Ad land’s Young Guns: Priyanka Mestry, Social Kinnect

Priyanka Mestry, Design Head, Social Kinnect, joined the agency in September 2011 as Art Director. Prior to that she had been a visualiser with Focus Circle Brands from April 2010 to August 2011. 

What does it takes to climb up the ladder in advertising? Here’s Priyanka Mestry in her own words... 

How did you get into the role you are serving?
I’d always enjoyed making illustrations and loved exploring art, so taking it up professionally was always on my mind and I was very excited to jump into this industry. So, post junior college I pursued my graduation in commercial arts and my post graduation in digital computer arts. After I graduated, I went to work at Focus Circle as a visualiser for one and a half years, after which I was looking for some better opportunities when one of my closest friends, who was then planning to start a digital media agency, approached me with taking up the responsibility for managing their design team, and of course I did not let go of that chance and here I am now as the Design Head at Social Kinnect, and these five years have been the craziest part of our journey at SK. 

What particular skill sets do you think you bring to the table?
Every time I’m starting a new project, I follow a systematic approach, which is something that comes very naturally to me. I make sure that I am very focused and my team gets the right direction and motivation in all the right ways when I am working with them. Also, over time another thing that has become increasingly important for SK is retaining the right talent pool, because of which we are always working towards enhancing our people management skills. 

One campaign that you have worked on that you are particularly proud of? Please take us through the making of the campaign.
I’ve had the opportunity to work on some amazing brands and be a part of few of the best campaigns that we have executed.

One of them was for Zee Café. It was a campaign website that we had built when we pitched for the brand, where we heavily used GIFs to relive the previous season for ‘Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan’ and to drive engagement for Season 2. It was a huge success (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIMzvayqrCU). The excitement level within the team to try something new was amazing, which ultimately made us also win the pitch.

While working on the creatives how do you prepare yourself? What goes on in your mind?
Planning is the key to high productivity, and therefore making the process way simpler. I usually develop a routine that gets me in the right mindset and mode to kickstart any project and then I make sure I’m very clear on what needs to get done, and prepare my team and myself accordingly. We definitely get into detailed group discussions before we execute any work, and since everything that we do is team work, making sure everyone’s on the same page is what is the most important thing before you get to execution.

What are the five most productive things that you do in your everyday routine?

  1. Firstly, I would say planning for the next day the night before is what really works for me.
  2. At the beginning of my week, I break my larger goals down into small specific ones and write them down somewhere and prepare my daily task list for the week.
  3. We internally follow a work process for all brands, which is accessible to everyone via Google Sheets and is something that really helps us in meeting timelines.
  4. I catch up with a lot of people via Google Hangout and Whatsapp to keep track of their task lists and make sure no one is procrastinating on any task at hand.
  5. At the end of the week, I clean it up and archive things so that I can look back and see what I did.

 I also land up making a lot of use of Muzli to catch up with the latest trends in the industry.

Do you think a career in advertising is a viable one in the long term?
Definitely, in fact the pace at which it is building these great opportunities is really exciting for everyone. This is the place to be! 

What does it take to succeed in a career like advertising?
You need to be very perceptive and should be able to move very quickly, because this industry is fast-paced and highly competitive, so you need to make sure you are flexible enough to change. 

What would be your advice to youngsters planning to enter this industry?
I think it’s important to stand up for yourself and to have an opinion. Those are the biggest things.

I think being successful in anything is 90 per cent tenacity and patience. Just keep going. Keep trying.

I don’t have the most impressive resume or a well-known internship behind me, I really don’t. I graduated from a relatively unknown college, but one which had a great Graphic Design programme. What was important to me was the experience and how fast I was ready to learn, understanding the different parts of the industry, and exploring my interests. Eventually your work speaks for itself.

Is there any agency/ organisation that you would like to work with in the future?
As of today, I have seriously not given that a thought at all, and Social Kinnect is growing so well and the plans we have for the future, trust me this is the place you want to be at.

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