Chanda Singh: Winner of the 2024 Great Companies International Women Entrepreneur Award

Name: Chanda Singh

Business Name: XP&D Platform

Location: Mumbai , India

Establishment (Year): 2019

Category: Advertising & Marketing

Profession/ Specialty: Experiential & Digital Marketing

Website: https://www.xpandd.in/

Social Media : Linkedin - chandasingh | xpandd

Company Detail:

A new-age experiential platform in a digital ecosystem.

Set up in 2019, XP&D drives the change; where experiences live beyond events. XP&D leads transformation in outreach; building digital communities where Facebook and Twitter don’t have relevance. Most importantly, XP&D brings to all digital platforms – the power and reality of human experience. They have been lucky to have done some of the most pioneering work in the industry since. Under XP&D, flagship events from executing World Cup 2023, IPL & WPL Opening ceremonies to the Hockey World Cup, the Khelo India Youth Games, the National Games, among others, have been executed. Corporate clients include Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Mercedes, Microsoft, HDFC, Coca Cola, BMW, Victoria's Secret, Thermofisher, BlueStar, and a host of others. From opening and closing ceremonies to corporate shows and launches, XP&D has a specialized team that includes some of the best in the industry.

On the digital front - they have handled among other campaigns, the marketing and digital campaigns for the ICC World Cup 2023, Hockey World Cup, and the first-ever Women’s Premier League garnering 30MN views in 30 days. Their in-house content agency, Spotlight, handles stand-alone films, 360-degree content, dome content, and other specialized content - it has created the first-ever anamorphic installation in the country and specializes in AR, VR, mapping, and animation films.

Unique Selling Proposition or Competitive Advantage:

Their core value - O2O2O (Offline to Online to Offline).

Their product platform blends offline to online to offline (O2O2O) at its core – to deliver beyond only on-ground or digital.

Challenges Faced During the Journey:

Chanda Singh comes from a family of doctors, engineers, and agriculture. To choose a path of media & marketing and to break the norm was a challenge. While her parents were thoroughly supportive, for a small-town girl, the hustle-bustle of Mumbai was challenging enough to continue living here and to prove to her parents that she can do it. She started in this industry as an intern. While she was blessed to have seniors/bosses who gave her the platform to keep rising, it was a challenge to keep proving herself in the male-dominated industry.

From clients to industry experts, proving her skills & capabilities to them regularly was a challenge which she accepted. From spending nights on-site to learn the nuances of production detailing to spending nights and learning the mediums and tools to market her product, she managed to showcase her strengths to the world. Being accepted as a leader was her goal and she thinks she achieved it at a very early stage in her life. Being a people person helped her to understand the strength of working as WE vs ME. Overall it has been a great and a thankful journey.

Advice for Women Entrepreneurs:

There is no bigger power than self-belief. Manifest and they will achieve their dreams, big or small. Work on themselves first and allow their strengths to take over their weaknesses. Invest in themselves and learn everything they couldn't while they were studying. Broaden their knowledge base - learn from people/peers, learn from their strengths, learn from around the world, from work experience, from life experiences.

Then believe in their people, their team, and in teamwork. Their people/team will help them scale new heights and achieve the impossible while they focus on showing them the right path and ways to achieve it. While they do so, do not forget that their strongest pillars of support & strength are their loved ones & their family so spending quality time with them is imperative.