MAM
Scarecrow M&C Saatchi’s Raghu Bhatt and his passion for travelling
NEW DELHI: Weekends are fun but as the weekdays have been turned into weekends for the last three months, it has become a routine. Lockdown locked us in our homes and gave time to spend with family. In the last three months, there have been no outing with friends or no late-night dinners. People are now trying new things and binge-watching series apart from working at home. In today’s chat, Indiantelevision.com got candid with Scarecrow M&C Saatchi founder Raghu Bhatt to know about what keeps him going during the lockdown time, his favourite shows and more.
During the lockdown, how are you keeping yourself optimistic?
The kind of person I am, staying optimistic doesn't require any special effort like seeing Art of Living videos or reading 'Think Positive' FB posts put up by my friends with such unfailing regularity. Apart from work, I always had hobbies that kept me engaged. So, I have not felt the need to pick up a new hobby. I am a voracious reader of Indian and Roman history. I follow the stock markets & football. I look after the garden. I am curious to know what kind of content ranks on Google.
Tell us about your favourite coffee moment.
I drink chai. So, I'll replace this with a tea story. I like to have tea with tulsi and lemon-grass in the morning. One day, it was raining heavily. So, I told my younger kid to take a pair of scissors, cut a small lemongrass stalk growing in the garden and put it in the teapot. Somehow the tea was lacking in flavour that day. Later I realised that I was having tulsi and bamboo leaf tea!
What are you binge-watching on OTT?
I miss travelling. I see shows that help me see new places. Shows like Restaurants on the Edge that feature a mountain restaurant in Slovenia or Ekant on Amazon Prime Video that feature places that I want to visit but can't, like Asirgarh or Datia or Tranquebar.
Whenever the lockdown gets over, where do you want to go for a vacation?
When I read a book, I feel like travelling to the place where it happened. Just finished the book "The Conqueror" by Aditya Iyengar based on the life of Rajendra Chola. So right now, have a raging desire to visit his capital, Gangaikonda Cholapuram in Tamil Nadu.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
