About What I Do How I Think Recognition Portfolio Teaching Beyond Work Pushing Startups Writing Let's Talk
Strategy. Story. Soul.

The person brands call when the usual playbook stops working.

Brands that
move people.

15+ years crafting strategies that connect, campaigns that convert, and brands transformed - not just in how they look, but in how they think, feel, and belong.

Show me the good stuff → Pick My Brain

Good things below

Vijay Shankar

About

Strategy with a
human heart.

"Ordinary is not a limitation - it's the badge I wear proudly."


The best brand strategies don't come from ivory towers. They come from being genuinely curious about people - the ones in busy local trains, quiet cafes, and everywhere in between. I've never lost touch with that.


Oh, and one more thing - I believe common sense is the most underrated strategy tool in the room. Refreshingly rare. Endlessly powerful. And when it comes to business, I've been in the room where it matters - helping companies build from scratch, scale what's working, and pivot when the world demands it.


Currently VP of Marketing & Strategy at Ogilvy, I bring 15+ years of hard-won experience, a P&L mindset, and the conviction that great storytelling can change how a brand lives in the world.

15+
Years of Experience
30+
Team Members Led
25
Businesses Scaled
50+
Brands Shaped

What I Do

Services built for
real business problems.

01

Advisory & Consulting

For founders and leadership teams who want an honest, experienced voice with a direction in the room - not a yes-man with a deck.

02

Business Strategy

From market entry to scaling, I help you figure out where to play, how to win, and what to stop doing immediately.

03

Marketing Strategy

Positioning, architecture, and storytelling frameworks that give brands a reason to exist beyond a tagline.

04

Digital Strategy

Full-funnel digital ecosystems built to perform - search, social, performance, and everything in between.

05

Content Strategy

Editorial systems and platform playbooks that make your brand voice unmistakable across every touchpoint.

06

Storytelling

The magic of insights + navrasa - nine emotions, one truth. Just like music, a great story doesn't just inform. It moves.

How I Think

Why. What. How.

Every great strategy starts with radical curiosity. I lead with "why" before touching "what" and obsess over the "how" until it's impossible to ignore.

W
Why

I question everything - the brief, the assumption, the category itself, until the real problem is revealed.

W
What

Clarity over cleverness. The sharpest possible answer - strategy a child could understand and a boardroom could act on.

H
How

Ideas mean nothing without execution. I stay in the room all the way to the last mile - because the best strategies are the best-run ones.

Recognition

Some marketers chase numbers.
Some chase stories.
I chase both!

...And the brands keep coming back.

✦
Cannes Lions
International Festival of Creativity - the highest honour in advertising.
◎
EFFIE Awards
Recognising marketing effectiveness - where creativity meets measurable impact.
◇
Kyoorius Awards
India's most respected creative and marketing honours.

The Portfolio

Brands I've had the
privilege to shape.

HUL
HUL
Colgate
Colgate
Skechers
Skechers
Play Binge
Play Binge
ICICI Lombard
ICICI Lombard
J&J
J&J
Google
Google
Asian Paints
Asian Paints
Protean
Protean
Jio Hotstar
Jio Hotstar
Netflix
Netflix
OCA
OCA
ITC Dermafique
ITC Dermafique
Cadbury
Cadbury
+ More
Still collecting trophies. Watch this space.

Teaching & Speaking

Empowering the
next generation.

I've always believed that the best thing an experienced practitioner can do is walk into a classroom and tell the truth - no textbook version of marketing, just the real, messy, exciting kind.

From IIMs to brand schools, I've spoken to thousands of students across India on brand strategy, digital marketing, storytelling, and building a career that means something.

If you're an institution looking for a practitioner who'll leave your students fired up rather than taking notes - let's talk.

Connect for an Unscripted Session →
10+
Colleges & Institutions
1000+
Students Reached
2
Years of Speaking
0
Smiles
and counting.
Vijay Shankar

Strategist. Drummer. Racer. Wanderer.

Beyond the Boardroom

The human
behind the strategy.

The best strategists live full lives. Mine involves a racetrack, a guitar, a wall of art I'll never stop adding to, and a stubborn itch to see what's around the next corner - whether that's a mountain road or a village no one's heard of.


Curiosity isn't a professional skill for me. It's a way of being. That's what keeps my work honest, grounded, and genuinely human.

Drummer & Percussionist
Rhythm · Original Compositions
Car Racer
Track Days · Performance Driving
Art Collector
Curating · Contemporary Works
Traveller
1 Lakh Villages · Still Counting
Startup Mentor
Strategy · Brand · GTM
Guest Speaker
Colleges · Conferences · Boardrooms

Investing Right

I back founders who
think differently.

After 15 years of building brands for some of the world's biggest companies, I started putting my money - and more importantly, my time - behind founders who are building something that matters.

What I Know
Brand architecture, go-to-market strategy, consumer psychology, digital ecosystems, storytelling, and what makes people actually choose one brand over another. I've been on the agency side, the client side, and the strategic side - I know how the whole machine works.
What I've Done
Built brands from zero to mainstream. Scaled marketing teams. Managed P&Ls. Navigated pivots. Launched in new markets. Watched some bets pay off beautifully and learned from the ones that didn't.
What I Bring
Pattern recognition. A ruthless eye for what's real vs what sounds good on a pitch. A network that opens doors. And an honest opinion - the kind most founders rarely get from their own board.

I'm an active angel investor with a bias toward consumer brands, marketing technology, and media businesses. I bring more than capital - I bring a network, a strategic lens, and an honest opinion that most founders rarely hear.

If you're building something bold and need a strategic investor who's been in the trenches - I'm all ears. No decks needed for the first conversation.

Let's have that conversation →

I back businesses in

Consumer Brands Marketing Tech Media & Content D2C Ed-Tech Brand-First Startups AI for Marketing Creator Economy
Capital
Seed to Series A
Value add
Brand, GTM, Network
Stage
Idea to early traction

Writing

Thoughts worth
reading.

Influencer Marketing
Influence May 2026 · 3 min read

Influencer marketing is the most expensive way to be ignored.

₹50 lakhs for a reel. 3.2 million views. Zero behaviour change. We confused reach with trust. We confused followers with believers.

Read more
Mass vs Luxury
Brand Strategy May 2026 · 4 min read

Same Engine. Different Playbooks.

We treat Hermes and mass brands like different species. Strip away the price tag and the engine is the same. Both are designed to create demand.

Read more
My Journey
My Story May 2026 · 5 min read

My unexpected journey to a top firm in Mumbai: From Logic to Impact.

I was supposed to follow the script. Engineering. MBA. Advertising. At the time it felt disjointed. Today I know it wasn't. I was following a pattern.

Read more

Let's Talk

Have a brand story
worth telling?

"I promise I won't send you a 60-slide deck before saying hello."

I'm interested in

Still reading? Either you're very curious or very bored. Either way - we should talk.

P.S. If none of the above fits, pick option 08. We'll figure it out over chai.

Slide into my WhatsApp
No cold pitches. Warm conversations only.
Write me an email
Old school. Classy. I respect it.
Connect on LinkedIn
Where I occasionally sound smart.
Call me, maybe
+91 9167989798. I actually pick up.
Find me on Happenstance
AI-powered serendipity. How very 2026.
Send a carrier pigeon
Slower than WhatsApp. But very dramatic. I'll wait.
InfluenceMay 2026 · 3 min read

Influencer marketing is the most expensive way to be ignored.

There you go. I said it.

₹50 lakhs for a reel.
3.2 million views.
Zero behaviour change.
But the deck looked great.

Here's what actually happened: Your brand appeared between a dance trend and someone's airport selfie. The viewer swiped in 4 seconds. The influencer moved to the next brand.

And we called it a "campaign." No memory. No recall. No belief.

We confused reach with trust. We confused followers with believers. We confused a billboard with a relationship.

The most powerful influencer I ever saw in my career? An ASHA Didi in rural UP. A few followers. Zero reels. She got an entire village to change their hygiene habits.

Because she wasn't hired. She was trusted.

That's the thing about influence. The moment it's bought, it's broken.

So before you sign that ₹20L deal, ask one question: Does this person actually use the product? Or do they just use the money?

Reach is a commodity. Trust is still rare.

Stop buying one. Start earning the other.

Brand StrategyMay 2026 · 4 min read

Same Engine. Different Playbooks.

We treat Hermes and mass brands like they belong to different species.

We talk about luxury in hushed tones: heritage, allocation, legacy. And mass brands in spreadsheets, funnels, efficiency, and conversion.

But strip away the price tag, and the engine is the same: Both are designed to create demand. That's the part most people miss. Only the playbooks change.

Mass brands chase attention. Luxury brands filter it.

Normal Marketing - The Science of "Yes": Brands like Samsung or Toyota remove friction. Better product. Better price. Wider reach. Stronger promotion. Their job: Make it easy for you to say yes, now.

Luxury Branding - The Art of "Wait": Luxury brands don't remove friction. They design it. Experience. Exclusivity. Evangelism. Emotion. Their job: Make you wait, want, and work for it.

A Marketer's POV - The Product Truth: Every product must answer three questions.

1. WHY was it made? (Intent) - If the "why" isn't real, marketing will always feel hollow.

2. WHAT does it actually do? (Transformation) - How does it change me, even slightly?

3. HOW is it built? (Integrity) - Is it built to be replaced or built to be kept?

This is where mass and luxury truly diverge. Not in communication, but in construction.

Mass brands optimise for conversion. Luxury brands optimise for craving. Different paths. Same destination: Demand.

The best brands don't choose one. They know exactly when to switch. Most marketers are trained to remove friction. Very few know how to create desire. The best know when to do both.

My StoryMay 2026 · 5 min read

My unexpected journey to a top firm in Mumbai: From Logic to Impact.

I was supposed to follow the script. Like everyone else. I didn't.

Engineering to a job. That was the ideal plan. Instead: Engineering. MBA. Advertising. That became the plan.

At that time, it felt disjointed. Today, I know it wasn't. I wasn't changing paths. I was following a pattern.

A pattern that started in Dehradun, as a kid who wouldn't stop asking: Why. What. How. This wasn't just curiosity. It was the beginning of a natural method.

During my MBA, a friend pushed me toward advertising. "You'll fit well here." Who knew? I really did.

No second thoughts. No five-year plan. I just packed my bags. Caught a train to Mumbai, the city of dreams.

Day one, I started as an intern at Ogilvy. 15 years later, I'm still an advertiser. Not because I planned it, but because the work gave me immense satisfaction and kept me moving forward.

In these 15 years, I've learned one thing that never changed: Storytelling with logic creates impact. Stories grounded in logic connect with people.

From my first brief to working across 15+ states and nearly 1,00,000 villages in rural advertising, I realised what storytelling truly means.

That's the moment when a mother in a faraway village teaches her child to wash hands because a product connected with her emotions, beliefs, and way of life. That is what storytelling with impact looks like.

From one town to a lakh villages, towns, and districts across India, that journey made me who I am today.

Nobody plans a journey like this. It just happens. And I'm glad it happened to me.

No fluff. No listicles. Just real marketing. Real Bharat. If this resonates with you, you'll love what comes next.