MxMIndia

Category: SPECIALS

  • Whether it is influencing the consumer at the point of sales or it is trying to influence the kind of trade in terms of stocking a certain product, BTL is a key component in marketing, says GK Suresh, Head of Marketing, Foods Division, ITC Limited

    BTL Baatein: GK Suresh, ITC Limited… Powered by VISCOMM

    GK Suresh, Head of Marketing, Foods Division, ITC Limited,  joined ITC in the year 2004 as District Manager – South and currently heads marketing for all categories of the foods business – staples, biscuits, confectionery, snacks, noodles, pasta, ready to eat, new categories, exports and packaging development. Prior to this, Suresh was Head – Brands and Business Development, Personal Care business, ITC Ltd, where he headed marketing for the newly created personal care business and oversaw ITC’s entry into the intensely competitive spaces of soaps, shampoos, fairness creams and Talcs. He lead the new category development of face washes and premium skincare products and also headed the media and research functions. In this edition of BTL Baatein, G K Suresh talks to Dyanne Coelho about the importance of BTL activations, why at ITC the spends on BTL are almost equal to ATL, and the importance of engaging the consumer through BTL activations.

     

    How important is BTL in the FMCG space?

    Hugely important.More than 50 percent of our marketing spends go into BTL activities. So whether it is influencing the consumer at the point of sales, or it is trying to influence the kind of trade in terms of stocking a certain product, BTL is a key component for us.

     

    Are there any specific products at ITC that you use BTL for?

    We use it for pretty much all our products. A bulk of our sales happens through the trade, and hence working through the trade is a key challenge for us. There are certain kinds of products where modern trade would become more important and there would be certain other kinds of products where the general trade would be more important. And there would be other more mass, more widely penetrated products where the wholesale channel would become more important. So, accordingly, we would deploy the inputs based on the requirements.

     

    Specifically, how important is BTL to ITC Foods’ overall marketing plan?

    BTL is almost 45 to 50 percent of our total spends. ATL and BTL is almost equal to us.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    So we work closely with modern trade, in doing a lot of modern trade programmes, whether it is a biscuit mela or a snacks festival, or something on the ready-to-eat category. We also do a lot of work with general trade, we have a loyalty programme for them which is called The First Club, where we give them preferential treatment in terms of supply, in terms of service, in terms of visibility, in terms of new product introductions, and in turn they give us a lot of preference and they talk to the consumers about new products that we launch and so on. We also have a loyalty programme for the wholesale channel called Shubh Laabh, which is pretty similar, where the whole idea is to get the wholesaler to talk about some of our newer products to the retailers who come to the shop.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We do a combination of both. A lot of the trade-related activities are done through our distributors;a lot of consumer related activities are done through a specialised agency. We work with a variety of agencies in that area.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

     

    I wish I knew the answer to that one. I think each serves a different purpose. I think BTL to a large extent enables you to physically sample your product, in many cases do a one to one with the consumer and explain to the consumer about your product, and ATL does not necessarily offer that benefit. It’s more a broadcast, whereas BTL is a little bit more personalised and therefore for products which require a lot of convincing to do to the consumer, I think BTL works very well. For products where that may not be so important, I think ATL works equally.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    I think in most cases we would look at trials. That would be a big metric that we look at post BTL campaigns. A lot of our BTL campaigns are focused on addressing that issue. And therefore the single big metric we would look at is trials.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I think so, absolutely. I see a lot of brands building themselves purely on the basis of BTL. On some of our products, even we are doing it. For example ready-to-eat products, Kitchens of India conserves and preserves, Aashirvaad ready meals, Aashirvaad instant mixes, we do a lot of activities in BPOs, in gourmet shops, at airports, malls, and so on where we believe that we the target consumers for these products are likely to be present.

     

  • The lines are actually blurring in terms of how you treat your marketing mix, says Uma Talreja, CMO, Burger King India, adding that she doesn’t think the "traditional rules really apply anymore"

    BTL Baatein: Uma Talreja, Burger King India… Powered by VISCOMM

    She has served as Deputy General Manager, Marketing and Communications, Shoppers Stop Limited, Head, Marketing and Branding (Supermarkets) at Aditya Birla Retail. She was Marketing Head at Westside where she handled all aspects of marketing including strategy, branding, advertising & communication, public relations, online initiatives, loyalty & CRM, market research, promotions & events and visual merchandising. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Uma Talreja, Chief Marketing Officer, Burger King India speaks with Dyanne Coelho on the importance of BTL vis-à-vis ATL for a new brand in the Indian geography.

     

    What is the importance of BTL in the FMCG and QSR space?

    The lines are actually blurring in terms of how you treat your marketing mix. It’s no longer just ATL and BTL, but you look at a 360 degree view in terms of how you reach your consumers, and of how you remind consumers of your presence and product offering. So it’s a balanced mix, I wouldn’t say that you have an over balance of one element, but of course there is BTL as well, but it’s no longer just ATL and BTL, there’s digital, there’s public relations which has become very important, there’s influencers and bloggers which are very important, so I don’t think the traditional rules really apply anymore.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    I think all marketing elements currently are playing an important role, and while we’re launching stores, it’s important for us to create location awareness apart from our own offering to the Indian consumer. So it is an important element for us.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    We do a lot of local store marketing which is aimed at increasing traffic from catchments and neighbourhood stores and consumer segments. So we do a lot of things from couponing, to out of home which is targeted to various segments. We do use a lot of these activations for our marketing. We’ve done a lot of in-mall activations as well right from using drones, to using celebrities to create an engaging experience for customers on ground about the brand, and educating them about the brand, and about innovations on various aspects of the brand. We’ve done a lot of things recently related to couponing creating more awareness and trials for certain products in our product mix. We use couponing for that which is a localised activity for us. Apart from that we’ve done roadshows and things like that as well.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    About 30 percent of our spends is on BTL.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We use specialist agencies for these activities.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    I think both work, it all depends on your objective.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    I think traffic is important, and participation is also important. I think these two things are important from a retailer’s point of view. So if you are engaging with the audience through some outside activation, then how many people really took part is a factor, the second is to generate actual traffic into your restaurant.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I don’t think that marketers think like that. I think it’s a very polarised view. I think for certain objectives and activities you could survive only on BTL, but as a brand I don’t think one survives on any one particular activity. I don’t think that’s the case.

     

  • A successful campaign is not necessarily one which is present across all platforms and vehicles and is seen everywhere, Deepali Naair, Chief Marketing Officer, Mahindra Holidays

    BTL Baatein: Deepali Naair, Mahindra Holidays… Powered by VISCOMM

    Deepali Naair began her career in 1993 as Senior Officer at Tata Motors, following which she was Marketing Manager at BPL Mobile Communications. She has worked as Group Head – Account Planning at FCB Ulka, Marketing Manager at Marico and was a consultant with the EMM Group. After this she held the post of VP and Head of Marketing at HSBC Global Asset Management. Prior to joining Mahindra Holidays, Deepali was the Country Head – Brand, Customer Service and E-Commerce at L&T General Insurance. In October 2013, she joined Mahindra Holidays as Chief Marketing Officer. She also leads the Digital Marketing Training for the Mahindra group as a member of the Group Mahindra Sales & Marketing Academy. In 2015 Deepali was awarded the ‘Content Marketer of the Year’ award by DMAi for designing unique digital content to promote Club Mahindra. In 2014,www.socialsamosa.com listed Deepali as one of the top 8 futuristic brand heads in India. In 2013, Deepali received the ‘Leading Woman in Insurance’ Award and also “50 Most Talented Brand Leaders of India”. In her spare time she teaches at S P Jain Institute of Management and Research and is also a very keen social media influencer. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Deepali Naair in an interaction with Dyanne Coelho spells out the importance of BTL activations in the consumer goods and services space and explains how Mahindra Holidays keeps up-to-date.

     

    Are there any specific products or services for which BTL activations are used at Mahindra Holidays?

    We do a lot of activation programmes to engage with our members on a one-on-one basis. These are an integral part of our marketing mix.Some of the campaigns we have undertaken in the last financial year are –

     

    1. The Suitcase campaign

    We ran a special campaign where a locked suitcase was sent to 150 of our Mumbai-based customers that had booked a holiday with us using a gift voucher (GV) in the last one year. In order to unlock the suitcase, they had to invite our sales executive home for a product presentation. This activity was a great success with a response of 12%. The campaign won Gold at the DMAi India Echo awards and Silver Abby Award in the Dimensional Mail category at Goa Fest 2014.

     

    2. Passport to Magical Moments

    Passport to Magical Moments’ was a unique experiential event organized by Club Mahindra especially for kids at a suburban mall in Mumbai. Here, the kids along with their parents got a chance to experience the fun of a Club Mahindra resort and its myriad activities. Four destinations were showcased through four different zones /set ups – Goa, Kerala, Rajasthan & Dubai and each zone engaged kids with an activity that was representative of that Club Mahindra resort/destination – a simulated jet ski in Goa, meeting a virtual elephant from Kerala, rappelling down a wall and watching a live puppet show from Rajasthan and racing ATVs on the sand dunes of Dubai.

     

    3. ‘Dil Dhadkne Do’ Meet & Greet for Members

    We partnered with the latest multi-starrer, Dil Dhadkne Do, to promote our Cruise offer which was on from January to June 2015. As part of our association with the movie, we organised a Meet & Greet event in two cities – Delhi and Mumbai. At this event some lucky members joining the Club Mahindra family during the offer got a chance to meet and interact with the superstars of the film, including Farhan Akhtar, Ranveer Singh, Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, director, Zoya Akhtar, and producer Ritesh Sidhwani.

     

    4. ClicPic

    In an effort to socialise member experiences, Club Mahindra launched a photo contest at its resorts using Instagram. Members visiting the resorts were asked to upload their holiday photos on Instagram with hashtags. We have seen an overall increase in tagging #clubmahindra to pictures on social media.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We do a lot of innovative work across different mediums in the ATL and BTL spaces. For these different activities we work with specialized agencies.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Choosing a medium or vehicle depends on the objective of the campaign and the target customer one is aiming to reach. A successful campaign is not necessarily one which is present across all platforms and vehicles and is seen everywhere. While there may be a large number of vehicles available, the choice should be made carefully and based on its interactivity and effectiveness in connecting with the target customer.There is never just one solution that meets all requirements. Therefore the best measure of success is the achievement of the initial objective set at the beginning of the campaign.

     

  • For an established brand, BTL is a viable option but for a brand which is yet to establish itself, you have to keep spending money on ATL, says Prakash Chari, Head of Marketing, Apollo White Dental

    BTL Baatein: Prakash Chari, Apollo White Dental… Powered by VISCOMM

    Prakash Chari currently works as the Head of Marketing at Apollo White Dental and has been with the company for more than two years. Chari has over 14 years of experience in sectors such as Management, Marketing, Branding, Corporate Communications and Business Development in diversified industries like Healthcare, IT Hardware, Textiles and Banking. His core strength lies in the areas such as Strategic Brand Positioning, initiation of M&A and JV, Marketing Communications and Media Planning. In an interview with Dyanne Coelho for BTL Baatein, he explains the niche dental healthcare segment and why BTL activations are as important in healthcare services as they are in consumer products.

     

    For the benefit of our readers, tell us a little about Apollo White Dental

    Apollo White Dental is a vertical of Apollo White Hospitals. It is a JV between Trivitron Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals. Trivitron Healthcare has got 30 percent stake and Apollo Hospitals has got 70 percent stake. We are present in 17 cities and we have centres across all the cities and there are around 76 centres as such. So there are three verticals, we have a dental spa, we have a dental clinic which is as good as your neighbourhood clinic and we also have an express model. So in our dental spa we try to redefine dentistry all together with painless treatments and the kind of ambience that one wouldn’t get elsewhere. For the dental spa, our target audience is the high-end society, the ones who drive Audis, BMWs and Mercs, etc. For the clinic, there is no specific bifurcation, everyone who has a tooth problem is our target audience and the express model is a part of Apollo Hospitals, it is within the hospital like you have a cardiac department, you now also have a dental department.

     

    In your opinion what is the importance of BTL in the consumer services space?

    I would say that ATL and BTL are both kind of in strings with each other. An organisation cannot run only on BTL, and an organisation cannot run only on ATL. We as a brand are present in the South predominantly and as far as a place like Delhi and Mumbai is concerned we’ve just entered the market there. So for our newer markets we need to focus more on ATL like newspaper ads, TV ads, radio ads, and whatever other possibility is available. But for a brand as an established one, it doesn’t require to spend huge amounts of money on ATL. One more thing is that when an ATL activity is planned, unless and until there is another strong BTL activity to go with it, the ATL also goes for a toss. I would say BTL nowadays is playing a major role, and most of the companies use BTL for the costing aspect and for the micro-level reach.

     

    Are there any specific services at Apollo White Dental that you use BTL for?

    When it comes to ATL, we are doing it in a lot of centres. Last year, we opened close to 40 centres, we’ve entered about 4-5 new markets. The new markets are where we use ATL more, in a big way. But otherwise what we do is we have different campaigns. We are not mass dental practitioners, given the fact that there are so many dentistry centres; we are focusing on high-end dental practice. Like we are talking about dental implants and high-end orthodontics.  Dental implants are something that everyone is switching to from dentures. So dental implants is something that we try to reach to the complete audience. So there could be a campaign for a couple of months only for Dental Implants or there could be a campaign for orthodontic placements. You have the months of April, May, June when schools are off. That’s when the kids will go to get their braces fixed. So we start campaigns as early as January, February where we approach the schools, probably go and give a presentation to the principal and go and get the audience over there, and our doctors go over there and educate and give out brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, and a whole amount of two or three months’ time is given for proper planning, and from April we start treating the patients.

     

    How important is BTL to your overall marketing plan?

    I would say about 75-80 percent of our activities is BTL in centres that are established. For a new market it would be 50:50. If you take a new market like Mumbai, Pune or Delhi, where Apollo has just entered a few months back, that is where more of ATL has to be done to establish the brand. But if you take a market like Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad where Apollo Hospitals have got a wonderful presence, there the focus is more on BTL activities. So in markets like Chennai, Bangalore Hyderbad, it would be 30:70 ATL:BTL and in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi it would be 50:50.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Like I said in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, our spends on ATL:BTL would be 50:50, while in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, our spends on ATL:BTL would be 30:70. Dentistry is such a field where it has to reach everyone. So you don’t expect a school child to go to a Times of India, so we have to give that personal attention.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Well it’s difficult to say. Of course, when it comes to BTL, there is direct contact with the consumers. Hence you have the proof point as far as the conversions are concerned and it is easy to measure BTL activities. So it always shows up technical results and points, however, when it comes to imagery as I said, and scale, ATL is equally important. So it will be unfair to say BTL is getting more results. BTL in the coming years has become more and more importantto create that experience for the consumer.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    It again depends on the category and what we want to do. In certain categories even the number of people contacted can be a measure of success. Because if it’s a new category, a new concept and you just want to create the awareness, then if you reach a certain number of contacts, then even that could be a success parameter. However for certain categories, we lay down specific targets and numbers of the number of people contacted and the conversions out of that. If you look at only sales, then a lot of BTL activities would be limited to shopfloor activations only. If you look at street plays, they will not deliver any sales for me, but it is about what is the type of awareness that has been created, how many people were able to witness what we wanted to communicate. That’s why BTL has evolved. Earlier, BTL was directly related to sales, now it is much more than that.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    I would say for an established brand, BTL is a viable option. But for a brand which is yet to establish itself, you have to keep spending money on ATL.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    See the thing is anyactivity that doesn’t have a tracking mechanism is of no use. ATL is something that cannot be measured at all. Like if I spend about 250 lacs putting up a hoarding in one of the high streets in Mumbai and any walk-in comes in, I would certainly not know what is the ROI for the agency. But as far as BTL is concerned, the major advantage is when any activity is conducted, the kind of opportunity given to us in terms of collecting database  of lots of people is large. So if I ask a marketing guy, or promoter to collect names and phone numbers of people, though I may not have full information, at least the name and phone number is collected. BTL is something which is really measurable and different activities will also help out in analysing what is working out and what is not working out and accordingly we can keep doing few things and scrap a few things.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I would sayfor an established organisation spending 80 percent of your marketing budget on BTLand 20 percent on ATL is advisable and vice versa. BTL can certainly help in bringing in a good amount of success to the organisation as such. But of course ATL also has to play a role. You have a little bit of ATL here and there, because it helps with brand recall. And brand recall cannot necessarily happen with BTL, because the kind of targets for BTL is different.

     

  • For an established brand, BTL is a viable option but for a brand which is yet to establish itself, you have to keep spending money on ATL, says Amit Sarda, Co-founder and Managing Director of Soulflower

    BTL Baatein: Amit Sarda, Soulflower… Powered by VISCOMM

    Amit Sarda, Co-founder and Managing Director of Soulflower leads business development, finance and also doubles up as Head of Marketing. Sarda believes that gaining high level of customer satisfaction is very important and thus his focus has always been on attending to their concerns in the best possible way to spread his passion for what he does. For this, he personally looks after consumer experience and insight in detail across various customer touch points. Amit is an active member of the DMAI which works on data drive marketing and using his data analytics, is currently working on certain projects. Along with it, Sarda also heads as the President at Young Entrepreneur’s Society (YES). Since 2010, he has also been a Member at Regional Advisory Committee, Central Excise Department, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. For BTL Baatein, Dyanne Coelho speaks with Amit Sarda who breaks down the importance of BTL activities for a niche brand like Soulflower.

     

    Tell us a little about Soulflower

    Soulflower began in 2001, and we began through a retail journey. It is a brand of handmade natural aroma and body care products using natural ingredients customised for various skin types. It has been serving the marketssince 2003 and has now extended its reach to over 900 towns in India. We have now managed to break through to even Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns such as Naharlagun, Vijapur, Udhampur, Nilambur, Narsinghgarh, and Chapra to name a few.So we started in Thailand, but in India we started in 2003 with players like Shoppers Stop, Crossword, Pantaloons and other retail channels which are no more today, but primarily we started with Shoppers Stop. So that’s how the journey took off. In the year 2009, we started with our e-commerce.

     

    In your opinion what is the importance of BTL in the consumer goods and services space?

    So for us, BTL is primary engagement with our consumer, because ultimately whoever walks into the store, we believe that those consumers are there to shop and the only thing is that we need their mindshare and walletshare both. So when we say mindshare, we have to be on their mind, and walletshare means how much they will spend on our products and buy our products. BTL activities hence help us. We do a lot of BTL activities, which involves certain fun-based and learning-based activities that are Do-It-Yourself… Most of our activities are driven at a floor level.

     

    Are there any specific products at Soulflower that you use BTL for?

    Soulflower is an experience. We are a brand that believes in designing the experience, very few brands in the world do that. So it might be a soap, it might be a bath salt, it might be anything, we always believe that it is Soulflower that we have to offer to people. It’s not about offering them only a particular product, it’s a way of life. It’s the lifestyle that we have to look at. It is herbal, it has lots of botanical benefits, how it goes through the skin, mind, body, soul, everything.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    We don’t do any ATL activities. If you talk about commercial TV or commercial newspapers, we don’t do even a single advertisement. We do BTL and a lot of digital activations. But you can call the digital activations digital as well. ATL for us is very, very rare. We don’t believe much in ATL. As I said, we believe in engagement, we believe in a one-to-one. So we are very big online and there are lots of activities that keep on happening. So there is lots of engagement with the consumer even online. So you’ll never see an ad of Soulflower in a newspaper.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    One activity we do is ring-a-discount, which we host at different Shoppers Stops in India. Ring-a-discount activation helps us to get a lot of new customers. If you ever go to Juhu Beach, if you’ve gone in your childhood, there is a place where people keep soaps and other things, and people are given rings and they play with the rings. You have to throw the ring right on the product. That is a game that gives you the chance to be a child again. And you see people of all ages standing in the queue to play that game. So the thing is that we try to create an engagement. Our engagements are always fun-based engagements where people have an opportunity to go back in their childhood and relish those memories. In learning-based activations we have activities where people learn how to use different soaps, what is the benefit for the skin, understanding the skin, so those activities are more towards learning about yourself. Then there are the DIY activities, where we give them a chance to create their own aroma. So we have multiple aromas kept on a display unit, where you can go, select aromas of your choice, understand which matches your personality, and you can actually create an aroma of your own. So tomorrow you can go and create an MxM aroma also.

     

    The idea is that whatever is your personality, whatever you like in that moment, we help you create an aroma. So we have multiple activities, these are a few of the activities. We even have primary engagements, like now we are having the sale. What we did is we have created the Cootie Catcher. It is something which you play with your hand. We realise two things when people come to the stores, when a family walks in, one is most of the people are on WhatsApp or Facebook on their mobile phone, and the second deterrent is the kids. One is the parents want to shop, but the kids are not very keen to be there, they get tired and they’re not so happy about being in the store and they’ll make sure that they drag their parents out. We created this Cootie Catcher and we give it to small kids and to all the people who are on the mobile phone. So it gives them an activity to do, plus this Cootie Catcher has full information about our products and offers, and people are actually taking it and talking about it. People are messaging us about it; people also put pictures up on Instagram and other places. So the idea is how you engage people. It is more about having a relationship which is really one-to-one. This is the relationship we create through BTL activities, which is not possible through ATL. But in BTL you can actually make sure that you engage the customer there and then.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    No, we have our own inhouse team. We don’t use any agencies. These are very specific activities. You need someone as passionate as someone who has used the product and understood it. We have our own teams all over India whose job is to create this sort of activities and activations.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    Any day! See ATL is a very mass thing. So when you do ATL, the thing is you’ve done the ad, if it works good, if it doesn’t you’re a failure and you lose money. In BTL the chances of it working are much better. The reach of BTL activity is very fast.     Suppose if we did a BTL in Kolkata and it doesn’t work, the same thing can be changed tomorrow in Hyderabad. But imagine an ad once it is gone on an ATL campaign, it is very tough to get it back, to retrieve it, because your campaigns are huge, the money which is spent is also huge. Dates are also blocked, you can’t change much. This is the advantage in BTL, you can change it. If it is not working, you can immediately change your ad, it’s easier to do. But on an ATL you can do it, it’s very tough. So for a brand which is a cult brand like us where you need people to experience the product, I think BTL is any day much better

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    At Soulflower we work in a very different way. We work on collecting feedback. Definitely sales is one number which is one of the metrics, but really we don’t work at it that much. One thing which we really work on is the ‘wow’ factor. So when the message is delivered to people, or they get involved in an activity, and they love Soulflower and they say this was amazing, it was too good, this is the kind of expressions we look forward to. Suppose we receive 100 expressions from an activity, and if there are 80 expressions which talk about this, then we’re done. It is very important that the person experiencing Soulflower feels the wow and is left mind blown. We always crave for the word called ‘love’. People write to us, ‘We love Soulflower, we love the way you guys do things.’ We love this, we want people to know that. BTL activations give this better understanding of consumers.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I think there are two ways of looking at it. I think ATL definitely is important, but now it depends on your distribution system. So for example in India if you have 500 distributors and you have 1000 stores, or 5000 stores, then you don’t need any ATL, what you need is BTL that will happen in those 5000 stores. And in those 5000 stores if you touch 100 people, you’re touching 500,000 people. And if you can touch 500,000 people in India, I think that’s a huge number. If I have a one rupee product, then maybe 5 lac customers are not enough, then I need 5-7 crore customers, but if you have a good widespread distribution and the right set of stores, if you know exactly what you want to do and how to execute it, then BTL works perfectly fine. A balance of ATL and BTL can come in. I will not say that only BTL will work. But actual engagement happens only when you have the right BTL activity.

     

  • BTL becomes very important for consumer goods because the actual experience is more important to visualise the use of a product, says Gulbahar Taurani, Director Marketing & Business Head, Domestic Appliances, Philips India

    BTL Baatein: Gulbahar Taurani, Philips India… Powered by VISCOMM

    Earlier this month (July 2015), Philips India introduced Ranveer Brar, who represents Indian food across the globe, as the first ever brand ambassador for its ‘Kitchen Appliances’ business. The brand is one that believes in conducting numerous below-the-line activations as part of its marketing campaigns.  In an interview with Dyanne Coelho for MxMIndia,  Gulbahar Taurani, Director Marketing & Business Head, Domestic Appliances, Philips India, tells us the importance of BTL in the consumer goods space and why the experience of a product creates a better connect with the audience than a mere advertisement.

     

     

    What is the importance of BTL in the consumer goods space?

    If you look at any type of advertisement, the purpose is to communicate to the consumer what is in the offering. Now if you look at below-the-line advertising in consumer goods, the consumer goods space is one wherein consumers need to have a certain experience of the product, because it’s very difficult to visualise the technicalities of the product, only by listening to the benefits, or reading them out. That is why the importance of BTL is humungous in consumer goods, because it happens where the consumer is taking the final decision, and that is where BTL will help you give that experience to people. For example, our colleagues are doing dry demos. Our consumers who are entering the shop floor can decide on our product and we give them that experience of how it works, in a very realistic scenario, and help them to take the right decision. So BTL becomes very important for the brand because that is where the actual experience is.

     

    Are there any specific products at Philips for which you only use BT?

    No, that’s not the case. Both ATL and BTL are important. BTL is very important for creating that experience. However, ATL is also important from the imagery point of view. It is not like we do specific activations for specific categories, it is all about what we want to achieve. So if we want to build up the imagery in the viewers mind, then we use ATL as a tool, and if we give that experience through BTL, it helps as well. Of course BTL is very important for newer categories, wherein people have very limited knowledge.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    It varies from year to year depending on what is our strategy for that year. But on a very typical basis it’s around 60-40. That is 60 percent ATL and 40 percent BTL.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    We do a lot of branded activities. So we send our branded salespersons to various stores so that they can demonstrate our product better. We do a lot of dry and wet demos as I said, we do a lot of point-of-sales material, we have also started with a few innovative things this year, like we did road shows, flash mobs, etc to create more and more awareness among the consumers.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We do it through our specialised creative BTL agency, because it requires a little different skillset when it comes to BTL activities. However, the creative part we leave it to the brand, and our agencies that do the creative bit of it, but when it comes to the execution of it, it is always a specialised BTL agency.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Well it’s difficult to say. Of course, when it comes to BTL, there is direct contact with the consumers. Hence you have the proof point as far as the conversions are concerned and it is easy to measure BTL activities. So it always shows up technical results and points, however, when it comes to imagery as I said, and scale, ATL is equally important. So it will be unfair to say BTL is getting more results. BTL in the coming years has become more and more importantto create that experience for the consumer.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    It again depends on the category and what we want to do. In certain categories even the number of people contacted can be a measure of success. Because if it’s a new category, a new concept and you just want to create the awareness, then if you reach a certain number of contacts, then even that could be a success parameter. However for certain categories, we lay down specific targets and numbers of the number of people contacted and the conversions out of that. If you look at only sales, then a lot of BTL activities would be limited to shopfloor activations only. If you look at street plays, they will not deliver any sales for me, but it is about what is the type of awareness that has been created, how many people were able to witness what we wanted to communicate. That’s why BTL has evolved. Earlier, BTL was directly related to sales, now it is much more than that.

     

    There are many organisations that often do new launches almost entirely on BTL-aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    I think for consumer goods, this has been true for quite some time. You will see many brands have introduced categories only through BTL activities, because when you have a very focused market approach and you have some of the markets in your mind, you can always take BTL as your only vehicle to newer categories and products, in a very focused, limited and mostly experiential way. That’s where BTL helps, and that is very important in the consumer goods space and not only today, but in the past as well, I have seen many brands use only BTL as a vehicle to launch their categories, and they have been successful doing that. I think it’s about the task that you have at hand. I would say yes BTL has that chance, when you have a focused market approach, but when it comes to scale and imagery ATL is required because that first gives you a bigger and better reach, and it also creates an imagery in the minds of the consumers. That’s where ATL is important. BTL, depending on the job at hand, can standalone deliver the category launches and all, but it all depends on what you want to achieve. For example, when we wanted to market the air fryer only in five metros, we used the BTL vehicle, we went through activations, created the buzz, created that experience and contacted consumers. When we thought we need to scale up and reach more consumers, that’s when we used ATL.

     

  • It is not a question of mass media versus below-the-line. It is an era of mass media plus below-the-line., says Amit Arora, Head of Marketing at Trivitron Healthcare

    BTL Baatein: Amit Arora, Trivitron Healthcare… Powered by VISCOMM

    Amit Arora is a postgraduate in the field of marketing from Punjabi University. He holds rich expertise and experience of over seven years in the healthcare industry with marketing as a prime domain. He is been associated with Trivitron Healthcare for more than a year. Prior to Trivitron, he was working with HealthFore Technologies (formerly Religare Technologies (Healthcare IT organization of Religare/Fortis Group) and Hindustan Times.

     

    As Senior Manager- Group Marketing & Corporate Communication, he heads brand & marketing activities and brand communication management (internal/ external) for Trivitron Healthcare and other group companies. Amit Arora speaks responds to Dyanne Coelhi for this edition of BTL Baatein

     

    What is the importance of BTL in the space of healthcare products?

    BTL is growing prominence in the marketing space as it is more customized and personal. Especially in the healthcare segment, BTL activities play a vital role to reach out to the right target audience. Healthcare is a personalized industry and each one’s requirement will differ. In order to reach out to individual audience and cater their specific needs BTL plays a prime role. BTL in healthcare also helps in sampling when the TG is niche, when budget is a concern and the brand wants to have a consumer connect. BTL has better ROI and physical display of healthcare products for better understanding and awareness.

     

    Are there any specific products or services for which BTL activations are used at Trivitron?

    Trivitron Healthcare is one of the largest Medical Technology Company of Indian Origin, offering 360 degrees products and solution with presence in Laboratory Products, Imaging/ Radiology Products, New Born Screening, Critical Care & ICU products, Operating Room, and Ophthalmology. For all our verticals we widely use BTL activities such as targeted healthcare conferences, events, CMEs etc. We at Trivitron participate/ organize more than 80+ domestic events & conferences and 10+ International events to showcase our products & solutions and reach out to the right audience.

     

    With 8 manufacturing facilities spread across Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Helsinki in collaboration with international partners, we manufacture products across In–Vitro Diagnostics (IVD), New Born Screening, Patient Monitors, Imaging/ Radiology, Intensive Care and OT. We do many collaborative BTL activities with our channel partners across the globe for our manufacturing range of products.

     

    How important is BTL activity to your overall marketing plan?

    For us BTL is one of the prime pillars for product promotion activities. For our domestic as well as international market event participations, engagement activities, emails, brochures,  with healthcare fraternity is of major role. Our annual marketing plan is very well segregated and all activities are measured in return of investment (ROI).

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Considering BTL is our main focus, we allocate 60 percent of our marketing spends in BTL activities and remaining in Online and ATL activities. For us digital activities/ campaigning is more important than ATL. With internet taking a big spin for B2B and B2C segment, online looks more lucrative for today’s marketers. The power to reach the right audience, right geography, at a mass scale is making digital a clear return on investment platform. With the internet reaching increasing many fold, I am sure digital will take a major pie of our spending in coming years.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    Under Below the line activities, we do majorly the healthcare event participations, focused group road shows in targeted cities, Product demonstration forums for healthcare fraternity, emails, brochures, awareness drives and collaborative activities with our channel partners for market penetration.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We primarily do this through our existing agencies and sales and marketing teams in all our regions.

     

    In terms of generating results esp from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Since BTL is more targeted and specific, it is considered to derive better results and returns. However, online is the future and consumers are connected much more and have more information and choices at their fingertips today. The rise of such digital activities and resulting data is the stimulating factor for formulating strategies, thus affecting the business model and driving growth for players in the Indian market. On the other hand ATL advertising tries to reach out to the mass as consumer audience and not accurate in terms of ROI.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    For any of the BTL activities, the assessment begins with the right audience, cost to reach, cost to generate a lead for a business/ product and at the end cost per acquisition of a customer. But definitely, the first measure would be the right audience turn around & reach.

     

    There are many organizations who often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    BTL with a digital blitz would be the right mix in coming days for new launches or rather for regular brand activities as well.

     

    It is not a question of mass media versus below-the-line. It is an era of mass media plus below-the-line.

     

  • Some brands do launch with BTL as their marketing backbone, but that’s not a one-size-fits-all model. A combination of ATL, BTL and Digital is in my mind critical and the most effective, says Vidur Patney, National Director, Maxus Experiential Marketing

    BTL Baatein: Vidur Patney, Maxus… Powered by VISCOMM

    After this education in India and the UK, Vidur Patney, National Director, Maxus Experiential Marketing, has worked for nearly 20 years across the marketing spectrum. Recently, he has worked with Encompass, Dentsu and most recently Globox until joining Maxus earlier this year. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Vidur Patney speaks on the importance marketers give to BTL activity in their overall marketing plan, and more.

    What is the importance of BTL in the world of advertising and promotions?

    Experiential marketing has over the last few years moved more centerstage as a tool to promote and engage with consumers. Advertising has been the medium of choice for years and has largely worked, but today consumers are smarter, more aware and crave personalised interaction, that’s why more and more marketers who want to have one-on-one conversations with consumers are looking at experiential marketing as the medium of choice.

    What would you say is the importance marketers give to BTL activity in their overall marketing plan?

    Brands that need localised solutions are far keener on going down the BTL route, as are brands that need to provide specific personalized information to consumers. The lines are however a bit blurred and the need is defined by the information to be delivered. Having said that, BTL spends are on the rise. But it’s not just BTL, digital solutions are also gaining popularity.

    Are there are certain types of marketers who have a greater affinity for BTL? (eg FMCG, durables, auto, etc)

    Any marketer who wants to engage with consumers will by and large look at BTL solutions as the way forward. FMCG brands use BTL as a tool not just to promote products but also for sampling new products. Auto brands, use BTL to expose the physical car or bike to a larger audience and give them a 1st hand touch and feel of the vehicle beyond a showroom. So, yes, different brands use BTL in for different needs and to achieve different results. BTL is also a great tool for influencing consumers at the point of sale.

    Typically what is the break-up of spends…. ATL v/s BTL?

    Varies from industry and brand, but is fast growing. For some it’s close to 30-40% for some even higher.  But as mentioned, looking ahead, a BTL – Digital solution is the way forward. Consumers will demand it and brands will have to follow suit.

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion for your clients?

    Ranges from localised promotions to mall displays to school and college contact programmes to modern trade activities, events internal and external, roadshows, conferences and exhibitions. Quite honestly just about everything and everywhere.

    In terms of generating results esp from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    A tough one to call. BTL solutions provide more focused results as compared to traditional spray and pray advertising. So if the need is to engage with consumers one-on-one, BTL is the way. But here again having a digital layer is critical.

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you/your clients look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    It depends on the requirement. If it’s a new product launch and sampling, then that’s measurable, but if it’s just promoting a product to drive sales, it’s very tough to work out the math on how many people bought a product after any sort of BTL engagement vis-à-vis an ATL campaign. The only other measurable element is cost per contact. Participation and experience delivered are tough to quantify.

    There are many organisations who often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this? Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    Some brands do launch with BTL as their marketing backbone, but that’s not a one-size-fits-all model. A combination of ATL, BTL and Digital is in my mind critical and the most effective.


  • BTL is not a cost-effective solution for a brand always and at times the cost per contact is a bit higher. But it surely provides more scope for customisation/ innovation and ensures reach and optimum visibility, says Sidharth Ghosh, Vice President, pSLIVE of the Dentsu Aegis Network

    BTL Baatein: Sidharth Ghosh, pSLIVE,…. Powered by VISCOMM

    BTL is not a cost-effective solution for a brand always and at times the cost per contact is a bit higher. But it surely provides more scope for customisation/ innovation and ensures reach and optimum visibility.

     

    Sidharth Ghosh, a management graduate in marketing from MET, has over 15 years of experience in the functions of Experiential Marketing and also has keen interest in PR,  Branded Entertainment as well as Sports Marketing. He has played an important role in creating Planman Life, the events division at Planman Consulting. He established the branded entertainment and PR arm at Carat Fresh Integrated, now psLive. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Sidharth Ghosh, Vice President, pSLIVE of the Dentsu Aegis Network, speaks on how BTL compares with ATL and why.

     

    What is the importance of BTL in the world of advertising and promotions?

    BTL is an important aspect for any brand’s promotional campaign. BTL spends in India is growing and is an integral part of the advertising Industry. It involves promotional techniques which aim to reach consumers more directly and in an extremely controlled environment.

     

    What would you say is that the importance marketers given to BTL activity in their overall marketing plan?

    BTL platform gives marketers the opportunity to customize their messaging in a more personal manner. They also provide marketers valuable insights into their return on investment.

     

    Are there certain types of marketers who have a greater affinity for BTL? (eg FMCG, durables, auto, etc)

    It depends on the category and the product lifecycle. FMCG has a greater affinity for BTL compared to others but other categories are catching up fast. Luxury goods focus more on word of mouth and direct selling.

     

    Auto sector too is quite active in the BTL domain – be it new car launches or promotions. Increasingly, be it lifestyle, retail or education, more and more categories are using BTL to influence their TG.

     

    Typically what is the break-up of spends….ATL v/s BTL?

    Marketers are using BTL advertising and allocating increased budgets toward this segment to reach out to their consumers. Earlier the trend tallied around the 20:80 ratio for BTL and ATL but now the market dynamics are changing. There are brands that primarily focus on BTL for new brand launches whereas for others the mix could be 40:60. It purely depends on the marketing objective.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion for your clients?

    We at psLive aim to re-define the way brands are built through engaging experiences. We are a new age experiential agency and undertake both urban and rural activation as part of our activation business.

     

    For urban markets, we do product launches, lifestyle events, roadshows, mall promotions, trade engagement programmes, school/college contact programmes etc whereas for rural activation we undertake haat and mela activation, road shows, rural engagement activities etc. We have also started a specialised exhibition arm.

     

    In terms of generating results esp from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    BTL has a more ROI-based approach and a lot of our brands have successfully achieved their desired marketing objective. Both the avenues surely complement each other.

     

    There are many organisations who often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    Brands are now looking at more innovative and non-traditional way for launches and BTL provides the platform. In fact sports and entertainment are also emerging mediums for brand activation.

     

    BTL is not a cost-effective solution for a brand always and at times the cost per contact is a bit higher. But it surely provides more scope for customisation/ innovation and ensures reach and optimum visibility. Considering the current trend, BTL is only going to gain more momentum and the market will see interesting innovations.

     

  • BTL is an essential part of the marketing mix, it complements ATL and, marketing RoI should always be calculated on overall spends, says Vineet Jain is General Manager – Marketing, Consumer Product Division, The Himalaya Drug Company

    BTL Baatein: Vineet Jain, Himalaya Drug Company…. Powered by VISCOMM

    Vineet Jain, General Manager – Marketing, Consumer Product Division, The Himalaya Drug Company, started his stint at Himalaya in 2008 as Marketing Manager for the consumer  products division for South East Asian region based out of Singapore, where he was  responsible for building awareness for brand Himalaya, increasing distribution in mainstream  retail outlets and crafting the marketing strategy aimed at driving consumer connect.

     

    In his five-year stint at Himalaya Singapore, he successfully built the company’s equity in the face care segment, especially driving awareness for Purifying Neem Face Wash & Nourishing Skin Cream. He was also responsible for the success of AyurSlim, Himalaya’s weight management product, in the APAC market. At the end of his assignment in Singapore, he had established Himalaya as one of the top selling brands in leading retails chains including  Watsons and Guardian Pharmacies.

     

    In 2013, Vineet moved to Himalaya Global Holdings in Dubai as the General Manager for brands across all Himalaya subsidiaries. In this role, he was closely involved with product innovation and global portfolio management strategy.

     

    Presently, as General Manager – Marketing for the Consumer Products at Himalaya India, the  fastest growing division within the company, Jain is responsible for driving the division’s growth and building the company’s presence in key categories including oral care, men’s personal care and hair care. Prior to joining Himalaya, he has worked with SAB Miller, ITC Limited and Proctor & Gamble. He loves playing cricket and reading fiction.Vineet completed his MBA in Marketing and Systems from IIM Calcutta and engineering from NIT Raipur. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Vineet Jain speaks on Himalaya’s BTL activity in the personal care space and how it’s a vital component in the consumer products major’s marketing strategy…

     

    What is the importance of BTL in the space of personal care products?

    BTL Communication helps personal care brands make an impact during the ‘first moment of truth’, where the consumers experience the brand, its products’ and make their purchase decision.  In the AIDA sales model, while ATL communication drives the stimulus or awareness, BTL helps in increasing ‘interest and desire’ for the brand. It is BTL interaction that gives the marketer the ability to tailor their messaging in a more personal manner to the audience. However, in today’s day and age, most of the companies follow Through the Line or Integrated Marketing Communication for all their campaigns to ensure connecting with consumers through all moments of truth.

     

    What are the specific products or services for which BTL activations are used at Himalaya?

    We use BTL activations across our portfolio and at various consumer touch points.  We have 150 Himalaya exclusive retail outlets across India where we use glitzier in-store displays, provide testers to experience the products and showcase the story behind our products. We have a year round ‘Pure Skin Facial’ activation running across Indian colleges for consumers to experience our face care range including Face Washes, Scrubs and Packs.  In Modern Trade, for Moisturizing Aloe Vera Face Wash (MAV) our focus has been to convert soap users into face wash users for which we created displays of MAV in the ‘Soaps category’ along with putting parasites there. With such BTL initiatives, we have noticed change in consumer behavior and built affinity towards brand Himalaya.

     

    How important is BTL activity to your overall marketing plan?

    Every campaign has a go-to-market strategy that includes exhaustive BTL plan along with ATL. For our recent Anti-Hair Fall Shampoo launch, our impactful in-shop displays helped tap consumers at the point of decision making and purchase. While ATL creates the buzz, BTL helps engage with consumers and gives that further push to influence their purchase decision. To build awareness for our entire hair care range, we launched a BTL campaign ‘Bring Hair Alive’, where bloggers, Facebook fans and followers experience a 6 step hair care solution including Shampoos, Conditioners, Hair Creams and Oils. The campaign so far has travelled to three cities Mumbai, Bangalore and very recently Delhi.

     

    Given your foray in the rural market, do you see a special role for BTL there

    To be honest, rural consumers are cost-inefficient to be targeted through BTL due to high CPC. However, as consumers aren’t over-exposed to brands activations, rural offers undivided attention from consumer if we are willing to invest in BTL.  Today, our most distributed brand, Purifying Neem Face Wash (PNFW), is available in more than 4 lakh rural outlets.  Despite that, rural penetration for face washes is only at 5%.  One reason for the low penetration is the price barrier that we are addressing through our newly launched sachet at Rs 5. We have invested in a large number of branded hangers to capture the ‘air space’ that is currently dominated by shampoo sachets in these rural outlets.  The hangers also effectively communicate our price point thus enabling the rural girl to rethink her personal care basket. We are also planning a BTL outreach programme to maintain facial hygiene and educate the rural girls to get rid of pimples through use of PNFW.

     

    Can you give a broad idea of your spends pie of ATL v/s BTL?

    Our BTL efforts are approximately 30% of our total marketing spends.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion?

    We continue investing in beauty advisors at Point of Sale, in-shop displays, consumer activation at colleges, product sampling through promotion packs and driving conversations on social media as part of our BTL activities.  For example, when Face Packs & Scrubs category was stagnant, we grew the category through BTL by bringing in face wash consumers to packs and scrubs fold. It was a multi-point BTL effort including:  promotion packs like ‘Purifying Neem Scrub’ sample free with Purifying Neem Face Wash, also as mentioned earlier, continuing our on-going Pure Skin Facial across colleges, we in turn scaled it up and created a Guinness Record by providing maximum number of facials simultaneously. These initiatives have helped us built Step 1-2-3 (Wash, Scrub, Pack) merchandising in key modern trade stores, making our scrubs and packs sachet danglers as regular sales units that have higher visibility compared to the counter top boxes.  These efforts helped us build importance of a face cleansing regimen amongst consumers.

     

    Do you prefer to do this through BTL agencies directly or via your existing creative/media agency?

    We prefer to go through specialized BTL agencies for production / activation work.  Although, our creative agency would have contributed to the big idea, these agencies bring out certain nuances that enhance the execution given their experience in the field.  They also are able to provide cost effective solutions given the scale at which they operate.

     

    In terms of generating results esp. from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sure shot avenue than ATL?

    BTL is an essential part of the marketing mix, it complements ATL and, marketing RoI should always be calculated on overall spends.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Sales and Salience are the primary indicators for BTL success.  We also look at Household Panel to provide us net shift of consumers to our brand wherever BTL is implemented. If there is a specific objective for which BTL is activated, we look at shift in certain imagery scores in our Brand Health Track.

     

    There are many organizations who often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    Reach and frequency, trial potential measure, sales and salience are biggest KPIs of a campaign.  An Audio Visual communication is essential to delivering on them.  However, choosing the medium depends on campaign objective and the budgets.  BTL is efficient and cost-effective for targeting a limited and specific group.  Aiding it with digital, increases reach and can definitely work as a full-fledged campaign.  As an example, airline companies use this combo very well (SEM + Direct mailers + Retargeting – ads that follow you if you have shown interest) and we plan to learn from them and implement for few of our brands.

     


  • Marketers today realise that experiential offers a chance to tailor their message in a more personalised way and helps establish a stronger connect with consumers, says Vandana Verma, EVP Leo Burnett & Head of Experience

    BTL Baatein: Vandana Verma, Leo Burnett… Powered by VISCOMM

    Vandana Verma has worked with leading organisations in the two decades that she has worked in the marketing services sector. Teamwork Films, TIC Integrated Marketing Services, Big Live, Ogilvy & Mather where she headed North at Ogilvy Action Live, Mudra Max (VP and Country Head, Mudra Celsius) and since 2012 as with Leo Burnett where she is now Executive Vice President and Head of Experience. In this edition of BTL Baatein, Vandana Verma speaks on how experiential is the oxygen brands need to survive in the marketplace, and more…

    What is the importance of BTL in the world of advertising and promotions?

    Experiential is the oxygen brands need to survive in the marketplace. While mainstream advertising works as an announcement platform for most brands, experiential initiatives help brands cover the last mile and trigger purchase decisions.

     

    What would you say is that the importance marketers given to BTL activity in their overall marketing plan?

    Marketers today understand the need for Experiential. They do realise that experiential solutions is the only way to deliver communication that is targeted at a specific kind of audience. It gives marketers a chance to tailor their message in a more personalised way and establish a stronger connect with consumers.

     

    ROI measurement on traditional platforms is fraught with issues, but not in the case of Experiential. Tracking down campaign performance in an accurate manner is easier and less complicated in Experiential and that’s a huge plus. Marketers are increasingly becoming fans of Experiential. No wonder we are seeing so many agencies enter this space.

     

    In Experiential, one can gather feedback easily and take corrective actions immediately in case of any crisis.  Something mainstream advertising can never achieve.

     

    Are there certain types of marketers who have a greater affinity for BTL? (eg FMCG, durables, auto, etc)

     

    My answer would be NO. The average spends on experiential across brands is about 35-40%, which has risen from 15% three years ago. Activations are most commonly used for sales promotions, branding, launches, channel partner appeasement, channel expansion and lead generation. There are different objectives for different activities. These requirements would remain across categories of marketers.

     

    Typically what is the break-up of spends….ATL v/s BTL?

     

    35-40% BTL, balance ATL and Digital.

     

    Can you also specify the range of activities that you propose to undertake as part of the below-the-line advertising and promotion for your clients?

     

    Leo Burnett Experience is a specialist unit that offers holistic experiential solutions to clients including activation, events and exhibitions and rural marketing across metros and 5,000 small towns and cities. We function in an integrated manner by collaborating with a multi-disciplinary team of strategists and creators.

     

    In terms of generating results esp from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a more sureshot avenue than ATL?

    Strategy driven experiential solutions have always guaranteed results for our clients. Going forward we will explore new ways of solving business problems for our clients.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you/your clients look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

     

    ROI is an obvious measure and every client would use that as a measurement tool, but what clients also look at is the quality of engagement your idea brings to the table. Experiential also seamlessly enables integration across all other media. Most agencies struggle in this regard as they lack the skillsets and the capabilities to enable real integration. Integration of specialists to solve a single brand problem. That’s what makes us unique.

     

    There are many organisations who often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/or digital blitz? Your view on this. Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

     

    We are still at an early stage where clients do not truly understand the role of BTL in growing their business. Most still treat it as just one part of the media mix. However, we at Leo Burnett, are blessed with some clients like Bajaj Auto, Mc Donalds, ITC foods, Coke etc., whom we have partnered in their journey building where BTL plays a substantial role.

     

    I don’t think any major brand entirely depends experiential to achieve what it wants to in the marketplace. Integration is key.

     

    Do you have a view on BTL? Would you like to engage in a conversation on BTL marketing and promotions? Write to us at editor@mxmindia.com with BTL Baatein in the subject line

     

  • BTL is the most effective way of geotargeting in a large country like India, says Mandeep Malhotra, CEO and co-founder, The Social Street

    BTL Baatein: Mandeep Malhotra, The Social Street… Powered by VISCOMM

    Known as one of the best brains in outdoor and experiential advertising and marketing in India, Mandeep Malhotra is co-founder and CEO of The Social Street. With a Masters in Business Advertising from Australia, Malhotra has over 15 years of professional experience in outdoor media. Prior to his stint as President, DDB Mudra and Head of MudraMax, he has worked with Ogilvy & Mather, Rediffusion DY&R and Bates India amongst others.

     

    In this edition of BTL Baatein, Mandeep Malhotra on the important role BTL plays in helping being in touch with prospects on the ground in the process of brand-building.

     

    What according to you is the importance of BTL in the world of advertising and promotions?

    There is no such thing as BTL. These definitions are outdated, but for the purpose of larger audience I will answer:

    a. Technology might be bridging gaps between brands, but people-to-people engagement is the biggest generator of word-of-mouth publicity.

    b. Marketers need to generate experiences in whatever medium chosen. Print/ TV/ Radio/ Digital/ social/ OOH/ Promotions/ Events all coexist and complement each other. Some case studies prove multiple effective touchpoints deliver x multiplier then two medias in silos.

     

    What would you say is that the importance marketers given to BTL activity in their overall marketing plan? Is it getting its due?

    FMCG brands have been giving importance for experiential marketing for sure. The other categories are already working their marketing plans to ensure accommodating most of them. Some wake up late, some wake up early 🙂

     

    Would you say that there are certain types of marketers who have a greater affinity for BTL? (e.g. FMCG, durables, auto, etc.)

    Absolutely. Till you don’t get the consumer to experience or educate them, monologue mediums cant beyond a point deliver sale. Some brands have understood really early in the cycle of building brands that you have to be in touch with prospects on ground. The journey from mind-heart-wallet is well experienced one on one.

     

    And typically what is the break-up of spends…. ATL v/s BTL?

    ATL still gets the major chunk. It would be fair to say 7-10% budgets go into generating experiences, split between events, promotions and sampling.

     

    In terms of generating results especially from consumers and in B2B, do you find BTL a surer shot avenue than ATL?

    Where you have a concentrated audience, one to many (focused) formats work the best. The audience usually has the hint of what is coming their way, therefore concentration levels are higher.

     

    While sales and salience are good indicators of its success, what are the attributes you/ your clients look at to measure the success of a BTL campaign?

    Most of our clients measure success rate by conversions/ impressions or leads generated on promotions campaign. For large events, you usually get feedback from word-of-mouth instantaneously.

     

    There are many organisations who often do new launches almost entirely on BTL aided with an outdoor and/ or digital blitz? Your view on this? Given rising media costs, do you see BTL managing on its own, without ATL?

    There are no lines but yes the best way of geotargeting specially when in a large country like India, distribution takes its own sweet time. BTL works most effective. We do campaigns for clients which link BTL to OOH as gratification. Recently, a great campaign was done for one such client. The proof of the pudding lies in the prospective consumer becoming the brand ambassador for the campaign itself.