In today's digital era, every business has had to overhaul itself to re-invent its business model. Significantly benefiting from today's digital first businesses and instigating growth through her creative digital agency, Berry Ads & Branding is Indrani Dwarampudi, (Founder & CEO, Berry Branding). An adept leader in the field of marketing, Indrani not just helps businesses prosper, but assists them in materializing their aspirations by presenting to them niche media management, branding & marketing, and business development ideas.

Indrani spoke to the WE magazine team about the various facets of her venerated professional and personal life journey that make her an exemplary marketing role model.

Take us through the foundational journey of Berry Ads & Branding. What aspects of your role do you find most challenging and how do you overcome them?

After completing my Master's degree in MBA in Media Management from Amity University, Uttar Pradesh with a silver medal, I was working for an advertising agency in 2018 for a period of a year and half. That's when I noticed several opportunities in the digital marketing and branding industry. There seemed to be a space for holistic branding and digital marketing solutions where an agency could not just handle campaign creation and optimisation but also go an extra mile, deliver the results and talk about the ROI Metrics.

To cater to this very need we started Berry Ads & Branding in 2019. Gradually we started acquiring clients and it has only gone onward and upward from there.

Initially, it was pretty daunting and the challenges we faced while going to the clients for pitching our ideas and offerings was the toughest. Adding to it was my young age and lack of background & "experience" in the said field.

Also, while building a startup one needs to make initial investments in terms of several software & licenses and manpower. Initially, it was just me and my partners along with only one designer, working in a single room office. And, because I wanted to compensate for the manpower deficit, I pushed myself to learn various design softwares, coding, and many more things. I would work for 12 hours everyday initially, but eventually it started getting better and today we've made a difference for more than about 25 brands.

What approach do you take while working on a new brand? What are the key aspects of your personality and leadership style that have helped you in your entrepreneurial journey?

The advertising industry today has shifted from traditional advertising into digital advertising. Communication between brands and consumers has become more flexible for brands, irrespective of their size. It's no longer only about pushing your information out there and waiting for people to receive it. Now, it's also about how people receive it and whether they like it or not.

Hence, our approach to advertising is a whole new process, right from the time we get the brief till execution. Unlike traditional agencies, we don't just do a part of it, and our job doesn't just end with the execution. Depending on the client requirement, we sometimes also go the extra mile. We don't just put their products out there and get the relevant data from consumers, but we also convert for them.

We depend on robust data because when it comes to digital marketing, everything is changing by the day. Depending on what the consumer need is, we talk in terms of RoI, be it constantly setting the goals, achieving them, and resetting. We've provided consumers with glaring impressions bringing ample eyeballs to clients. We follow up with our client's projects inducing our creativity through the point of RoI.

How has the company's growth journey been so far? Also, what are some of the most significant milestones that the company has achieved? Tell us about Berry Branding's future plans?

The growth has been pretty tremendous. Beginning off in the space, I knew there was the gap I could cater to, hence despite challenges we've made it from a single employee company to 20+ employees now. Initially, we struggled to even get a single client from a local space. Today we are catering to clients from the US and European markets. Our biggest achievement has been crossing the geographical barriers. The pandemic has also reinforced the fact that you don't really need to have a presence in multiple locations, because with today's advanced technology one can cater to clients throughout the world from anywhere.

“With digital marketing experience is never good enough, we work in a world where something comes up every second day and there is so much to learn and so many opportunities to tap into, we look forward to working with diverse clientele with different challenges across the geographical boundaries, because it brings us a lot more insight, inspiring us to learn new technologies and improvise on our expertise and expand our horizons”

In the future, we are looking to explore a couple of new technologies that will make advertising more accessible to everybody, be it a small general store or large corporates. Though, it's in a raw state but we're trying to automate the process. Also, in terms of scale, we look forward to working with more diverse clients, across the geographical boundaries, because it brings us a lot more insight, inspiring us to learn new technologies and improvise on our expertise and expand our horizons. In this process we also got a handful of recognitions - received a young entrepreneur award from IAF, India and we got listed in Women Entreprenuer's top 10 women startups of 2020. This tell us we are heading in the right direction.

Although the digital marketing industry sees several women in the initial ranks, yet there is a dearth of women representation in the top leadership roles. In your opinion, how can this situation be rectified in the near future?

Throughout time, women have proven that in terms of capability, they are not lacking in any way. It's the problems they face socially and sometimes even biologically that hampers their growth as compared to men. Be it about them being too young, getting married and getting caught up with multiple responsibilities, or requiring maternity leaves, they require flexibility of working remotely or otherwise.

Gender disparity should be denied completely. No office politics should linger around them or push back their recognitions because of their engagements. A little tweak here and there in the work culture and office environment will certainly help them flourish.

My advice to women is to never give up because of your circumstances, but stand upright and fight back if you want to achieve your desires in your career. 

Indrani Dwarampudi, Founder & CEO, Berry Ads & Branding

A passionate and spirited marketing professional who holds great knowledge of how digital growth and penetration works and understands the clients' needs to formulate solutions to ensure the client goals are met.