Mumbai, 17th November 2022: Whistling Woods International (WWI) School of Media & Communication (SMC) recently hosted the 2nd edition of ‘Masterclass Marathon’. The 5-day summit featured eminent women leaders from the Business, Media & Entertainment (M&E) Industry. Scheduled exclusively for the Media & Communication students, these sessions witnessed the women leaders share insights and their experiences, about vast topics ranging from Advertising Standards, Public Relations, Content Creation for various Platforms, Indian Streaming Platforms, and Content to Emerging Tech.
The Masterclass Marathon commenced with an insightful session featuring Valerie Pinto, CEO, Weber Shandwick. Speaking about ‘Public Relations in a Global Context’, she said, “Every day is a new day in PR, and it is the only profession where you have to know about everything happening in every industry, especially if you are working with an agency.”
Day 2 of the SMC Masterclass Marathon witnessed the presence of Vaishali Sharma, Head of Marketing & Communications, Sony SAB, and Hindi Movie Cluster, who shared in depth about ‘Keeping Television Relevant in the Era of Digital Content’. “Understanding consumers is all about discerning the sharpest insights that will help you create relevant content and connect with your audiences. Television as a medium will continue to have a strong presence as it unifies the family to bring them together unlike other platforms which are consumed more individually.”
The following day Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals, Prime Video spoke about ‘The Current State of Indian Streaming Content and Where We Go From Here: A Look at the State of Play of the Streaming Market and its Position in the Wider M&E Ambit’ through her professional journey. She said, “Today, the Indian streaming sector is playing a pivotal role within the M&E industry. It is democratising the opportunity for the creators, democratising the experience for the viewer, giving people choice, access to new content across languages and genres. By bringing local, authentic, diverse stories, with multi-layered storylines, and characters with full-fledged story arcs, it has steadily become home for talent, both in-front as well as behind-the-screen.” She also added, “Streaming demonstrates the limitless potential of new-age entertainment in the country.”
Day 4 began with a session by Namrata Singh, Head – Metaverse & Digital, SETVI. This exclusive masterclass shared insights on ‘Emerging Tech for the Changed Media Landscape’. While sharing about the emerging virtual avatars and where India stands in the world of virtual reality (VR), she said, “We are ahead in this space. We as a nation are not a gaming country but an engineering country, hence we could update faster, and our skill sets grew rapidly.”
The concluding session of the 2nd edition of the SMC Masterclass Marathon hosted Manisha Kapoor, CEO & Secretary General, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and VP, Executive Committee, International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (ICAS). In the concluding session, Manisha Kapoor discussed ‘How have the Advertising Standards Changed in the Past Two Decades, and Do They Need More Policing or Less?’. “There are several interpretations between the script/storyboard and the actual outcome of the ad. The nuances are very subtle but these subtle kinds of depiction in advertising enable an ad to be remembered over the years and even decades.”
