About
Who Am I?
I really don’t know. But here’s what I do know.
I am an overexcited, hyperactive ‘Jill of all Trades.’ Economics, then Fashion, then Business. It sounds like indecision and it turned out to be a job description, because most days this work is holding a spreadsheet, a trend and a P&L in your head at the same time and finding the one sentence that keeps all three happy.
The career wandered on purpose. An agency, then a publisher, then a broadcast network, then a social platform, and now in-house at a national media network. Every one of those rooms believes something different about what makes people pay attention. They are all a bit right, which is the annoying part.
What I actually do is notice things. What people already care about, what a brand can honestly claim, and the distance between the two that everyone has quietly agreed not to mention. Then I write it down so that a founder or a marketing head can do something about it by Friday.
Also, I am the human version of a Golden Retriever puppy.
(I have references to back this statement)
In my own words
Why I write here
Hey there, I’m Shilpi and I’m on an exciting journey of self-discovery amidst life’s twists and turns. This is my attempt at harnessing the chaos of my buzzing ADHD, overstimulated brain by exploring and penning down my thoughts and discovering new perspectives and insights along the way.
From food to fashion, International Economics to Page 3 Gossip (and of course more) - I love knowing about everything, and going into super-sleuth mode on whatever has my attention that week. Some of it turns into writing. Most of it turns into better strategy, eventually.
2018–Present
The path so far
Most recent first.
-
2024–Present
A national media network
Creative Brand Strategist · In-house
Brand and sponsorship strategy for the network’s live properties. The master narratives, the sponsor versions that sell from them, the programme thinking behind an edition, and the proof points every deck has to stand on. The work page has more on the shape of it. The names stay off this site.
-
2022–2024
Mohalla Tech Pvt. Ltd. (ShareChat & Moj)
Creative Brand Strategist · Social platform
Brand and campaign work for a feed that moves in vertical video, where a format either travels in the first two seconds or it doesn’t travel at all.
-
2019–2022
Times Network
Senior Associate - Digital · Broadcast network
Three years on the digital side of a broadcast network, learning daily that scale and attention are two different numbers.
-
2018–2019
Little Black Book
Brand Strategist · Media publisher
Strategy from the publisher’s side of the table, for an audience that turns up for the recommendation and tolerates the advertiser.
-
2018
Ogilvy India
Digital Planning Intern · Creative agency
Where the training happened. Briefs, planning, and how to argue for an idea in a room full of people who have heard every idea.
Working together
What I am like on a project
-
I ask the annoying question early
Usually some version of “what has to be true for this to work?” Much cheaper to ask in week one than in the post-mortem.
-
I write things down
A strategy that only ever exists in a conversation is a mood. If it can’t survive being put on one page and handed to someone else, it isn’t finished.
-
I am genuinely curious about your category
Food, fashion, economics, gossip. I have a documented inability to leave a subject half-read, which helps when your audience can smell a tourist.
Tell me what you are working on
Accepting feedback, criticism, and engaging conversations.