The Leader's Edge: Storyboard18 in conversation with leaders, decision makers and disruptors

A recap of Storyboard18's biggest interviews from 2023. Get all the insights from our conversations with leading Indian and global CEOs and founders from the brand, marketing and media world.

By  Storyboard18Dec 30, 2023 8:27 PM
The Leader's Edge: Storyboard18 in conversation with leaders, decision makers and disruptors
A selection of some of our big interviews from 2023, gathering insights from leaders across the brand marketing ecosystem. (Representative Image: rob walsh via Unsplash)

In-housing is not a new trend. But when one of the country’s biggest and longest-running advertisers decides to bring all of its advertising capabilities, talent, and the entire creative machinery in-house, it makes an impact and causes jitters in the entire ad agency ecosystem. So why did Godrej Consumer Products decide to set up an internal advertising agency called the Light Box. How is having an in-house ad agency helping the organization as compared to external advertising firms? What are the implications for the agency ecosystem? In a conversation with Storyboard18's editor Delshad Irani, Sudhir Sitapati, MD and CEO of Godrej Consumer Products, gave us a proper insight into what they aim to achieve with their in-house agency and how. Watch.

The debate surrounding content regulation has been reignited with the release of draft recommendations for a Broadcasting Services Bill. While experts anticipate increased content regulation, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has a different point of view. In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18's Tasmayee Laha Roy, MIB Secretary Apurva Chandra delves into discussions about content regulations, the growth of linear TV co-existing with OTT platforms, regulatory considerations and strategic plans for the AVGC sector, among others. Read and watch.

Prabha Narasimhan took over as MD of Colgate-Palmolive India in 2022 after many years at HUL. Delshad Irani caught up with Narasimhan, where she opened up about Colgate’s recent campaigns, using data and insights to keep the brand fresh, marketers chasing virality and the new bottom-line for businesses. Watch here.

Sandhya Devanathan, head of Meta’s India operations spoke to Shibani Gharat about what it was like assuming leadership of the company during a turbulent time, in this special interview. Devanathan also outlined some key focus areas including enabling small businesses to leverage the digital opportunity, focus on privacy and growing the WhatsApp business messaging platform and launching products and features in India for the global market.

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In a conversation with Delshad Irani, Santosh Iyer, managing director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India, spoke of his time as the first Indian chief of the German carmaker’s domestic arm and where he sees consumers of luxury vehicles going. Iyer also shared his views on the new media consumption landscape, how the Indian luxury consumer has evolved and his goals for Mercedes's electric play. Read and watch here.

Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, spoke exclusively to Storyboard18's Tasmayee Laha Roy, on influencer marketing guidelines, violators, crypto ads, and more.

Snap Inc's Ajit Mohan on the company's next phase of growth in India. Delshad Irani spoke to Ajit Mohan, president - APAC, Snap Inc about the new Snap story and how they plan to evolve and diversify in India. Read the highlights and watch the full interview on Media Dialogues With Storyboard18.

Did you know Nithin Kamath doubled up as Zerodha’s social media manager? Zerodha’s co-founder Nithin Kamath talked to Saumya Tewari about creating his personal brand online, the power of storytelling and building Zerodha from scratch. Read and watch.

Everyone from HR to R&D should do sales, says Adobe India MD Prativa Mohapatra. Find out why. In an exclusive interview with Priyanka Nair, Mohapatra shared her thoughts on the India advantage, role of sales and marketing, CEO-CMO partnerships.

What's driving growth for the $9 billion Kohler company? David Kohler, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Kohler Company, spoke about India's decade, the luxury market, path to sustainability, golf and more.

Shantanu Deshpande, founder and CEO of Bombay Shaving Company, spoke to Kashmeera Sambamurthy about BSC and Bombae's marketing strategies and how the company's services arm is scaling at warp speed. He also addressed the need for more founders to put themselves out there and tell their stories. Read and watch here.

Watch these two power-packed episodes of Media Dialogues With Storyboard18 where global leaders decode the impact of AI and other tech-driven transformations with Delshad Irani. Special episodes featuring Raja Rajamannar, Global CMO & President of Healthcare Business at Mastercard; Cristina Diezhandino, Global CMO of Diageo; Sir Martin Sorrell, chairman, S4 Capital; and McCann Worldgroup's Prasoon Joshi.

CMO-CFO partnerships are empowering brands: Meet the new power alliance of business. Learn how marketing and finance can shed legacy silos to create a winning formula for sustainable triumph in today's complex world. Delshad Irani, Editor, Storyboard 18 spoke to the CMO and CFO duo of Tata Motors Shubhranshu Singh and GV Ramanan on how to forge the CMO-CFO alliance.

The Indian consumer and media landscape require leading brands like Maruti to move at warp speed, while maintaining continuity in change. In an exclusive conversation with Delshad Irani, Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer of Maruti Suzuki and Amin Lakhani, CEO of Mindshare South Asia, shared how the brand and its media agency are responding to transformative forces changing the Indian auto industry and consumer. Watch!

WPP CEO Mark Read's ambition to double the size of India business in 5 years. Read spoke to Shibani Gharat about India's global clout and the market's importance in WPP's scheme of things. Watch here.

Co-founders of Indian consumer tech giant InMobi Group, Abhay Singhal and Piyush Shah, together with the group’s chief business officer - Consumer Platform Advertising, Vasuta Agarwal, shared their plans for discovery platform Glance and building the ‘Surface Economy’. In an exclusive conversation with Storyboard18’s editor Delshad Irani, the makers of two unicorns also talked about the 'funding winter', the transformational forces changing the media landscape and unlocking the next level of growth in a complex AdTech space and how India is going from a trend-jacker to a trend-setter.

Philippe Krakowsky, Chief Executive Officer of Interpublic Group of Companies and Havas Global CEO Yannick Bolloré, shared their experiences at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2023 and spoke on the advent of AI and trends in media and marketing with Delshad Irani. Watch.

AdEX growth 2-3x in India as compared to global, said Adam Gerhart, Mindshare’s Global CEO. Gerhart spoke on the India focus, winning the Media Network of the Year title at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, Disney offloading TV assets, and more, with Shibani Gharat. Watch here.

Advertisers can leverage generative AI (artificial intelligence) for hyper-recommendation to reach the right customers at the right time, according to Vishal Dhupar, MD, Asia-South, NVIDIA. In a chat with Saumya Tewari, Dhupar discussed the impact and effectiveness of AI on various industries, including advertising and marketing.

At the Cannes Lions festival, Devika Bulchandani global CEO and Liz Taylor, global CCO at Ogilvy spoke to Delshad Irani about the relationship the two CXOs share, how they met, how Bulchandani pitched the job to Taylor to bring her on board and what it takes to run a legacy ad agency in today's times. They also spoke about the personal goals they set for themselves when they arrived at Ogilvy and how much of it they managed to accomplish.

Also watch Bulchandani and Piyush Pandey in conversation with Shibani Gharat after it was announced that Pandey would take on an advisory role in 2024.

And don't miss Delshad Irani and Priyanka Nair's special interview and profile piece on Piyush Pandey.

In a special interview with Storyboard18, Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands India, who was awarded the 2023 AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the advertising industry, took us through his journey in the ad business and key defining moments. Catch Shibani Gharat's interview with Sinha here.

Consumers are not necessarily drinking more, but they are drinking better: There's been a structural shift in consumer choices and behavior over the last few years. Consumers are drinking better, they are living in the physical and the digital world now and really experimenting, said Hina Nagarajan, MD and CEO of Diageo India. In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18's editor Delshad Irani, Nagarajan shared her views on the alcobev major’s premiumisation and M&A strategies, key consumer trends, advertising, women in leadership, ESG agenda and more. Read more.

Mondelez International's Anil Vishwanathan and Nitin Saini, Ogilvy's Piyush Pandey and Sukesh Nayak and Wavemaker's Shekhar Banerjee, spoke to Shibani Gharat about Mondelez's growth over that last 75 years and how advertisements played a key role for its presence in India.

Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho talked to Saumya Tewari about the company's brand revamp, investment in mass media and why regulating social media influencers the right way is the way forward. Watch.

Actor, entrepreneur and investor Deepika Padukone launched her own skincare brand in 2021 with two products. A year later, the brand has a portfolio of 12 products. Along with celebrity influence, the brand also adopted a unique drop strategy. Shibani Gharat spoke to the founders to find out more about their strategies to grow the brand.

Peyush Bansal said, I'm not a celebrity entrepreneur and I don't have aspirations to be one. Lenskart’s co-founder, chief executive and people officer, Bansal, spoke to Delshad Irani about the cult of celebrity founders and brand campaigns.

Catch all our interviews with decision makers and disruptors from the brand, marketing and media world, in Brand Makers on Storyboard18.com.

First Published on Dec 30, 2023 6:27 PM

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