Falling under 50 Most Influential Strategy Leaders, Akanksha Goyal’s, (Brand Banager, Zee Digital) will is unapologetic and undying.
Her journey is all things inspiring and what lies below is a road built of sheer hardwork, diligence and success.
The Humbling Moment
Her grace keeps growing much like the stars to her uniform.
“Being a marketer, the most important and challenging thing is to stay relevant to your users. From ideation of a campaign to implementation of the strategy, newness coupled with the consistency of efforts is required.
But many times a marketer doesn’t get feedback on performance and awards help realize that things are being done right. Organizational awards such as ‘Digi Champ’, ‘Innovator of the Month’ etc. makes me realize the impact made at the organizational level, while Industrial Awards such as ’50 Most Influential Strategy Leaders’, ‘Best Digital Marketing Campaign’ etc. makes me feel appreciated and humble for the recognition.”
Akanksha Goyal keeps adding feathers to her hat like we add dessert to appetite.
The 21st Century Digital Space
Akanksha Goyal’s thoughts are much aligned with her facts and to beat her at digital and analytics is to beat Elon Musk at tech. “The pandemic has fuelled the adoption rate of Digital in India. Consumption of video and regional content has grown multifold reaching to its highest till now.
Growth in the number of people adopting e-commerce is huge. This shift towards digital has made everyone realize the importance of digital space, be it consumers or advertisers. Now digital has become an important part in everyone’s life; a change which is going to stay.”
No Competition, Only Collaboration
There’s no denying we’ve never come across such an open, yet clear mind, “What is branding? Branding is an approach taken for a product depending on your first thought.
As people differ in their thought process, the approach was taken by them also differs. When various people with different approaches get together, it becomes more of a collaboration than competition.”
Keep Learning
We learn from Goyal that being modest and zesty are the way to go,
“Clear your basics as that is something which is going to help you all the way in your long journey in the industry.
Keep learning as the industry witnesses new trends every now and then and if you are not aware of these new trends your competitor will surely leave you behind. and last but most important is ‘Always Aim High’ otherwise you’ll never be able to rise to a decision-making position.”
The Rise and Rise of the Digital Space
Goyal believes that digital is the way to go over print media. “100 per cent digital. Not only because of the rising population on digital in India but also due to upcoming trends in digital on a regular basis.”
She explains further. “E.g. no one ever imagined that voice search will be the next rising trend in the industry and will change the strategy of every digital marketing plan.
So many new ways of advertising coming on social day-by-day that it’s becoming hard to keep a tab on all the rising trends. Now digital has so many specializations defined within itself, that a complete team is needed to handle the digital strategy of a brand.”
The Challenge of Women in Start-Ups
Akanksha’s thought rings true when she says that the major hurdle is only one that they don’t get so many believers during the start of their journey that everything else starts becoming a new hurdle.
She goes on to support her statement, “For instance, many girls during the interviews are asked questions regarding their marital status or plans of getting married or having a baby only to determine their dedication to work which is entirely based on an assumption that a woman always keeps her career 2nd to her family and is, therefore, won’t give the required attention to work, and hence not a fit candidate. But a man never faces such questions in interviews. A woman is not preferred in many roles requiring late hours working and therefore even their resumes are not shortlisted irrespective of having a strong profile and fitment to the role.
Nobody wants to even give them a chance to appear in an interview thinking ‘arey ladki h, nahi kar payegi; humein pata hai na’.
Same way the start-ups even after having the biggest idea of the millennia, won’t get support of the venture capitalists easily. They’ll have to knock so many doors that sometimes that idea become a past story as it was already picked up by someone else in the industry when those ‘to be entrepreneurs’ were busy in convincing venture capitalists for their ideas.
We must start believing in their dedication and bright future ahead. Only then we’ll be able to see multiple women managers and CXOs in the coming era.”
The Best Advice
Goyal’s go-to advice for aspiring media folks wins the gold cup, “My most important piece of advice to any woman is to always remember that you are a woman and therefore you are more capable and powerful. Never feel intimidated by anyone and don’t set any limitation in your mind ever. Go out there. Once you have decided to succeed, the world is yours.”
“For businesses, I’d like to say that every business must always keep an eye on the data along with using latest technology tools. Only data insights can lead them to success by letting them realize the areas of improvement and therefore what needs to be focussed on.”
Her beliefs are not only unconventional, but also powerful and courage-packed.
The Key To Succeed
“When you start off your career by taking your first job, the biggest challenge that you face is the transformation that the job requires. In colleges, you are only taught theories.
Once you are in the job, you are required to unlearn the theory and learn the practical approach and solutions to the problem.”
Keep The Cogs Moving
“We live in a VUCA world and in order to stay relevant one always needs to be on one’s toes. The clarity on personal and professional goals has always helped me to keep moving with the right pace.
The desire to learn new things, paying attention to details, being adaptable to different situations, coupled with team bonding skills have helped me finding solutions to most difficult situations at work.”
A Moment of Gratitude
“I owe my success to my mentors and seniors whom I have worked with, and more importantly to my family as they have always got my back and supported me in all my career decisions.
My seniors who have taught me during the start of my journey placed their confidence in me and let me take that leap which has finally helped me achieve this position.”
Akansha Goyal, Brand Manager, Zee Digital