Ad land’s Young Guns: Nishant Malsisaria, Dentsu Webchutney

Nishant Malsisaria, Director – Paid Media, Dentsu Webchutney, has hands on experience in Planning, Buying and Strategy of Paid Accounts across different channels and media vehicles available in the market, depending on the right fit for the client. 

In Malsisaria’s opinion, his professional graph has been more of a drive in an extremely fast sports car geared to deliver learning and growth with rocket speed. While his experience on digital diversifies to multiple prongs of verticals that media has to offer and holding experience in markets like Mumbai and Bangalore, he thought it was a good challenge to understand the dynamics of the National Capital and so he moved to the Gurgaon branch of Dentsu Webchutney, where he was promoted to Director and is currently leading a team of 12 across the Delhi-NCR region across verticals along with his national Paid Social Media responsibilities. 

What does it take to climb up the ladder in advertising? Here’s Nishant Malsisaria in his own words... 

How did you get into the role you are serving?
It was a coincidence that I got into advertising. When I started my career as a Sales and Marketing Manager with Zomato, I wasn’t sure about the definition of marketing, but was ready to explore and after a point I realised how my career wasn’t leading towards my goal of being a marketer and that’s when I got an opportunity to work towards providing business solutions and get a taste of it. 

What particular skill sets do you think you bring to the table?
While my domain knowledge is primarily strong in the digital ecosystem, I believe that I’m happy being a part of an industry which is helping brands bring measurable business solution. As a professional, I think I’m aware of the constantly changing ecosystem, understand my brands problem statement, audience empowered and with that bend towards Mar-Tech is a package I have to offer to the businesses I serve. 

One campaign that you have worked on that you are particularly proud of? Please take us through the making of the campaign.
One of my recent campaigns was Kotak Securities, where we were launching a one-of-it’s-kind offering, “Free Intra-Day Trading”, for the core trading community. I worked very closely with the brand to understand the trading market in India, the kind of costs each intra-day trader incurs in terms of brokerage, went through their consumption on digital through a deep analysis of the customers and planned touchpoints which were effective for the audience we wanted to speak to by avoiding spillage and driving business effectiveness.

Also Read: Ad land’s Young Guns: Akshita Bhalla, ARM Worldwide

While working on the creatives how do you prepare yourself? What goes on in your mind?
Creative, or how I’d like to call it “Communication”, is a factor of users and their mindset and digital as an ecosystem allows me to talk to relevant audience in their existing mindset on relevant platforms. For example, someone who is interested in investment/ share trading should be spoken to differently on Facebook due to its social nature versus the same person on a Moneycontrol (the fact that he/she is on Moneycontrol is because they’re looking a market related content) should be spoken to differently. 

Icons in advertising you look up to and how they have influenced you and your work?
Gautam Mehra, Chief Data Office, Dentsu Aegis Network – India: Gautam is the most practical guy I’ve worked with and he is also my mentor. I didn’t know the “A” of advertising the day I joined him and today (not so far from my first day), I believe he’s guided me just enough to be able to solve problems based on data and not assumptions, which has given me a lot of edge. He’s my constant for when I seek guidance both on a professional and personal front. 

Sidharth Rao, CEO, Dentsu Webchutney: One of the most humble, down to earth and more importantly (for an employee), approachable persons you’d come across if you ever get a chance to meet him. His idea of being a thought leader in the field you work is something that inspires me and makes me motivated to work on these goals. 

Jaimit Doshi, EVP, Kotak Securities: Although I haven’t known Jaimit for a very long time, but his perspective on things and how he looks at data and marketing has given me a very different perspective of looking at data and how it can be used in strategising for a brand. 

What are the five most productive things that you do in your everyday routine?
The first thing that I do is generally plan my day along with my teams to give them direction towards achieving and prioritising what’s required. We regularly brainstorm to get varied perspective of people on things. While outside of work, we chill, play games, etc., to bring some element of fun to our day and tackle twisted briefs to bring out the best. 

Also read: Ad land’s Young Guns: Aniket Sawant, Mindshare India

Do you think a career in advertising is a viable one in the long term?
Advertising across mediums is constantly evolving as the consumers we speak to are evolving, too, with the constantly growing economy, Internet penetration, etc. The need of the hour is to keep ourselves updated with all the trends and tech; if one can do that, advertising is a viable one in the long term. 

What does it take to succeed in a career like advertising?
Understanding the business problem, decoding how marketing can solve the problem and at what level, understanding the consumer and speaking to them in the right language at the right time is all it takes. 

What would be your advice to youngsters planning to enter this industry?
Take inspiration from what advertising has done in the past, see what’s happening today and adapt to the evolution to sustain yourself and your growth is certain. 

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
I see myself at an organisation that is invested in data and using Mar-Tech at its core. 

Is there any agency/ organisation that you would like to work with in the future?
I would love to work on the product and marketing side of giants like Facebook or Google, or at a brand where I can use my experience and learnings to make a difference.

Click here to read more Young Guns articles.