Road To 2022: New Year Resolutions - The adland speaks...

Sumanto Chattopadhyay, Chairman & CCO, 82.5 Communications India

“With marketing and advertising changing so radically, I am going back to school — where I am making my own alphabet primer:

It’s going to feature C for Creator Economy, D for Diversity, M for metaverse, N for NFT, S for sustainability…

I still have a lot of blanks to fill in. My resolution is to complete the A to Z of it as soon as possible. Otherwise, by the time it’s ready, it will be outdated thanks to a whole new set of buzz words. And I’ll have to go back to school yet again!”

Sonia Khurana, COO – Digitas India

“Since I’m not good at keeping new-year resolutions, I am committing to just one, a loaded one!

Try new things

Not as simple as it sounds especially in a constantly changing industry that's seeing new algos, new platforms, new trends emerge. It also means that if an opportunity pops up, I want to seize it and not let my inner critic hold me back.”

Anil Nair, CEO, VMLY&R India

"My New Year resolution is to be grateful and appreciative of my colleagues, clients, my agency, and the brands that partner with us."

This pandemic has taught me how ephemeral and uncertain life can be.

And the need to be demonstrably grateful for everything we have, especially for the people in our lives that support us. This brings little wins daily and an overall sense of well-being."

Narayan Devanathan, Chief Client Officer, dentsu India

“Until recently, in all the years of its existence, the advertising & marketing business has, at its worst, only been accused of stretching the limits of morality. I daresay we have had fun doing it, with our clothes on (as Jerry Della Femina famously said). In the Age of Data, though, the industry has blurred and crossed the lines of illegality regularly. Not our best moment by any stretch of the imagination.

So my resolution for the industry is this: To hold ourselves—and by that I mean agencies, clients and partners (especially in the media and data ecosystems)—accountable to doing right, by our people, by our customers, and by society.

And yes, it is possible to do this while still having fun, even with our clothes on.”

Nisha Singhania, Director & Co-Founder, Infectious Advertising

My 3 work resolutions this year:

• Prudent Pitching - try and suss out genuine clients who aren't just idea shopping
• Connect More - spend more time with people - employees, clients, consumers
• Work Less :)

Snehasis Bose, CSO, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi

“My new year resolution is to Keep Chunking It Down. Cause like we all know, in the long-term we ALL die! Sorry to get morbid, but it IS true and with the pandemic (soon to be endemic) that is one thing I have learned is to think and be more present. Therefore, instead of yearly resolutions, I have chunked them down to monthly resolutions. These are more followable, more evaluate-able, more achievable, and more in-flow with where I am and what I need/want to do.

My 2 resolutions for January 2022 are to 

• Lose Weight - Often we tend to overload the strategy, the brief, the creative and the execution with more, tick all the boxes, keep everyone happy.

Be merciless in editing out the noise, question each inclusion and the value-add it brings and push for less!

• Listen More - To what consumers are saying, what the trade is talking about, where the next tech piece is taking us, what the product can actually do, what the client’s ‘spiritual brief’ is, etc, etc. etc! Mid-way through the month, both are (relatively speaking) on track, making me look forward with anticipation to my February 2022 goals!!"

Sagar Kapoor, CCO, Lowe Lintas

“My new year resolution from advertising and marketing perspective is - To keep striving with the same resolute we all displayed over the last year and a half.

To not let our creative product get infected by the virus.

Preetham Venkky, President, 22feet Tribal Worldwide

"At 22feet Tribal Worldwide & DDB, we work with gaming clients and OTTs. Keeping in view the growth of ‘digi-leisure’ categories – my new year resolution is to game more, binge more, and tune out more this year – after all leisure on digital has always been work for digital marketers.

While GenZ creators focus on NFTs, we millennials need to remind ourselves of a new kind of NFT – Non-Fungible Time.

Back to the Future is fiction and lost time is just that – lost. It may still feel like we are in Jan 2020, but we’ll do us some good by reminding ourselves that we are in Jan 2022, and 731 days have passed. This year, I resolve to dust off my digital avatar (gravatar anyone) and make it Metaverse ready – who knows geeks might finally become cool in the virtual universe. Not all resolutions need to be new, so I continue to resolve - to not confuse correlation for causation. I resolve to keep our objectives SMART, since well… DUMB objectives get us nowhere."

My only hope for 2022 is for us to have as many Samosa social moments as we have Social Samosa moments