Summary: 

Communications professional with 2 decades’ experience in creating, building and managing perceptions of brands across agency and client environments.

Experience spanning corporate communications, public relations, marketing communications, investor relations, digital/social media marketing and employee communication for B2B (technology) and B2C brands.

Winner of gold at Socialathon India 2015, gold at Emvie 2015 (Best media innovation - social media) and bronze at DMA Asia Echo Award 2015 (Interactive - Creative use of data).

Guest lecturer at Tata Management Training Centre's Leadership Development Program for IAS Officers and Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru – Advanced Digital Marketing and Digital Marketing for CMOs

Award-winning blogger, across 2 areas of interest - professional blog, since 2008 (communications/marketing - http://www.beastoftraal.com) and music blog, since 2005 (http://www.milliblog.com). 

Frequent columnist in leading publications, on the intersection of corporate communications, social media and advertising/marketing. Samples:
- How to build a socially relevant brand | ET BrandEquity http://bit.ly/2NuutnP 
- From 'Log kya kahenge?' to 'Log kya keh rahe hain' | ET BrandEquity 
- http://bit.ly/2u0jydn 
- Amazon-Swara Bhaskar Issue: An Analysis | afaqs! http://bit.ly/2qTF9ll 
- How to avoid social media self-destruction | The Economic Times http://bit.ly/2MuxvrD

Frequent speaker and panelist in leading events to talk on and discuss perspectives on communications, branding and social media.


Karthik Srinivasan

Communications strategy consultant. Connect with me for corporate workshops on personal branding. Ex-Ogilvy, ex-Flipkart, ex-Edelman. No paid posts - my words are not for sale.

Are the Mother-Sister-Mother-in-Law promises valid after the CEO 'giving' those promise quits? It's a pity that Cars24 won't be able to run these ads just after 3 odd weeks of launching them considering this is the first time they featured the CEO himself!

#advertising

Among my exciting projects presently are 2 favourites - I am helping build India’s Largest Influencer Network and guiding a D2C and B2B cross border ecommerce venture. 

I bring unique perspectives on business setup and sustainability. My hands-on experience allows me to provide strategic insights for sustainable growth. I collaborate with businesses to craft strategies that drive growth and improve ROI. My consulting services are tailored to support startups in navigating the business and marketing landscape thus improving their chances of long-term success. 

Before embarking on my entrepreneurial journey, I gained valuable experience and expertise in advertising, marketing, media, and entertainment, equipping me with a well-rounded understanding of diverse industries.

With more than 30 years of experience spanning Marketing, Advertising, Digital Marketing here’s how I can help businesses and startups: 

* Digital Marketing Strategy: Crafting customised strategies to meet business objectives.
* Business Setup & Sustainability Consulting: Providing strategic inputs to help businesses set a strong foundation for growth.
* Influencer Marketing: Connecting brands with the right influencers to amplify reach.
* UI/UX Improvement: Enhancing user experience for better engagement and conversions.
* Website Navigation & Process Flow Design: Streamlining functionality to boost effectiveness.
* SEO & SEM: Driving traffic, visibility, and performance through search engine strategies.
* Social Media Marketing: Building impactful campaigns that resonate with target audiences.
* Startup Investing: Supporting ventures with strategic investments and mentorship.
* Setting Up Digital Marketing Agencies or SBUs: Guiding businesses to build scalable digital units. 

If you are a business leader for success, reach out and lets discuss about working together.

Sandiip Porwal

Fair warning: you'll never look at your phone the same way again.

Amazing at so many different levels. Everyone must face the reality that is. 

This isn't just comedy. There is an actual term for this — "enshittification". And there is a 98-page report from the Norwegian Consumer Council that breaks down, "exactly how Big Tech has been systematically screwing us over."

How Facebook went from "connect with friends" to "AI slop and forced ads every 3 posts."
How #Google deliberately made search worse to show you more ads.
How #dating apps are designed to keep you single (and paying).
How #Snapchat literally held your memories hostage behind a paywall.

The document is called "Breaking Free: Pathways to a Fair Technological Future". if you've ever thought "didn't this work better earlier?" about literally any app, this report will explain exactly why you are not crazy.

If you want the full report, let me know. Happy to share it! or you can search it too. Will make for the perfect food for thought. Happy weekend. 

#humour #reality #advertising #creativity #report #future


Samriddh D. Sandeep Nair Mejo Kuriachan Victor C. Varun Gupta Arjun Vaidya Shubham Gune Ashish Kaul, Prof. Priyanka Peeramsetty (she/her)
Ramesh Kumar Shantanu Deshpande Nikhil Kamath Nithin Kamath

In build and invest mode, Open to Ideas, building India’s Largest Influencer Network, Cross Border Commerce. Guiding startups & businesses to grow Faster. Entrepreneur, Digital Strategist, Consultant, Mentor, Investor.

We just announced a strike drone will have a range of 1,000 km. No foreign license needed. Congratulations!! 

Built in India, by Indians,  for India, IG Defence has unveiled Project KAL, an indigenous long-range unmanned strike platform designed to strengthen India’s deep-penetration combat capabilities.  

That’s a deep-strike capability. The kind that used to require expensive and diplomatic negotiations.

Indigenous defence firms are developing weapons-grade platforms that reshape what “Made in India” means in defense.

Also in the making my another defence developer is Sheshnaag - a swarm drone with a long range that can autonomously hunt targets.

Recent modern conflicts have shown how long-range attack drones have demonstrated their strategic value. 
Systems like Iran’s Shahed cost a fraction of traditional missiles but force adversaries to expend expensive interceptors.

It’s asymmetric warfare we cannot just watch from the sidelines. 

The good news is that we have been building our own and some of these initiatives are being launched successfully. 

We all know private defense startups are no longer a novelty, they’re becoming the backbone of indigenous capability.

These are not government labs with unlimited budgets. These are startups building world-class defense tech here in india. 

Project KAL is proof that self-reliance isn’t just a slogan, it’s becoming reality.

That’s the new India worth being proud of. We are finally building what we should have built decades ago.

#madeinindia #defencetech #innovation #aatmanirbharbharat #dronewarfare #startupindia #defencemanufacturing #madeinindia #makeinindia

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Iran, Israel & USA playing dirty games and we are paying the price too. What next? 

India imports a massive 67% of its LPG. And 90% of those imports transit through the Strait of Hormuz. This single chokepoint is now strangled by the US-Israel-Iran conflict. And now, restaurants across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, and Delhi are running out of gas. literally.

20% of Mumbai’s hotels have already shut. If commercial supply isn’t restored in the next 2-3 days, another 4,000-5,000 could follow.

In Kolkata, 40% of roughly 5,000 restaurants are already facing operational disruptions. Chennai’s iconic eateries have started cutting menus.
The government has directed refineries to prioritize domestic household supply leaving commercial kitchens out in the cold.

This isn’t a local supply hiccup. This is what energy dependency looks like when geopolitics sneezes.

The deeper problem: India consumes about 31.3 million tonnes of LPG annually most of it flowing through one strait - Hormuz and the entire food industry will be on its knees if this isn’t resolved soon.

What should India have done differently and what needs to happen right now?

Sources:
CNBC: https://lnkd.in/eQejNCvJ
The Tribune: https://lnkd.in/em7MDQzr
Business Today: https://lnkd.in/eSuxzrwb

Rapido launched a zero commission food delivery app. Is there a business model here?

Remember ola cafe, food panda, uber eats. 

Ownly went live across Bengaluru with a zero-commission promise. restaurants pay nothing, customers pay Rs. 30 flat delivery fee, no hidden charges.  

So with no restaurant fees, no subscription charges, and only Rs. 30 per order from customers, the revenue stream is only delivery fees. The company has not disclosed plans for advertising revenue or other monetization models. 

Thus, Rs. 30 per delivery has to cover:
	∙	Rider payment
	∙	Fuel costs
	∙	Platform operations
	∙	Customer support
	∙	Tech infrastructure
	∙	Marketing spend
And somehow turn a profit.
The math doesn’t add up. 

And we have seen this movie before.
Ola launched Ola Café, Foodpanda,  Uber Eats all shut down. 
They had deeper pockets than Rapidp I would say and they had delivery networks and millions of active users and still failed.

Has rapido cracked unit economics with ownly that eluded others? 
Maybe they’re planning to introduce revenue streams later like advertising, subscription models, or eventually commission-based pricing. 

Or maybe this is the standard  playbook that says operate at a loss, build dependency, then change the terms once restaurants have nowhere else to go.

With restaurant owners calling existing platforms a “honeytrap” where you get great terms during onboarding, worse conditions after merchants become dependent on platform traffic there is an opportunity to here indeed. 

Either Rapido is playing 4D chess with unit economics the rest of us don’t understand Or will history repeat itself. 

Will Ownly make it ? What happens when Rapido needs to actually make money from this venture, and the investor funding runs dry? 

#fooddelivery #startups #uniteconomics #rapido #ownly #zomato #swiggy #businessmodel #indiastartups

A war broke out in West Asia. A Bengaluru café charged ₹17 extra on a lemonade. And honestly, are they wrong? 

Theo Café in Bengaluru added a 5% “Gas Crisis Charge” to a customer’s bill for two mint lemonades. The bill went viral. The internet called it daylight robbery - they cafe owners panicked and went on the defensive. 

Let’s look at some numbers in this context 

The price of a commercial LPG cylinder has more than doubled in the grey market. 
That’s definitely not a price hike but more signs of a business model getting destroyed.

Small café owners didn’t start a war. Nor they vote for closure of the Strait of Hormuz but they are waking up everyday to  increasing gas costs no simple way to pass it on.

The government stepped with Central Consumer Protection Authority ruling that all input costs must be built into menu prices, with only government taxes added separately. 

So what if the café can’t show the charge, the cost is still very much real.
What happens next is straightforward - menu prices must go up quietly.

Thinner margins will force smaller players to shut down. The neighbourhood café can while chains with deeper pockets will survive.

A ₹17 extra charge  on a cafe bill is not the scandal here. The scandal is that a geopolitical conflict 3,000 km away can bring a small Indian business owner to his knees. 
 
Should small restaurants be allowed to show fuel surcharges transparently, or should it be baked into prices silently? What’s more honest for the consumer?

When creativity speaks with such depth, you can only applaud. 

This is one is an award winner by Ogilvy for HUL. If you know of any such campaigns do share. 

Do you think this could have been executed differently? 

#creativity #adfilm #nationalaward #winning #ogilvy #hul #hindustanunilever

Is Body Fat Percentage is about to became a key feature of your CV?

The trend has been started not by a gym or a modeling agency but a tech startup building wearables. It’s Deepinder Goyals new venture Temple. 

Body fat qualifiers - Men: under 16%. Women: under 26%. If you miss the target, You get three months to fix it, or you’re out 😬

The justification: “We’re building for people who push their bodies to the edge. We want to be those people, not just serve them.” 

A new world cometh - Should your physical body be part of your professional qualifications?

Because if this works, if Temple ships a revolutionary product built by a team of “athlete-engineers” other companies will definitely follow to a certain extent and then will it like catch on.

We know the importance of culture and matching the passion for the mission, but a biological fit? That’s new territory indeed.

Well some of the best sports tech in the world was built by engineers who weren’t elite athletes.

So what does body fat % have to do with building great products?

Body fat percentage isn’t a pure measurement of discipline or product understanding.

To get fit people might have to reconsider using Zomato to order food 😜. 

Are we about to see a wave of startups hiring based on fitness data or we are just witnessing the first and last brave (or foolish) attempt?

#futureofwork #hiring #startupculture #fitness #workplacediversity #techtrends #hr

What's smarter than sponsoring an AI summit?
Not sponsoring it. 😜 

Emergent AI blanketed Delhi with an OOH campaign during the AI Summit. Airport roads, India Gate, high-footfall transit zones. Short, sharp copy about building and launching apps. Thats what it helps you do.

Classic ambient marketing. And honestly, pretty well executed. Focused, minimal copy made it easy to comprehend, and the context ensured impact.

They let the summit's gravity do the work, founders, developers, policymakers, all moving through the same corridors.

But these hoardings are clearly awareness plays. No QR code, no URL, no hook to pull curious eyes into a funnel. A good campaign, but why does emergent suddenly need the branding?? Somethings cooking probably. 

Every major event like this one would definitely have brands fighting over the expensive space inside, so the smarter play is often to own the perimeter with memorable campaigns.

Which do you think is actually a better move?

India has 30 million “unused billboards.”

And that’s not a marketing strategists suggesting but comes from a tech professional. A wild idea indeed but what if India’s stray dogs became moving ad spaces?

Street dogs wearing branded jackets.
Hyperlocal visibility.
Zero rental cost.
Maximum footfall impressions.

He called it: “Stray as a Service.” Ha ha ha ha ha it sounds like a crazy growth hack isn’t it. 

But think about it from a marketing lens  you always want to 
→ Reduce CAC
→ Think hyperlocal
→ Break clutter
→ Build recall offline

This idea technically ticks those boxes - what say?

Because the real question isn’t whether it’s possible but whether it’s ethical. I am thinking this might save the strays due to the GST collection the govt get. 

Marketing has always borrowed attention from public spaces.

Would brands jump on this for visibility?

Would the public reject it instantly?

In a country with 30 million stray dogs, this makes us think welfare, regulation, perception, and brand risk

Curious to know what you think.

The career advice nobody gives you until it’s too late.

Most people figure this out at 45, I after years of working hard, and wondering why they are still stuck.

Here are 10 career mistakes I see smart people make :

1. Solving problems that aren’t yours.
2. Staying because it’s comfortable.
3. Making yourself irreplaceable.
4. Waiting for permission to lead.
5. Avoiding office politics.
6. Hiding behind hard work.
7. Not building your network beyond office colleagues. 
8. Chasing titles over skills.
9. Avoiding difficult conversations
10. Not building a Personal Brand

Most of these are about working differently. What are your thoughts?

#happytohelp #careeradvice #growth #humanresources #hr #entrepreneurship #sidehustle

India's last-minute revision app. 😜 

Just #blinkit 

What do you think of this #campaign #strategy?

Vicks and Zepto made blowing your nose the best brand experience.

It’s one of the smartest pieces of marketing we have seen in a while.

Zepto and Vicks dropped a limited-edition tissue box designed for cold and flu season, carrying the line “Get well soon, the world needs you.”  Simple and human isn’t it?!

Just a box that makes you laugh, feel seen, and reach for your phone. 😜

contextual marketing is one that finds you precisely at the moment of need and makes you smile about it.

The lesson for every brand spending crores on digital ads that nobody remembers: sometimes a funny face on a tissue box does more than a full funnel campaign.

The success of qick commerce has the smartest brands figuring out how to turn this new real estate into communication.

What’s the most creative product packaging you have come across lately?

Which AI Tool for 2026 and beyond ? 
We are drowning in AI tools.

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, NotebookLM, Midjourney, Manus, Make, Atlas and whatnot! 

The general trend is "use AI to save time." 

Based on my journey into #AI tools i am haring some thoughts. 

Are you using AI tools? What’s your experience like? Which are best for your needs? 

#ChatGPT I feel is Good at everything, master of nothing. This could be that one versatile tool everyone needs but doesn’t expect much from. 

#Claude is awesome for content writing and especially long documents (200k+ words), want to use coding
 *Remember to cross verify data points and sources - it can crazily go wrong when quote. Imaginary quotes too. 

#Gemini for Google) Quick research, Google Docs/Sheets integration, casual use just like you would use a ChatGPT. 
It’s got amazing image generation skills but you have to provide the right prompt. 

#Perplexity AI - you have to be with it for a while and then it turns awesome for research. Good for Fact-checking, light research, market research etc 

#Grok - I read somewhere it has the lowest hallucination rate, ha ha ha 🤣 and that coming from being able to scrub twitter is insane. inssane! 

Haven’t used it in depth yet. My team is trying to use it for some strategic social intelligence inputs let’s see.

Will keep sharing my experiences . Hope to hear from you all too in the comments. 

*the image is courtesy #nanobanana.

A 24×7 helpline for deepfake victims.
This is exactly what India needs.
But will it actually work?
"Digital Saheli" an anti-deepfake and sextortion rapid response cell, promises :

> 24×7 helpline: 9999981002, with women police personnel round the clock
> Chatbot for information: +91 95999 64777
> Confidential reporting where women can register complaints from the comfort of their homes while their identity is kept confidential
> Cell staffed with technical experts, cyber experts, and female police officers
> Swift investigation and immediate legal action
> Quick response to complaints and coordination with social media platforms to address reported content

The initiative aims to tackle the growing menace of morphed images, deepfake videos, and online blackmail targeting women on social media.

AI-generated deepfakes are no longer a future threat, they're happening now. Women's photos are being scraped from social media, fed into AI tools, and used for extortion.

While I think it’s a brilliant initiative, I am worried about real use. What do you think?
1. Will women actually use it?
A helpline only works if victims know it exists and trust it enough to report. Awareness apart, from such abuse carries stigma in the minds of many.
2. How will it scale beyond one city?
Deepfakes don't respect city boundaries - this one is only for Gurugram. If a morphed image is circulating on social media, it’s international. 
3. Can they actually remove content?
Every platform has its own takedown process. Deepfakes can be constantly reuploaded across multiple accounts, as my understanding is, and what about the screenshots, which are already in use by the time any online content is removed. 

Digital Saheli is a step forward. The intent is right. The infrastructure can be set up. Awareness, trust, and swift action to real outcomes are what the system will have to work on. 

#digitalsaheli #womensafety #deepfakes #sextortion #cybersecurity #digitalindia #womenempowerment #cybercrime #ethics #socialmediasafety #lawenforcement

The honesty approach in marketing? Will it work? 

"Salary aane se pehle kharcha mat kar" something we all have heard, was turned into a bold marketing hook.

With humour + relatability, this metro campaign shows how financial brands are replacing boring jargon to real-life conversations.

Given the massive clutter today, attention needs to feel human.

What do you think savage or smart?

Silicon Valley’s well connected insider issued a blunt public warning : don’t build on OpenAI.

Jason Calacanis, investor, entrepreneur, someone who knows Sam Altman very well has said “If I was a developer of any kind, I would never work with Sam Altman and OpenAI.”

His argument seems simple and grounded at that .
OpenAI gives you API access. You build something interesting. They study how you’re using it. Then they build it themselves, better, faster, cheaper, right inside their own platform.

Calacanis calls it the Zuckerberg School of Business. Zuckerberg got it from Bill Gates.

He says Microsoft let developers build Lotus 1-2-3 then launched Excel. Let them build WordPerfect. Then launched Word. Really? I never thought of it that way. 

He says Facebook gave Zynga a platform. Then quietly pulled the rug.

When someone that involved in the business of tech says “this is a warning” - on record, publicly, that’s a considered position.

For founders currently building AI products on top of OpenAI’s API - the big question - 
Are you building a business or are you building OpenAI’s next feature?

Whether Calacanis is right is open to debate debatable but whether the risk is real? Well, that’s a different question entirely isn’t it!

A very interesting campaign design led by ESG thinking. 

Britannia Industries challenged conventional outdoor advertising by letting nature be in control. The brand designed billboards around trees, allowing branches and leaves to shape the final outcome. In collaboration with Talented, the campaign turned a limitation into a powerful creative opportunity, where nature dictated design, not the brand.

brands often talk about sustainability while continuing to dominate public spaces. Britannia team chose 3 tree-obstructed sites, used biodegradable materials, and built a campaign that reflected real ESG thinking, adaptive, flexible, and responsible.

Any such campaign you have come across ?

When pushing design boundaries lead to the Trash Bag!! 😜

Brand : Balenciaga. Being so popular for pushing boundaries with controversial designs, turning everyday objects into high-fashion statement pieces they could not resist.

And that “Trash Bag" Design officially (yes has an official name) called the Trash Bag Large Pouch, reportedly costs around $1,790 (≈ 1.5 lakh approx) - despite looking like a simple plastic garbage bag.

The unusual design seems to be going viral online, sparking debate about luxury fashion and unconventional designs.

Remember the Kolhapuri Chappal for a similar obnoxious sum! 

And the elites are buying this?! Why? 

#luxury #marketing #branding #design #productdesign

FSSAI just told India’s milkman: Get registered. Or else….

The same man who wakes up at 4am, milks the cow, loads the cycle, and delivers warm milk to your door by 6 — he now needs an FSSAI registration certificate.

No, really. 

FSSAI has mandated that all independent milk producers and vendors, anyone operating outside dairy cooperative societies must register or obtain a licence. 

Enforcement drives and inspections incoming and apparently reports to be filed twice a month.

While in theory, this makes complete sense where it gets interesting is that 
the milkman in Indian towns who knows your family and been delivering to your home for a decade or more probably cannot spell “FSSAI,” let alone navigate its registration portal.

Is he under this ruling?yes if he’s not part of a dairy cooperative and sells directly to consumers, he is.

This regulation will be hardest to enforce. What do you think? 

Registration drives are a good start. But paperwork doesn’t pasteurize milk.
will this actually improve milk safety at scale or just add another compliance burden ?

#consumersafety #contamination #milkproduction #smallbusiness #amul #regulation #fssai

A $20,000 drone vs a $4 million missile and the new economics of warfare

That’s the new math of warfare as per this Bloomberg report.

Iranian drones costing roughly $20K are forcing defenses that fire Patriot interceptors worth $3–4 million each.

But eventually someone pays that bill. Who? 

Taxpayers.
Governments.
Global supply chains.

The Gulf is the world’s oil artery. Any prolonged instability in the region sends shockwaves globally. Countries heavily dependent on oil imports like India will feel the impact through rising fuel costs, inflation, currency pressure, and higher logistics expenses across industries. What began as a regional conflict is about to become an economic ripple felt thousands of kms away if not handled in time. 

Which raises a few uncomfortable questions we may need to answer soon:

• If defending costs 200x more than attacking, is the model sustainable?
• Will future conflicts be won by production capacity rather than technology?
• can global economies afford this new cost of security?

Sometimes the most important shifts aren’t technological, they’re economic.

And the economics of warfare may be changing faster than we realise.

Curious to hear how you see this evolving.

#war #media #news #iran #hormuz #battle

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