If you have faith in the idea it will sail through, says Aniket Saha of Initiative India

BestMediaInfo.com had organised the second Rising Star Awards at The Oberoi, Gurugram, to celebrate the applause-worthy works of young media strategists in the country across several categories.

At the Rising Star Awards 2022, Aniket Saha, General Manager- Business, Initiative India, had won the High Chair trophy for Best Strategy - Print category for Amazon’s campaign on the next wave of online shoppers on the platform.

 

 

 

 

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Commenting as to what made him enter the world of advertising as a media strategist, Saha said that ever since he started working the science behind exposing advertisements to the right audience at the right time seemed quite intriguing to him.

“Since childhood, I have always been inquisitive and that’s one trait that has probably helped me the most in this journey so far,” he said.

Upon being questioned as to what he would have pursued in his career if it wasn’t for advertising, Saha said, “If it wasn’t for advertising, I would have probably ended up pursuing a career in core finance as I love money matters.”

In the views of Saha, media planning implies managing clients’ finances and ensuring that maximum ROI is generated at all points.

Giving examples of some of the campaigns that Saha really liked strategising, he said, “Working on Amazon has taught me that no idea is small or insignificant. If you have faith in the idea, it will sail through.”

“We believed in a thought and built a thread thereon. Working on this Print campaign gave me a new perspective on how accountability can be built in media and strategising with the right partners generated a lot of learnings about the medium and how ideas can be amplified irrespective of budgets,” he stated.

Moreover, Saha also asserted that despite having worked and strategised on a plethora of industry campaigns, Amazon’s activity on Print will always remain special to him given the outcome achieved viz a viz the scale of operations.

After having worked in the corporate set-up for more than a decade, if Saha were to retrospect and think of one piece of advice that he would have given to his younger self, it would be to not kill oneself in the pursuit of the perfect outcome, he stated.

“The industry has quite a few people who are willing to share their invaluable experiences and learning from them helps one gain more knowledge than by simply sifting through large databases,” Saha added.

While touching upon how his scholastic experience helped him transform into a better ad professional, Saha said that it definitely helps if one has a reputable educational background as it enables one to understand the dynamics of an ever-changing landscape more holistically.

“Often ad professionals need to look at things beyond marketing budgets and get a sense of the overall business and sales targets. In a situation where businesses are affected frequently by externalities like pandemics, recessions, etc. budget reductions are a norm,” he stated.

He also went on to add that advertising is being increasingly evaluated against sales and the effectiveness of each media touchpoint established through techniques like market-mix-modelling and that is precisely where he feels that having completed Masters in Economics has helped him understand these nuances in a wholesome way.

“Given my specialisation, I started off with the banking industry. However, I realised that advertising is the space where I wanted to be, as this is where I could let my creative thoughts flow while staying true to the constraints and the needs of the business,” added Saha.

Commenting as to what are some of his strengths, Saha stated that he finds interactions quite easy and terms it to be one of his strengths. Giving a brief background as to how he developed it, he added that he had developed ‘interacting with ease’ as a skill during his university days by participating in inter-college debates.

The aforementioned strength has helped him in his career as he developed an inquisitive nature which made it easy for him to research on any new topic of interest and had indeed made him a confident speaker in front of any audience, irrespective of the size or numbers.

Speaking about his workplace, Saha asserted that it was at Initiative India that gave him the chance to work closely with some of the best minds in the industry. As per him, he has gained a deeper understanding as to why certain people in the industry are bestowed with such massive respect.

“While I am not going to detail that part, it’s a huge motivation to be associated with them and know that whenever needed, they will be there to support me. At a personal level, that’s a huge learning for any individual and that’s how you leave a mark on anyone’s life,” he stated.

Furthermore, Saha also went on to add that it is a very well-known fact that in the advertising and marketing industry more often than not, everyone works with very tight timelines and that implies personal time getting compromised on a few occasions.

“Despite the pressure to constantly meet deadlines, what really gives a high is when the effort gets recognised in the form of some pitch win, award, etc. That’s when it feels that the efforts were worthy,” he said.

On a concluding note, Saha also went on to add that he aspires to build the best version of himself and believes in the process to take him where he deserves to be. 

“But, the most exciting and challenging thing about advertising is the ever-evolving nature of the industry and keeping oneself abreast of the changes, that is the quintessential criteria to excel,” he said on a concluding note.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com