‘Digital marketing is the need of the hour for brands’

How Pratiksha Mamgain, an alumna of the Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC) decided to pursue her career in digital marketing is  interesting. “I was doing my BSc (Honours) in Home Science from Delhi University (DU). As part of the Bachelor’s programme, we had a three-month specialisation course on Development Communication and Extension that focused on the development sector. We had to work on creating campaigns for corporate social responsibility activities and I also briefly learnt about camera handling and the art of storytelling.”

In 2014, Pratiksha received an internship offer from Genesis Burson-Marsteller (now rebranded as Genesis BCW), a global digital PR agency wherein she worked as a digital marketing intern and helped the digital team with social media efforts for some of their key clients in the technology and FMCG sector. Then began her journey into digital marketing. In an interview, the 27-year-old digital marketing professional talks about her career and how digital marketing is evolving today. Edited excerpts:

Talk about your journey into digital marketing?

After my graduation from DU, I wanted to pursue Master’s in the advertising and marketing sector itself and that’s how I came across the Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC). At AIMC, a lot of guest lectures and workshops were held, specifically focused on digital marketing. And I used to look forward to attending them. Those workshops and guest lectures were very aligned with what I wanted to do in the future. I recall there was a guest lecture where the expert had introduced us to how important digital marketing is for every marketer and how incorporating it will be helpful for the brands in the future. So, I was 100 per cent sure that I only wanted to build my career in digital marketing. I got a job opportunity from Edelman to work as a digital marketing specialist. One of my key clients was Hewlett Packard in addition to a couple of clients from the technology, FMCG and development sectors. That’s when I actually got the real exposure to sort of understand digital from a holistic standpoint. Subsequently, I moved to Dr. Oetker India where I was hired to start their digital bit because I had a well-rounded experience of social media and fair knowledge of the e-commerce side of things from my three years of work experience at Edelman. Currently, I am working with Lenovo Worldwide as Assistant Manager – Digital Content and Strategy. I am a part of the global marketing team and in an international role wherein I work on global digital campaigns that Lenovo as a brand does. I manage their content and media strategy as well as web analytics and brand campaigns that happen at a global level. 

How do you think Apeejay prepared you for your professional journey?

The course at Apeejay sort of helped me fixate on what I really wanted to do. Like I said, there were these special guest lectures on digital marketing that helped me gain an understanding on what all areas to focus on if I want to become a digital marketing professional. All these classes really helped me to get that clarity and then there was no looking back. 

Another best part was the brand case study sessions. There have been two key learnings: first, it inculcated the feeling of teamwork and second, it simulated the real-world pressure in a digital marketing domain. 

Digital marketing is something that has become imperative in most organisations now. How is it evolving?

About six years ago, people only understood digital as social media and posting content on social media to promote them. However, there is a paradigm shift. If I talk from an agency point of view, today every ad agency/organisation/brand has a digital arm and they cannot function without it. Every brand either wants to go digital completely or have an integrated set up where they do a mix of traditional and digital marketing. It has changed quite a bit and the explosion of the internet in general has given that connectivity to many people and opened up several ways to reach consumers via digital. In fact, in the last two years, the pandemic has been a major game-changer in pushing more and more people to adopt digital channels for shopping, studying, working, etc. Thus, digital marketing is growing immensely and it’s the need of the hour for brands. 

As a digital marketer, how do you keep yourself updated?

One thing with digital marketing is that you have to keep reading along with having hands-on experience in the field. Reading about what’s happening in the different sectors, talking to people from various industries, attending several workshops, webinars especially on e-commerce or digital marketing – all these help one gain an in-depth understanding. I am also part of various forums and I keep attending these online seminars that talk about various trends and different brand stories.  

Though I have been doing it for six years now, I still consider myself to be fairly new in this industry. Every day there is something new that comes up. Digital marketing as a stream is so dynamic that you have to keep yourself updated and brush up your skills day in and day out, or else you will become redundant. I make it a point to talk to people with whom I have worked previously or make new networks as it helps me gauge different perspectives. 

Do you think networking plays a role in digital marketing?

I would say it has become increasingly important to catch up with people from various industries and know about their work. Networking not just helps in understanding what is new in the industry but also gives a fair sense of upskilling and what brands are wanting to do. It allows you to analyse future marketing trends as well as add to your overall professional growth.