Category: DIVAS UPCLOSE

(Work experience: 9 years)

She has a better way to soak in extra knowledge; an attribute she feels sets her apart from her peers. Avers Gauthaman: “There is so much of information one can gather by just listening! And that is precisely what I do most often. I love to listen to people, analyze reaction when spoken, interpret gestures and expression which I believe usually talks more than words!”

But besides being an avid listener, an amateur cake baker and an animal lover (do minus the lizard and the cockroach variety!!), Gauthaman’s main area of focus is media planning. A major portion of her time in a day is spent towards her role as GM while her remaining time is spent with arguments & discussions with her husband, focusing on re-educating herself with her class 7 son and in disturbing her lazy sleepy dog.

Gauthaman did her MA in English Literature (Central University, Hyderabad) and took up towards Advertising Management as a career option. She specialized into the profession by doing a course from MICA. As she puts it: “And so, putting words to numbers, picture-zing and understanding bars and curves has been my passion for the last 17 years.”

Sharing her inclination towards media planning and buying, Gauthaman said: “Media has always been like a puzzle game – analyzing data, understanding consumer behavior, customizing budgets to plans and eventually shopping media intrigued me more than copy writing/servicing. So from starting off as a client servicing person at my first job, I switched to Media planning and buying later.”

(Experience: 10 years)

Arti Singh had a non-descript graduation and although she “was never going to Trinity”, she aced advertising and loved the way it ticked. She could not pursue a professional course and without any guidance or competitive edge, she jumped into the hospitality industry.

She soon gained a foothold – and that was all she needed – in Aaren Initiative which was the sister concern of Lintas Group. She worked as a Central Co-ordinator, handling Tata Indicom’s outdoor account at Pan India level for 22 circles.

Talking about her move to Posterscope, Arti explained: “Alice was finally in the rabbit hole! I also got a chance to work in Activation at Tata. And then came a challenging portfolio in the retail division at Posterscope Outdoor. The field was new to me but I was on a high and needed the adrenaline. I went from being a media executive to media manager and right now I am Associate Business Manager, heading a team of my own. I am proud and passionate about my work and my passion leads me to greener pastures and multinational clients. When glory beckons, I march onward.”

“I didn’t wake up some day and ask myself why I am in Media Planning and Buying? I chose this field as much as it chose me. Retail is an extremely disorganized field but at the same time challenging and innovative.”

For Arti, every day is a brand new – pun intended – horizon, with new people, negotiating commercial proposals and maintaining client satisfaction, both existing and new. She feels that the scope is huge and without any stagnancy. Retail is rapidly expanding with great demand and Inventing, Innovating and Inspiring unique and visible trends for brands are her 3 Is for success.

(Experience: 7 years)

Shilpi Tibrewal is Media Director – Planning at Dentsu Media. With nearly a decade’s experience in the business, Shilpi has strong expertise in managing full-spectrum media responsibilities including media strategy, planning and buying. Over the years, Shilpi has worked with leading media organizations like Mindshare Fulcrum, Carat Media and Mudra Connext. Having worked with brands such as Emami and The Times of India, she also has experience managing the media mandate on the client side. Her brand experience includes brands such as Aircel, Honda Bikes, Unicharm, Hitachi, ICI Dulux, Amway, Yatra, HBO, Adidas, BMW and Ray Ban to name a few. An M.A. in Political Science from the University of Calcutta, Shilpi also completed an MBA in Marketing and M.A in International Relations from the University of Sussex, UK.

As to why she chose media planning & buying, she states, “The media – be it print or television is something that we as consumers, grow with. We had television going colour in my time. I remember suddenly having access to sudden burst of choices when it came to newspapers and magazines. In my earlier years as a student, these choices and variety fascinated me. I was very curious about the background of these ‘information vehicles’ and how they may operate. So it was an inherent curiosity that got me started on the road to discovering media and it has been a fascinating journey of great learning!”

(Experience: 8 years)

After completing her BA in Mathematics from Lady Shri Ram College, Nilakshi Shukla started her career in marketing with Virgin Atlantic. After taking a break to complete her post-graduation from Times School of Marketing, she worked with the Times of India. She has now been working for 8 years, out of which 6 years have been spent as a media planner and buyer in the digital space: “Joining Web Chutney in 2006 kick-started her career in this space.” After a period of two years, she moved to Tribal DDB.

Elaborating on her career, Nilakshi said: “I joined GroupM in the end of 2009 and worked as a specialist in Mobile Media Planning, which allowed me to deep-dive into and get a better understanding of one vertical of the digital space. In January this year, I transferred to MEC Interaction as the Delhi Head; looking after all digital platforms including display, mobile, search, social and creative.”

Nilakshi’s entry into media planning was not a calculated one. She joined WebChutney as a media planning executive, excited about the Internet, but not being entirely sure what it was about and without any prior experience in the space or media planning. But a few days into it, she was convinced that this is what she wanted to do in terms of a career. Nilakshi said that as an avid Internet user and with an inherent curiosity for the medium, being a planner fit right in: “Add to that the explosive growth which Internet usage was poised for and the fact that it was constantly evolving, ensured that this would be a fun and dynamic industry to work in.”

(Experience: 8 years)

Bhumika Shajwani has nearly eight years of experience in Media Planning & Buying, Key Account Management & Brand Management. She feels that she is a highly motivated and result-oriented professional with the ability to visualise the big picture and lead a motivated and high powered team to implement brand promotion campaigns, launch new products and enhance customer experience.

Talking about her experience, Bhumika said: “I have experience in leading activities involving liaison with key accounts and sustaining strong business relations with key accounts of strategic importance. I am proficient in heading business operations encompassing customer relationship management, finalisation of strategic alliances leading to brand enhancement & consumer market analysis.”

Dexterity in steering development of products based on market/customer specifications with a strong understanding of marketing issues is one of her core strengths. She said that she is an impressive communicator with honed interpersonal, team building, negotiation, presentation, convincing and analytical skills.

(Experience: 9 years)

Ronak Parekh has been a part of Madison Media since the past nine years as a media planner. She has worked on varied set of businesses including Zee Network, Dish TV, Pidilite, Times Television and currently handles the media duties for Marico.

Sharing her passion for the domain, she says: “It is a very dynamic industry wherein one has to constantly evolve and keep up with the client’s business requirements. Also the nature of work is challenging and has to constantly learn and adapt to the ever-changing environment. That’s what I found stimulating in the initial stages, and it still keeps me charged up, excited and looking for new solutions.”

(Experience: 6 years)

After a short stint in a small creative shop, Naina Shewakramani joined MEC in November 2006. My experience varies across the spectrum of categories and market segments from top-end hi-fashion premium brands like Chanel to mass market and rural brands like Colgate, Nivea and Pidilite.

Talking about her experience, Naina said: “To begin at the beginning and speaking honestly, media planning happened by chance. After my graduation, I worked in a small creative agency servicing some of the local brands. Ideally you aspire to join creative agencies of the likes of Ogilvy and JWT, however one day I got a call from GroupM.”

Naina felt that since everything was so new to her, she thought of giving it a try. That was way back in November 2006. And today she can boast of working on some of the biggest brands that one can dream of. She feels that media planning & buying is not boring in any way: “We have to come up with innovative stuff almost every day and that makes life interesting in a media agency. No wonder, I can’t think of moving elsewhere even after spending almost half a decade in MEC.”

(Experience: 6 years)

A Mass Media graduate from Mumbai University, Tinaz joined Ogilvy India in 2006 as a digital media planner and from there began her career as a digital media evangelist. Though she has had the good fortune of learning and executing 360-media campaigns, her passion is still digital.

On her current role she says: “I am currently unlearning and learning the rules of the ever evolving media landscape at OMD. Servicing a CPG giant in Hindustan Unilever has its own challenges, and I’m not going to be stoic about it. Nevertheless, it keeps me on my toes and provides immense opportunities for new learning. I love every bit of it.”

On choosing media planning as a career, she said: “For me it was not me that chose media planning & buying, actually, media planning chose me! It happened unexpectedly at my first job as a client servicing executive with a mid-sized agency. The only person who managed media left and overnight I had to fill in that role. It was the most stressful situation I faced then, but had no option but to take it in my stride. What stood out for me in the media planning function is that you are completely in control of the work you deliver- the idea, plan, and logic. There is more ownership, as you will never let something that you are not personally convinced about, go to your client.”

When asked on the role that she would like to take on in the future, she said: “I see myself as a digital media ‘guru’ to watch out for in the next 5 years.”

(Experience: 4 years)

“5 ft tall, 28 years old pseudo-Punjabi who has been brought up in almost every city in India”, is how Ritika Misra responds to the question about her upbringing. Infact when people ask her where she’s from, she usually sticks to “I’m from Bangalore”, and leaves it at that. In reality, Misra is a Punjabi who was raised in Palakkad, Goa, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Cochin and now finally has found home in Bangalore.

Avers Misra: “To say that my life has been a travel journal of sorts would be an understatement, but during the journey I’ve met a lot interesting people and seen a lot of beautiful places. Maybe this journey from place to place is what moulded me as a person and made me what I am. Having supportive parents who shifted to Bangalore for me is also an added bonus and I don’t think I need to say that family was and will always be my first priority in life.”

But while she enjoys her stint at her current company, Misra has a rather interesting tale to tell about her love of numbers. Sharing her experience she says, “I have had an aversion to numbers, maths and statistics from time immemorial and so it was quite a shocker to myself when I decided to make a career in research and then in media. But the mere fact that I have survived this long is proof enough for me to realize that numbers love me!”

(Experience: 3.5 years)

Arati Jere is an engineer who decided to give the super computers a miss in favor of a career in media. She graduated from MICA in 2009 and worked in the radio industry for a couple of years before making a move to the ‘other side’.

Talking about her decision to move to the other side, Arati said: “I find the absolutely crazy notion that a 30 second communication can have a lasting influence on the human mind extremely exciting.”

She specialized in Account Planning in MICA and spent the first two years of her career in a media house. She feels that though the move to media planning was rather serendipitous: “It was the perfect meeting ground of those two things (advertising & media) and I enjoy it so much is because it is a heady concoction of creativity and analytical rigor.”

(Experience: 2.5 years)

Aditi Patkar is fondly known as Aditi Patkar. She was born, brought up, schooled (where she passed & failed), tutored, all in Bombay… that’s what it was called when she was born.

She works at Mindshare, Group M Media Pvt Ltd and has two and a half years of media experience. “I am extensively into media planning and I enjoy every bit of it,” she said.

Continuing with the self portrait, Aditi said: “I am a people’s person, with a real interest in brands and their communication. With media planning, the focus is more on your interaction with people and understanding brand requirements. These are mainly the reasons why I chose planning as my forte. Also the fact that it’s dynamic in nature and the success and progression is ultimately down to how you perform!”