Spirit W | Boutique Agencies is the way forward: Saatchi's Priti Kapur

When  Saatchi and Saatchi adopted a new leadership structure last year Priti Kapur was roped in as Executive Creative Director (ECD) to manage their Delhi office . Excited about her new role at the agency she looked forward to embracing the Saatchi culture. Prior to joining Saatchi, Kapur spent nearly 4 years at JWT Delhi, working on various brands like Nokia, Airtel, Pizza Hut, Microsoft and Boost. Earlier in her career she has worked for Leo Burnett and DDB in Singapore. At Saatchi & Saatchi, she works with HCL, Carlsberg and  P&G.

Adgully caught up with her to know more about her journey in the media and advertising space.  

While at JWT she won the agency’s first Cannes and Clio Gold metals and helping the agency to be recognized as the Agency of the Year at AdFest 2010. She was subsequently ranked 13th in the Asia Pacific ECD creative rankings carried out by Campaign Asia.

Being selected as a One Show judge is a career-defining honor, as is winning the coveted One Show Gold, Silver and Bronze Pencils, considered the ultimate achievement in the advertising industry and to Priti Kapur goes the credit of having  been a judge at the One Show.

When asked to share 3 milestones of her journey so far, Kapur good humouredly said, "Getting hired for the first time,  getting fired for the first time and going for my first meeting once back in India."

Kapur has spent most of her career in Singapore so in terms of challenges that she has faced she considers it easier for women professionals to reach the top. In this regard she said, "I felt the male gender bias more when I was overseas. I think India is wonderful when it comes to gender roles in the workplace - there actually aren't any!"

She would prefer to see more women at the helm in their careers both locally and overseas. But according to her the top bosses at various organizations still continue to be male oriented.

Kapur avers that the changing media has helped the advertising industry to take a giant leap and is now much different from what it used to be earlier. So when asked how the advertising industry can take advantage of changing media, she said, "It's an opportunity to use all parts of our brain and not just the part that creates a TVC or a print ad."

When asked to share about her thoughts on the media and advertising industry lacking  organizationally she opined that it would be good to have industry dinners and parties hosted by production houses and trade magazines on the lines of the practice followed in Singapore.

In terms of latest trends in the advertising industry Kapur considers Boutique Agencies the way forward. Hence according to her larger advertising agencies and networks need to work all the more harder and be on their toes to stay relevant.