A hopeless brand romantic with over a decade of experience in digital marketing, Akshita Bhalla is all set to create her own space in the industry as an independent professional. She has worked with brands like Dabur, OPPO India, Domino’s, Bajaj Finserv and more.
Why are you into Advertising/Brand Strategy? Because it is the most exciting world, full of imagination, ingenuity & impact. People rarely care about the business but they will connect with a brand. They influence everything, from our basic daily choices to pop culture – so I enjoy being a cog in the system, and taking a brand’s vision and purpose further. The thrill, the challenge – I love it all!
Did you attend school for fine art or design or Communications? I did, in Communications. Bachelors in Mass Media & Mass Comm (BMMMC) from Delhi University.
Do you think brands whose advertising wins awards, do well in the market? Not necessarily. There definitely must be impact on sales, but most brands don’t look at award campaigns as a tool for selling, they look at it to highlight impact on society or to take a stand or simply for brand love. If we take the example of Cannes Lion winner ‘The Swedish Number’ definitely did wonders for its tourism numbers, but what Visit Sweden truly got from the campaign was a chance to showcase the nature of hospitality, their personality as a country. That’s what made it tick, really.
Finland’s largest child welfare organization published an outdoor ad campaign to remind parents and adults of the content children see when browsing their phones, especially at night. The campaign consisted of billboards disguised as a child’s screen recording, a continuous stream of disturbing and violent images, including cyberbullying and war. Highlighting the harsh reality that children can face on their phones, the ads were displayed only at night in Helsinki, Finland, because that is when children are most likely to use their phones without adult supervision.
The aim of The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare’s campaign is to support parents in media education for children. According to a Pew Research Center survey (2020), a majority of parents of children aged 11 or younger are concerned that their child is being exposed to inappropriate content online. 59 percent of US parents were concerned about their child accessing violent content online, and 56 percent were concerned about their child being bullied or harassed online*.
“Digitalization has revolutionized our world, for better and for worse. Media is intertwined with children’s lives, where for example the internet, social media, and games are part of their environment. A child has the right to safety in digital environments as well“, says Paula Aalto, The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare’s Head of School Cooperation and Digital Youth Work.
TBWA\Helsinki, the creative partner in the campaign, discovered an approach that allowed drawing attention to the time of day, when children are most likely to use their phones without adult supervision or support. Thus, the outdoor ads are visible only at night.
“Children are at their most vulnerable during the night. We created billboards that are active from 12:00 am to 2:00 am, displaying a stream of images that depict cyberbullying, nudity, war, and violence. It effectively reminds us, adults, about the availability of illicit online content to our children. We purposely hid the content of the billboards from the public – this became the core of our message. These images were too frightening to show, yet they are the harsh reality our kids are exposed to when we aren’t watching”, says TBWA’s Creative Director Joni Furstenborg.
Adults are the solution
The association does not blame adults or technology, but supports parents in educating their children about media.
“It is understandable that parents cannot constantly monitor their child’s phone use. However, as adults, we are the solution to protecting our children from inappropriate content. By developing our own media literacy skills, we also know how to act if a child has seen something scary or inappropriate on their phone”, says Aalto.
The Mannerheim League emphasizes that providing support entails exploring media together, achieving joint successes, and being present and genuinely interested in our children’s lives . Constant communication with the child on and off screen is of the utmost importance.
“As a parent myself, I am concerned about my own children’s media use on their phones. Children are constantly exposed to harmful content, and parents must protect them from seeing things that they do not have the ability to process due to their young age.We, parents, are the solution”, Furstenborg ends.
he Mannerheim League is a Finnish NGO that promotes the wellbeing of children and of families with children, increases respect for childhood and seeks to make it more visible, and sees that children’s views are taken into account in public decision-making. The organization is the largest child welfare organization in Finland. It has 75 000 members and 541 local associations throughout the country. The work of these local associations is supported by the League’s 10 district organizations.
TBWA\Helsinki is the genuinely international and most award-winning agency in Finland. For four consecutive years clients have voted TBWA\Helsinki as the agency of the year in Finland and Eurobest Awards have named the company the Country Agency of the Year. TBWA\Helsinki employs 160 marcom professionals and is part of the leading global TBWA advertising agency network.
Credits Advertising agency – TBWA\Helsinki
Markus Nieminen – Vice President, Strategy & Content Joni Furstenborg -–Creative Director Paula Sonne – Head of Communications and PR Tuomas Perälä – Senior Copywriter Hanna Karlsson – Designer Tiia Rahkonen – PR Producer Emma Pettersson – PR and Insights Trainee Mikko Kuoppasalmi – Creative Niko Hatara – Executive Producer & Head of in-house productions SCREEN\
Client – The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare
Leena Poutanen – Director of Communication and Fundraising Paula Aalto – Head of School Cooperation and Digital Youth Work
Pooja Dhingra is an independent conceptualiser, art director and a graphic designer and has previously worked with Play Clan- India’s first graphic design store, as a creative lead. She is also the founder of Compassion Contagion, an online archive that has been recording acts of compassion, hope and resilience through art, collages and graphic narratives.
Her work at Play Clan was mostly research and travel based bringing tales from Jodhpur, Banaras, Japan, Nagaland, Bhutan and other places to the forefront. She has also worked on various collaborations with Paul Smith, Oxford Bookstore, India Art Fair, Tokyo Fashion Week in India, Mehrangarh Museum Trust etc.
As a freelancer, she has designed for non profits such as National Foundation for India; Pravah; Barefoot College,Tilonia; Apnalaya; Room to Read; Communities for Conservation, Khoj Foundation, Communities for Conservation, Canada; WNCB: Work:No Child’s Business; PSBT to name a few. She has worked on projects that address the issues of discrimination and social exclusion, campaigns designed to address early and child marriage, child labor, women’s nutrition, health and reproductive rights of adolescent girls. She has also been designing and art directing festival graphics for India International Centre’s The Festival of Arts for the last six years.
Her personal work revolves around waste management, sustainability, and addressing the patriarchy through humour and satire.
Her work has been featured in the Ladies Finger, Asian Age, The Better India, Khirkee Voice-Khoj Foundation, Mint Lounge and in British Council’s campaign ‘She Leads’ as one of their most favourite women creators from India.
She has exhibited her zines and comics at Bombay Underground Zine Festival ; Gayzi Zine Festival ; The Zine Show at MIT Institute of Design ; TIFA Working Studio, Pune; Art Book Depot, Jaipur.
Why are you a Conceptualizer/ Art Director? I think I enjoy being a conceptualiser because I like to work on projects that allow me to be experimental in my approach. I have converted lengthy case studies into folk inspired artworks, made graphic novels for annual reports and have researched and simplified Mughal history to create a pack of playing cards. I rely heavily on research to design and feel that a strong concept and good storytelling are essential components for good design.
As an art director, I get to work on a project from start to finish which involves researching, storyboarding, creating the vision and the visual language based on clients’ brief. I also find it exciting to put the team together- finding artists I can collaborate with to translate ideas into illustrations. Once the illustrations come in, I do the final layouts/ design and also handle the production- choosing the materials and techniques, working with the printing press etc.
Did you attend school for fine art or design or Communications? I did my B.A. from Lady Shri Ram College and then studied Fashion Communication at NIFT, Delhi. In the course, there was just a short module on Graphic Design. After the course, I joined a design studio and that’s where I learnt everything I know about design.
Reema is a brand strategist with a rich experience in branding and business with three Masters Degrees as well as work experience across five countries. She recently graduated from the Master’s in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts, New York where she was awarded a Brand Masters Award for academic excellence. Her previous Masters Degrees were in Management and Strategy & Consulting at EDHEC Business School in France after which she did marketing internships with Bosch in Singapore and L’Oréal in Dubai. She then worked as a Brand Strategist and Business Development Manager for 4 years at Elephant Design, India where she played a pivotal role in being a brand partner to over 30 clients such as Nestlé, Uber, Colgate, Kellogg’s, among others. She was awarded the honor of being on India’s Top 30 under 30 list for talented individuals in the Media and Advertising ecosystem by Impact Magazine. She is passionate about DIY crafting which led to her founding a start-up ‘Cardit’ where she handcrafts cards & home décor products. She loves learning about different cultures through travel and media. Her personal project on Love Languages explores love in various cultures across the world. Why are you into Branding? A brand exists in the minds of people. It is an idea that people collectively believe in. Branding is the act of creating differentiation to help form a connection with people. It is creative storytelling and has the potential to inform human behavior. The power to affect social change through creativity is what draws me to the field of branding.
Tell us something about NYC’s School Of Visual Arts. New York City is a destination for several creative minds and SVA has been fostering such artists, designers, and creative professionals since its founding in 1947. I pursued the Master’s in Branding program at SVA, which is the first and longest-running program of its kind in the world. The accelerated one-year program offers students the opportunity to learn from industry experts, work on real-world client projects, and a chance to get mentored by successful professionals.
Advertising Agency: Sting Communications, Kolkata, India Art Director: Mr. Manas Das Illustrator: Mr. Jayanta Chakraborty Ideator & Copywriter: Mr. Somnath Banerjee Company Director: Mr. Somnath Banerjee
