2019,The Year That Was!

As we are about to say good bye to this year 2019, wanted to leave a note for myself and for my fellow readers on highlights from my year in Diageo!

Thanks to Sudhir Sitapati from Unilever, I was inspired to write about our careers in great companies that we are honored to be part of. We don't have to wait for our biographies to come by to recollect and write about all the amazing things you have been part of in your years. Lets share some "love bombs"(*wink* A term my Diageo peers understand ) to the brands you have been part of , campaigns you have executed, great people you have interacted with.. all that now.. in the moment!Its all in the here and now.

& That's my theme for the year that was. Its all about here & now. This I feel is the most happening marketing times!! We should all embrace and be appreciative that we are part of this exciting era in marketing. The options in front of a marketer is just thrilling! And hence the task becomes even more exciting. Its like the world is open for us, we have the power to choose & experiment what's right for your brand and business. Unlike earlier times when your options were limited to adjusting the scale on the existing channels ie how much of TV vs print vs any other fixed medium. Now, its what channel, what kind of content and how much personalization among many other levers in front of a marketer. And there is not enough used cases to guide your way. Hence all is up to us to pick and choose and carve out your own brand building ways. Hence a lot is about embracing here and now. You don't know if its going to work or not, but do it and take it as it unfolds. Be ready for taking that risk and may the voice in your gut give you courage. But one word of caution : if you feel you are conforming to what you already know, that might be a bit dated already. None of us who are edgy and forward looking felt the comfort of being "not nervous" and "I know what happens". So this year, I felt the adrenaline rush a lot of times and I feel lucky to be part of Diageo which let us experiment and learn :)

No1 Yaari Jam the TV show, The project which I am truly proud of. It wasn't an easy one, pressure of time and of stitching a new concept together to create an IP on TV and that too on a national TV channel. The ride was anything but conventional marketing. But we felt so proud at the end of the journey being wiser and with a pieces of content which was more pull than anything else, having organic traction of 37% + ...truly remarkable! https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nandinian_no1yaarijam-no1yaari-activity-6484987186587504640-sjNZ Now in hindsight, the accolades for the show are just cherry on the cake: Big Bang Awards Gold for Integrated Campaign on No1 Yaari Jam. e4m Best Content Marketing on TV Silver

Sometimes its just about the simplicity of messages which works, case in point is the No1 Platinum campaign which launched during World Cup. Loved the campaign for the execution by Prakash Varma and the fabulous team at Womb who found a real story from the actor's life to bring alive the spirit of the brand in the most "humane" way. True emotions never fail. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nandinian_jashn-yaari-ka-with-vicky-kaushal-mcdowell-activity-6551095006004903936-TJUa

The friendship day campaign which was a song! Yes we take our content seriously and hence we activated the topical topic of friendship day through a song this year. The content is something which was down aging and something that I give as reference to all future work on the brand. It was a cult content for the brand. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nandinian_no1-yaari-jam-apni-yaari-sanam-activity-6563436700108980224-mOK1

Last year also had me dedicate a substantial amount of time to create the future. Truly exciting work which is soon gonna unveil, but that's for another time, since I will wait for the work to come out and speak for itself and in reality I can't reveal it yet :) But I promise to share as soon as the work is out in market!

Not to forget some carry over from 2018 finding its true scale and impact at the start of the year was really fulfilling as well. Be it the women's day campaign with Filter Copy which touched 25M mostly organic traction is a testimonial to how content can work for a brand and how it can drive the message with the audience so easily and with impact & scale. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHInnoa2n6c Or when the last year friendship day campaign got featured in the best campaign of 2018 https://www.socialsamosa.com/2018/12/social-throwback-social-media-campaigns-2018/

The views expressed are personal. #iworkfordiageo #sp #CelebrateResponsibly