It is the constant stride of 42Works to push the boundaries of digital marketing. To achieve this goal of ours, we see our responsibility to bring forth innovational ideas, trends and discussions on digital marketing.
Therefore, we bring you this exclusive Marketing42 interview, where we sat down with Mr. Dhairya Singh Chauhan, popularly known as DigitalDhairya! Born on the 14th of December 1995 in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Mr Chauhan is a rising independent marketer in the Indian Digital marketing industry.
In this exclusive interview, we take a deep look back at Mr. Chauhan’s life and everything that has led up to Digital Dhairya.
So first things first, how did your journey begin? How did the idea of DigitalDhairya come along?
Well, it wasn’t anything flashy at all, rather it was quite dull. Back in 2017, I completed my graduation, and during that time I was into modeling. I wasn’t anything special and I didn’t make any significant amount of money off that. Soon enough life took its turn, and my romantic relationship ended in a bad breakup.
Now, I don’t want to name anybody, but the girl who was my partner during our breakup had made a statement, that I would never achieve anything in life. Her words pierced into my soul and made me take a long hard look at my life. Meanwhile, all of this was going on, a friend of mine introduced me to digital marketing.
After I came in contact with digital marketing, I knew that it was meant for me, I joined an institute and did digital marketing course. One thing lead to another, and Digital Dhairya was born.
How did your family react when you told them you would change paths and become a digital marketer?
Well, funnily enough, nobody in my house ever took me seriously. Weirdly my family was always bigger than I was. My mother Mrs. Radha Chauhan is a nationally renowned artist, while my father is an established operations manager in a Sugar Cane Plant. My elder brother is a software engineer, while I wasn’t even the brightest student in my class. But I suppose being the black sheep in my family helped me a lot as well.
When people don’t expect anything from you, it is much more fulfilling to prove them wrong. I wouldn’t say my parents were against me doing digital marketing, but there was apprehension in their eyes.
Growing up as a 90’s kid what is the most memorable memory of the internet back in the day?
(Laughter) I have a ton of memories growing up as a 90s kid! One thing I remember distinctly about the internet from the 90s is how painfully slow the connection was. As a child, I was a fan of all the cherished 90s cartoons and characters. Shaktimaan and Tom & Jerry were two of my favorite shows from the 90s.
I also recall surfing the internet or at least trying to surf it. Today in the age of 4G data speeds, it is unimaginable how cumbersome the old internet was.
In your experience how has the digital marketing industry changed in India since you started your career?
To be honest, I have seen the industry evolve in many ways and then stagnate as well. I still have somewhat of an opinion that isn’t directly connected to digital marketing, but it does have an impact. Since 2016, with the rise of JIO, the internet scene in India has been completely revolutionized. From not being even in the top 10 of internet using country in the world, to becoming the second-largest internet market in the world is something truly amazing.
What are your thoughts on User-data privacy?
I would say my beliefs in data-privacy are quite firm. Users must have full control over their data on the internet, there can be no two ways about it. But I also understand, that to create more potent internet services and products, you need data. Therefore, I believe there must be a strict categorization of user-data. This way users are always aware of what they are getting themselves into.
What do you think about Facebook’s cryptocurrency – Libra? Should India have its own cryptocurrency platform now?
Honestly, I am not a big believer in cryptocurrencies. Now people can mark me as a naysayer but that is just how I process the existence of cryptos. Having said that, I don’t mean to shun cryptocurrencies completely, but I feel like all the cryptocurrencies can do a lot better with some oversight and regulations to bring transparency.
Now coming to Facebook’s Libra, it wouldn’t be a surprise that I don’t share the enthusiasm shown by many. Given Facebook’s reputation and my overall distrust of cryptocurrencies, I don’t think India should jump the gun and start making its own cryptocurrency.
In the west, there have been many universities and colleges offering graduation and masters level courses in digital marketing. Do you think something similar should also happen in India?
I feel like it is high time that Indian colleges and universities should also start digital marketing courses. Whenever I go to these colleges and universities for my seminars, I get a ton of students doing their master’s degrees come up to me and tell me that they want to pursue digital marketing.
The fundamental problem with the Indian higher education system, I believe is the lack of practical knowledge. For example, If I gave you a book about ‘how to play cricket’, told you to study it and then go out and play a competitive match. It just wouldn’t be possible for you to play cricket by just theoretically understanding its concepts. To truly ace the game, you would have to practice it physically.
Digital marketing is also an extremely ‘physical’ field of work in a sense. You can theoretically teach everything to a student about digital marketing, but if they don’t run a campaign, they would never learn.
What has been the most memorable part of your career to date?
If I was to look back on my journey, I would say that my first project that I took up as a digital marketer is still the most memorable to me. The funny thing about this memory is that it isn’t a positive one, rather it of failure.
After graduation, I finished my digital marketing course and was generally on the lookout for my first official project. Soon enough, through known channels, I got recommended to this resort for handling their digital marketing. Now, I had all the theoretical knowledge about how a digital marketing campaign works, but no practical experience.
So as you would expect, I handled this resort’s digital marketing disastrously, therefore this story doesn’t have a happy ending. The reason I still remember those initial days of failure is to keep me humble and motivated to always keep learning.
If you had to bet on a single social media platform for your online growth which one would you choose out of – LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, or Twitter?
Well, that is an interesting question, you see at the present moment TikTok has skyrocketed in popularity. This exponential rise in popularity is extremely troubling for Facebook and Instagram.
If you were following the news you would know that Instagram will very soon launch a TikTok like feature on its platform, called ‘Reels’. Now this update will put a lot of pressure on TikTok. On one hand, it has had a tremendous rise, but it is also true that Instagram is still more popular than TikTok.
Another aspect that I focus on is the quality of content available on the platform. If we compare TikTok and Instagram, then no doubt Instagram has better content than TikTok. So if I had to bet on a single social media platform, I would choose Instagram.
PPC or SEO, which search-marketing tactic would you choose, if you were consulted by a small to medium business?
I would say that both SEO and PPC are fundamentally different marketing tactics suitable for different situations. SEO is a long term process, it genuinely takes time to generate enough data to analyze and optimize. Generally speaking, small to medium businesses don’t really have a lot of patience when they reach out to a digital marketing agency. What businesses want to see is a rapid boost in its online credentials.
Therefore, I much rather prefer PPC when ruining the initial digital marketing campaigns for business. This way I can show them instant results within a week or two, and build more trust to further conduct SEO to better their online credibility.
In closing, we wouldn’t ask any question and give you room to flesh out any thoughts you want to share with our young and old readers alike?
In closing, the only thing I would say is that, don’t let your present circumstances define your destiny. Things are hard, they might even be downright unbearable, but always remember to push through. People reading this should never forget that we define our boundaries, and no one else. If you truly believe in something, fight for it relentlessly!
On a personal note, I would like to say you guys did a stellar job at researching my background for your post on Instagram. The reason I say this is because you guys had a lot of information that isn’t readily available on the internet, you have to dig a little.
All the efforts you put into your instagram posts and in the subsequent interview, just goes on to show how diligently you guys work. The type of content 42Works puts out on instagram is amazing to see. Keep doing the good job!
Concluding Thoughts
There you have it folks, a 42Works exclusive interview with one of the promising independent marketers of the Indian digital marketing industry.
This is why it was amazing to listen about the amazing journey of Mr. Dhairya. The interview gave us a sneak peek into his mind and motivations. We would like to thank and wish Mr. Chauhan for his further journey and future endeavours in digital marketing. For us, it was quite an experience to listen to the amazing journey of Dhairya Singh Chauhan.
What do you think about the thoughts shared by Mr. Dhairya a.k.a DigitalDhairya, let us know in the comments section.
Want to know more about DigitalDhairya? Take a look here.
