The ninth edition of the Godrej PRmoment Adfactors 3030, 2023 Announced

Aafia Feroze, 29, Manager, Public Relations & Branding, KredX
Aafia Feroze

Popularly known as the ‘fintech and startup PR expert’ within her network, Aafia Feroze has build brands of startups from diverse sectors since the beginning of her career. She has an interesting take on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times. Take a look at how Aafia presented her thoughts:

Aafia is currently working at KredX, India’s largest supply chain finance company. In just six months span, she was able to effectively leverage data and build compelling narratives around the supply chain vertical – this helped her garner over 30+ sector-focused stories for a startup that had extremely low media presence.

Her ultimate goal is to become the go-to ‘PR person for startups’ in India!

Aastha Anand, 26, Account Manager, ON PURPOSE
Aastha Anand

Aastha Anand always believes in taking up assignments beyond her comfort zone and strives to continuously reinvent herself. Being stationed in Varanasi to promote rooftop solar in rural MSMEs for Smart Power India (a Rockefeller Foundation subsidiary), handling the social media for ReNew Power India’s leading renewable energy company or being the social media expert for GIZ-MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change) Himachal Pradesh Climate Change Conference, and running a campaign on ‘Menstrual Health and COVID-19: Impacts and Challenges’ with Bleed Equal testify her ability to push herself beyond her limits.

Take a look at Aastha’s take on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times in this video:

Her contribution to Solar Se Samriddhi Campaign for rural enterprises helped in promoting the benefits of rooftop solar to rural MSMEs in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign made a huge impact by engaging with more than 7600 potential rural MSMEs, and generated 1,581+ leads via the app and missed calls.

Aishwarya Anand, 28, Account Manager, Ruder Finn India
Aishwarya Anand

 A big Walt Disney fan, Aishwarya always believed in "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." This stuck with Aishwarya Anand forever and hence began her journey. The following image sums up her work in the PR industry.

"Aishwarya is a go-getter and a creative team player, from thinking on her feet to having solid media relations, to leading some marvelous campaigns, she has helped the brand build a solid footing with everyone who matters - internally and externally. I can trust her to get the job done as I know her sheer dedication for the brand and its success speak volumes for her work."
Gopika Gulati, Corp Comm. and PR Lead, Disney+ Hotstar

Aliya Mahimtura, 26, Account Manager, Edelman India  
Aliya Mahimtura

Aliya Mahimtura, a trained Bharatnatyam dancer and fitness enthusiast has a thirst to learn, build and win. She is most thrilled about helping brands leverage human centricity to tell a powerful story. She believes in the last year; the preferences of post-pandemic consumers have changed drastically and so has her approach to PR. To cater to new consumers, her approach to storytelling has shifted from selling to solving.

Here's her take on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times. Take a look at the video:

Aliya helped Starbucks unlock its growth potential in India by becoming more relevant to consumers and demand spaces with the campaign #ItStartsWithYourName. The campaign involved executing a 360-degree campaign that started with a brand film that reflected this philosophy, followed by shorter films focusing on the new cup size "Picco," the shareable food menu, beverages, prices, and other offerings that Starbucks launched in four key cities. The campaign was a success, resulting in a 20% increase in food sales, a 10% increase in daily transactions, an increase in new customers, and no decrease in cup size by existing customers. The campaign also generated 100+ stories within the first 48 hours and an estimated earned media reach of 4.6 billion.

Another campaign Bira 91's "Imagined in India” experimented with indigenous ingredients to introduce a new limited-release flavor every Thursday at its taprooms. As a part of the campaign, one-on-one tasting sessions and interviews with Ankur Jain, CEO and founder of Bira 91, and leading publications, hosting a key media and influencer launch event, and a national press release were rolled out across beats. The launch was a huge success, with an estimated reach of 1.1 billion people, 55 million digital impressions, and generating an earned media value of 300 million.

Amritha Soman, 27, Account Manager, Edelman India
Amritha Soman

Amritha Soman believes that she is a dynamic and adaptable PR professional who has been making waves in the industry with her exceptional digital and data storytelling skills. She is always looking for new and different ways of visually presenting data and information.

She believes PR helps build relevant, purposeful conversations of how brands drive change and impact. As change agents, PR professionals help articulate the real, human aspect of the brand with empathy, enabling brands to connect with people. Most importantly, brands need to be able to build trust.

Her top two memorable projects are Snapdragon Summit 2022 for Qualcomm where she spearheaded the India media engagement for Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm’s largest, flagship event, and Satya Nadella’s India visit for Microsoft where she was a part of the core team that led his engagements in Bangalore.

Apeksha Meher, 27, Senior Account Executive, Adfactors PR
  Apeksha Meher

Torture the data and it will confess to anything! This is what Apeksha Meher believes in. An engineer by profession, solving number problems comes very naturally to her but she discovered her love for brands and storytelling and decided to take a leap of faith and stepped into the world of PR.

Her noticeable achievements include garnering an organic interaction for Dun & Bradstreet’s spokesperson Dr Arun Singh, Global Chief Economist with Red FM’s RJ Rishi Kapoor, featuring in the World Economic Forum for a startup client- Absolute, playing a supporting role in increasing the Tier 1 coverage of Tata Communications by 115% for Tier 1 media & 26% increase in regional media.

The collaboration with The World Economic Forum for Absolute is worth mentioning as it is aimed at strengthening local innovation ecosystems to scale innovative solutions for food systems transformation. Considering how the initiative was perfectly aligned with Absolute’s vision to provide ‘Food for All’, Adfactors was quick on their toes to share an advisory with the client on exploring a partnership with the hub.

As an outcome, the readership of the blog surged by 65x and this led to an increase in the traffic of the client’s website by 22% and helped them garner exposure with key stakeholders.

Bhavika Arora, 28, Account Manager, ON PURPOSE
Bhavika Arora

A theatre performer and poet, Bhavika Arora knows very well how to touch people’s lives in intangible ways that leave a mark. when her career in the PR industry began, she was naturally drawn towards an agency that specialized in communications for social change, and at the same time, challenged her to grow.

Here’s her interesting take on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times:

Participation in RECYCLEGIRI, a campaign by GIZ India and Karo Sambhav and other campaigns like SMART POWER INDIA, and #GreenTheGap, have been the highlight of her career.

Charlene Daniel, 26, Senior Account Executive, Ruder Finn Asia
Charlene Daniel

A storyteller, Charlene Daniel is always ready with innovative ideas and sharing her opinions. She enjoys putting the ‘fun’ in Function - finding creative ways to showcase the share of voice, engagement, and tonality, among other metrics. She connects her idea of PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times with ‘The Human Connect’. Take a look at the video:

Diksha Verma, 27, PR and Communications Specialist, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Diksha Verma

From experimenting with new formats, taking calculative risks, constantly learning and unlearning, to experimenting with video storytelling, and being on a mission to increase journalists’ affinity towards enterprise technology, these are some of the achievements of the HPE’s Global Start of the Quarter FY22Q3, Diksha Verma in the past one year.

Her unique way of explaining PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times through storytelling impressed the judges. Take a look at her entry:

Additionally, worth mentioning is her work on cracking HPE India’s first-ever editorial electronic interview for Som Satsangi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at HPE, India to share the company’s playbook in India. The interview was streamed for Bloomberg’s international market which has a reach of over 31 crore people globally. The social media amplification of Bloomberg from HPE’s Twitter and LinkedIn handles reached over 27455 and 2653 respectively - It was also amplified through Som Satsangi’s social media handles.

Gulsheen Kaur, 27, Senior Account Manager, Avian WE
Gulsheen Kau

In her 5 years of career, Gulsheen Kaur has worked with more than 30 brands and organisations, with the purpose of bringing together the best of two worlds: the "new world" of digitized platforms, video, photography, and art, and the "old world" of telling stories. The two campaigns that draw the judges’ attention towards her amazing work are:

Harpic World Toilet College for which she created the communication narrative of #LeaveNoOneBehind and developed a digital presence from scratch was rewarded with 'Best Digital Campaign of the Year' and ‘Best Social Cause Digital Campaign of the Year’ at three major awards ceremonies.

Kimberly Solomon, 26, Corporate Communication Specialist, Tata Consultancy Services
Kimberly Solomon

A storyteller by profession, Kimberly Solomon finds herself the happiest showcasing stories in a visually captivating way. She has brought her storytelling skills to the table on the corporate side as well. She has worked on putting together a system for aggregating media coverage and its associated metrics in a visually pleasing and consumable manner. Her unique way to share her thoughts on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times impressed the judges. Take a look:

Kimberly Rowe, 28, Senior Account Manager, Genesis BCW
Kimberly Rowe

Kimberly Rowe is a confident PR professional who owns impactful brand storytelling, collaborates beyond clients (and even borders), and is a proven media maverick (no matter the beat)! Here’s her take on ‘PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times:

Her sense of curiosity continues to guide her to do more than just client servicing. From winning new businesses to being a Creative Catalyst from India for teams around the globe, she is on the fast track to learning how she can contribute to the communications ecosystem in more ways than one.

Mebin Mathew, 30, Senior Manager, Current Global
Mebin Mathew

A storyteller by heart, Mebin loves creating content that builds and bolsters strong, appealing and engaging brand identities with consumers. Among the most memorable projects, Mebin has worked on, Riot Games VALORANT holds a special place for him. The key idea behind the campaign was to leverage Harbor to open door for VALORANT to connect with a wider audience. This was achieved through storytelling of the agent via mainstream and lifestyle media. The result was as follows:

Another campaign that needs a mention is LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program where LinkedIn wanted to empower creators with the tools needed for building, reaching, and engaging with their audiences. It extended a financial grant along with access to diverse resources like LinkedIn's Community Management team, educational workshops, networking opportunities, and mentorship programmes.

Miloni Hamlai, 27, Associate Project Manager, Weber Shandwick
Miloni Hamlai

Miloni Hamlai believes that 2022 has been a year like no other! Brand reputation has never been more critical. Her entry impressed the judges and her amazing storytelling skills, leaving the panel astonished. Bringing her love for baking and PR together, she shared a full-proof step by step recipe to a well-kneaded reputation and explained the PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times:

Among her not-to-miss mentioning work are the launch of ‘Legends of the Ramayana’ on discovery+, while eliminating any scope of controversy in a politically and communally charged environment and the launch of ‘My Daughter Joined A Cult’ on discovery+, a docu-series that chronicles events pertaining to the controversial and self-styled godman- Swami Nithyananda.

Nakul Ghai, 26, Associate Manager, Global Communications & Media Relations, Wiley
Nakul Ghai

Nakul Ghai strongly believes that creative thinking, leadership and measurement-oriented is a must-have approach towards PR. He is dedicated to passing on his learnings to the young entrants in the field and advocating millennial leadership and reverse mentoring. He works on encouraging and supporting millennial leadership via means of podcasts, chat shows, and thought leadership pieces, and partaking in intriguing conversations related to the theme.

Here's Nakul interesting take on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times:

Pallavi Roy, 28, Assistant Account Manager, Value 360 Group
Pallavi Roy

As a PR Professional, Pallavi Roy believes she is like the Indian version of the understated FRIEND’s character, Monica. She has adopted client-centricity in every aspect of her work. With brand reputation in focus, she has unlocked synergies between conventional and new PR practices to devise dynamic communication strategies.

Parvathi Muraleedharan, 26, Senior Account Manager, Avian WE
Parvathi Muraleedharan

At the young age of 26, Parvathi Muraleedharan is extremely clear about her thoughts and knows that being in the business of communication and handling clients in the entertainment sector where crisis can happen during the day or at odd hours, understanding the depth, adapting to changes instantly and taking complete responsibility & ownership is something that one needs to strive for. As a PR professional, she has helped clients find opportunities to leverage these new developments, create digital storytelling opportunities across different publications through spokesperson-led interviews and execute award-winning campaigns with significant impact. Here are her thoughts on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times:

Prachi Agarwal, 25, Senior Account Executive, MSL
Prachi Agarwal

Prachi’s success mantra lies in a simple hashtag: #PYAARSEKAROPR. In just 3 years of her career, Prachi has already made it big into the industry. Her most celebrated work is the launch of Sony Tv’s Indian Idol Season 13 and the launch of Sony Tv’s Shark Tank- Season 2.

Prachi has compiled her PR journey beautifully in this video. Take a look at it:

Pratyush Agrawal, 25, PR & Communications Specialist, Head Digital Works (A23 Games)
Pratyush Agrawal

 Pratyush Agrawal compares his journey with that of a chef. Imagine a chef preparing a dish for a competition. Just as the chef carefully selects each ingredient to create a winning dish, he carefully analyzes data, craft creative copy and develop compelling content to create successful PR campaigns.

Pratyush explains the PR’s role in future-proofing reputation in changing times through a campaign- Choose Your Path: Reputation Matters. The concept of the campaign is: The "red pill, blue pill" analogy represents the choice between embracing the truth (red pill) or remaining in ignorance (blue pill). In this campaign, the blue pill represents neglecting reputation management and the red pill represents embracing it. The campaign will aim at educating the public on the importance of proactively managing their reputation through Public Relations and encourage them to choose the path of the "red pill." By doing so, they will be better equipped to future-proof their reputation and protect their image in the digital age.

Radhika Dutt, 30, Senior Manager – Client Experience, Weber Shandwick
Radhika Dutt

 With over unique articles curated, perfected, and published, 90% success in selling new story ideas, over 90% conversion in media placements, and 3 performance awards to her name, Radhika Dutt cannot not be on the list of 30 under 30.

Radhika explained PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times through the campaign ‘PR_LambiUmarKeLiye’.

Rishita Singh, 26, Manager - PR and Communications, Klub
Rishita Singh

With a background in engineering, Rishita Singh quickly discovered that her true passion lies in the dynamic and constantly evolving field of Public Relations, and ever since she realized this, there’s been no looking back.

She successfully spearheaded a Public Relations campaign for Klub during the festive season. The objective of the campaign was to release a research report and secure media coverage, with the target of achieving over 2000 downloads. To achieve this goal, she organized a roundtable conference that brought together 8 industry leaders, including C-level executives from companies. Based on the insights gathered from the roundtable discussion, I curated an in-house research report in partnership with CRED entitled “Festive Season Strategies to Boost D2C Brands’ Sales.” The report received media attention and was featured in a story by The Indian Express, with over 4000 downloads achieved within 30 days, resulting in increased revenue for the business. The return on investment for the campaign was 6 times higher than expected.

She has single-handedly led numerous PR campaigns, Innovaccer’s research report in The Wall Street Journal, Innovaccer’s Series B announcement, Innovaccer’s Series C announcement, Festive season research report for Klub, being a few.

Rishita has also been interviewed by Wizikey:

Riya Rupani, 29, Associate Vice President, Zeno Group India
Riya Rupani

 Riya Rupani’s aim has always been to evolve as a communication specialist and play a role in influencing mass perception with the help of an integrated communication approach. She believes that the uncertainty & disruption caused by the global pandemic, and the digital-first GenZ focused on ESG, opened doors to new opportunities for PR leaders and professionals to truly partner with their clients in times of need and help them reach out to their target audience in meaningful, yet innovative & cost-effective ways. Thus emerged an era where upskilling oneself digitally became synonymous with success & led to PR consultancies and brands to #ReImaginePossibilities that went beyond written text and print, but instead included a host of new mediums of engagement, such as videos, podcasts, social media amplification, collaborations with new-age media portals as well as employee engagement and a renewed focus on sustainability, leading to better brand recall & business progress.

Her list of memorable projects includes building Lenovo ISG’s industry authority for the launch of The Lenovo Genomics Asia Report, to spotlight Asia’s greatest genomics challenges and opportunities, and gaining traction and visibility for F5’s new Distributed Cloud Service in a low brand recall market.

Saakshi Jain, 23, Senior Account Executive, The PRactice
Saakshi Jain

As a maestro in PR, Saakshi Jain has embraced the power of AI technology, conducting it to elevate communication strategies and create an impact with every beat.

Take a look at Sakshi’s take on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times:

Sanam Shirazi, 21, PR & Corp Comm Executive, SUGAR Cosmetics (VLPL)
Sanam Shirazi

PR is a world of words, relationships, and people; something about it has always fascinated Sanam Shirazi. While she would get bullied in school for her storytelling, Shirazi Tales – which was what her teacher called her, she decided to make it her strength in life. She has always been passionate about beauty, and she decided to combine her passion with her profession.

With her campaign #Precaution, Sanam explained the PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times and highlighted that #PRecaution will always be better than c(ure)risis management.

She worked towards further building Vineeta Singh (Co-founder and CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics) and SUGAR’s brand presence reach through Shark Tank India, reputation management, and sustenance. For her #ShukarHaiSUGARHai campaign, she ensured to secure quotes from both Ranveer and Tamannaah to add more value to the announcement which garnered over 121 clips, which resulted in the brand receiving a PR value of INR 22,00,34,229 across print, online, social media and electronic mediums.

"I recommend Sanam for the PRmoment.in 30 under 30 as one of the hardest working and resourceful young executives I have ever worked with. She can work well under pressure, has great networking skills and is able to command respect from media professionals in spite of being quite young. I've seen her independently handle some PR events, cover shoots and even my Shark Tank crew on certain days and she is, thus, a valuable asset to the organization."
Vineeta Singh, Co-founder and CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics

Shriya Narvankar, 23, Senior Account Executive, Ruder Finn
Shriya Narvankar

At the young age of 23, Shriya Narvankar has successfully led media conversations and digital storytelling for 15+ titles on Disney+ Hotstar and for Tata Sky's biggest rebranding campaign as Tata Play and driven 250+ stories within 24 hours for Tata Play's campaign on a national holiday.

Watch the video to know what Shriya thinks of the role of PR in future-proofing brand reputations:

We cannot miss showcasing her top 3 memorable projects. Take a look:

‘TataSkyisnowTataPlay’

#SIWAYSRK

THE RISE OF LIONSGATE PLAY IN INDIA

These testimonials are enough to say what Shriya has achieved at this young age:

Sneha Ashok, 29, Assistant Account Manager, Adfactors PR  
Sneha Ashok

Sneha has a childlike curiosity to understand new tools and trends and ensures to deliver her best towards her profession, above and beyond client servicing and counsel. Her guide to futureproofing reputation in changing times, driven by PR- #RecipesForReputation is must-read:

Soumya Puri Sudhir, 29, Internal Communications Advisor, Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd.
Soumya Puri Sudhir

A content ninja and design novice, Soumya thrives on developing engaging communications campaigns and finding interesting ways to build brand stories. With her childlike curiosity, she brings a wonderland of storytelling to large corporate organizations. She argues that internal communications play a key role in strengthening reputation in the PR/Corporate Relations sphere. Here’s how she presented internal communications lessons from our favourite animated movies.

Tanya Chadha, 24, Account Executive, Communicator & Crisis Manager, Adfactors PR
Tanya Chadha

Here’s how Tanya Chadha best defines herself “I am an IDEA, AN idea that can change the world, or even it doesn’t – It tries its level best. Just like this industry which tries every day to converse-communicate-convert.”

Her thoughts on ‘PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times can be defined through the campaign #LEADingWithPR, where the idea of the campaign would be to focus on how PR is strengthening a brand image and building a brand's reputation. Using social media marketing to amplify the campaign, the focus would be increasing conversation around the significance of PR for building a brand and managing crises with proactive thinking.

Vanshika Sood, 28, Marketing Specialist, Tata Consultancy Services
Vanshika Sood

Vanshika firmly believes that PR is at the center stage in today’s time. It helps to establish trust and grow the credibility of the business. Delivering the right message to the right people in the right place enhances the brand's reputation.

She leads the announcement of the company’s quarterly results through a press conference.

"I’ve known Vanshika for the last few years as an extremely reliable point of contact at TCS. The relatively young Vanshika understands exactly what we journalists are looking for, and fits it the best within the broader communication mandate she handles for the country’s largest IT exporter. She has been very accommodative with our requests, and selfless to the extent of not letting health concerns come in the way."
Ashish Agashe, Bureau Chief, PTI

Yashika Girdhar, 27, Senior Account Manager, Avian WE
Yashika Girdhar

 A winner of the National Round of ICCO PR World Cup 2022, Yashika Girdhar went on to represent India in the global competition with teams from 12 other countries. Here’s Yashika’s take on PR’s role in futureproofing reputation in changing times.

Her participation in the social and behavioral change communication campaign, ‘Poori Tayyari Hai Kya?’ was to build awareness, bust myths and encourage precautionary measures against COVID-19. The hashtag #PooriTayyariHaiKya generated over 1.2M reach, through various engaging videos, infographics, factoids and reels, the campaign amassed a total of 337K impressions, reels played a key role in spreading awareness and garnered more than 80,000 views, and more than 8.7K people engaged with the campaign from across the world.