Tag: 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)

Currently Florinda Fernandes is into both Business Development and Client Servicing. The profile includes everything right from pitching for a new business till the campaign ends. The entire process in terms of strategizing, planning, innovation and execution as a whole is Florinda’s forte.

Explaining her work, Florinda said: “Outdoor is one of the domains in the media fraternity wherein every day is a new day. Each day has a challenge as the industry is unpredictable. It is undergoing changes and evolving into a new platform. Today, we speak on the lines of innovation, convergence and globalization. It’s becoming more consumer-centric and holistic thinking, thus making it more challenging and realistic. I am more than happy to be a part of it, and see it grow.”

(Experience: 10 years)

Being daughter of an Air Force Officer, Namita Sethi spent the early part of her childhood in various cities across India before settling in Delhi for her higher education. She is a Commerce graduate, and has done my Post Graduation in Communications from Delhi.

“‘Media’ as a profession happened by chance.” As part of her summer internship, she got an opportunity to work in Universal Mc Cann. During this stint, she got a first-hand experience of media planning. As a student too, she had been good with numbers and analytics, so this profession seemed the most appropriate to take forward her strength and also as a career option. “And now, I am a Media Professional since more than a decade in a leading advertising firm, and happy about it.”

Namita is currently working with Lodestar Universal as Media Director and said that she has learnt a lot from diverse experience across portfolio ranging from Mobile, FMCG, Durables, Finance and Automobiles.

(Experience: 10 years)

“Necessity never made a good bargain,” said Benjamin Franklin, but Abhita Anand chose to differ. At 18, when most girls were deciding on what dress and makeup to wear to college, Abhita was busy converting the challenge of a life without her father in an opportunity to chart her career – a decision that made a difference to her and her family’s life.

Abhita started her career as a front desk representative in one of the most recognized and esteemed organization in fashion industry – not only in India but worldwide – Elite Model Management, India. Recognizing her potential and immense inclination to move forward, Elite gave her an opportunity that Abhita was not ready to let go, at any cost. Within a year, Abhita was handling the modeling school and was responsible for business development and targets for its Delhi branch.

It was Elite where Abhita started handling the PR and ad division work for Elite. It did not take long for Abhita, with her business acumen, to realize the potential of the last mile communication and she started the events division in Elite.

Juggling her education and work, Abhita completed her MBA in marketing and finance from Fore School Of Management to correlate the management gyan and its real life application. She spent more than 5 years at Elite handling various verticals and facets of business, making her one of the most important assets there.

With a hunger to try something new and considering the evolving market, Abhita joined Times Red Cell, the activation arm of The Times of India/ BCCL. It was there that Abhita got an unmatched exposure to the media industry and functionality. She spent three years on learning.

Some of the key projects Abhita handled at TOI were WagonR ‘Think Big Challenge’ and Met Life ‘I want to be an editor’. She delivered beautifully, making the clients come back to the organization year after year.

After spending three years with Times of India, Abhita joined MEC Access (Group M). Today, she handles the business at MEC Access, Delhi for clients like LG, Citibank and OCM to name a few.

(Experience: 10 years)

What Akanksha Jain values the most is to be true to everything she does and to herself. And she does that by ensuring that she has given nothing short of 100per cent.

Explaining her motivation, Akanksha said: “What drives me is the selfish desire to make a mark; essentially leave everything better than I found it! I wanted to be in the ‘Communications’ industry long before I even understood what it entailed and that’s what led me to MICA.”

She has ‘dabbled’ with account management for about a year at the start of her career, but didn’t follow through as she felt that the well-honed left part of her brain wasn’t getting enough exercise! “I was attracted to media and joined what was then a 3-member team (Pepsi @ Mindshare) to try my hand at it. That I am still here is thanks to the constant excitement and challenges that have engaged both parts of my brain.”

Young, well qualified and trained Lara Balsara is all set to take her father Sam Balsara’s legacy further – not only in terms of steering Madison Communications to a new level, but also in her acumen for all things media and peripheral to it. A Graduate in Economics from St Xavier’s College, she embellished her inherent skills with a Masters in Marketing from Bristol University. In a brief conversation with Ritu Midha, Lara Balsara talks about her work mantras and more.

What is your take on work-life balance?

If you want to succeed at the work place, there is no such thing as work- life balance. You have to be available 24/7 during weekdays for sure. The “balance” comes from taking frequent short breaks over the weekend and pursuing a hobby.

Women like yourself are scaling great heights in media industry. Why do you think, media planning and buying attract so many women professionals?

Advertising as an industry attracts a lot of women.

Do you believe that in a few professions, women still have to work harder than men to prove their worth?

Maybe in some other professions, but not in advertising and media for sure. Women might find it a bit more challenging because they have to manage work and home.

Moving to marketing, do women look for emotional quotient in the brand marketing – or is it now logic all the way?

It would be a combination of both and would also depend on the product category.

Lastly, how would you define a diva?

A diva is someone who is confident and comfortable in her own skin and who sets new trends and benchmarks and doesn’t necessarily follow trends or people.

(Work experience: 11 yrs)

Sanchita started her career in media planning some 11 years ago and has worked across agencies like Carat, Mindshare and OMD. During her stint across agencies, she has had the fortune of working on key accounts like Berger Paints, National Insurance, Tea Board, Lafarge India and Airtel (East Circle). She currently manages the skincare portfolio for J&J comprising of brands like Neutrogena & Clean & Clear.

On her most memorable moment yet, Roy shared: “Have been a part of the core team that worked on the biggest back to college activation program for Clean & Clear called “FRESH FACE” in partnership with Times of India based on strong consumer insights around TG. The campaign resulted in establishing C&C as the teen and went on to win an ABBY GOLD in Youth Marketing Category at Goafest 2011 and other J&J internal awards.”

On what made her chose media planning and buying as a career option, she said: “Choosing media planning & buying has never been a conscious choice for me. Having said that once I started I have enjoyed every moment of it.”

(Experience: 11 years)

Rajni is a graduate from MICA with experience across functional areas like Strategic Planning, Buying, Digital Integration etc. she is currently heading Strategic Planning, Trading & Training in Aegis Media. Her earlier roles include National Trading Head for Unilever at Mindshare Fulcrum,  Investment lead on PepsiCo, Motorola, Castrol, and Onida.

In the past, Rajni Menon has worked with GroupM, Lintas Media Group, McCann Erickson, Zenith Optimedia and Madison Communications, on brands such as Maruti Suzuki, Coca Cola India, Reckitt Benckiser, Gillette and Bacardi.

Sharing her tryst with media she said: “When I was entering the world of advertising, Media was just coming into its own and offered immense possibilities of new thinking. Even after more than a decade it is still evolving and there’s something new to learn every day.”

Experience: 12 years

Alka Pillai has been into media planning for the past 12 years. She has worked on different categories and with different clients like P&G, Godrej, Essel group, Pidilite, TTN, Lodha, Tata AIG, Blue Star.

“I got into media planning because it is very dynamic and every day is action oriented. Being in media gives me the dual advantage of interacting with smart professionals from both, the clients’ and channel’s end. It allows me to gain fresh perspective on things every single day.”

(Experience: 11 years)

Kanupriya Seyal has over 10 years of experience in Strategic Planning and Buying for clients across categories such as FMCG, telecom, mobile handsets, retail, on-line travel, media houses, apparels, liquor, real estate and white goods. This journey of over a decade has been filled with challenges, excitement and learning.

Talking about her beginnings, Kanupriya said: “I cut my media planning teeth at Lodestar Universal where I worked on Madura Garments, General Motors and Bacardi before moving to Mudra to provide specialized holistic strategic solutions to clients such as Electrolux, Amway and Dabur. I was instrumental in winning multiple new businesses such as Spice, Hotspot and Yatra.com among others for the agency. I was also leading the team responsible for the Media launch of these brands.”

She joined MPG in 2009 to spearhead the investment planning on one of the largest advertisers in a highly competitive category: Reckitt Benckiser to improve the ROI through structured buying and increased innovative usage of various mediums.

Beyond Reckitt, Kanupriya has developed buying strategies for MTS and other MPG clients. She has added value to the client business through high level of commitment, passion and application of cross functional skills of planning and buying.

“I always found something interesting and stimulating in all my jobs. Having been nurtured in this vibrant and aggressive environment, my pursuit has always been new and loftier pinnacles of performance, which continues to spur me on. I have been ambitious for the brands that I steward. My award winning contributions include: a bronze for the category of “Best use of Sponsorship” at Goafest Media Awards 2008 and the Young Media Turks Award organized by NDTV.”

Kanupriya has a PGD with specialization in Marketing and Graduation in Advertising from Delhi University. Kanupriya said that she was prompted to take up this field as there aren’t many jobs which allow creativity and strategies to come to life to be observed by thousands of people. “Work results are very apparent and I felt that can result in a very satisfying career. It is one interesting field where one is not restricted to think within a square room.”

Kanupriya said that she has good critical thinking skills in terms of being able to evaluate information and analyze its relevance and meaning – which she felt was crucial to succeed in this field.

(Experience: 13 years)

Shailja Vohra has been part of the Television Industry for over 13 years. Her work has taken her to over two continents Europe and Asia for content sourcing. She has hands-on experience of television programming, content strategy, acquisition, advertising revenue generation and consulting for the NGO sector.

She has a special passion for TV and film acquisition and has extensive knowledge of the same. Being part of the start-up teams of new ventures, she has successfully acquired content for several channels. Shailja has a unique perspective and first hand experience of lifestyle, infotainment and word movies space. She has an innate awareness of cultural sensitivities and audience needs, and the expertise required to run the programming of a Pay TV channel. Shailja is a strategist and planner, and is a detail-oriented professional, organized and systematized in her approach to work.

Prior to ESP Maxus, Shailja has worked for Fox Traveler channel where she headed the Acquisition responsibilities for the Network. Prior to that, she was appointed as the Acquisition and Operations head for National Geographic & Fox International Channels in India. As a special assignment she was instrumental in sourcing the best history and travel content for Fox History and Entertainment and Fox Traveler channel (first Travel channel of India). There she was responsible for laying down the acquisition guidelines and content strategy. In 2009, she did content consulting with FOX channel, wherein she devised content strategy for Fox History and Entertainment channel. In 2007 she turned her focus to movie genre. She got involved in programming, producing both live and filmed television content for UTV World Movies (India’s first international movie channel). Earlier in 2004, Shailja turned her passion towards her true calling – Programming for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet. Later she was assigned the senior role of Acquisition and Programming for Discovery Travel and Living channel (TLC- India’s first lifestyle channel).

As for her entry into them domain, Shailja started her career media in T.V. advertising revenue generation with Zee Networks and later continued in the same field with Discovery Channel and Animal Planet till the end of 2003. In the short span of 4 years she was a star performer. She was duly recognized by the company at regular intervals, making her one of the youngest managers in the company. Her style was well appreciated by the industry which was a mix of innovation and research. She has good business sense and is an ace at negotiating the best deals. In that period she managed to generate many ideas and trivia’s for her clients base to name a few; Nestle, Goodyear, Samsung, Hughes Software, Canon.

Apart from work, she has tremendous liking to a few hobbies like writing poems (she has a collection of over 100 poems), penning down her thoughts in her blog, charcoal sketching, yoga instructor at the Art of Living Foundation, etc.

(Experience: 14 years)

Sujata has done her post graduation in Communications, and has worked with agencies like Media Com (6+yrs), Starcom (2yrs), and Lodestar Universal (6+ yrs). She has handled a strong portfolio of clients including Marico, Gujarat Ambuja, Kelloggs, Heinz, Bisleri, Kelloggs, Birla Life Insurance, L’Oreal, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nerolac, Conagra, Abbott, etc.

On the reason for opting for this field, she said: “I have always felt comfortable with numbers, my friends who knew of this advised me to consider media planning so I chose to come into this field.” In fact Sujata Pawar is fortunate enough to have worked with senior media professionals like Shashi Sinha, Nandini Dias, Jasmine Sohrabji, Harish Shriyan, Divya Gupta, Gita Ram, Andre Purshottam & Ravi Kiran.

Sounding her mantra for all to practice, she said: “It is important to be constantly learning new things for mental stimulation and growth. In Lodestar UM, handling both planning & buying really helped groom understanding & thinking on Media as a whole in its entirety.”