MAM
Hospitality PR veteran swaps solo consultancy for corporate suite
BENGALURU: After six years and eight months steering her own ship, Gayatri Dravid has docked at Rosetta Hospitality this September as group head for corporate communications and marketing—trading the freedoms of consultancy for the clout of a corporate corner office in Bengaluru.
Dravid launched Gayatri Dravid PR in February 2019, carving out a niche in hospitality and travel communications after a decade-plus climbing the industry ladder. The move followed a near-two-year stint as associate vice president for communications at RMZ Corp, where she honed her skills in corporate messaging for one of India’s largest real estate developers.
Before going solo, Dravid spent over three years as director of PR and strategy at Quo Global’s India operations, the Thai multinational specialising in hospitality branding. There she positioned India’s first Pullman hotel and North India’s first Novotel at New Delhi Airport, orchestrated launches for seven hotels across Asia in three years for Onyx Hospitality group, and developed the complete visual identity—logo, colour palette, tone—for Tiger Palace Resort and Casino’s Nepal debut.
Her CV reads like a greatest-hits compilation of India’s luxury hotel landscape. She led pre-opening communications for the 523-room JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity in 2012, JW’s first launch in the capital. Before that, nearly three years at The Leela Palaces saw her spearhead PR for the group’s flagship property in New Delhi, manage award-winning resorts in Goa, Kovalam and Udaipur, and launch ESPA spa and Warren Tricomi salon partnerships. She even copy-edited The Leela’s first coffee-table book.
Earlier stops included Genesis Burson-Marsteller, where she handled Channel [v], Royal Bank of Scotland and Lakmé Fashion Week, and a year teaching business communications in Pune as guest faculty for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Now Dravid returns to the mothership—not as consultant, but commander. Rosetta just hired someone who’s spent 17 years learning every trick in the hospitality playbook.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
