About

Hello and welcome to my website. I’m just another one of the hundreds of millions of Indians making my life on the internet. In case you’re wondering, ‘Ishtaarth’ means desire in Konkani. Alas, I have a name not many can pronounce, which turns out to be a small price to pay for acquiring my first name on most websites.

By day, I work as VP - Strategy at Dentsu Webchutney and lead its corporate strategy efforts. With a multidisciplinary role, I get to study the impact of media on the message to devise breakthrough solutions for India. I’m lucky to work with an amazing team on some of the most consequential brands in the world, including Google, Google Pay, YouTube, Twitter, and Spotify. At night, I can be found surfing the world wide web.

Currently in Bengaluru, from Chennai, via Mumbai and Hyderabad, with parents from Kolkata whose parents were from Rajasthan. It’s complicated.

Work

Select pieces of work in advertising.

2021

• Axe Your Ex with Tinder
• The Better Half Recipes with Swiggy Instamart
• Dentsu Common Ground
• Dentsu Webchutney’s first brand campaign
• Spotify on Twitter and Instagram

2020

• Pehle Safety with Google India (1) (2)
• Safer for Each Other with Uber
• Conversation Starters with Twitter Marketing India
• Diwali Easter Egg on Google Search
• The Briefly by Dentsu Webchutney
• Interns from Home by Dentsu Webchutney
• Wish We’d Done It by Dentsu Webchutney

2019

• Leave Your Car Behind with Uber
• Seat Faaka Jabena with Uber
• On the Safe Side with Google Pay
• Stamps Wali Diwali with Google Pay
• Google Pay on Social | Twitter & Facebook
• Brand Strategy for Eeken by Paragon Footwear
• The Ad Fellows by Dentsu Webchutney

2018

• Hagglebot with Flipkart
  • 2x Cannes Lions 2019
  • 6x Spikes Asia 2019 Awards and a Grand Prix in Retail
    
  • 4x EFFIEs India 2019
  • 5x Kyoorius Blue Elephants and a Kyoorius Black Elephant
  • 7x ABBYs at GoaFest 2019
• Lower the Window with Uber
  • 4× ABBYs 2019
• Jersey Knows No Gender with Uber
  • 2× ABBYs 2019
• Things by Dentsu Webchutney
• Building Dentsu Webchutney’s brand on social. Exit-2020 results:
  • 85× on Instagram
  • 4.5× on LinkedIn
  • 2.4× on YouTube
  • 1.8× on Twitter
  • 1.6× on Facebook

2017

• Project Re-Search with Color of Grey Cells
  • 1× ABBYs Gold 2018
• The Progressive Report Card with KA Edu
• Make Snake & 3310’s Launch with Nokia
• Diwali’s Perfect Partner with OnePlus

Press & Writing

• Dentsu Digital Advertising Report 2021: New E-Commerce: The Rise of Super Apps 
• IMPACT Magazine: Gaming: The Next Frontier
• ET Tech: Signal’s Twitter strikes a chord with Gen Z
• ET Tech: Brands Emphasise Strict Guidelines to Avoid Social Media Backlash
• ET Tech: The Rise of Thirst Trap Culture among Gen Z Indian Women
• ET Tech: #FanArt Gathers Steam in India
• Social Samosa: On Twitter Fleets
• Medianews4u: Shopping on Instagram Reels
• The Economic Times Sunday Magazine: TikTok Finds Favour with India’s Social Media Elite
• The Economic Times Sunday Magazine: Tracking India’s ASMR Addiction
• The Financial Express: How Brands Are Riding the Meme Wave
• Exchange4Media: Game-on: On The Potential for Gaming and Advertisers
• The Economic Times Sunday Magazine: Virtual Gifting in India
• Business Today: With Bells On
• Livemint: Decoding: The Millennial Consumer
• AdAge: The Mobile Revolution Will Be Monetized
• AdAge India: My First Six Months in Advertising
• The New Indian Express: A Journey for Life (Excerpt of Jagriti Yatra)
• The Hindu: The Future of Mobile Photography

Site Information

This site is powered by Blot, David Merfield’s excellent static website service.

Words on the site are written using iA Writer. Photos on the site are shot on iPhone and most likely edited on VSCO.