MMA Global India chapter in partnership with research and insights organization, Kantar, hosted a round-table titled “Women leaders shaping the future of modern marketing in India” on International Women’s Day. 

MMA India is a part of MMA global, which is the world’s leading not-for-profit marketing trade body. The virtual discussion invited eminent women leaders from different fields who shared inspirational stories and opinions on how they embraced challenges in their journey to become leaders in modern marketing and converted them into opportunities to foster a new generation of effective feminine voices with skills to break the glass ceiling.

The objective behind hosting this roundtable was to inspire women marketers through insights and perspectives from women leaders on achieving professional goals, overcoming challenges, and acknowledging benchmarks and trends that will create an inclusive environment for women in the modern marketing workforce or in leadership roles.

The panelists were Preeti Reddy, MMA India Board Member and Chairwoman- Insights Division, South Asia, Kantar, Sapna Chadha, Vice President, Marketing – India, Southeast Asia and South Asia, Google Asia Pacific, Geetanjali Bhattacharji- Executive Director, Africa, India & Middle East | Advisory Services, EY, Rubeena Singh- Country Manager, Josh and Moneka Khurana- Country Head and Board Member India, MMA India.

The roundtable commenced with panelists leveraging findings from a joint report by Kantar Public and Women Political Leaders – The Reykjavík Index for Leadership – to discuss the implications and challenges faced by women in modern marketing and the way ahead. Since its inception in 2018, the index is the world’s first measure of the extent to which men and women are viewed equally in terms of their suitability for leadership. 

While all of them acknowledged how India is doing well in creating an inclusive work atmosphere for women leaders, they also underlined the implications, the challenges faced by women in modern marketing and the immense groundwork that still needs to be done to change the perception about women leaders.

One of the most interesting insights focused on Google’s findings, as highlighted by Sapna Chadha, Vice President, Marketing – India, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, Google Asia Pacific, who delivered a keynote. She showed how archery became popular across the globe after two popular movies — “The Hunger Games” and “Brave” — showed women as archers. To further specify the power of women in the field of modern marketing, Google analysed almost 3 million YouTube videos in advertising and marketing in India and found male representation to be 1.5 times more than women, when 80% of consumer spending is influenced by women.

Another interesting insight came from Geetanjali Bhattacharji, Executive Director, Africa, India & Middle East | Advisory Services, EY who highlighted the need for women to set their key performance indicators and deliver accordingly to drive the conversation around what they bring to the table. She said this will go a long way in closing pay gaps and raising awareness among women about how they quantify their performance at the very beginning of their careers and ask for what they deserve.

Rubeena Singh- Country Manager, Josh, said, “Today, it has become very important to recognise and celebrate the difference between men and women. To be successful today, you must be collaborative and empathetic. While these are traits that are considered more feminine today, many men have developed them too because they are essential to leadership. Leadership is gender agnostic and must have a mix of traditionally thought-of masculine and feminine traits.”

Moneka Khurana, Country Head at MMA India said “While the pandemic is a new phenomenon where people have embraced work-from-home, I have always factored it in whilst hiring enabling them the flexibility to work-from-where it suits them and brings out the best in them something I myself gained a lot from and glad have been able to extend it to my teams”.

At the same time, she adds as her role at MMA on behalf of the body, there is an attempt to ensure equal representation of women leaders on the board and representation of women POVs in thought leadership platforms, besides a constant balance of men and women on workstreams and charters that MMA runs.

Sapna Chadha, Vice President, Marketing – India, Southeast Asia and South Asia, Google Asia Pacific said, “The way we market our products needs to change, it needs to be inclusive. As long as women type the words “for women” in the search bars, the change will be slow. Today, there is an appreciation for leaders with qualities that are perceived as essentially female. However, the barrier needs to be broken and women aspiring to become future leaders should imbibe “alpha” qualities too. There needs to be more women in the tech industry. It will enable them to become better networkers, leaders and effective modern marketers.”

Commenting on the roundtable, Preeti Reddy, MMA India Board Member and Chairwoman – Insights Division, Kantar South Asia said, “The Reykjavik Index for Leadership provides critical evidence that prejudice against women is unfortunately still pervasive in society. The data shows that perceptions of women being less suited to be leaders in key economic sectors are rife. The key to tackling deepening inequalities in society, government, and business is addressing these misconceptions. I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to share a common platform with such inspiring women and hope these insights empower many more women in the modern marketing sphere to challenge perceptions of women in leadership positions”.

Further, Khurana said ‘’As a leader of a marketing think tank who is deeply committed to diversity, I’ve seen firsthand how women leaders can enhance the modern marketing function. We need to continue to create opportunities for women to make their way into executive boards as decision-makers. With this roundtable on Women’s Day, we want more women to get inspired and drive modern marketing as leaders. There must be a drive to strike a conscious balance in conversation and bring inspiration by giving women the right perspective. It is good to have both male and female energy in the room, as long as they complement each other. With a high EQ, women are naturally wired to be more empathetic, and these are skills that can be leveraged to be great leaders. It is time to improve the numbers from just 4% women CEOs in India to higher”

MMA India is the only marketing trade association that brings together the full ecosystem of marketers, tech providers and sellers to work collaboratively to architect the future of marketing, while relentlessly delivering growth today. For more details on MMA India, check www.mmaglobal.com or visit Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.