“Authenticity is not just what brands say, it’s what they do consistently” – Dipashna Acharya
Dipashna Acharya
Senior Executive, Strategy & Planning, Prisma Advertising
Dipashna Acharya is a Senior Executive in Strategy and Planning at Prisma Advertising, a full 360-degree agency, where she focuses on clarifying how and why brands communicate across every stage and medium. Her approach integrates strategy across digital, PR, activation and beyond so the brand feels alive, not just seen.
At 16, Acharya left Nepal to attend Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa. She later moved to the United States, earning a Bachelor’s degree from Lake Forest College and a Master’s from Emerson College. Living across cultures shaped her view of advertising not as messaging to distribute but as behaviour to understand and responsibility to carry.
After graduating, she moved to New York City nd joined the TBWA agency Lucky Generals, working on global brands including Virgin Atlantic and Universal Studios, with campaigns appearing during the Super Bowl and at Times Square. The experience showed her that scale comes not from louder ideas, but from sharper ones grounded in clear strategy. She sees creative strategy as the difference between advertising people notice and advertising people remember.
A decade after moving abroad, Acharya returned to Nepal in June 2025 to apply her experience within the local advertising industry. Her focus is bringing strategy forward in conversations often led by timelines and budget cycles. She encourages brands to decide what they stand for before deciding what they produce, especially in digital spaces where activity is often mistaken for impact. She sees significant untapped potential in the market, where more deliberate brand building can strengthen both businesses and the wider economy.
In this issue of Business360, Acharya gives insights in planning and advertising.
Top 3 brands that have their branding on point
Coca-Cola, Jacquemus, Cadbury India
Three skills to have
Empathy to understand people, curiosity to keep learning, and adaptability to persevere when things do not go as planned
Your business role model
I draw inspiration from many but I hold Julia Cameron in high regard for teaching me that creativity is not inherited and that it is learned and practised daily.
What is the biggest mistake professionals make when building a personal brand?
Chasing visibility can turn into a popularity game, where real value and authenticity get lost. Personal branding often becomes about being seen everywhere, saying ‘look at me’ instead of showing the work. When visibility becomes the focus, people stop thinking about what they actually contribute and why they care about it. The reasoning behind being seen, what you stand for, and who you are all become secondary. At that point it stops being personal branding and becomes conformity, and the individuality that should define a personal brand gets lost.
Necessary apps on your phone
WhatsApp, TikTok, Mail
What does ‘authenticity’ actually mean in advertising right now?
Doing what you say, even when no one is watching. Audiences do not expect perfection anymore but they notice when a brand’s behaviour contradicts its messaging. Authenticity today is not just about sounding human. It is about acting consistently across communication and experience.
Is data making advertising smarter, safer or just more predictable?
Smarter when it supports judgement but predictable when it is followed blindly
What is the biggest mistake brands make when chasing ‘virality’?
Treating virality as a goal, not a byproduct, and losing the brand in the process. If the brand could be swapped out and the content still works, it may travel far but it does not build a lasting impression. For example, any brand can copy a trending TikTok dance to get views but when a brand like Duolingo does the same using its owl mascot, the trend still belongs to the brand.The virality comes from the brand expression, not the other way around, and that distinction is often forgotten.
Do you think attention is bought, earned or borrowed today?
Borrowed. People give you a moment, not loyalty, and brands have to continuously repay that attention through relevance and respect, with interest paid in trust. The moment you stop adding value or start interrupting instead of engaging, that attention moves elsewhere.
What is the fastest way for a brand to lose consumer trust in terms of advertisement?
Saying one thing publicly and behaving differently operationally. Trust breaks fastest when advertising promises values the actual customer experience does not deliver. People are willing to forgive mistakes but not contradiction, and the gap between message and reality is where credibility collapses.
If you had to delete one buzzword from the industry forever, what would it be?
‘Social Media Post’. In Nepal, digital advertising is often mistaken for simply posting on social media, and that mindset limits the full creative and strategic potential of how brands can show up online and in real life. I would love to see brands and advertisers collaborate and explore more.
What is a small creative detail that often makes a big performance difference?
The first three seconds. That opening decides whether people allow the rest of the message to exist at all. In a crowded feed, audiences do not process before they feel. They decide instantly whether something deserves their attention. If the beginning does not signal relevance or curiosity, the rest of the story never gets the chance to be understood. How you draw them in is the subtlest creative detail that ultimately makes or breaks the content.
In today’s market, is consistency more powerful than innovation?
Innovation needs consistency to be recognisable.
The best advice you have ever received
Complicated jargon is not intelligence. If a five-year-old can understand it, you have done it right.
Top three searches in Google
It is always very random, maybe something like colour palette swatch, Fahrenheit to Celsius, or restaurants near me.
