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Storyboard18 caught up with Minakshi Handa, vice president - marketing, ITC Personal Care, on the sidelines of YoungGuns where she discussed India's creative industry, collaboration of human creativity with AI and a lot more. 


Edited excerpts.


<strong>Are you bullish about India’s creative industry?</strong> 


I am very bullish about the creative industry in India. It is very robust, so diverse, it has a great heritage and a global standing as well. Now, in the times of digital transformation, I think, everybody is talking about data driven marketing. We are talking about digital campaigns whether it is the personalisation of the content or whether we are talking about community marketing. In all of these areas, the creative industry has really evolved. 

 They have embedded technology into their creative processes into technology in a manner that they are not only able to deliver highly engaging content but they have also become more efficient in their creative processes. There is every reason to be bullish about the creative industry and I think they will evolve further in the coming times.


<strong>What is your message to Storyboard18’s YoungGuns and also YoungGuns across the board in the creative industry?</strong>


I think young talent are the ones who are really creating the change. And, we really need to empower and celebrate such change agents. My message to them is, first, be authentic and original. Second is, be brave and take risks. Third I would say collaboration. Because collaborating with others will also enable them.


<strong>What is your take on the collaboration of human creativity with AI? What is the future of advertising when you marry AI and creativity?</strong>


It is fascinating to see how AI and Generative AI are getting integrated with technical processes and creativity as well. The reason being that when we are integrating them in the initial parts of the process, we are able to see much more efficiency, and we are able to see the turnaround of creatives much faster. As we move into digital advertising, whether it is performance marketing or whether it is personalised creatives, the demand for speed and scale of creatives is very high. Hence, there is a need to embed generative AI in the early stages of the creative journey and I have seen the value it brings to the table. I think with the coming times the integration will only increase. Knowledge will only evolve further. It is a beautiful era that we are in and this will only go further. 



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ITC's Minakshi Handa: There is a need to embed Generative AI in early stages of creative journey

Storyboard18 caught up with Rayomand J Patell, chief creative officer and chief integration officer, Schbang, who discussed India’s creative industry, trends to look out in the AI space, human creativity and a lot more. 


Edited excerpts


<strong>How bullish are you about India’s creative industry?</strong>


It has been a long time coming through the pandemic. But things are really picking up. It has almost been a creative renaissance, and there is this term ‘Roaring 20s’ that has been floating around lately. I am quite excited because there is so much going on. Everyone is renewing, rebooting and pushing it back again to what advertising really can be.

 
<strong>What is your honest message for Storyboard18 YoungGuns and for other creatives across the industry?</strong>


My message to the winners tonight is, “Don’t let it get to your head. Get back to work. Be humble about being who you are and that is going to stand you in good stead.” It is not about winning the World Cup in one year, it is about winning the World Cup every single year of playing. 


It is okay if you win or lose, but you gotta keep playing the game, and that is where the longevity will come from. You have to enjoy the process. You cannot just clamber straight up and then wonder what you are doing there for the rest of your lives. Enjoy the process, enjoy your craft.

 
<strong>What is your view on the marrying of AI with human creativity? And what are the trends to look out for in this space in the second half of 2023?</strong>


I think there is so much hype around AI and it is nice. Your mind is the single best intelligence there is. I sincerely believe that you have to use your own mind first and use AI as a tool to generate what you are seeing inside your head and bring that to life on screen or in print. If you look at the past, there must have been phenomenal art directors with amazing imagery in the 70s which AI can’t even touch today. So it is a tool, use it. We had a pencil first. We have Photoshop and now we have AI. So these are tools, use them well.


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<strong>Storyboard18 launched YoungGuns, an initiative to celebrate new ideas, bright talent, fearless creativity and an exciting future. It’s critical to recognise, celebrate, encourage and support young, brave and bold brand makers if we want to propel the industry forward. YoungGuns is an annual recognition program that puts creativity and talent back in the spotlight.</strong>

Schbang’s Rayomand Patell: Your mind is the single best intelligence

Storyboard18 caught up with Amin Lakhani, chief executive officer - South Asia, Mindshare on the sidelines of YoungGuns where he discussed the creative industry of India, and the interesting trends in the arena of AI and human creativity. Lakhani like many industry leaders shared valuable advice for the YoungGuns felicitated by Storyboard18. Read on. 


<strong>How bullish are you on India’s creative industry at the moment?</strong>


Absolutely very bullish. If you look at the opportunities in India, everything is 2X or 3X of what the global averages are. Therefore, there is massive opportunity, whether it is in classical creative, whether it is addressable creative, whether it is fast moving content, you name it, and there are ample opportunities.


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<strong>We are all talking about the marrying of AI and human creativity. What are the interesting trends in this space that we have to look out for?</strong>


AI will not be AI without human intelligence. We bring in human intelligence into everything we do. AI is a great enabler for what humans can achieve, and process, do it faster, better, save time and energy and become more productive. But, there is no match to human creativity, human emotions and human connection. I think that will continue to guide the world, technology and evolution time and time again.


<strong>About YoungGuns</strong>


Storyboard18 is bullish on India’s creative industry and the talent putting it on the map. To kick off our campaign to fuel the industry further, we’ve launched YoungGuns, an initiative to celebrate new ideas, bright talent, fearless creativity and an exciting future. It’s critical to recognize, celebrate, encourage and support young, brave and bold brand makers if we want to propel the industry forward. YoungGuns is an annual recognition program that puts creativity and talent back in the spotlight.

Mindshare’s Amin Lakhani: AI will not be AI without human intelligence

At the first-ever Storyboard18 YoungGun’s edition, Pooja Sahgal, CMO and R&D Head at Raymond Consumer Care and Shriram Parthasarathy, head - digital media marketing and social media marketing lead - India, at Microsoft spoke about marrying tech and creativity, the India story and shared valuable pieces of advice for the YoungGuns. 


While talking about being bullish about India’s creative industry, Sahgal said, “Recently, I was judging at an award function where I saw a huge amount of creativity which is very insight led. The fundamentals of creativity have remained the same. India has become far more confident. India is understanding human emotions really well and marrying it with digital and tech learnings to extrapolate the kind of output we expect.” She added, “A lot of small brands using digital are becoming creative and engaging with the consumer. Nothing can beat creativity. I have worked internationally and understood that across the world, a lot of things can be equalised but intellect and creativity is always a standout which India is really emphasising on.”

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Sahgal shared her message for Storyboard18’s YoungGuns and YoungGuns across the world. She said, “Continue doing what you are doing. Individuality and innovation really matter. Technology will happen, and you should use the tool but the inspiration, the curiosity and really stretching yourself, backing yourself and believing in yourself and breaking the boundaries, is really what is going to make you stand above everyone else.”

Sahgal stressed that now is a great time to be in India. India is more diverse than Europe and South America. India has a huge palette backed with technology and exposure. “A lot of countries are going to adopt our communication and creativity and take it to the next level.”

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Parthasarathy who was also present at Storyboard18 YoungGuns event, shared his insights on how marketing has evolved in a post-Covid world. “The way I look at the marketing playbook and the way it is evolving, I see a lot of shrinking of the left brain and the right brain discussion. We are talking about technology, and creativity having a great interplay to do 3 things broadly – making our conversations more intelligent and personalised, and making the engagement with the customers that much more meaningful. Lastly, marketers are going to find more time for our creative selves to unleash the creators and creativity and spend more time towards that in the next 3-5 years,” he said.

<strong>Storyboard18 is bullish on India’s creative industry and the talent putting it on the map. To kick off the campaign to fuel the industry further, Storyboard18 launched YoungGuns, an initiative to celebrate new ideas, bright talent, fearless creativity and an exciting future. It’s critical to recognize, celebrate, encourage and support young, brave and bold brand makers if we want to propel the industry forward. YoungGuns is an annual recognition program that puts creativity and talent back in the spotlight.</strong>



Pooja Sahgal and Shriram Parthasarathy share insights on creativity and marketing post Covid

George Koshy Plammoottil, chief executive officer and co-founder, LetsSolv and Glocal Konsult, spoke to Storyboard18 about the future of India's creative industry and his message to Storyboard's YoungGuns and others. Edited excerpts:

 

<strong>Are you bullish about India’s creative industry?</strong>

This is the time when the Indian creative industry is at the cusp of becoming a large international force in itself, especially with how Indian brands are going international. Right from food choices, technology to lifestyle to fashion, India is in vogue. The creative agencies are taking us global too.

 

<strong>What is your message for Storyboard18 YoungGuns and young guns across the world?</strong>

This is the time for India, this is the time to outshine. The way we have done things has only brought us on the global radar more and more. Creativity is changing because of technology; technology is bringing products that are making work a lot easier and that is giving us a lot of opportunities for India. Most of the animation work is being done in India. Large global brands are eyeing a piece of the Indian share.

 

<strong>Tell us about your understanding of how to get the best of human creativity and artificial intelligence or AI together.</strong>

I run a technology company and I also run a creative agency. We are trying to marry the opportunity that technology brings to the field through AI and ML (machine learning) to understand what the customer insight is going to be. All of these insights like what colour will go well in an ad have become much easier. You are running an entire curve through an AI and ML engine which tells you what works even before taking it to the market and that gives us a lot more things to work on.

Watch the full interview.
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Large global brands are eyeing a piece of the Indian pie: George Plammoottil

As the senior vice president at Initiative India,  Aarathi Bhat  has worked across a wide spectrum of categories ranging from high end luxury boutiques to mass FMCG brands. She currently leads the account for  e-commerce giant and subscription video on demand player Amazon and Prime Video. Five and a half years into her current role, she has won over 70 awards on the brand and brought over 15 awards for work done in 2023 alone. 

 
Bhat’s colleague Anjali Nand Kumar is a seasoned media professional with over a decade of experience spearheading marquee initiatives. As the general manager - business at Initiative India, she has successfully overseen accounts for renowned brands like Amazon, OnePlus, and Wipro. 

 
The agency’s campaign #AskAlexa, which Kumar was a part of, tailored a campaign, using music, news, and information that millennials craved, for smart speaker Echo’s voice assistant Alexa. On YouTube, they launched a contextual pre-roll campaign introducing Alexa before playing users' favourite songs. This strategy extended to radio, where Alexa co-hosted a show on Radio One, becoming India's first voice-assisted RJ.  The result was a remarkable 1.5x growth in total awareness scores, establishing the Echo as a category leader with 59 percent market share. Additionally, Alexa's "skills" awareness increased by 1.4x.

 

Beyond her professional achievements, she is an ardent film enthusiast, a connoisseur of boba tea, and finds her inspiration in political satire.

<strong>About YoungGuns</strong>

 

Storyboard18 is bullish on India’s creative industry and the talent putting it on the map. To kick off our campaign to fuel the industry further, we’ve launched YoungGuns, an initiative to celebrate new ideas, bright talent, fearless creativity and an exciting future. It’s critical to recognize, celebrate, encourage and support young, brave and bold brand makers if we want to propel the industry forward. YoungGuns is an annual recognition program that puts creativity and talent back in the spotlight.

 

<strong>Here’s how we did it</strong>

 

Storyboard18's YoungGuns is a celebration of talent - future-ready young professionals in advertising and marketing who are driving businesses and brands forward and bringing glory to India globally. YoungGuns - Class of 2023 was put together by our editorial teams through a selection process based on work/campaigns that have won global, Indian and regional awards in the past two years, giving India even greater creative clout the world over and setting a benchmark for the industry.


<strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/quantum-brief/who-are-the-storyboard18-youngguns-find-out-12400.htm">Who are the Storyboard18 YoungGuns? Find out</a> 

YoungGuns Class Of 2023: Initiative’s Aarathi Bhat and Anjali Nand Kumar

Amitabh Pande, chief consumer planning, strategy and digital officer at Diageo India talks to Storyboard18 about the future of India's creative industry and shares his message to Storyboard18 YoungGuns and YoungGuns all around the world.

Edited excerpts.

<strong>Are you bullish on India’s creative industry?</strong>

India and creativity go hand in hand. India has always been a super creative country, a country with high aspirations and limited resources. Necessity is the mother of creativity. India has always found creative solutions to all its problems. In the last couple of years, we are going through a phase of creative confidence in India which has never been seen before on a global stage. We see the Oscars, Bollywood bouncing back, South Indian cinema, OTT platforms. We are going through a huge creative revolution this time. The only way is upwards.



 

<strong>What is your message for Storyboard18 YoungGuns?</strong>

Leverage the tech revolution but don’t be a slave to it. I love the idea of AI but I am a big believer in HI, which is human intelligence. Also, be very consumer centric, think about who you are speaking to and immerse yourself in their shoes. There is nothing like a good consumer insight to build brands around. Let’s not lose that and get carried away by our own perceptions.

Use creativity for good towards inclusion and progressive marketing. Let’s build the brands, let’s create content in the direction of the world we want to build and leave behind for our children.

 

<strong>At Diageo, how are you bringing both AI and HI together?</strong>

In Diageo, we use the phrase creativity with precision, and that’s our mantra for bringing the two things together. The more creative I get, the more precise I get and vice-versa and that yin-yang of creativity and tech that needs to work. At Diageo, it’s an exciting time. We always pride ourselves to be brand builders – from McDowell’s, Signature to Royal Challenge to Johnny Walker, Smirnoff, we build beautiful brands through the power of creativity. Last couple of years’ tools made us build our brands in a sharper, targeted, progressive and inclusive way.


<strong>Storyboard18 is bullish on India’s creative industry and the talent putting it on the map. To kick off the campaign to fuel the industry further, Storyboard18 launched YoungGuns, an initiative to celebrate new ideas, bright talent, fearless creativity and an exciting future. It’s critical to recognize, celebrate, encourage and support young, brave and bold brand makers if we want to propel the industry forward. YoungGuns is an annual recognition program that puts creativity and talent back in the spotlight.</strong>

India is going through a huge creative revolution: Diageo's Amitabh Pande

Kanishka Tandon’s job as a group head at EssenceMediacom India is to develop customized media solutions for the beverage giant The Coca Cola Company. Akin to a stock broker, she has the last word on where to put the client’s media monies. To satisfy her creative instincts, Tandon manages an Instagram handle for her mother called “Flavours & Aromas” to amplify her love for baking, giving her a platform to deliver homemade desserts across Delhi NCR, thereby kick-starting her digital journey.

Apart from winning numerous brand awards, Tandon has also been awarded with The Next Generation Award for Festival of Media APAC (FOMA).

Priyanka Shanbag has been a media planning professional for 13 years and has worked across various sectors including FMCG. She is currently with EssenceMediacom India as a business director on P&G’s account.

Shanbhag has been a part of the media team that works on Ariel’s multi-award winning #ShareTheLoad campaign. Gender equality in India in recent years is widely talked about, however when it comes to practising in one’s own household, people still lag behind. Over the years, Ariel with its #ShareTheLoad movement has promoted the idea of getting men to do the laundry and other chores at home. 

<strong>About YoungGuns</strong>

 

Storyboard18 is bullish on India’s creative industry and the talent putting it on the map. To kick off our campaign to fuel the industry further, we’ve launched YoungGuns, an initiative to celebrate new ideas, bright talent, fearless creativity and an exciting future. It’s critical to recognize, celebrate, encourage and support young, brave and bold brand makers if we want to propel the industry forward. YoungGuns is an annual recognition program that puts creativity and talent back in the spotlight.

 

<strong>Here’s how we did it</strong>

 

Storyboard18's YoungGuns is a celebration of talent - future-ready young professionals in advertising and marketing who are driving businesses and brands forward and bringing glory to India globally. YoungGuns - Class of 2023 was put together by our editorial teams through a selection process based on work/campaigns that have won global, Indian and regional awards in the past two years, giving India even greater creative clout the world over and setting a benchmark for the industry.


<strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/quantum-brief/who-are-the-storyboard18-youngguns-find-out-12400.htm">Who are the Storyboard18 YoungGuns? Find out</a> 
 

YoungGuns Class Of 2023: EssenceMediacom’s Kanishka Tandon and Priyanka Shanbhag

Amitabh Pande, chief consumer planning, strategy and digital officer at Diageo India talks to Storyboard18 about the future of India's creative industry and his message to Storyboard YoungGuns and YoungGuns all around the world. 

Pande shares that he is bullish on India's creative industry and that India as a country has always been super creative. He shares his thoughts on how various impactful moments are leading to the country"s creative talent and industry flourishing. From winning at the Oscars, to Bollywood bouncing back, South-Indian cinema, OTT platforms, India is going through a great creative revolution. 

Watch here. 

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India is going through a phase of creative confidence: Diageo's Amitabh Pande

Pratyush Shukla, also known as 'Patty', is leading businesses at Digitas for Bangalore and Gurgaon. With a multidisciplinary role, Patty's aim is to develop break-through creative solutions for brands. He is one of the creative minds behind Duolingo’s social strategy. He is currently an account director at Digitas India.

 

Jaidev Singh began his career with contract advertising as a copy trainee and later joined McCann Worldgroup, where he worked on brands and campaigns like Incredible India, Reebok, Mastercard and DLF. In 2019, he joined Ogilvy to work on Perfetti, Kellogg’s, Savlon, Classmate and Lux Cozi. Currently, he works at Digitas as an associate creative director. 

 

<strong>About YoungGuns</strong>

 

Storyboard18 is bullish on India’s creative industry and the talent putting it on the map. To kick off our campaign to fuel the industry further, we’ve launched YoungGuns, an initiative to celebrate new ideas, bright talent, fearless creativity and an exciting future. It’s critical to recognize, celebrate, encourage and support young, brave and bold brand makers if we want to propel the industry forward. YoungGuns is an annual recognition program that puts creativity and talent back in the spotlight.

 

<strong>Here’s how we did it</strong>

 

Storyboard18's YoungGuns is a celebration of talent - future-ready young professionals in advertising and marketing who are driving businesses and brands forward and bringing glory to India globally. YoungGuns - Class of 2023 was put together by our editorial teams through a selection process based on work/campaigns that have won global, Indian and regional awards in the past two years, giving India even greater creative clout the world over and setting a benchmark for the industry.


<strong>Read More:</strong> <a href="https://www.storyboard18.com/quantum-brief/who-are-the-storyboard18-youngguns-find-out-12400.htm">Who are the Storyboard18 YoungGuns? Find out</a> 
 

Brand Makers

ITC's Minakshi Handa: There is a need to embed Generative AI in early stages of creative journey

Brand Makers

Schbang’s Rayomand Patell: Your mind is the single best intelligence

Brand Makers

Mindshare’s Amin Lakhani: AI will not be AI without human intelligence

Brand Makers

Pooja Sahgal and Shriram Parthasarathy share insights on creativity and marketing post Covid

Watch Listen

Large global brands are eyeing a piece of the Indian pie: George Plammoottil

Quantum Brief

YoungGuns Class Of 2023: Initiative’s Aarathi Bhat and Anjali Nand Kumar

Quantum Brief

India is going through a huge creative revolution: Diageo's Amitabh Pande

Quantum Brief

YoungGuns Class Of 2023: EssenceMediacom’s Kanishka Tandon and Priyanka Shanbhag

Watch Listen

India is going through a phase of creative confidence: Diageo's Amitabh Pande

Quantum Brief

YoungGuns Class Of 2023: Digitas India’s Pratyush Shukla and Jaidev Singh