Let’s start at the very beginning.

‘I want to be a writer.’
I was twelve and I was sure.

My childhood days were stuffed with spools of unravelling novels – with breakfast on the dining table on weekends, in the school bus to and fro, during the lunch break, slipped between the textbook in mathematics class, at bedtime, on the day before an exam, after submitting the paper during the examination hour – the younger me just wouldn’t stop.

The street that I live on in Pune runs perpendicular to two main streets, and each main street used to house a biblio-paradise, the British Council Library and Crossword bookstore, back then. I have memories, vivid and fond, spent buried between aisles and behind shelves, there.

The rest of my time was spent writing, writing in the only form a nineties child getting schooled in India knew – essay compositions taught and practiced in a language class. I would pick one topic everyday and hand-write a couple of pages, filling notebook after notebook in those years.

I attempted my first short story in seventh grade; I personified a leaf.
The experience of wording my imagination and living as a leaf for a few hours through the scrawling pen journey, page after page made me tell myself – I want to be a writer.

I was twelve and I was sure.

Laying the Foundation – Undergrad

As I grew up, I imagined myself to be a novelist and later a journalist, naturally, as those were the only writing forms I had exposed myself to yet. My intent soon tapered into advertising studies and I pursued B.Sc. Creative Sciences – Brand Communication & Media, opening a whole new world of expressive communication and mediums for writing. During college, I wanted to grow to be both – a copywriter and an art director. Not because I was confused, but because I sensed I enjoyed both, that I could not separate the visuals from words, the process of writing was in fact very visual and I believed that the symbiosis of the two created a wholesome piece of communication. To begin as a copywriter however, was the best path to choose without a formal training at an art school.

The desire to create visuals was channelized through a self-taught photography effort that glimpsed into work later in life.

My under-graduation days were perhaps the best as a student, because it was here that I truly studied subjects that help me flourish to my maximum, topping the class in each semester. A strong foundation for a fulfilling career was built.

Being a Sponge – Internship

As the fourth semester project at college, I interned at Makani Creatives, a mid-sized ad agency in Mumbai with a focus on retail clients. For a young eager girl that I was, this meant assimilating all that I had studied to become a porous, thirsty sponge drawing parallels between academics and functional reality and absorbing all that came my way.

I was a copy intern, but my learnings surpassed any boundaries. The circular working between client servicing, copy & art and the creative directors became quite clear to me here and I was an earnest listener to open floor brainstorming sessions. I was keen to assist any copywriter that needed help and then witness the first of my copy works being translated into (then perceived as) larger than life artworks.

There was so much to grasp. From feedback to open-hearted conversations, to the energetic buzz of how people moved, spoke and carried out their business and to also spending time devouring advertising literature in a quaint cubicle of a library that the agency housed in an attic-like space, I came to reminisce about in the later years.

 Absorbing & Being Absorbed – Seagull Advertising

I missed the agency life. I missed the work environment.

I channelized this longing into an internship application to Seagull Advertising, a reputed and the then best ad agency in Pune; an organisation I knew I wanted to start my career with. I was prepared to not hear back from them; I was still in college after all, but one evening I got an interview call. I was thrilled.

The interview was long with serious curiosity towards my approach and my pursuit in writing and photography. I left the interview with an extensive copy test that I had to submit within twenty-four hours. The test entailed ideating an advertising campaign and writing for a number of collaterals such as print ad, TVC script, radio, hoarding, advertorial and more based on a brief. I submitted two campaign ideas detailed to the tee, hand-sketched and scanned the framework for the visuals, something that wasn’t asked of me; I simply could not help thinking in entirety.

I got the job. I was an intern filling up the position of Jr. Copywriter at the agency in my fifth semester at college. My college granted me special self-study permission, thanks to my chief professor and Seagull made attendance exemptions on days I had exams.

Learning at Seagull was accelerated. I dived right into work from day one. I sensed that Makani had a creative-led approach to create advertising solutions while Seagull lead by its meticulous brand planning and strategy backed by creative execution. There were strong interdepartmental processes that made for an excellent integrated output. Before I knew, I was absorbing this and working on full-fledged campaigns from launch to recurring ones with a mentor, strategists and art partners.

I graduated in six months. Seagull absorbed me as a copywriter & content strategist. I moved to the then nascent, digital team to work on creating the first digital footprint of Seagull’s established clientele. We followed the well-known David Roger’s AECCC (Access, Engage, Connect, Customise, Collaborate) as an internal process making work a result-oriented, measurable and an enriching process.

At Seagull, I worked on brands from varied sectors – Retail, FMCG, Education & Real Estate to list a few.

The Side Hustle – Harnessing Digital

In the second phase of my internship at Seagull, I met a marketer starting his own digital agency. Keen to widen my horizons, I wrote back a yes to him when he asked if I could be one of his first team members as a content strategist along with my full-time work at Seagull.

Evening virtual meetings and weekends spent in coffee shops strategising, we imparted value to our diverse set of clients and it is here that I learnt the ropes of digital marketing.

Hatching – Independent Consulting

After my three years of agency experience, I stepped upwards to work as an independent brand and content consultant. This climb was an endeavour in understanding myself better, leveraging my strengths to taking up unconventional challenges and to experience complete freedom in what I do. More on this in further write-ups.

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Writing continues to be an integral part of what I do.
Writing continues to connect me with me and me with the world.

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Words: Nikita Vhora