Video Media Awards
and Summit 2024

Co-powered by

Balaji Vaidyanathan

Balaji is an integrated marketing communication professional with over 16 years of extensive experience in building brands for both global and Indian companies.

In his current role as Marketing Director, CEEMEA for Franklin Templeton, Balaji is responsible for marketing strategy and building brand SOV for the CEEMEA region. The region covers over 20 countries across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa and focuses both on institutional and retail businesses.

Prior to this role, Balaji was Deputy Head – Marketing for Franklin Templeton India and was responsible for leading all key brand initiatives. Balaji has been one of the early adopters of leveraging gamification, video content and storytelling in the mutual fund industry to promote investor education in the online space. His deep understanding of consumer marketing and customer lifecycle journeys have won him multiple awards in India and globally across creativity, content, innovation and effectiveness. Very recently, he was conferred with the citation of “Marketing Influencer of the Year” by DMA Asia at the 2018 DMA Asia Echo Awards.

Imran Qadri

Marketing professional & Automobile Industry Expert with 11 years of successful track record in Brand Development, Product Marketing & Planning, Marketing Communication, Category Management, Marketing Operations, Strategy and Media Advertising. Outstanding performance in CFT leadership, Brand Communication, ATL/BTL, Product Development, Product Launches, Special Editions, Events & Sponsorship, Media Planning, Digital Content, Agency leadership, Celebrity management, Retail Marketing, Luxury & Sports Marketing, Business Planning & CRM. Currently heading Marketing & PR for Harley-Davidson India. Was associated with Nissan Motor India as Head – Marcom for Datsun brand. Prior was Sr. Group Product Marketing Lead & Country Chief Marketing Manager for Hatch, Sedan, Luxury SUV, Sports, Electric Vehicle & Connected Car(Intelligent Mobility) segments leading the product, pricing, Go To Market and project management strategy for Nissan India. Before Nissan, was Sr. Category Brand Head – Commuter motorcycles for World’s largest two wheeler manufacturer (Hero MotoCorp- formerly known as Hero Honda), taking care of brand development, marketing communication, strategy, digital content nationally for the 10-brands portfolio along with key corporate marketing and global business projects. Started career as Marketing Lead for North with focus on regional media, BTL activations, rural, sales support & CRM. Part of strategic projects as a CFT member/leader like CBU Business model, Intelligent Mobility, Scenario Planning, DMS, Dealer websites, Marketing Planning & Budgeting Software, QBR – Commonwealth Games, IPL, MTV Roadies, HIL, Hero World Challenge, FIFA, ICC, Employer Branding, National Dealer Conclaves, Auto shows, Factory Launches, International Marketing & CSR. An MBA in Marketing & Operations; Also a Mechanical Engineering Degree holder along with Executive programs in Digital Marketing & Leadership. Ad Awards Jury & Globally certified GT-R instructor as working with Hero MotoCorp

Qualifications – PGDM (Marketing) from FSM – Delhi, BE (Mechanical Engg.) from MSRIT – Bangalore, Digital certification from IIM-L, Executive Course in Leadership from Vanderbilt University – USA

Piali Dasgupta

Piali Dasgupta is currently Senior Vice President, Marketing, at Columbia Pacific Communities, India’s largest senior living community operator. Columbia Pacific Communities is part of the Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Management. which has presence across USA, Canada, China and India. Piali started her career in journalism with The Times of India, and crossed over to Marketing and Communication with playing key roles in creating impactful content marketing strategies for Myntra and later Amazon. She was responsible for creating Myntra’s very popular style makeover series along with celebrity style chat show series. In a career spanning 14 years, Piali has created a number of award winning marketing campaigns and served on juries. She is on Social Samosa’s Top 40 marketers under 40 list for the year 2019-2020 and has also been awarded the Content Mogul title by CMS Asia (Content Marketing Summit Asia) and has been named one of the top 10 Content Marketing Leaders in APAC in 2020 by CMS Asia. She has also been recognised as the Woman Marketer of The Year at MCube (Masters of Modern Marketing) Awards 2020. She was also part of Social Media Superwomen 2018, that recognised the top 50 women in
marketing in India. She has worked across print media, e-commerce (Myntra, Amazon), retail (Aditya Birla Fashion
Retail) and real estate and is currently building a compelling brand narrative around senior care inIndia.
Her core expertise lies in content marketing, storytelling, building brand narratives and strengthening
brand positioning through storytelling. According to her, good content is one that is purposeful, uplifting and has the ability to startconversations and believes that we are long past the age of “vanity content” or content for the sake of content. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, is a voracious reader, spends time sketching and is also a
strong mental health advocate, doing her bit to remove long standing stigmas around mental illness.