Neha Bhasin, ZALORA Group’s director of brand communications, is named as one of the recipients of the ‘Empowered Women in Platforms’ award. MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023 is the inaugural recognition exercise by the digital media to laud outstanding women marketing leaders in the industry.
Neha’s tenure with the SEA-focused e-commerce platform hasn’t been very long, but her expertise and talent in brand marketing enabled her to quickly establish her reputation as an effective and excellent leader. Prior to joining the ZALORA team, she was notably at the helm of Amazon India’s marketing business.
From art director to strategic marketer
Neha’s successful career as a marketer dates back to a solid ground in art and content direction. Not originally manoeuvring within the business side of marketing, she used her passion for creative content to expand her horizons as a professional.
Originally hailing from India, the woman leader got her start in the Indian franchise of top fashion and lifestyle magazines such as Marie Claire, Maxim, and Cosmopolitan. During her time with renowned editorial titles, she shaped their visual style and voice and was even recognised in award-giving bodies for delivering exceptional cover layout and design.
Using her prowess and experience in art direction, she forayed into the world of e-commerce where she would seal her mark in brand marketing.
Prior to landing her role in Southeast Asia’s biggest fashion marketplace – ZALORA – she secured leading positions to helm the brand solutions and marketing as well as creative content of two top e-commerce platforms, both in the local and international scene: India’s largest fashion e-commerce company, Myntra-Jabon, and Amazon India.
A track record of driving ROI
Since joining ZALORA in 2021, Neha has been hitting it home in both business growth and brand communications through the creative marketing campaigns she’s led.
One of them would be ZALORA’s celebration of its 10th birthday, the ‘Tentastic’ campaign. Aside from marking the anniversary of the platform, the campaign was developed with the objective of growing and sustaining engagement with Millennials and Gen Z consumers.
Said campaign achieved a 2% increase in ‘add to cart’ rate and a 122% increase in ‘app installation’ rate which drove app installation growth of 49%.
Another successful campaign under her direction is the ‘ZALORAYA’ 2022.
In the said year, when the vibrancy of Hari Raya festivities was being brought back to life, Neha spearheaded the trailblazing ZALORAYA campaign, which didn’t only share excitement and nostalgic sentiment amongst consumers, but also served as an instrument to further move the needle in inclusivity. Through the campaign, categories of modest and ethnic wear – which are not usually seen in mainstream fashion – went live on the ZALORA platform.
Banking on hands-on leadership
Handling teams that are still fairly young, Neha practices a hands-on approach to leadership and believes that by doing so, she’s able to empower and nurture members in intelligently exercising their creative talent and generating trailblazing ideas.
Despite the diverse career history she’s had, she makes sure her most valuable principles in people management remain intact. One of these is not ceasing to treat talent as the company’s most valuable asset.
Neha never misses the opportunity to recognise her team’s hard work by constantly attributing campaign successes to them – which would not have been possible without sound collaboration and strong ownership of outcomes that she has firmly reinforced.
At the end of the day, her measuring stick of good leadership is when she’s able to encourage her circle of influence in directing their agencies and capabilities to meaningful aims that would benefit everyone on a larger scale.
“An empowered woman is a Force for Good – someone who strives to explore possibilities, who leads, learns and guides others in pursuit of enacting positive change,” commented Neha.
Aside from Neha, learn more who’s made it to MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women Awards 2023 Winners’ list.