Brand

A comic series for DataviCloud

Articles & Blogs, Brand, Social media

In October 2023, I began working with DataviCloud, a Chennai-based startup by ex-Freshworks founders. They are building a data platform for small to mid-sized businesses, which will make accessing, handling, and visualising organizational data ridiculously easy.

Over the last few months, we’ve worked on refining the brand messaging, writing useful articles/guides on building a data culture, and sharing these on social channels (for now, that’s LinkedIn.) You can read the blogs here and follow updates here.

I want to talk particularly about a fun content project we’re doing.

Much of analytics and BizOps in any fast-growing business is absolute chaos. The only way to get through each day is to look at the humorous side of things. How do we reflect that in the brand messaging? Vikas (CEO, Co-founder) had the idea of creating a comic series featuring Penguins (they’re adorable and already dressed in suits!) as characters in just such a work setup. I have a ball coming up with funny ideas and writing the dialogues each week. And Ruchi Shah, a talented illustrator, visualises them with amazing attention to detail.

Predictive analytics delivering bad news.

Secret Santa Gift Ideas for the Entire Growth Team (slideshow)

Techies celebrate Valentine’s Day

A Sales guy, a Marketer, and a Product Manager walk into a meeting room…

Calling Unicorns, Soonicorns, Chimeras & Yalis

It’s 2024 but some things haven’t changed.

Go-To-Market or Get-The-Eff-Out!

What it’s like to be the only data person in the room

Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon be doing everything. Until then, we have to deal with humans.

DataviCloud is still building their product and I am building their comms strategy—there’s lots to do. But I am thrilled that we’ve already got some great feedback.

For the <3 of Longform Ads

Print

I love old-school advertising. Long newspaper ads that hook you with their headlines and keep you reading all the way down. To demand and hold attention is a rare and beautiful skill. Alas, such assignments come by rarely these days. So I try my hand at them on my own time, just because.

These are personal creative exercises and have no relation to the brands/organizations mentioned.

[Spec Ad] A print ad for UPI

Brand, Print

In late 2019, Amazon Pay was trying to scale up their UPI customer base, having entered the game quite late. At the time, Google Pay was ruling the roost, itself soon to be deseated by PhonePe. I was a freelance communications consultant for Amazon Pay, commissioned to help the many business units under it bring some consistency to the brand voice and messaging. At the end of a 2-year engagement, we did a series of training sessions and closed with a Write Guide for the team.

But I digress.

Back in 2019, while Amazon Pay was trying to win over customers from Google Pay, I had this idea for a print ad. Never pitched it, knowing that one of the brand’s policies is to not take on the competition directly. But, it still remains one of my favourites.

Disclaimer: This ad was created on spec and was not commissioned/approved by Amazon Pay or published in the Times of India.

Women’s Fund Asia: Annual Report 2019-20

Brand, Print

Women’s Fund Asia is a feminist donor organization that works to uphold the rights and improve the condition of women and trans people in Asia. They do some stellar work in raising awareness, mobilizing resources, fundraising, building networks, and supporting regional feminist workers.

Every year, WFA brings out a richly illustrated Annual Report that captures the highlights of the year and tells stories about the impact the Fund has created. I worked with the wonderful illustrators at Ladyfingers Co to bring the 2019-20 report to life. This report won a Baby Blue Elephant at the 2021 Kyoorius Creative Awards.

Our starting material was a number of decks, quarterly reports, and meeting/conference notes that the WFA team had put together during the course of their work. I went through this extensively and did my own research to come up with a cohesive flow for the report, identify the most interesting, impactful stories, give layout ideas to the design team, and of course, write the report itself. Here it is.

Women’s Fund Asia Annual Report 2019-20Download

What’s the Good Word?

Brand, Emails, Social media

When I first joined Urban Ladder, I didn’t know many design and decor terms. So, chenille meant nothing to me. Neither did console table, sectional, armoire, or chaise. We knew that many of our customers would be in the same boat and would appreciate a simple, pithy explanation for such “technical” terms. From that thought came a series of creatives that we put out through our (then) wildly popular newsletters and social media channels.

We called the series What’s the Good Word? It featured a helpful bunny (why not!) who would explain lesser-known terms to our readers. Design credits: Rumman Rizvi

When the Urban Ladder rebrand happened in 2017, we upgraded the design to something even cute and with two bunnies. This series got good feedback, so I have no idea why we didn’t do many more of them!