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Tag: digital marketing

  • Kaizzen bags communication mandate for Konica Minolta

    Kaizzen bags communication mandate for Konica Minolta

    Mumbai: Konica Minolta announced on Thursday that it has appointed Kaizzen, India’s fastest-growing agency, as a strategic communications partner. With this partnership, Kaizzen will drive corporate reputation management, thought leadership, and brand partnerships across multiple stakeholders and communities.

    Japan-based Konica Minolta has expertise in empowering enterprises through digital printing and intelligent work solutions. Driven by innovation, Konica Minolta is a customer-centric organisation undertaking challenges to optimise other ventures through inclusiveness and collaboration with customers and partners.

    Konica Minolta general manager-office marketing division Sanjay Monga said, “We are delighted to partner with the country’s fastest-growing public relations agency, Kaizzen. We believe, with this collaboration, we hope to create a more vocal presence as a brand that helps organisations build, sustain, and thrive digitally.”

    Through an integrated communications strategy, Kaizzen will propel Konica Minolta towards building lasting brand recognition, media positioning of the top-brass, and increasing social visibility through an integrated communications strategy, while also assisting with their greener, sustainable initiatives.

    Speaking on the partnership, Kaizzen CEO Vineet Handa said, “Konica Minolta has established itself as a leading brand that empowers businesses through digital intelligent work solutions and printing. We are privileged to have them on board and look forward to creating success stories for our patrons. For us, each new client is equivalent to an award win that we cherish most. Our goal at Kaizzen is to strengthen our client’s reputation and to bring their leadership views to the stage.”

    Over the years, Kaizzen has grown into a prominent PR and digital media agency with a diverse portfolio in education, hospitality, FMCG, and technology. The company has recently won the “Agency of the Year (mid-sized)” at the ET Brand Equity – Kaleido Awards’21.

  • GUEST COLUMN: The changing dynamics of influencer marketing in a digital era

    GUEST COLUMN: The changing dynamics of influencer marketing in a digital era

    Mumbai: Influencer Marketing has evolved significantly over the past few years. As opposed to 2017, influencer marketing involves much more than finding people with the highest social media followings to promote the products. Today it’s performance and purpose-driven – that needs both art and science.

    Influencer marketing is projected to touch 2.85 billion by 2025 growing at a CAGR of eight per cent. Creator economy market size is estimated to reach $104 billion in 2022. The Indian market is becoming fairly regulated as well as digital marketing budgets are growing significantly. Having operated an influencer marketing company for the last four years, I have gathered the following insights and learnings in order to keep up with the rapidly changing dynamics of today’s influencer marketing:

    Setting the wrong goal for influencer marketing

    Most new marketers who get into influencer marketing sometimes consider it as a conversion play. It’s not. Influencer marketing is a brand awareness play. Obviously, this isn’t the ultimate goal, but if you compare the campaign to getting a return on every dollar spent, no purpose-driven impact will be achieved.

    Pursue long-term influencer partnerships

    A short-term, one-off social post is a thing of the past. Partnerships that are long-term and authentic are getting more traction right now. Treating influencers as brand ambassadors builds more trust between the brand, the influencer, and their followers. You get better audience engagement, more creative content, and your marketing budget works harder. As an influencer’s audience grows, your brand gets promoted continuously.

    Shifting from influencers to content creators

    Discovering the 20-30 top influencers is very easy, and brands with good budgets are all in to spend money on them. Basically, you’re treating these influencers like a newspaper or television show or a TV spot between IPL matches, but finding your niche is really important.

    Create open-ended briefs with lot of ideas

    The most unsuccessful influencer marketing campaigns are those in which brands force their thoughts onto influencers. Although influencers do that for money, the end result is a boring sponsored post on their feed. It’s not about telling the influencer what to do, but about giving them a detailed brief that helps and educates them about the brand. The ideas should be open-ended so that influencers can get something out of them that suits their audience, since not all influencers are great creatives.

    Focus on videos. Not always short form videos. Do what suits you

    Today, everything is snackable, but don’t we binge a long-form show with 10 episodes? Short forms are great, but it depends on the message you want to convey and what type of influencer you want to reach. It has to be entertaining, if not educational. When someone consumes the content, either of these works well.

    Using Influencers in co-creation

    Brands such as Zomato and Groww have had great success co-creating with influencers on their own channels. a no-brainer that we are living in 2022, where children these days want to become YouTubers rather than astronauts. Hiring influencers to create content that gets published on your own YouTube channel or Instagram feed gets your audience to consider you cool and progressive.

    Purpose driven influencer marketing are on the rise

    Today, our favourite influencers are those who stand for something, who just do not talk about how beautiful their life is but provide us with some value that is relevant to ourselves. Brands need to understand this well and keep this in mind while creating their influencer marketing strategy.

    Engagement metrics and comments quality dictates success

    While doing prospecting, it’s really important that we focus on engagement metrics more than followers. It is very important to inspect the comments on the last sponsored post so that we can ideally get a pattern of how sponsored posts perform on the feed of the influencer. Marketers often focus on the size of the influencer rather than the engagement they have.

    Affiliate marketing is abused and misunderstood

    Many brands are thinking that sharing revenue will lure influencers to work with them, but if your fundamental idea is that influencers’ audiences buy everything they promote, then that is a wrong assumption. It is the audience that can tell if an influencer is promoting something that generates no value and will instead push the brand down rather than up.

    Influencers in the Podcast Industry are going to be popping up more

    Audio is a great medium in today’s world because of the passive nature of it. We are all always busy, and influencer marketing in podcasts will be important for brands seeking a more meaningful long-term association with a large listening audience.

    LinkedIn is going to be the new home for a lot of content creators

    Writing is the next big thing, and LinkedIn as a platform has been really impressing a lot of professionals. It used to be a platform to seek new jobs, but now, along with the story features and great mobile experience, the infotainment content space is really serious on LinkedIn. Brands would ideally like to work with this set of influencers.

    Influencer marketing is the greatest invention for the advertising and marketing industry and we are heading towards an interesting decade where videos, NFTs, creator economy tools, etc. are going to change the way we promote our products. Every company will become a media company that creates content of their own and partners more with the creator side of influencer marketing.

    The author is Pulpkey founder Amit Mondal.

  • Ravi Shastri brings forth FanCode’s ‘fan-first’ proposition in its new campaign for the India tour of West Indies

    Ravi Shastri brings forth FanCode’s ‘fan-first’ proposition in its new campaign for the India tour of West Indies

    Mumbai: From 22 July 2022 digital sports destination FanCode will stream the Indian cricket team’s tour of the West Indies. In the just launched campaign, FanCode highlights the fan-first features it will introduce to empower fans in customising their match-experience through a series of fun banter between former cricketer Ravi Shastri and digital content creator Ashish Chanchlani.

    Shastri was recently announced as the brand ambassador for FanCode where he mentioned, “I’m elated to join FanCode in this journey of democratising sports for fans in India.” Chanchlani has now joined the bandwagon to promote the brand’s first India tour on the platform and its fan-first proposition.

    The collaboration showcases Chanchlani’s rise from a leading digital content creator to becoming a brand endorser of a mainstream digital sports brand. Right from fans getting to choose their commentator from a wide list of experts calling the game; interactive overlays enhancing the match-viewing experience by providing real-time stats; availing any match or player related data while watching the game, without having to switch the screen; to choosing any replays or highlights on-demand; the campaign sees Chanchlani taking a dig at Shastri’s digital-savviness by highlighting these features.

    Chanchlani said, “My entire career is a testament of the power of digital in India. FanCode as a homegrown brand is empowering sports fans by exploring the full potential of digital and resonates strongly with me. It’s a pleasure to collaborate with the legend himself in the fun campaign, and look forward to supporting FanCode’s digital transformation in sports broadcast.”

    Speaking about the first campaign, FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco said, “The India tour of West Indies will change the way fans consume sports and will set a new benchmark for sports fan experiences. With this campaign, we want to introduce our fan-first proposition to a larger audience through a light-hearted narrative, and the unique pairing of Ravi Shastri and Ashish Chanchlani will help us in just that. Their reach and influence is phenomenal, and they both connect with fans across the spectrum in the country.”

    The India tour of West Indies is scheduled from 22 July 22 – 7 August. Three ODIs and Five T20Is will be played. ODIs start at 7 p.m. and T20Is start at 8 p.m. While FanCode is curating a digital-first live-streaming experience across the FanCode app (Android, iOS, TV) and www.fancode.com, it has partnered with DD Sports to make the tour accessible to the TV viewing audience across the country.

  • GUEST ARTICLE: How PR is evolving to go beyond local geographies and meet the global needs of fast-growing local brands?

    GUEST ARTICLE: How PR is evolving to go beyond local geographies and meet the global needs of fast-growing local brands?

    Mumbai: Local brands have evolved rapidly in the recent decades because of technological advancements and changes in business practices. The emergence of numerous technologies, most notably the Internet, may be monitored and linked to the growth of local brands. New channels and different working techniques were introduced by technology, resulting in a shift in profession and practice that could not have been expected when they were first introduced. Local brands are enhancing their online presence among a certain target audience and may communicate the appropriate message at the right time, improving brand reputation and supporting local brands in becoming global brands. A sound marketing plan is critical to the success of local brands and may help them generate consistent profits.

    With PR local brands can communicate with a wide range of people and are not restricted to the geographical borders of their markets, this also implies that companies may conduct business and that their reach has grown global. With such rise and development in technologies, local brands can expand them quicker, reaching the maximum number of audience and connecting brands with different markets throughout the globe. As technology develops, it will emerge with new strategies for brands, which will be supporting the local brands in enhancing the brand awareness and brand position in the global market. Here are the some of the ways in which PR helps the local brands to grow-faster and how it is going beyond local geographics and meeting the global needs:

    Digital PR

    Digital PR helps local brands to adapt and build their online presence, because brands are wherever people are. It enables local brands to have direct and two-way communications that are not constrained by place or time. Digital PR overcomes digital obstacles by utilising the digital environment to the brand’s benefit. It builds solid and long-term relationships with the target audience by disseminating information more quickly and efficiently. positively affects brand reputation and aids in brand awareness.

    Building local narrative with global perspective

    PR has perfected interacting with targeted audiences by providing customised material that is relevant to the audience and news that is of interest to them. It is assisting in the creation of a story for local businesses, and via that narrative, local brands are gaining a global perspective. It is now simpler for brands to establish a perspective and engage with their desired audience.

    Creating larger categories for local brands

    With the increased usage of social media, viewers are far more powerful than they were previously. PR helps local brands in creating wider categories and spreading knowledge about them; it also creates a narrative that is controlled by the brands via the use of various instruments. With so much competition in every sector, public relations assist businesses by utilising their USP and categorising them for increased brand recognition among targeted customers.

    Facilitated local and International collaboration

    The purpose of public relations is to preserve brand image while also representing the fundamental values and offers of the company. It is difficult to connect with a worldwide audience. PR may assist local brands in using sponsored partnerships with global influencers to generate unique engagement programmes and enhance brand recognition for local brands. These may be strategically mapped across channels, from social media and blogger partnerships to on-ground activations at modern trade establishments or leisure/social events, where the local brand can effortlessly connect with its audience and by this local brand can raise funds.

    Local brands can now contact the correct audience more efficiently and with more success. Local brands thrive because they can connect with customers and understand their requirements, while still offering products and services at reasonable pricing. In today’s world, social media applications like Instagram and Facebook make it simple to establish a local brand. The idea that individuals want to tell their stories and those businesses need to develop and manage their image and communication remains consistent, but there has been a shift in how, what, and where tales are shared because of PR.

    The author is Scenic Communications co-founder Anindita Gupta. 

  • GUEST ARTICLE: Audience insights empower OTT businesses to gain competitive advantage

    GUEST ARTICLE: Audience insights empower OTT businesses to gain competitive advantage

    Mumbai: India is witnessing a monumental shift in the consumption of entertainment with the emergence of OTT platforms dominating traditional television and big screens. The heightened demand to access quality content conveniently, has led digital video content to rise in popularity. According to a recent report by CII and BCG, between 2019 to 2022, India noticed a growth of only two per cent in the adoption of TV services by households, but a 51 per cent rise in SVoD (subscription video on demand) services, in comparison. Additionally, given the exponential rise in internet access and the rapid developments in online video streaming platforms, India’s OTT streaming market is anticipated to become the sixth largest by 2024, as per the PwC report.

    This growth has resulted in tremendous opportunities for all OTT companies in the country, widening the business landscape for OTT players to grab adequate market share/outwit competition. To stay ahead of the curve, companies are increasingly looking for ways to deliver as per consumer’s appetite for entertainment and improve online video viewer growth.

    How can businesses identify their best content and uncover actionable audience behaviours across devices and geographies to track customer interest and engagement?

    Customer engagement is the primary driving force behind the SVoD ecosystem. SVoD providers in the space are largely emphasising on data to improve the end-user experience by providing recommendations based on customer preferences more effectively. However, companies need a more innovative way to bring their value to the market and set them apart from their competitors. By taking analytics to the next level, businesses can have a greater understanding of audience dynamics and customers’ lifetime value, build more successful personalisation, acquisition, and retention strategies from data.

    Another consideration is user experience. This is an important factor in getting viewers to subscribe to an OTT service. This, of course, is taking into account that the content is engaging, and the genre is of interest to the audience being targeted. The user friendliness of the app and its seamless flow needs to be taken into account while building an OTT service. If not, it can become a deterrent for consumers to subscribe, preventing audiences from seeing the curated content.

    Unlocking ‘Audience Insights’ to create ‘Measurable Results’

    Audience data is necessary to drive revenue and business value for OTT companies, particularly those operating with an SVoD model. By leveraging a robust intelligent video platform, businesses can collect and analyse data from multiple sources in a single, reliable, secure, and scalable platform to produce valuable insights. Bringing these data sources together enables business leaders to make data-driven decisions to optimise content, marketing, and product strategies. When video performance metrics are coupled with the audience insight data, the video works better for the business and for its revenue goals.

    With this approach, businesses can unlock new insights to achieve the much-needed edge in an increasingly saturated market. For example, in order to lower customer acquisition costs and churn rates, while maximising investment in content, companies should augment data metrics with content and subscriber insights to drive the following business strategies successfully:

    •  Focus on high lifetime value (LTV) customers – Net-new acquisition costs for OTT companies are high but audience insights can lower acquisition costs by identifying which marketing sources have the highest conversion rate and lowest cost per acquisition.
    •  Engage stalled trialists – Audience data can indicate which subscribers signed up for the service but have yet to stream a video. Such viewer insight can inform automated marketing emails to those viewers, prompting them to watch and engage.
    • Reduce churn of at-risk customers – Businesses can prevent churn by identifying which audience chorts are declining in their engagement and have a high likelihood of cancelling based on behavioural patterns in their viewer history.
    • Increase loyalty – Creating the most value for customers is critical to build loyalty. Businesses can leverage insights for targeted, personalised marketing campaigns to promote relevant  content based on viewer behaviour.
    • Optimise content investment – Content acquisition costs are a huge investment. Audience insights can help understand what content is driving the most subscribers and the most consumption. Businesses can further licence more similar content that bring additional value to its customers.
    • Promote the videos that will drive the most revenue – Using content performance intelligence can direct audiences to the content assets and maximise the revenue achieved through the acquisition of content.

    Winning in the era of transformation

    Marketers have taken advantage of lots of data points over the years: subscriptions, video views, customer payments, marketing touchpoints, video metadata, marketing channel investment. All of the metrics speak to critical business needs. However, in today’s fast-paced market, having the right data is no longer enough. Businesses need intelligence from that data. They need centralised solutions that not only house that data but translate it into measurable results. With an additional layer of machine learning on top of the data infrastructure, businesses can integrate diverse data sources together and apply advanced analytics to predict customer dynamics and fuel profitable growth.

    By aggregating the data, businesses can achieve a comprehensive, 360-degree view of the video performance tied to customer engagement. Aggregated intelligence is thus becoming a critical component for business success. This next evolution of audience and content insights are central to engage customers, monitise content, and prepare OTT businesses to make the most of the changing dynamics in the entertainment industry.

    The author is Brightcove managing director – sales, India & SAARC region Subhasish Gupta.

  • GUEST COLUMN: Influencer marketing trends to keep on your radar in 2022

    GUEST COLUMN: Influencer marketing trends to keep on your radar in 2022

    Mumbai: There is no denying that digital marketing in the modern era is an essential part of brand building and expansion. Not only does digital marketing open doors for brands to connect personally with their customers, but it also enables interactions across countries and cultures. Ad spending in the digital advertising market is projected to reach $565.20 billion in 2022. While digital marketing has several effective techniques that have made it the most influential form of promotion, one particular branch that stands out is influencer marketing. 

    Influencer marketing is a form of marketing where brands choose certain ambassadors or people, who are not celebrities in the actual sense but have a high social media following, to promote their products or services. Due to the boom of social media in recent years, this form of marketing has seen a tremendous rise with every brand, little or large, opting for influential people on social media to promote their products and services. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, an online forum that teaches various digital marketing techniques, around 70 per cent of the younger audience worldwide tend to trust influencers while making purchases.

    Findings by the research firm MarketsandMarkets reveal that influencer marketing is set to become a $24.1 billion industry by 2024, globally. Seeing this exponential growth it is only fair for brands to know the latest trends in the sector in order to expand their reach and generate higher revenues. 

    Rise of nano & micro-influencers

    The rise of nano & micro-influencers is a trend that seems to be at an all-time high in recent times. As per the Financial Express, high-end celebrities accounted for only about 27 per cent of the influencer marketing spend while the remaining 73 per cent was spent entirely on micro and nano influencers in India. The primary reason for this is that the engagement that comes with micro-influencers exceeds that of high-end celebrities by about seven times. 

    Nano and micro-influencers have a smaller base, generally one that they are familiar with and interact quite frequently with their followers. This makes the customers feel a personal connection with the figure causing building of trust. Through these influencers, brands can execute focused campaigns cost-effectively.

    Short-form videos will continue to rule social: 

    As attention spans shift from minutes to seconds, short video promotions will always remain the king of social media. Features like Instagram’s Reels and YouTube Shorts are made to cater to the short attention span of the modern world. 

    Brands tell their stories via a number of video formats, including product teasers, explainer videos, behind-the-scenes and user-generated content. Connecting with Bharat by partnering with creators on Indian short-form video platforms is a big opportunity that is yet to be tapped on.

    Regional content will thrive: 

    In recent months, there has been an exponential rise in the regional content that brands generate for promotional purposes. As per a report published by Financial Express, there are about 210 million monetizable internet users who speak vernacular languages in India.

    This demand for vernacular content has caused regional content-creators to carve out a strong niche for themselves. Consumers feel a strong connection with the influencer and the familiarity of the lingo gives the influencers a high trust and reliability index. 

    The shift from ‘one-off’ campaigns to ‘always on’ strategy

    The industry is shifting from experimental influencer marketing spending to planned budgets. Brands are more focused on building long-term partnerships with creators who can be the voice of the brand across all stages of the marketing funnel. 

    Rise of B2B influencer marketing

    B2B influencer marketing is one dominant trend that will emerge in the influencer marketing sphere in the times that lay ahead. In a recent article carried out by Garner, it was reported that around 80 per cent of sales in the B2B spaces are now being made digitally.

    B2B brands are for sure to leverage key opinion leaders and content-creators on platforms such as LinkedIn & Twitter in order to shape and spread their brand narrative.

    Given that now, a national advertising regulator like ASCI is issuing guidelines for influencers, the industry is being given its due and influencer marketing is being treated as a force to be reckoned with. Going forward, influencer marketing will only become a stronger part of digital marketing strategies for brands.

    The author is Opportune Ventures founder Kanishk Kanakia.

  • Varsha Ojha joins Shemaroo Entertainment as marketing head

    Varsha Ojha joins Shemaroo Entertainment as marketing head

    Mumbai: Varsha Ojha has been appointed as the head of marketing and communications at Shemaroo Entertainment.

    Varsha will take the lead in end-to-end marketing initiatives as part of her new position at the company. She will be in charge of brand strategy, digital marketing, and communication across all media channels.

    Varsha comes on board with almost two decades of rich experience across the entire gamut of the media industry. Previously, she was the head of marketing and digital at Radio City and Mid-Day. She has launched several industry-first initiatives and been the recipient of numerous awards for her campaigns. Varsha will be taking up the marketing responsibilities from Rahul Mishra as he has taken up a new role in Shemaroo heading the web3.0 initiatives of the organisation.

    Shemaroo Entertainment CEO Hiren Gada commented, “We are delighted to have Varsha onboard and welcome her to the Shemaroo family. Varsha comes with the same passion for entertainment as we all do at Shemaroo. Her proven expertise and high–performance track record, combined with her belief in the power of creativity will play a key role to take our brand a notch higher.”

    Varsha Ojha said, “Entertainment has been very close to my heart and being part of Shemaroo is going to be an exciting new phase for me. I admire brands that constantly innovate and evolve with time and it’s an honour to work with Shemaroo which has been entertaining India for the past six decades. I am thrilled to take this role and look forward to working with the dynamic team to steer the brand’s growth aligned with its overall ambitions.”

    Varsha has worked across media platforms ranging from print, TV, digital, and radio which includes Sony, Disney, Zoom, Hindustan Times amongst others.

  • Social Beat wins digital mandate for Happilo

    Social Beat wins digital mandate for Happilo

    Mumbai: Premium dried fruits and healthy snack brand Happilo has entrusted independent digital marketing agency Social Beat to scale its brand across digital channels.

    Social Beat was awarded the mandate after a competitive pitch.

    Social Beat is to scale the online presence and increase sales through the website and marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. Along with managing Happilo’s social media campaigns, the company will also help generate SEO-optimised content to help promote organic visibility. With more such interesting partnerships planned for the coming future, they have already hosted a virtual meet-and-greet with Pro Kabbadi League team Haryana Steelers and IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals.

    Speaking about this partnership between the two fast-growing brands, Happilo founder Vikas Nahar said, “Social Beat comprises young and dynamic digital evangelists. We at Happilo are excited to partner with Social Beat and further our digital presence to achieve dominance in this category.”

    Hapillo plans to grow into exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) in the near future and open around eight company-owned stores.

    Social Beat co-founder Vikas Chawla said, “It’s exciting to partner with Happilo in the journey of building their brand and scaling up their business. With D2Scale, our new centre of excellence for D2C brands, we will be leveraging an end-to-end approach to scale across marketplaces, instant delivery platforms and D2C channels.”

  • Rasna rolls out a new influencer campaign designed by Django Digital Crafts

    Rasna rolls out a new influencer campaign designed by Django Digital Crafts

    Mumbai: Rasna on Thursday launched a new influencer campaign on Instagram to bring back everyone’s favourite summer cooler Rasna in a new avatar; remixing the old and iconic ‘I Love You Rasna’ jingle into an exciting new song to groove to.

    The brand, in association with their digital partner – Django Digital, collaborated with music composer Mayur Jumani to flip the iconic ‘I Love You Rasna’ tagline into a fun and upbeat song with glass harps and other elements. The campaign kickstarted with mom celebrities and influencers dancing to the tunes of ‘I Love You Rasna’ and sharing their Rasna stories on their Instagram handles. Renowned celebrity mom figures like Neha Dhupia and Soha Ali Khan Pataudi can be seen grooving to the song. Apart from celebrity moms, the brand also partnered with influencer moms to reach their desired target audience.  

     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

     
     
     

     
     

    A post shared by Rasna (@rasna_international)

     

     

    https://www.instagram.com/reels/audio/3142231602706246/?hl=en  

    To make the campaign more engaging, people were asked to record a video of them dancing to the song using #YehRasnaKaVibeHai. The contest received a whopping response with entries coming in from all parts of India and making the contest an instant hit. The best dance video stands a chance to win free Rasna hampers for the entire year!  

    Rasna has always been a household name, especially during summers when the brand gives its customers a little bit of relief from the scorching heat. The brand has an emotional connection with its customers and to keep that relationship alive, they decided to adopt the new age medium where their customers are present. This is when the need to remix the much-loved and iconic ‘I Love You Rasna’ tagline came into being.  

    Speaking of this campaign, Django Digital co-founder Shivang Shah said, “It has been a pleasure to work with a legacy brand like Rasna. Times have changed since we first heard the iconic ‘I Love You Rasna’ tagline and saw the evergreen advertisement on our televisions. To bring out the same emotions by adopting the new-age marketing strategy was a challenge we were willing to take on. We realised that this campaign was a success when moms in our neighbourhood were found grooving to this audio tune and sipping on Rasna with their children. The campaign has already garnered a reach of over 1m+ views and has created an engaged mom influencer community on Instagram. This just goes on to prove that Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to expand the brand’s reach and increase credibility in the market.”

  • Weekend Unwind with: Unmisha Bhatt co-founder & chief strategy officer of Tonic Worldwide

    Weekend Unwind with: Unmisha Bhatt co-founder & chief strategy officer of Tonic Worldwide

    MUMBAI: Another weekend is upon us, and so is the time to unwind with yet another edition of IndianTelevision.com’s Weekend Unwind – A series of informal chats that peek into the mind of a corporate executive to get to know the person behind the title a little better.

    In this week’s session, we have Tonic Worldwide co-founder & chief strategy officer Unmisha Bhatt opening up the windows to her mind and heart, to offer a glimpse of what’s behind her professional persona.

    A marcom professional with over 20 years of experience in developing brand communication & strategies across consumer touch points, she leads strategy on all brands and enables new markets & global expansion as chief strategy officer of Tonic Worldwide. A founding member of the agency’s Dubai office for the Middle East region, and a key driving force for her team across both markets, she divides her time between Dubai and India. Her goal is to bring out the best in her team members, while setting new benchmarks & supporting them with mentorship and support as required. From the last couple of years, Unmisha has also been guest faculty for management students and conducts several training & development workshops to build young talent.

    So here goes:

    – Your mantra for life

    Live and Let live.

    -A Book you are currently reading/plan to read

    Loads of them. I have this habit of reading many books at one time. Keep jumping to my mood. Current ones that are ongoing are ‘Radical Candor’, ‘Everybody Lies’. Also, Archie comics! They are fun and take me back in time. Then there’s my all-time favourite which I keep re-reading all the time, ‘One + One = 3’. The ones on my lists are “No Rules Rules”, “Pandeymonium” and some fiction mystery novels. They help me switch off.

    -Your Fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic

    There’s no better way to be fit then house work! The lockdown taught me that

    -Your comfort food

    Home-cooked food made by my mother-in-law. She’s the best chef ever. She can give every Michelin star chef a run for their money.

    -When the chips are down a quote/ philosophy that keeps you going?

    Count your blessings

    -Your guilty pleasure

    Vadapav, beer & end a cocktail evening with Chai. Lol yes, odd but that’s me.

    -When was the last time you tried something new?

    December 2019, jumped into the sea and swam to the shore of an island where the boat couldn’t hit the shore, in Maldives. Was a fun experience. Been long time since I tried something new yet again.

    -A life lesson you learnt the hard way

    All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy (in this case Jill)

    What gets you excited about life?

    Travel, meeting, new people, and exploring different cultures in different countries

    What’s on top of your bucket list?

    Guest lectures in an international management college. Teaching is the best form of learning, and international teaching will help me learn about different cultures too

    If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

    Spend more time with parents.

    An activity that keeps you motivated / charged during tough times

    Gratitude and keeping busy at work. I love what I do. I love my brands. I am very competitive and that keeps me motivated to do better.

    What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?

    For me it’s “who” lifts my spirits: My best friend, my partner-in-crime at work, my husband, Chetan Asher

    Your go-to stress buster

    Binge-watch any thriller series on OTTs or binge-read fiction. Helps me switch off and transport to another world.

    One thing you would most like to change about the world

    Call for peace. Live and let live.