SANCHAYEETA VERMA
CEO, Carat India
PROFILE:
With over 27 years of industry experience, Verma has been leading growth trajectory and client-centric business outcomes across industries. At Carat, she leads the team with a human-centric planning framework of ‘Designing For People’ to build the moment-media mindset into the go-to-market strategies for brands. She spends her leisurely time gardening, listening to music, and enjoying science fiction.
Approach To Media Buying:
She follows the principle of understanding the business context through which the brand’s go-to-market strategy is crafted. She believes media planning and buying is the key to navigating the complex environment that brands are in, which is comprehended by understanding the nuances of this environment from the category x consumer x market lens. The media strategy created and executed across the full purchase funnel then becomes the make-or-break differentiator.
Memorable Campaign:
Two Cannes-winning campaigns by dentsu are her favourite ones. ‘The Unfiltered History Tour with Vice News’, the unofficial interactive tour of the British Museum. The second campaign is the ‘The Everything Book’ by Vedantu in partnership with denstu, for democratizing education in media-dark markets.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
She reckons effective and responsible use of AI in media will revolutionize the industry. Along with the connected experience of consumers across the 100+ touchpoints that now exist is critical. She believes that Connected TV is bringing in a paradigm shift with cheap Smart TVs enabling everyone to access the internet on large screens.
ALOK KAPASE
Business Director - Digital Buying, Madison World
PROFILE:
Kapase has over a decade of experience in media buying. He likes to consume online content when he’s not leading Digital Buying at the media company.
Approach To Media Buying:
He tailors his approach to media buying as per the client’s KPI and campaign being planned for, and explores what funnel fits into the objective out of the three basic funnels - awareness, consideration, and purchases. He then singles out best partners to drive the KPI. On the branding side, he focuses more on the target audience and partners who deliver that KPI.
Memorable Campaign:
A memorable campaign for him is one of the campaigns he worked on for a recent cricket tournament. The campaign delivered brand value in terms of effectiveness, efficiency (eCPM), and as an entire end-to-end campaign solution.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
The transition from Display to Video ad formats has been observed by him in the last 3-4 years. AdTech innovations and AI-based solutions are also bringing
efficiencies to the table according to him. He opines CTV would be the next big thing.
DEEPIKA BANSAL
AVP-Investment, dentsu X
PROFILE:
Bansal has over 15 years of experience in media planning and buying. She likes to dance and travel for recreation.
Approach To Media Buying:
She defines media buying as negotiating media placements to achieve specific marketing objectives and to reach the right audience with the right media vehicle at the right place and time with the right budget. Her approach starts with setting up the marketing and communication objective with the help of tools and software. Research, data analysis, collaboration, and negotiation with media vendors to get the right space and optimise the placement of ads in the most cost-effective and impactful way, is
her outlook that is coupled with the process.
Memorable Campaign:
One of her most memorable campaigns that she worked on was Pass Pass Mouth Freshener where she managed to deliver the brand message in a contextually and topically relevant environment. When Mr. Nawaz Sharif (Former PM -Pakistan) was invited to India as a Republic Day guest, the ad was placed on the front page as photo branding, under the photo of Indian Prime Minister Narender Modi and Sharif shaking hands, with the message “Pass Pass Aao”.
Cadbury’s Kya Swad Hai Zindagi Mein, Surf Excel's Daag Ache Hai, Nirma’s Sabki Pasand Nirma, Nerolac’s Har Ghar ki Raunak, and Airtel’s Har Ek Friend Zaruri Hota Hai” are also a few of her favorites.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
Metaverse, AI, AR, VR, and 5G Technology are some of the emerging technologies that she reckons would impact the industry. She believes the industry most impacted will depend on how these technologies are adopted and applied.
LAYA MENON
EVP & Business Head - Bengaluru, Lodestar UM
PROFILE:
Menon has over two decades of experience in media planning and buying. She enjoys classical and retro music and reads comics, biographies, and surrealist fiction during her leisure time. She also likes to grow plants and enjoys her OCD and stand-up comedy.
Approach To Media Buying:
Menon feels it is crucial to craft a campaign or media strategy to understand the business objective and the business itself. She takes a nuanced approach to deliver reach and frequency targets across media and platforms. Her approach is defined by the use of differential metrics that capture fragmented media consumption prevalent today, and a visualization of these metrics across the funnel, to deliver efficiency and effectiveness.
Memorable Campaign:
The great ones that stood out for her are the firstsof- its-kind, with a laser-sharp focus on the audience, that created business impact and generated buzz value. Merging the medium and the message is also a strong pivot, and most of her memorable campaigns involved the usage of at least one media platform in a unique way and tangible business results.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
She reckons the different forms of AI will revolutionize and challenge many ‘norms’, however, it is the use at scale of the combination of real-time insights that are available to be harnessed via data signals and legacy media that often delivers tangible results. She also believes influencer marketing and branded content have the potential to cut through the clutter.
YAMINI VIJAY GHARGE
Partner - Client Leadership, Mindshare India (GroupM)
PROFILE:
She has over 16 years of experience in media planning and buying. During her recreational time, she likes to ride her Royal Enfield or listen to music in both scenarios to get pepped up or to calm down.
Approach To Media Buying:
Gharge reckons the dramatic changes in the media ecosystem have only changed the implementation, but the fundamentals of planning remain the same. Sophisticated consumer data, measurement tools, and predictive analysis have made media plans more effective but the approach of 'integrated planning' has not changed. With more data at granular levels, tools that help learn from the past and adapt to the future, have made her approach data-led and technology-enabled, but the integrated planning remains consumer-centric.
Memorable Campaign:
Campaigns that 'go beyond' the obvious become memorable for her. She shares an example of one such campaign by an insurance brand. The campaign was themed around the insight that pillion riders on two-wheelers, who are mostly the rider's family, kids or friends do not wear a helmet while they are on the road. The helmet awareness drive by the brand 'penalized the ones following the rules'. The riders were stopped by the traffic police even if they were following the rules and wearing a helmet. The aim was to tell them that while they were protecting their lives, they were not thinking of their families. So while protection is core to the business, the execution was different.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
She believes that the innovative trait of ‘Digital’ will revolutionize the industry by making it more complex, more siloed and fragmented. Unique consumer segmentation data from various platforms will also be in use by marketers, according to her. For instance, financial data from UPI platforms, interest data from social platforms, and entertainment data from OTT platforms. She states AI & ML will also change things, as observed in ‘optimization’ and predictive analysis, and now in creativity and
media formats.
CHIRAG BHATIA
EVP & Business Head – Digital, DDB Mudramax
PROFILE:
With over 20 years of experience in media planning and buying, Bhatia leads the Digital vertical in his current stint. During his leisurely time, he dedicates himself to fitness, riding bikes, along with being a dog father and a music festival fanatic.
Approach To Media Buying:
His approach to media buying is straightforward, focussed on the objective based on the problem statement, defining the Consumer and Context, identifing the most effective medium or media channels in strict consideration of the media budget, and finally layering the plan with innovation to break the clutter.
Memorable Campaign:
‘Gulf Fan Academy’ by Gulf Oil, planned and executed by DDB Mudra. It is a full-funnel campaign that used an effective media plan framework aligned with creative communication. The campaign was driven toward the brand’s goal and targeted consumers with innovative ideas on relevant platforms such as Reliance Jio’s ads ecosystem. Gamification of the communication and celebrity partnerships were leveraged to achieve full-funnel goals.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
He reckons the top three digital channels to watch out for are Connected TV, merchant media, and media solutions by telcos.
ANIL KUMAR SURYAVAMSHI
AVP - Planning, Carat
PROFILE:
Suryavamshi has over 15 years of experience in integrated media strategy (planning & buying), data analysis, & more. He loves biking, and traveling, and has been a long-time Mixed Martial Arts athlete. He plans to have at least one international fight before the age factor becomes a hindrance.
Approach To Media Buying:
In the Digital era, he takes the audience-first approach and understands the platforms they are present on, and how are they reacting. He believes in reaching out to the right audience at the right time. For instance showing a travel ad while looking for doctors would be a wrong placement, even with the right audience. Personalization at scale is also his key focus, as he reckons there’s no one size that fits all on both creative and media aspects.
Memorable Campaign:
His memorable campaign is ‘Not Just A Cadbury Ad’ by Mondelez for Cadbury Celebrations. The use of Deep Fake AI, to make Shah Rukh Khan the brand ambassador of local kiranas and shops, with simple execution and curation of small business owners, along with geo-targeting made the campaign his all-time favorite.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
Indians are now paying via UPI-based payment apps for the smallest of things will lead to a goldmine of data, that marketers can source and use for targeting audiences. This is still being figured out, and with ONDC coming into the picture, he’s trying to explore how it can be used in the day-to-day activities of marketing. Apart from that, he also believes AI and MarTech have several use-case applications.
RITZ MALIK
Director, Creative Thinks Media
PROFILE:
Malik holds over 25 years of experience in media planning or buying. He likes to read and practice wellness in his recreational time.
Approach To Media Buying:
His approach to media buying and planning entails on-ground surveys to gather in-depth first-hand data and consumer insights, to create an informed media plan and strategy that connects with the diverse Indian audience on a personal level. This plan combines both traditional and digital methods.
Memorable Campaign:
A memorable campaign for him is the one he worked on for Max Estates, for the launch of a premium residential project launched for the first time in Noida. The campaign was planned as a series of GNP jackets in the top newspapers of the city. According to him, in contrast to the prevailing perception that in the Digital age, newspapers are losing relevance, his experience revealed the opposite. Newspapers are thriving, readership is growing, and the trust and credibility associated with this medium has not diminished at all. The campaign resulted in the project being sold out.
Emerging medium/ channel that will revolutionize the industry:
He reckons the growing trend of regional content and hyperlocal ads, will allow a more personal connection. Additionally, AI in advertising is set to revolutionize the industry, offering data-driven insights and personalization to enhance advertising’s efficiency and targeting capabilities.
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