About Shirley D’Costa
Shirley is an enterprising and entrepreneurial marketing solutions professional with 13 years experience as a strategy planner at a traditional agency, business head at a Digital Agency (startup acquired by Omnicom), and now sales and marketing head at a Content Studio.
In conversation with Whizsky, Shirley D’Costa, Chief Business Officer, Supari Studios dissects the campaign, the importance of storytelling, and evolution of audience.
How do you see the change in advertising wherein campaigns are more story-oriented as opposed to brand/product-oriented?
Consumers today are exposed to a barrage of stimuli/information/entertainment that is now fired at them at every platform they are on, and this is not just from brands. If you want to catch their attention, if you want for anybody to remember you, if you want to actively engage with this consumer you’ve got to go where they are (Youtube? TikTok? Whatsapp?) and speak in a language they speak, they understand, they thrive on. Doing a template single campaign with a problem-product showcase-solution won’t cut it anymore.
Can you briefly explain the different stages of creating campaign for a client?
Start off with knowing what is the business objective or need for the campaign to begin with, so there’s a clear focus and understanding of what you’re looking to achieve. Invest time in design thinking. Understand the consumer, what platforms are they on, what drives them, identify a clear insight you can leverage, and build a content strategy from there.
What are the trends or changes in marketing/advertising industry you are looking forward in 2020?
Everyone’s spoken about mobile going big for a while, but the way it’s being leveraged now by consumers for personal content consumption, shopping, payments, and even creation of their very own content on apps like TikTok is really a game changer. The implications this will have on personalisation, privacy, and even the amalgamation of content and commerce is something I’m really looking forward to.
What will be your advice to freshers who wish to be a part of the advertising industry?
Stay curious. Expose yourself to new hobbies, and creative work outside of your own comfort zone. You never know what will spark off your imagination.
Any tips you want to give to brands before approaching you for a campaign.
Our best work comes from collaborating and co-creating work with our clients. Getting on board early (perhaps even while you’re in the process of identifying a problem) means we’re as involved and as accountable at creating magic that actually works for the brand.
