As part of an ongoing series highlighting young talent in the industry, Branding in Asia brings you “One Under 30: Young Creative Spotlight”, a regular feature that focuses on up-and-coming talent in the ad world.
This week we feature Ayshwarya Sharma from Leo Burnett in Mumbai.
The Basics
Name: Ayshwarya Sharma
Age: 28
Agency: Leo Burnett India
Position: Brand Strategy Partner, Creative Strategist, Apollo 11
Birthplace: Jamshedpur
Current Location: Mumbai
Education: BE, Industrial & Production Engineering, Manipal, 2013; PGDM-C, Brand Management, MICA, 2016; PG Diploma, Innovation & Design Thinking, Emeritus Singapore, 2019
Seven Questions
How did you get your first break in the industry?
An internship opportunity in my very first year of Engineering got me to the floors of Ogilvy & Mather in Bangalore. I subbed as servicing on print campaigns (Being the only kid who knew her way around an excel sheet) and even made it to the creative class with inspired ideas. But the culture across the floor had me hooked to advertising.
Little did I know that a five-year journey down the Engineering road would lead me back to the world of ideas and find in me a Creative Strategist of Apollo 11, the innovation lab at Leo Burnett India.
Since then it’s been an adrenaline-filled trip into the future, where communication finds new forms with data, design, and technology.
What is your personal mantra?
‘Do everything like it’s the first and only time.’
Accept that there are some things you don’t know and learn how to do it. Do everything like today’s the only day, because tomorrow will be a different story.
From what person, place, or thing have you drawn your greatest creative inspiration?
Words have the power to move the world.
Be it words exchanged in conversation, words put together to tell a story or words strung to a melody. Words have a serendipitous power to find you when you need them the most. Words also stick with you.
What do you love about the job?
The chaos! Sometimes I feel it’s the elixir that drives the industry. The pace of work needs you to be agile. Not only do you have to get there before everybody else, but you also need to pre-empt any of the roadblocks that might come at you.
What about your job are you not so crazy about?
The subjectivity. Sometimes it leaves you feeling confused and leaves you stuck in a feedback loop. What we’re not thinking is the beauty of iteration in designing solutions.
All of that nerve-wracking push is absolutely worth the cold beer in your hand at the end
What is some work you’ve done that you’re most proud of?
One of my biggest campaigns involved crafting a purpose for Twitter in the minds of the Indian youth, at a time when they were moving to other platforms as they believed that their tweet had no power.
We crafted a purpose with ‘No tweet is too small, when #WeTweet together’.
It also helped to remind the youth of the people’s movement the youth had done in the past, when armed with a hashtag.
If you had to choose another career what would it be?
Have my own Independent Music label and try my hands at directing.
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