Adgully Exclusive | I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the BBC: BBC's Seema Mohapatra

When the news of Seema Mohapatra, ending her association with BBC Worldwide came in, it took over like wild fire; mainly because the person in spot light was with the giant media conglomerate for an extensive period of twelve and a half years. With 18 years of overall experience in the industry, as the Regional Director, Advertising Sales, South Asia, BBC Worldwide, her tasks at hand were, delivering revenues from India, build a strong team across offices, strategic inputs into other functions to ensure correct offering in the market & to get better yield, raise profile of the brand amongst key stakeholders, build key industry relationships and represent BBC brand.

In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Seema Mohapatra shared some of the key highlights of her career, the clients she worked with and much more.

Sharing some of the key highlights of her journey at BBC, Mohapatra said, "Firstly it was building a "GLOCAL' point of view - think global, act local and vice versa, secondly, building the BBC brand in a highly competitive marketplace along with creating a multi-platform and multi-channel advertising sales organization." Delivering the goods ' a 10 fold increase in revenue with consistent year-on-year revenue growth; mentoring, nurturing and building the "people resource' and a few success stories on every new launch, being a few other highlights.

With the kind of skill sets she possess, when as to where and what would be next step, Mohapatra swiftly replied, "Take a break do the things that one had no time to do while being engaged and committed to an organization and job brief." Adding further she said, "In the future I can see myself in a leadership role connecting the dots between the corporate and developmental sector, media and social entrepreneurship, creating shared value across sections of society. Most importantly be inspired to create new opportunities, India is ready for unconventional ideas."

Sharing with us some of the best clients and campaigns, categories that she has cracked so far, Mohapatra opined, "All clients are important and client relationships invaluable. Our clients have been fantastic. It has been a real pleasure to work alongside as partners in building the right messaging solutions, especially with brands looking to create an impact in global markets. Indian multinationals with interest in international markets like Tata's, Aditya Birla Group, Suzlon, Kirloskar's, Oberoi Hotels, Jet have been our partners."

Speaking about the Incredible India campaign, she said, "Advising and getting tourist boards to focus on international markets; a decade back talking to them about "Why TV', to two years back to "Why & how online'. The journey of Incredible India, creating award winning films, hosting a World Debate in New York during 60 year celebration of Indian Independence, making them one of the top spenders on BBC globally has been quite interesting."

Elaborating further, she said, "On BBC World News, the key categories have been travel, tourism, auto, finance, IT & telcos, energy, white goods and corporate branding campaigns.

Highlighting the markets that BBC targets through the online platform, Mohapatra firmly believed, "Online & BBC Entertainment has seen a broadening of categories but the focus is clearly on reaching out to the affluent, evolved and engaged audiences looking for quality content in an uncluttered environment."

Lastly, talking about the association and her experience with BBC Advertising Sales business for South Asia across BBC World News, BBC Entertainment, bbc.com and Lonelyplanet.com, Mohapatra said, "I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the BBC and with my colleagues in India and across the globe. I feel a real sense of satisfaction at what I have been able to build with the advertising sales team over the last decade. It's been an exciting journey and the business today is at a very good place."

"BBC's digital offering is one of the best in India, BBC Entertainment re- launched successfully this year and World News continues to attract premium customers both locally and targeting international markets. It was a very tough decision on my part but I feel it is the right time for me to step back and consider where my next challenge could come from", she added.

Seema Mohapatra is a management graduate from XIM (Bhubaneshwar), and has been with BBC for 12 and half years. Prior to BBC, Mohapatra was with Star India where she was looking after the east market for all five channels of Star TV from 95-97. In 1997, she moved to Mumbai to look after part of the west market for them. Post her MBE, Mohapatra worked for a year and half with Taj Group of Hotels handling Sales & Marketing in Kolkata. Mohapatra is well-positioned to leverage her contacts amongst the advertising fraternity and obtain revenues for the channel. [ankita(at)adgully.com]