necessary. Sometimes it’s a challenge to navigate internally for marketers. On the branding side, efficiency is known, effectiveness is still unsolved to a large extent.” Raghav actively shares his learning and knowledge at various startup and digital marketing forums.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS At PhonePe, Raghav set up the digital marketing channels while simultaneously building a team that delivered scale with over 500 million downloads, and over 0.5 million daily installs. He successfully achieved the 250 million registered users milestone for the brand. One of the biggest successful performance campaigns that Raghav has worked on was around the Jio launch in the market, where he exponentially scaled the budget on Jio Recharges through PhonePe vis-a-vis PhonePe acquisitions.

RATANSHARAN RAO Brand Manager – Mondelēz India Age: 29

atansharan Rao is currently employed as Brand Manager at Mondelēz India, managing the Chocolate Bite Size & First Taste portfolio comprising of legacy brands like Cadbury Gems, Shots and new entrants like CDM Lickables and Spready. He started his professional career with Johnson & Johnson in 2015 working across sales and marketing roles. An engineer from MS University Baroda and a graduate from IIM Calcutta, Ratanshara is a passionate marketer, Sudoku aficionado and movie buff. Describing his journey so far, he says, “It has been an exciting five years across sales and marketing roles with two highly reputed FMCG giants – Johnson & Johnon & Mondelēz”. The key highlights of Ratansharan’s career have

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS At Mondelēz, Ratansharan worked on launching ‘Cadbury Playpad’ - a fun learning app with unique AR features. The app garnered around 1 million downloads and is now being extended to other brands in Mondelēz India and other markets. He played a key role in the brand makeover for both Cadbury Gems and Lickables which resulted in positive consumer response and sales uplift.

been in the domains of marketing innovation, brand revamp and content creation. At Mondelēz, he worked on launching ‘Cadbury Playpad’ - a first-of-its-kind fun learning app with unique AR features in the Mondelēz world. The app has garnered around 1 million downloads, trended #1 on Google Playstore and consistently rated +4 on both Appstore and Playstore. It is now being extended to other brands in Mondelēz India and other markets. Commenting on his experience working on the project, he says, “Beyond the usual marketing mix, I am very proud of the ‘Cadbury Playpad’ app, which I have conceptualized and developed. In the increasingly disconnected world, it brings both the parents and kids to spend some time together to learn something new in a fun way. I see immense potential in the app to scale up and nudge other marketers to think and act on similar lines.” Further, he played a key role in the brand makeover for both Cadbury Gems and Lickables working on brand architecture, packaging design, product construct, and communication. The revamp resulted in positive consumer response and sales uplift. In the content creation space, Ratansharan led the setup and launch of ‘Best for Baby’ YouTube channel – the only branded channel in category’s top 10 on YouTube. In addition to being acknowledged by the global Johnson’s Baby Team, he was awarded at the annual conference for his effort. Ratansharan also received the Operational Excellence and Retailing Challenge award in 2017. He was the fastest growing ASM in West (2017 and 2018).

RITESH BANSAL

Deputy Marketing Manager - Super Premium Business and TVS Racing, TVS Motor Company Age: 30

n avid rider and marketer, Ritesh Bansal is a blend of creative and logical thinking, coupled with a data-oriented approach towards problem-solving which has helped him in shaping the lifestyle motorcycle brand and the flagship product of TVS Motor, the TVS Apache RR310. He says, “As a rider who believes in the notion of speed and precision, I combine my passion for riding and expertise in marketing to not only grow the Indian market but disrupt it, faster than ever!” Ritesh spearheaded and set up the experiential marketing wing for TVS Motor’s premium offering with customer engagement activities like ‘Apache Pro Performance’ (APP), a display of performance motorcycling through spectacular and thrilling stunt

shows. He conceptualised the ‘Apache Racing Experience’ (ARE) for Apache enthusiasts to test and improve their racing skills on a racetrack. This assertive community outreach gave birth to MotoSoul 2019 in Goa which clocked attendance of over 2,500 Apache customers. In 2017, Ritesh created the ‘Apache Owners Group’ (AOG), a close knit community of TVS Apache owners. From 10-15 people, the community has grown to over 50,000 members across 54 cities and he has conducted over 400 engagement programs for the community. “With platforms such as Apache Owners Group, I believe that I democratised the industry’s riding culture, which often held the perception of being available only to those with mean machines and big pockets. The possibility of such experiences brought in a new brand of customers into the fold,” he says. He also launched the first in industry disruption with TVS A.R.I.V.E (Augmented Reality Interactive Vehicle Experience) - an AR driven application for product experience and purchase from the comfort of home. The application received a tremendous response and attracted potential customers’ eyeballs to experience the product with over 15,000 downloads in less than two months. He was behind the implementation of exclusive high-end sales and service infrastructure at over 200 existing TVS Motor dealerships across over 75 cities to provide superior purchase experience to customers, and created opportunity for the TVS Motor Company to step into a new business vertical of accessories and merchandise with targeted intervention across country.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Ritesh spearheaded and set up the experiential marketing wing for TVS Motor’s premium offering with customer engagement activities like ‘Apache Pro Performance’ and conceptualised the ‘Apache Racing Experience.’ Ritesh created the ‘Apache Owners Group’, a community of TVS Apache owners which has grown from 1015 people to over 50,000 members and conducted over 400 engagement programs for the community.

RITIJ KHURANA Marketing, CRED Age: 28

itij Khurana describes himself as a prodigy at 5, athlete at 10, polyglot at 15, scholar at 20, and troublemaker at 25. At every stage in life, his endeavour was to move forward towards the next milestone. He recently joined Cred in a marketing role. Ritij joined the credit card bill payment platform from OnePlus where he was the Category Marketing Lead for Nord. At OnePlus, he was the youngest Team Lead in the history of the company. He has been awarded the Star of the Year from the OnePlus India marketing team. He has an MBA in Communication Management from SIMC, Pune. When driving marketing campaigns, Ritij believes in pushing the envelope when it comes to the word ‘mass’ and strives to always ensure the communication is truly

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Ritij was the youngest Team Lead in the history of OnePlus. He has been awarded the Star of the Year from the OnePlus India marketing team. Ritij considers the ‘Dash Charge Your Diwali’ campaign from 2016 as the highlight of his career.

inclusive for all sections of the society. He says, “It is a very myopic vision to take a few members of the society and assume everyone will just accept it. A year ago, I helped to drive a campaign which included the LGBTQ+ community in a mainstream ad by a tech OEM company. It probably was not much then. But it started the conversation and broke the taboo.” Ritij considers the ‘Dash Charge Your Diwali’ campaign from 2016 as the highlight of his career. “I was about 24 at the time but I was trusted to write the script, do the storyboarding, go and make the film on my own and then come back to run it. The whole experience was so enriching that it changed the way I think forever,” he says. A team player, he has always put the brand’s best interest’s over anyone else’s. His continued support to the TV and IOT team during an important transition, whilst holding fort on his own role as Strategy Lead, helped the team sail through a rather challenging time and brought Ritij much appreciation from his seniors. He believes that there are no wrong questions, only wrong answers, and working with such a mindset has been extremely liberating for him. All obstacles can be overcome when one is not shackled with doubts or the fear of failure and judgement. He says, “As a marketer, I’m not chasing KPIs or targets or year-end performance bonuses. What drives me is when people around me are talking about how great a product I make. The feeling of knowing that your efforts have made a positive change in someone else’s life - that is my biggest incentive. I can’t achieve all this if I am confined to the barriers of my ‘role’.

SABA REHMAN G r o u p P r o d u c t M a n a g e r, J o h n s o n & J o h n s o n ’ s Age: 30

product of IIM Bangalore, Saba Rehman is currently working as Group Product manager with Johnson & Johnson’s. Having entered the corporate world at the young age of 21, she has spent 8.5 years building brands and campaigns. Her passion is to create world class consumer experiences by blending core human insights and content that inspires. In a male dominated society, Saba is proud to have played her role in uplifting women through numerous awardwinning works both for Stayfree and Johnson’s. From alleviating the fear of a girl during her first period to enabling the joy of holding a newborn for a mother, her campaigns have made a difference to the lives of Indian women by empowering them to take control of their lives. Two such campaigns that she considers the highlight of her career include ‘Johnson’s Gentle

Sparsh’ and the Effies winning – ‘Turn to Learn’. The ‘Johnson’s Gentle Sparsh’ campaign was the largest offline influencer advocacy in the hinterland through print publications with 50 mn reach. It was aimed at alleviating the fears of new mums who constantly worry about being good mothers and are overwhelmed with information. Through this campaign the brand was able to help them feel ‘less guilty’ so that they could enjoy parenthood to the fullest. The ‘Turn to Learn’ campaign equipped 25 mn mothers to take better decisions by understanding the role of product ingredients in Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. She was also part of the launch of Cottontouch, Johnson & Johnson’s most successful range launch with over 2.5% increase in market share in 2020. For her work Saba has been felicitated multiple times at Johnson & Johnson with the Encore Award and even the James E. Burke Marketing Award - Johnson & Johnson’s annual companywide marketing excellence awards. At Johnson & Johnson’s, Saba is also involved with coaching the younger talent and working towards setting the cultural agenda for Johnson & Johnson’s, encouraging empathy, consumer centricity and innovation. She says, “I have worked on and amassed knowledge from both big & niche brands and made campaigns that created measurable impact. In a world that followed the beaten path of engineering followed by MBA & is primarily profit driven, I bring diversity to the marketing team with my deep sense of empathy. My small town, lower-middle class upbringing in Bihar has equipped me with an appreciation for raw human emotions which help me bring strong insights to my work.”

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Saba is proud to have played a role in uplifting women through numerous award-winning works both for Stayfree and Johnson’s. Two campaigns that she considers the highlight of her career include ‘Johnson’s Gentle Sparsh’ and the Effies winning – ‘Turn to Learn’. She was part of the launch of Cottontouch, Johnson & Johnson’s most successful range launch with over 2.5% increase in market share in 2020.

SANGAMITRA MANOHARAN Brand Manager - 5Star and Fuse, Mondelēz India Age: 29

s Brand Manager - Cadbury 5Star & Cadbury Fuse, Sangamitra Manoharan leads marketing activations serving the young digital savvy Gen Z. She has worked across various roles in sales, marketing, and has many industry-firsts and award-winning campaigns to her credit. A mechanical Engineer from NIT Trichy, Sangamitra discovered her true calling in marketing during a summer internship at Mondelēz in 2013. She has also done PGPM from IIM Bangalore (2012-2014). For Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sangamitra conceptualized and executed many award-winning campaigns such as ‘The Wrapper That Gives’ initiative with Jio and Pratham NGO, ‘Drowning Hate with Hearts #HeartTheHate’ Campaign – taking a stand against cyber-bullying by using a simple purple heart emoji, ‘Madbury’ Campaign – India’s

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS For Cadbury Dairy Milk, Sangamitra has conceptualized and executed award-winning campaigns such as ‘The Wrapper That Gives’ initiative with Jio and Pratham NGO, ‘Drowning Hate with Hearts #HeartTheHate’ Campaign, ‘Madbury’ Campaign, Cadbury Dairy Milk ‘Unity Bar’ Campaign and the Cadbury ‘Thank You’ Campaign launched during lockdown in seven regional languages.

first consumer co-created campaign and product innovation, Cadbury Dairy Milk ‘Unity Bar’ Campaign – celebrating the diversity of India, and the Cadbury ‘Thank You’ Campaign – an ode to the frontline heroes of the fight against Covid-19 - launched during lockdown in seven regional languages. She adds, “It couldn’t have come at a better time! The idea of Achhai/generosity became really important & what better way to say it than through a bar of Cadbury” The campaign helped drive sales, with 15 million Thank you bars sold and built great equity for the brand. Recently, she also led the execution for ‘Do Nothing Mode’ on Google Assistant for Cadbury 5Star which received national and international coverage. As a marketer who believes in the axiom, “Consumers understand earnest campaigns and business follows through”, Sangamitra says, “I am committed to driving the industry towards purposeled marketing through new age media platforms, starting with my own campaigns. For example, ‘Wrapper That Gives’ packtivation with Jio and NGO Pratham led to Mondelēz providing for internet data for one year for 120 schools in Maharashtra, ‘Thank You’ bar sales sponsored insurance of 15,000 domestic workers, #HeartTheHate was a stand against cyber-bullying and ‘Unity Bar’ campaign was a celebration of diversity.” At work Sangamitra follows the advice passed on by the company’s late Director, Chandramouli Venkatesh, “We are all, but, custodians in the life cycle of great brands. Our predecessors left them in good shape for us to reap rewards and we should do the same for our successors”. She says that she reads up on this after every successful campaign.

SHANKAR SUBRAMANIUM P r o d u c t M a r k e t i n g M a n a g e r, A s u s Age: 30

ith a rich marketing and advertising background, Shankar Subramanium is currently working as Product Marketing Manager – PC at Asus. A graduate in the life sciences (Biotechnology), he also holds an MBA degree. Shankar has worked with more than 25 global brands across healthcare, retail, automobile, FMCG, entertainment, consumer durables, and the lifestyle industries. While it goes without saying that he had numerous opportunities to work on diverse campaigns and projects, bringing experience from both sides of the table – the agency and client – the ones he is most proud of include Sunlight Living Challenge (HUL), Open Door Project (The Millennium Schools), and Edge of the World

(Asus). In his previous assignment with FCB Ulka where he was leading the digital business unit, Shankar won the prestigious 2019 Cannes Lion Gold for the #OpenDoorProject campaign. This campaign went on to win at various international and national awards including at the CLIO Awards, LIA Awards, ANDY Awards, Spikes Asia, Effies while making it to the Top 100 campaigns of the world. Shankar says, “The Open Door Project was a simple yet beautiful thought of keeping the doors of the schools open after school hours for kids who want a place to study and encouraging them to pursue their dreams, just makes you feel satisfied & content before you go to bed.” Shankar also has to his credit the Employee of the Year Award 2020 at ASUS for outstanding performance and contribution towards the company’s growth, and Super Achiever Awards - Innovation 2017 at Beckman Coulter (Danaher) for improving company’s RR and increasing the CG (%) in double digits. Shankar says, “As a lead, I usually evaluate the situation first, before giving my inputs to address the problems. You might not have all the information to solve the problem in the first go but by linking ideas & thoughts, tasks do become easier. The whole idea is to build a healthy team that thinks of solutions. I try to teach them how to think creatively, how to write a brief, digital marketing & learning, ATL & BTL, do a PSP to solve a complicated problem, or as simple as managing priorities and tasks list.” His professional motto is ‘Always give your 110% because eventually you either win or have a learning experience’. The chance to make a positive impact on humanity keeps him inspired.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Shankar has won the prestigious 2019 Cannes Lion Gold for the #OpenDoorProject campaign. Shankar also has to his credit the Employee of the Year Award 2020 at ASUS for outstanding performance and contribution towards the company’s growth, and Super Achiever Awards Innovation 2017 at Beckman Coulter (Danaher) for improving company’s RR and increasing the CG (%) in double digits.

SNEHA JHA Senior Brand Manager – Digital and Delivery Innovation, KFC India Age: 30

neha Jha has been a marketer for last seven years. An economics graduate from Miranda House, she went on to do an MBA in Marketing from NMIMS, Mumbai and also earned Certification in Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, Social Media & E-commerce from Wharton. Adaptability & affability coupled with a strong consumerled thinking and experience across diverse channels including dine-in, take-away and delivery have been her strengths through her career as a researcher and innovator. At KFC India, Sneha has managed multiple projects and campaigns, and won accolades for the same. In 2019, she won the CEO’s award for top performer & contributor to business from the marketing domain. The award was presented by Samir Menon, MD & GM, KFC India for her insights-based thinking and rapid conceptualization and

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Sneha has won the CEO’s award for top performer & contributor to business from the marketing domain for her insights-based thinking and rapid conceptualization and execution of innovations. She was given the responsibility to strengthen the KFC app and the app grew 2X in share over 2020, with a TOM improvement by 3X.

execution of innovations. The impact cascaded to a 2X improvement in testing pace and a reduction in timeline for GTM (go-to-market) by three months, with no cost impact. Last year, she was given the responsibility to work on identifying levers to strengthen the KFC app. Following the holistic project which covered functionalities beyond marketing, the app grew 2X in share over 2020, with a TOM (Top-of-mind awareness) improvement by 3X. Sneha considers it one of the major highlights of her career which earned her recognition from the KFC global CMO, and gave her the opportunity to present her innovation pipeline & consumer thinking for the app to all KFC delivery leads across the globe. As an innovator, challenging times bring out the best in Sneha. “Fast roll-out of contactless delivery, packaging insulation, safety seals and aggregator certifications are all innovations that improved our brand and QSR perceptions in a difficult year. Topical and relevant food innovations such as ‘At Home Specials’, ‘IPL combos’ and ‘Weekend Specials’ brought in two million new users to the brand, 50% of which were delivery first-timers. Research suggests that 70% of these channel-first users have also accessed another brand and hence the entire consumer base has grown. ‘At Home Specials’ which was first-to-market by KFC, became a category norm thereafter. It improved KFC’s average ticket size by 20%,” she remarks. Sneha believes that a strong consumer-led thinking & experience across diverse channels like dine-in, take-away & delivery gives her an edge and adds that her personality which is a mix of compassion, patience & resilience are her key strengths.

SURBHI ARORAA Independent Brand Consultant Age: 26

urbhi Aroraa works as an independent brand consultant for a fintech and an edtech firm since 2020. She started her professional journey with an internship at Unilever which strengthened her interest in marketing. Surbhi has worked with renowned brands such as Unilever, Reckitt, Eros Now, YSchool, and Nviera. She has around four years of experience in sales and marketing, strategic consulting, digital growth, brand strategy, and brand identity creation across FMCG, OTT, edtech, and fintech industries. A graduate in Economics from Delhi University, Surbhi holds an MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Bennett University. She has also done an Executive Program in Marketing and Strategy from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Surbhi started her career

scaling up the regional business of Reckitt’s wellness products, including Durex. Later, she led the co-ordinated brand and marketing efforts for the launch of a blockchain-backed OTT app Mzaalo (Eros Now). She is currently seeding growth for her clients in the start-up domain. Among her most challenging campaigns was the one executed last year for her first edtech client through Red Raccoon Studios, YSchool (a leading edtech firm in K12 competitive examinations). Surbhi orchestrated the entire brand delivery for the program from conceptualization, persona, brand story, as well as the entire harmonized brand guidelines for the launch of the new version of their app on both Android and iOS platforms to elevate overall user-experience and provide new product packages for students. She also helped the co-founders with the overall investor outreach. Surbhi’s focus has been towards ASO, social media marketing, influencer management, and key strategic partnerships that cater to growth. However, as someone who has never been hesitant about stepping out of her comfort zone, Surbhi has educated herself in the fields of technology, supply chain, and legal/admin-related aspects that are not directly related to her core. “I believe that our education is no longer restrained to traditional degrees as was the case few years back. I am continuously working on upgrading my skill set by attending product and growth bootcamps by industry leaders, and enriching my marketing playbook by following stalwarts such as Shiv Shivakumar, Neil Patel, Vani Gupta, Karthik Srinivasan, and many others. I have always taken charge of my learning process and I work tirelessly to learn, unlearn and upgrade my knowledge and skills,” she says.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Surbhi started her career scaling up the regional business of Reckitt’s wellness products, including Durex. She has also led the co-ordinated brand and marketing efforts for the launch of a blockchainbacked OTT app Mzaalo (Eros Now). She is currently seeding growth for her clients in the start-up domain. Last year, she executed a challenging campaign for her first Edtech client YSchool.

TANMAI PAUL Co-founder and CMO, Bolo Indya Age: 23

anmai Paul strategizes, plans and leads the execution of all marketing initiatives at Bolo Indya. Her KPIs include growth hacking, user acquisition, engagement, content distribution and accelerating Bolo’s growth to achieve 50 mn MAU (Monthly Active Users) in the next 12 months. A commerce graduate from Delhi University, Tanmai loves socializing,listening to podcasts, reading and travelling during her leisure time. Tanmai started her career as digital marketing manager for an edtech company, Career Anna where she began to identify and appreciate her inclination towards creativity, content and storytelling. Thereafter she joined Bobble AI - a vernacular keyboard company backed by Xiaomi and Elevation Capital - to

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Tanmai joined Bolo Indya’s cofounding team as Head of Marketing and strategizes plans and leads the execution of all marketing initiatives. Bolo Indya has so far raised close to 1 million USD, serving over 6.5 million MAUs in 14 different Indian languages. Her KPIs include growth hacking, user acquisition, engagement, content distribution and accelerating Bolo’s growth to achieve 50 million MAUs in the next 12 months.

lead content marketing and social media initiatives. At Bobble AI she played a pivotal role in increasing the percentage of the brand’s female audience by over 120%, while enabling the platform to launch special women focused AI stickers. The initiative helped the company grow its overall content engagement by over 37%. Around the same time, identifying with her entrepreneurial spirit, Tanmai decided to join the Bolo Indya’s (an indigenous passion economy driven short video platform) cofounding team as Head of Marketing. Bolo Indya has so far raised close to 1 million USD, serving over 6.5 million MAUs in 14 different Indian languages. Having partnered with names like BBC India, Gaana, Curefit, Junglee Games, Carnival Cinemas, and Dance with Madhuri, the company’s intent is to connect brands with the targeted audience on the platform through every possible touchpoint. As a marketer, Tanmai’s biggest challenge (and opportunity) is to anticipate the future marketing landscapes based on current trends. “The short videos industry is in an exciting phase globally, especially in India where the majority of population is under 30 years. I am working towards enabling its expansion into a new segment to empower content creators to gain financial independence. Simultaneously, I am also building trust between the creator and consumer that will lead to growth of micropayments on the short video platform, thus opening new avenues of capitalisation,” she states.

VARUN KULKARNI S e n i o r M a n a g e r - D i g i t a l a n d G ro w t h M a r k e t i n g , N o B ro k e r Age: 30

arun Kulkarni likes to describe himself as a passionate marketer with varied interests and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. At present, he heads digital marketing at the real estate portal, NoBroker.com. As one of the first ten employees of the company, Varun has been an integral part of the brand’s journey, scaling it from being an unknown name to a market leader in the space. His tryst with digital marketing began as an account manager at a digital marketing agency, Kapsica Media, where he was responsible for 80% of the company’s portfolio as the youngest ever employee in the role. From Kapsica, Varun moved to handling digital marketing efforts at a boutique brand, The Label Life. At

NoBroker.com his stint has been replete with challenges and opportunities, as well as many eureka moments. Varun has been instrumental in the brand’s growth from zero to over a million connections being made on the platform every month and scaling the app to over five million installs. As a staunch advocate of networking, he enjoys interacting with fellow marketers and start-up enthusiasts. In addition to conducting training sessions for grooming fresh talent and solving problems for early and growth stage start-ups. Some of the platforms he is associated with include UpGrad, TapCheid and 24ADP. Varun has also been involved with Laqshya 2025, an organization that works with school kids helping them identify the right career track. “Having multiple interests has helped me immensely in networking, and with the network gradually transitioning into net worth, I have been able to carve a niche and build a personal brand in an effective manner. I enjoy working on complex business problems and creating strategies for the same. I am very approachable and happy to be the first point of contact for any issue or consultation across teams,” he says. His philosophy at work and life is, ‘Try fast, fail fast; ideas are dime a dozen. They need to be validated fast and either scaled up or scrapped accordingly’.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS As one of the first ten employees of the company, Varun has been an integral part of the NoBroker.com’s brand’s journey. He has been instrumental in the brand’s growth from zero to over a million connections being made on the platform every month and scaling the app to over five million installs.

VIDHU JOSHI M e d i a M a n a g e r, P e r f e t t i Va n M e l le Age: 29

passionate & selfdriven marketer, Vidhu Joshi looks for ways to raise the bar using innovative yet simple solutions. After managing media, content and activations for Hero MotoCorp, she recently moved to Perfetti as Media Manager responsible for India, Bhutan and Nepal. A computer science graduate and MBA in marketing, Vidhu has driven many firsts in the marketing team at Hero MotoCorp as well as the two-wheeler industry. These include the first-ever video chatbot in the industry to drive engagement around a new launch, innovative competition ambush search strategy to sell more bikes for Hero when competition advertised, and activated ‘Google Direct to Store’ to measure the ROI (footfalls at dealership tracked)

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS One of Vidhu’s most successful media campaigns was a data driven integrated media strategy addressing each part of the marketing funnel which resulted in driving sales during the ‘Festive for Hero,’ with one bike being sold every two seconds for 30 consecutive days. Her career highlight has been the opportunity to single-handedly manage over Rs. 400 crore media budget of Hero MotoCorp’s entire product portfolio for about seven months.

from video advertising on YouTube. One of Vidhu’s most successful media campaigns was a data driven integrated media strategy addressing each part of the marketing funnel which resulted in driving the best sales during the ‘Festive for Hero’. The campaign proved to be an astounding feat with one bike being sold every two seconds for 30 consecutive days. Her career highlight has been the opportunity to single-handedly manage over Rs. 400 crore media budget of Hero MotoCorp’s entire product portfolio for about seven months in the absence of Media Head. The responsibility made her realize her unexplored and untapped potential. Since then, she has always made an effort to outperform herself and achieve excellence in all roles. Commenting on her challenges, Vidhu states, “The speed of innovations across marketing mix, intensifying competition from existing and new entrants as well as technological innovations have resulted in a cut-throat and challenging environment for marketers to identify and develop the best strategy while increasing ROI from each campaign.” Hence, as a marketer, her focus has always been on three things, namely, ‘improving accountability and ROI measurement’ using either traditional econometric modelling or through data & analytics, ‘innovating on digital’ for creating awareness, generating buzz around specific events or for enquiry conversions and ‘exploring the power of content’ through content partnerships, show integrations, influencer marketing and more.

YUVRAJ GOGIA Marke t i n g M a n a g e r - D i g i ta l a nd E -com m erce, Wi ld cra ft I ndi a Age: 28

uvraj Gogia is a data driven digital-first marketing professional. He’s presently working as Marketing Manager – Digital & E-commerce, at Wildcraft India. He’s gone through multiple stints in the organization spanning across regional and national retail marketing and e-commerce. An economics graduate, Yuvraj holds an MBA (Marketing) from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Bengaluru and Post Graduate Certification in Digital Marketing from MICA. Yuvraj’s career highlight has been leading the digital leg of the ‘Hain Taiyaar Hum’ Wildcraft Supermask 360-degree ATL campaign which reached out to 200 million Indians to create awareness about mask

wearing. He’s proud to have pulled off the campaign against all odds during peak lockdown, working along with a wonderful team and agency partners like Ogilvy. He has also led the search and display campaigns during the Flipkart Big Billion Days, Oct’20. It resulted in Wildcraft being featured as a case study on Flipkart Ads for delivering an unprecedented 32x ROI over Sep’20. In addition to his key responsibilities of fostering digital transformation at Wildcraft, Yuvraj also conducts company-wide product and channel trainings. As a marketer, Yuvraj has also had ample shop floor experience which helps him understand the consumer better. His progression to managing both traditional and digital marketing for the brand is a testimony to his agility and hunger to learn and grow. “I am grateful to have bloomed into a channel agnostic full stack marketer, having managed both regional and national retail marketing & omnichannel, and then significantly up-skilling to lead digital transformation for Wildcraft. My knack of being a team player, dealing effortlessly with external partners, and passion and commitment to the craft and the industry at large has set me on the right path to be a marketing leader in the years to come,” says an assertive Yuvraj.

DEFINING ACHIEVEMENTS Yuvraj’s career highlight has been leading the digital leg of the ‘Hain Taiyaar Hum’ Wildcraft Supermask 360-degree ATL campaign which reached out to 200 million Indians to create awareness about mask wearing. He has also led the Search and Display campaigns during the Flipkart Big Billion Days, Oct’20. It resulted in Wildcraft being featured as a case study on Flipkart Ads for delivering an unprecedented 32x ROI over Sep’20.

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