Ad World Showdown 2024

Imran Qadri

Imran Qadri heads Marketing & PR for the iconic Harley-Davidson brand in Asia Emerging Markets & India region. He is based out of Bangkok, Thailand. He has been associated with Harley-Davidson since April 2019. Apart from India, he oversees Marketing for Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore), South Korea, Taiwan & Hong Kong as well. He has 14 years of Marketing work experience with brands like Hero Honda, Hero MotoCorp, Nissan & H-D. He has donned several hats in his past roles ranging from Marketing Communications, Brand Management, Product Marketing, Category Management, Media Planning & Regional Marketing. He has led teams and agencies deliver with award winning campaigns, launches & content. Recently he was adjudged among Top 40 Nationwide Experts declared by Business Mint for 2022. He was also part of Top 50 Marketing and Communication Leaders in India in 2021 as adjudged by White Page International and among Top 100 in Asia for 2022. He was one of the Social Samosa Top 40 Marketers for the batch of 2019-20 and among Top 25 Content Disruptors in India in 2020 declared by Vidsaga.com. He has been a jury member with many credible advertising & communication forums. An MBA in Marketing from FORE School of Management, Delhi, Imran has a B.E. Mechanical degree from MSRIT, Bangalore, apart from executive leadership & digital marketing certifications from Vanderbilt University & IIM Lucknow, respectively. He is a certified Sports car instructor and has a flair for writing.

Archana Aggarwal

Archana Aggarwal is a passionate marketeer with 20+ years of experience. She is responsible for some critical and strategic areas such as media planning and buying, analytics, digital capability building, performance management of the media agencies, etc. Prior to Airtel, she was Country Media Manager for P&G, India. She was instrumental in P&G winning their first Cannes in India in 2006 post which they won many prestigious international awards for the Gillette Shave India Movement. She also led media for the high decibel launch of 4G and Payments Bank in India.

Binda Dey

Binda has over 17 years of experience in Marketing, Brand Management, and Content Development. She is currently the Chief Marketing Officer of Kolkata Knight Riders, responsible for all aspects of Marketing – Brand, Content, Digital, Licensing & Merchandising, for all Knight Rider Group’s initiatives in Indian Premier League, Caribbean Premier League & USA Major League Cricket.
Previously, she worked with Red Chillies Entertainment, Disney – Star India, Starcom Mediavest Group, and DDB Mudra.

BBC Knowledge had accorded her as the ‘Greatest Marketing Influencers of 2017’. Adgully announced her as the ‘Women Disruptor Marketing Head of 2020’. Google India has identified her as part of the ‘Leading Women in New Media.’

Piali Dasgupta

Piali Dasgupta is a multi-award winning Marketing and Communications leader. She is Senior Vice President, Marketing, at Columbia Pacific Communities, India’s largest senior living community operator.

In a career spanning over 15 years, Piali has created a number of award winning marketing campaigns, served on juries, has been on Social Samosa’s Top 40 marketers under 40 list for the year 2019-2020 and has been awarded the CMO Trailblazer by DMA Asia and Voot India’s Best Marketers and Planners 2021.

She has worked across media (The Times of India), e-commerce (Myntra, Amazon), retail (Aditya Birla Fashion Retail) and real estate.

Her core expertise lies in content marketing, storytelling, building brand narratives and strengthening brand positioning through storytelling.

According to her, good content is one that is purposeful, uplifting and has the ability to start conversations and believes that we are long past the age of “vanity content” or content for the sake of content.

Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, is a voracious reader, spends time sketching and is also a strong mental health advocate and has her own mental health podcast, The Mind Podium, doing her bit to remove long standing stigmas around mental illness.

Raja M.V.S.M.A

Raja is a Pharma marketing & sales leader with over 27 years of extensive & rich experience in Building Pharma Brands across Emerging Markets. He is associated with Dr. Reddy’s for over 24 years, presently designated as Head – Marketing & Strategy (Emerging Markets). In his role, he has been instrumental in establishing & managing multi-functional Centre of Excellence (CoE) team that comprises of Marketing, Digital, Strategy, Medical, Portfolio and SFE based out of Hyderabad. He drives the marketing and strategy function across 33 Emerging markets which includes Russia, Brazil, China and key markets across CIS, ASEAN, Africa & LATAM. During his tenure at Dr. Reddy’s, Raja was responsible for building multimillion dollar brands across three channels – Rx, OTC & Hospital/Institutional biz; Handled P&L roles in CIS markets, SA & Australia.

Saurabh Srivastava

An industry veteran with over 20 years of experience across leadership roles, he has served at some of finest start-ups to grace India such as Ixigo, MobiKwik, Jabong and Housr where he was jointly responsible for building up the brands and businesses to the scale they hold today. Having started out in the more traditional marketing world spanning organizations like Maruti Suzuki, Goodyear & WPP, Saurabh holds strong capabilities across Portfolio & Brand Management, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Saurabh embodies the value of constant innovation and growth with a flair for building businesses and brands grounds up.
Saurabh joined Monster.com as the Chief Marketing Officer in 2022, heading Business strategy and Brand management for the company.
Equipped with degrees from some of the most prominent universities in India such as Indian School Of Business, Hyderabad and Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, Saurabh loves to have conversations centered on the cross sections of Tech, Marketing & Product.

Balaaji Vaidyanathan

Balaji Vaidyanathan is an award winning and accomplished global marketing leader with over 20 years of experience driving ground-breaking integrated marketing campaigns and strategic initiatives, leading from the front to build and inspire global cross-functional teams across complex organizations to enhance brand positioning, value, and revenues. In his current role since February 2019, Balaji is responsible for building the marketing value proposition and growing the brand’s strategic and digital footprint for the CEEMEA region, based out of Dubai. He also drives the marketing efforts for a global strategic project to launch the first ever fintech wealth management platform in Germany as part of a broader European market penetration strategy. Prior to this, Balaji was Deputy Head – Marketing for Franklin Templeton India based out of Mumbai, since February 2010, responsible for multi-million $ budgets and leading all key brand initiatives including advertising, investor education, events and advisor engagement.

Balaji has been one of the early adopters of leveraging gamification, content marketing and storytelling in the mutual fund industry to promote investor education in the online space. His deep understanding of consumer marketing and customer life-cycle journeys have won him dozens of awards globally for creativity, content, innovation and effectiveness.

Anand Bhatia

Currently the CMO and Head of Analytics at Fino Payments Bank, I have delivered results across roles in Sales and Distribution, Product Management, Business Development and now Marketing.
Entrepreneurial in outlook I co founded Ormax , a team of consumer behaviorists focused on the BFSI space. An alumnus of IIM Lucknow and a quintessential Mumbai boy, I am an avid long distance runner, and have built marketing at Fino the way I run marathons, for the long haul

Vishesh Sharma

Marketing leader, brand builder, growth hacker and a fintech enthusiast!

Vishesh Sharma is one of the few esteemed journalists who have reached the stature of Chief Marketing Officer within a short span of time. He has seamlessly managed to bring data science into the art of storytelling with his key strategies for leveraging consumer insights to deliver business objectives, including building organic as well as paid ecosystem.

Presently he is working as the CMO at Ashika Group, India’s leading diversified financial services group with four key business verticals including Retail Broking, Institutional Broking, Startup Funding and Global Family Office Services. There, he leads strategic marketing and planning, brand management, revenue growth strategies, and public relations.

An accomplished marketing professional, Vishesh has vast experience across diverse marketing fields, including brand communication, content marketing, corporate communications, reputation management, internal communications, public affairs, and financial education. He started his professional career with The Hindu, and holds an extensive work experience with renowned publications, including Dalal Street Investment Journal and Progressive Media Group.

Vishesh has worked with reputed companies including Sharekhan BNP Paribas, Asymmetrique Communications, and Atul Ltd, throughout his corporate journey. Before joining Ashika Group, he served as the Head of content marketing, corporate communications, and start ups at Angel One.

From launching world’s first financial movies platform, a purely content marketing-led product, to successfully delivering a rebranding campaign with a PR-first approach, Vishesh has carved out successful brand-building strategies for multiple businesses. In fact, he not only crafted the launch strategy but successfully delivered the Retail IPO portion for Angel One during peak covid era.

Throughout his career, Vishesh has been recognized for his remarkable professional accomplishments. In 2020, he was named Content Marketer 40u40 by Exchange for Media and the Marketing Leader of the Year in the BFSI segment by Nasscom. A year later, he was honored as the Rising Media Star by Best Media Info, Corporate Communications Person of the Year by AdGully, and 40u40 PR Professional by Reputation Today. He won Gold at Inkspell awards under the category of Content Marketing Professional 2021. Vishesh was bestowed with Excellence in PR award by Adgully under their Leader 2.0 awards in 2022.

A thought leader in organic growth as well as brand management functions, Vishesh is a frequent keynote speaker at many educational institutes and thought-provoking events like IIT FinFest, and Amity, among others.

He strongly believes that 3Vs (Voice, Vernacular, and Videos) are the key pillars that will potentially define his legacy over next 10 years.

Shrishail Deshnur

Shrishail is a marketing professional with over 18 years of experience across categories of consumer products, financial services and pharma.Currently, he heads the consumer marketing function at Cipla and is instrumental in spearheading the company’s largest consumer awareness initiative.In his previous stint, he was heading the marketing function for the stationery business at Pidilite. Earlier in his career, he has worked with Berger paints, ICICI Prudential, MetLife, and Kotak Life.Shrishail is a foodie and a self-proclaimed movie critic. He loves to drive and play cricket with his 9-year-old son during his free time.

Sudhanshu Tripathi

Sudhanshu Tripathi is an entrepreneurial leader who loves to work at the cusp of technology and human impact. He is currently the VP, Head of Marketing & Growth at Quick Heal. Prior to this, he was Head of Marketing & ESG at Sterlite Power. His marketing efforts have successfully created global brands and unlocked value through strategic initiatives across startups as well as global matrix organizations.

Through his ESG mandate, he has successfully integrated ESG into the core business processes and is enabling a sustainable brand transformation. He has also led ESG investor due diligences resulting in equity & debt raise of more than $250 million. In past, he has worked with brands like CYIENT, FINO & TCS.

Priyanka Sehgal

Priyanka Sehgal has over 19 years of experience across TV and digital, with stints in some of the largest media organizations in the country, including Network 18, Times Now and NDTV. With extensive experience across strategy, product, growth, monetization, content, programming and partnerships, she has set up processes, created content and launched channels which still run effectively across organizations. She has overseen primetime programming, created and executed IPs, turned around TV ratings, set up broadcast chains, forayed into regional content and managed P&L responsibility.
Additionally, she has worked with different brands across TV & digital while setting up branded content divisions, which has given her an in-depth understanding of brands and their ethos. Her IP, ‘Power of Shunya’, won a silver at the Goafest Creative Abby’s 2014 and ‘Amazing Indians Awards’ won at the WOW awards for the on-ground event category. Priyanka’s current focus in Network 18 is on scaling up the digital and leading content, strategy, product, and revenue. Priyanka is recognized as an inspiring leader with exceptional creative and commercial discipline, and a unique ability to embrace change and consistently innovate in an industry that is constantly disrupted across content, carriage and consumer tastes.
She was awarded the Women Leadership Achievement Award in 2016 & the Women Super Achiever Award in 2017 at the World Women Leadership Congress. During the time she was overseeing primetime programming, NDTV 24×7 won the Best English News Channel of the year award. She contributed to ET Now dislodging the number 1 channel – CNBC. In her current stint at Network 18, Moneycontrol was awarded the Content Marketeer of the year award at DMAI Awards for a project she led, her recent IP on Firstpost 9 Months qualified as a finalist in the Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Sector at the Indian Marketing Awards.

Prasad Pimple

Prasad is a firm believer in the process of ideation – experimentation – learning fast – succeeding faster & scaling up cheap.

A Chemical Engineer from UDCT & MBA from JBIMS, Prasad has 19 years of experience in Digital business, brand & product management, customer acquisition, customer life cycle management, strategy, business planning and research across insurance, telecom, banking and engineering sectors.

Prior to Kotak Life, Prasad has worked in HDFC Life, Tata Docomo, Vodafone, ICICI Bank & Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Raja Chakraborty

Raja Chakraborty
Marketing Head (SAARC & SEA) Global P&L Head (Male Grooming) | Emami International
A passionate consumer marketer and business enthusiast with 2 decades of experience across the consumer goods sector with companies like Raymond, Pepsico, Bayer, Nerolac & Currently working as Mktg Head (SAARC & SEA) and Global P&L Head (Male Grooming) at Emami’s International Business. He has played a key role in building many brands across categories like PARK AVENUE, NEROLAC, BABOOL, MESWAK, ODONIL & ODOMOS. He likes to build training content for budding marketeers and loves watching movies and is an amateur singer.

Madhu Dutta

Madhu has over 20 years of professional experience in the field of Brand, Marketing, Media, Digital and Communication specializing in Fashion & Lifestyle category. Currently, she is General Manager & Marketing Head for Raymond Limited.
Prior to this assignment, she has been Chief-Marketing for Pantaloons Fashion & Retail Ltd, at Aditya Birla Group and has been instrumental is a complete make-over of Pantaloons bringing in lifestyle & fashion relevance to the brand in the given consumer segment.
As Head of Marketing Development in World Gold Council and managed overall marketing initiatives in India. During her tenure, she has launched the most coveted brands in the jewellery category like Collection g – making gold a contemporary daily wear fashion. Further tapping in to the Indian Wedding Market through Azwa – a first of a concept wedding jewellery in the country. Introduced Italian made jewellery in India Gold Expressions another

Azmat Habibulla

Ms. Azmat Habibulla is a marketing leader and digital enthusiast who has led business
transformation at some of the leading brands in the country in the FMCG & BFSI sectors. In her
vast experience of more than 25 years, she led impactful customer strategies, based on strong
consumer insights. Her expertise spans across a wide spectrum of domains such as Digital
marketing & business generation, Marketing Communication & Branding, Experiential and
Knowledge events, Strategic Partnerships, Community Building and Thought Leadership
initiatives.
Azmat’s career began in FMCG, working on popular consumer brands such as Promise
Toothpaste, Bertolli Olive Oil and Barilla Pasta. She has successfully led the launch of Meswak
toothpaste. She subsequently transitioned to BFSI with a long stint of 15 years in ICICI Bank.
She has launched innovative digital engagements, including the development of digital
communities like NRI Engage, SME Toolkit and a B2B marketplace. She has also conceived
immensely successful media properties like the Emerging India Awards, NRI Of the Year, India
Business Summit and SME Elite 50 with media partners like CNBC TV-18, Times Now & ET Now.
These properties have brought together Ministers of the government of India, Business leaders,
Influencers and Industry Experts. Currently, she’s leading the marketing at The South Indian Bank
as Chief Marketing officer.
Azmat is a change agent and has spearheaded some large strategic projects, managing large
teams and fostering cross functional collaboration to implement the organisational vision. She is
future focused and credited with spotting emerging trends early and leveraging them effectively.
As she strongly believes what learnt must be shared, she is passionate about mentoring and
investing time in nurturing talent.
Azmat is an artist, an avid traveller and the author of a popular travel blog

Sharmila Sandeep

An MBA in Marketing from PSG Institute of Management. Also holds M.A & M.Phil in Sociology. Sharmila joined Saint-Gobain -Gyproc in 2021 as the Head of Marketing.

Sharmila has 18yrs of Brand and Marketing experience across various industries. Prior to Saint-Gobain, Sharmila led marketing and product management at ICICI Bank, Bisleri, Pidilite, Hatsun Agro, Radio Mirchi & Future group retail. Sharmila has vivid interest and acquired skills in numerous handicrafts, conducts workshops and loves being a swimming coach. She unwinds by watching movies and social networking.

Nidhi S Mittal

Nidhi S Mittal is currently working with JioSaavn Brand Solutions as a Head of Marketing to drive the B2B marketing initiatives. Prior to this, she played a pivotal role at Tata Advanced Systems in establishing & integrating marketing and inside sales business functions.

Nidhi is a passionate marketer and branding professional with work spanning over the last eighteen years across areas of growth marketing, business development, lead generation, and profitability. With an International MBA from Hult International Business School along with numerous industry certifications, she bring in extensive knowledge and experience in marketing and global account management with exposure of living and working in diverse industries and cultures like India, UAE, the US, and Australia.

Some of the other multinationals she has been associated are DXC Technologies, British Council, Steria Sopra, Toyota Financial Services etc. In her spare time, you will find her caught up in the fire of creativity as a Profuse Reader and Thoughtful Writer.

Ashish Tiwari

Ashish comes with 16+ years of corporate experience across consumer (FMCG/FMCD), telecom, and new media domains. Earlier he was leading digital transformation strategy for HMC, A Hero Motors Company where he led the digital for the group across the globe. Before HMC, while working at Jubilant, he proactively planned and implemented best-use practices in marketing communications across mediums – trade, digital, mobile, ATL and BTL.

He is equipped with a post-graduate degree in Business Management from LBSIM, New Delhi combined with a digital and social media specialization from IIM, Bangalore

Bhakti Kandalkar

Have started my career from Ad-agencies in 2002 , in 2004 I got a break in Star plus, I have also worked with NDTV Imagine , Disney , Turner , India cast -Viacom International channels… from Broadcasting Channels To OTT platform ..this journey was interesting for me I have enjoyed each phase of my working career ….….i have learnt a lot from my previous Bosses and work.
Now It’s been nearly 3.9 years now since I’ve been handling ZEE5 Global Content strategy and Planning, and it’s been the most amazing experience to understand the need gaps of viewers in different countries and use this understanding to continuously improve the quality of decisions we make towards achieving our business goals. Having experience in Consumer insights in broadcast has also helped !

Bhavesh Dalmia

Experienced Marketing & Media specialist with demonstrated track record for more than 18+ years in Consumer Health, OTC, and FMCG categories. Skilled in Traditional & Digital Media Strategy, Marketing Management, Market Planning, Integrated Marketing solutions and Advertising. Currently leading Cipla’s biggest patient awareness initiative #BerokZindagi Consumer Campaign in Cipla.

Neha Mavani

Neha Mavani is a seasoned marketer with 15 years of
experience across spectrum of channels from Print, Radio,
TV, and Digital. She has built, led and scaled business
through consumer insights thereby breaking records and
creating new industry benchmarks.
Herskill set includes Consumer Acquisition, brand Management, content Marketing, driving
subscriptions, marketing strategy and insights, research analysisand driving a culture of thinkingout-of-the-box. Sheenjoysconceptualizing communication by leveraging insights from consumer
behaviour that forms the basis of hercreatives and media strategy
She hasconsistently delivered path-breaking marketing strategies and product launches throughout
hercareer.

Shalmali S Desai

A seasoned marketing professional with 25+years of work experience across the FMCG and media industry with a deep understanding of content marketing, driving content subscriptions and ad monetizing. In my professional journey, significant time has been spent in product marketing and business partnerships, leading to pioneering work in creating and implementing the strategy for revenue streams for the content distribution platform.

Soumen Das

A seasoned Pharmaceutical Sales & Marketing Professional with 15 years of experience with Top Pharma Companies.

Proficiency in Portfolio building in Multiple Acute and Chronic therapy Areas.

A turnaround specialist with exceptional skills in identifying and promoting brand value proposition, capitalizing newer market opportunities, enhancing product positioning with effective marketing communication, improving product profitability, Life-cycle-management of Mega Brands.

An adept in understanding customers and use these insights to guide agencies to create breakthrough and high-impact creative campaigns.

Highly skilled in strategic decision making for sales effectiveness & brand mix and manage marketing activities to deliver > 100% bottom line.

Sudeep Chawla

Sudeep is passionate about storytelling, building brands & categories and perfecting human connections. He has spent the last 17 years in various sales and marketing roles in Cadbury/ Mondelez and Pidilite, both being companies with incredible brand-building capabilities. This combination also makes him a rare marketer to have built brands in B2C as well as B2B space. He is passionate about everything that’s related to marketing and people. He is also a Marketing educator who conducts a crash course titled “Science behind the art of advertising” at GrowthSchool where he unpacks frameworks to create effective & measurable brand campaigns. His course has added value to around 2000+ industry professionals, marketing enthusiasts and students thus far. He also hosts a marketing podcast titled “CoBB -Conversations over Business of Brands” with his ex-colleague from Mondelez where they try to dispel myths & misinformation related to marketing

Sugato Banerji

With hands on marketing experience across several service categories backed by solid direct sales experience and having worked in 2 start up operations, Sugato brings a cross industry learning of service marketing for organisations looking for rich experience with performance. When you add 8 years of working with the top ad agencies in the country, Sugato combines go to market scaling up skills with a thorough experience of brand building.

Specialties: Start ups, product launch, media distribution, service marketing, service brand operations

Amiya Swarup

Amiya Swarup Heads Marketing Advisory and is Partner for Ernst & Young. He has nearly two decades of experience in fostering collaboration within the intricate web of marketers, media agencies, martech partners, and media houses, building a better working world

Rohit Gulati

Rohit brings under two decades of diverse Sales , Marketing, Strategy and Commercial Leadership Experience ( P&L responsibilities ) in the Healthcare industry ( Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices ) working across therapy areas like Orthopaedics , Ophthalmology , Infusion Therapy & Endoscopy across India and Subcontinent . He is currently the Director Marketing – India & South Asia for Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision in India . He is part of the Vision Care India LT & Regional Marketing Council.

Samir Vora

Samir Vora is the Chief Marketing Officer at
VerSe Innovation. Samir is responsible for
leading all marketing operations including
brand, ATL communication, corporate
communication, performance marketing,
and social media across all of the VerSe
brands – Josh, Dailyhunt, Public Vibe and
One India.
In his career spanning over 20 years, Samir
has specialized in marketing, sales, and
market development across industries like
finance, media, and technology.
Prior to joining VerSe Innovation, Samir was
the Vice President for Star Sports where he was instrumental in launching
regional sports channels across India with a special focus on marketing,
content, and distribution. He has also led premier sports and the channel’s
football portfolio. Under Samir’s leadership, Star Sports witnessed the
highest ever ratings for Hero ISL and massive digital traction for the sport.
Within the Star family, Samir has also led the brand for Star Plus and has
played a significant role in reinstalling the channel as the no. 1 GEC of the
country.
Samir has also worked in the financial sector with companies like Birla Sun
Life and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance where he was responsible for direct
marketing, digital marketing, and distribution marketing. He started his
career as a client servicing manager at JWT.
Samir holds an MBA in marketing from Narsee Monjee Institute of
Management Studies, and is an alumnus of University of Mumbai