The panel includes:
Bindu Menon, CEO, PointBlank Advertising
Lulu Raghavan, Vice President APAC at Landor
Binaifer Dulani, Founding Partner & Creative, Talented
Ayesha Ghosh, MD, Wieden + Kennedy, India
With special thanks to event partners The Industry Club, Adobe, AdsofBrands, RoastBrief, Media Avataar India, Indian Creative Women
Just like the award show, the Gerety Talks series puts some of the marketing and creative industries true changemakers in the spotlight and at the centre of the conversation for a refreshing take on what leadership looks like.
In this new edition of Gerety Talks the panellists discuss their roles and the challenges faced by the creative industry in India, such as finding and retaining talented individuals who understand both business and creativity. The speakers also address the need for more imaginative business models, the importance of protecting ideas and the value that agencies bring to the table.
They continue exploring the role of technology, specifically AI, in the industry, viewing it as a tool to help propel ideas and get to the heart of human truths. They emphasize the importance of focusing on the idea and the consumer, despite the potential for technology to take over certain aspects of the industry. The speakers also discuss the definition and characteristics of Indian creativity, which they agree is effective when simple, emotionally appealing, and culturally nuanced and they wrap up the discussion agreeing on the need for change in the representation of Indian creativity at international award shows.
Bindu started her career in healthcare marketing in GSK and then went on to start her own agency, Pointblank, specializing in healthcare advertising. Under her leadership, Pointblank has grown to be one of the leading healthcare agencies in India and winner of major healthcare advertising awards, including global awards, Clio and Rx Club. She has been awarded leading women entrepreneur of the year and Exceptional Women of Excellence awards by various industry forums and has served as a Juror at Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia, Lynx Dubai, Clio Health and Goafest. Sustainable solutions in preventive healthcare is her passion and she is the cofounder of Pepper Wellness that owns the Jollywell brand of plant based supplements.
Lulu has spent over 23 years at the company across Landor offices in San Francisco, New York, London and Mumbai in various roles. She set-up Landor in India in 2008 and has grown it to be India’s largest and most reputed brand and design consultancy. She has led large brand transformation programmes for key clients including Tata Group, Mahindra Group, Aditya Birla Group, Godrej, Axis Bank, Indian Oil, Jubilant Bhartia Group, National Stock Exchange, Digit Insurance to name a few. Landor India was awarded Campaign South Asia Brand Design Agency of the Year 2023 and the Great Place to Work Award 2023. Lulu is a strong advocate women in leadership and actively mentors younger women in her free time. She is proud to have helped establish WPP Stella in India in 2018 and is now on the Super Council to guide its scaling up. She teaches frequently at various business schools on branding.
Binaifer Dulani is a founding member of Talented. In the past, she has worked as a Creative Director at Dentsu Webchutney. Her campaign Unfiltered History Tour dared to decolonise the British Museum, and was the most awarded campaign at Cannes, winning multiple Grand Prix’, and the Titanium Lion. The campaign also received the Black Elephant at Kyoorius Awards, multiple Grand Prix’ at Spikes Asia, and was praised by leaders such as Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh and Marc Fennell. She has been on Impact Magazine’s Top 30 under 30 Creatives, selected as part of Google’s RARE leadership program, and had her work for Uber featured in World Bank’s Digital2Equal initiative amongst 17 global case studies. Her favorite side-hustle is being part of the core team of Indian Creative Women – the only diversity platform for female creatives in the Indian advertising industry, followed by teaching at top Indian communication universities such as MICA and Sophia University for Women Autonomous.
Ayesha has chosen to work in agencies that create work which make genuine connections with people through cultural inroads and creative storytelling. This is perhaps truest of Wieden+Kennedy, where she is President but also true of her previous stints at Taproot, Contract and the erstwhile Trikaya Grey. She tries to be an enabler of agency culture that is inviting to original thinkers and creative folks. Closely involved in brand work, she feels that while the objectivity of research and rigour form the foundation of brand communication, it is the subjectivity of intuition and belief that separates a campaign that ‘moves the needle’ to one that moves minds and hearts. And when that happens, profits follow.