‘Untangling Marketing Convolutions’ is the tagline for the 12th Marketing Conclave presented by the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).  And ‘Untangling’ it was from the word go. Day 1 of the two-day event started with a welcome address by Tushar Vyas, Managing Partner- South Asia, GroupM and a special address by D Shivakumar, Chaiman and CEO, PepsiCo India. The day was predominantly centered on digital marketing, better way of utilising the platform and the digital future of India.
A chat about ‘Global Marketing’ was conducted by Virginia Sharma, Director- Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn India with Sameer Desai, Head of Consumer Healthcare, Mundipharma and VP Asia Pacific, World Federation of Advertisers. At the start of the conversation, Sharma announced that 58 per cent of LinkedIn consumers access the network through mobile, which began the conversations on what are the learnings from emerging and global markets. Desai shared his own experience and challenges that he faced when he entered the pharma sector and about global marketing. He said: “The challenge was to consumerise the pharma model.†Desai also said that it is very important to understand the internal organisational culture while going global. “Working together and maintaining coordination within each department is the key,†he said when asked to give some tips for being a business leader. Sharma and Desai both praised the way e-commerce has fared in India and suggested that instead of looking West, we should be focusing within the country. In conclusion, Desai said research is an important part but it should not dominate decision making, the moment that happens, people stop being marketers.
Moving from global marketing to marketing technologies, the first panel discussion moderated by Sourabh Gupta, Engagement Manager, Tata Strategic Management Group started. ‘The age of marketing technologists’ was the topic and panelists included Manav Sethi, Group Head- Marketing and Digital Platforms, Head- Classifieds and Deals, AskMe Group India and Malaysia, Gunjan Soni, Chief Marketing Officer, Myntra, Pallavi Chopra, Head Marketing, redBus.in, Mohan Menon, Head Marketing, Max Healthcare and Sanjay Tripathy, Senior Executive Vice President- Head Marketing, Analytics, Digital and E-Commerce, HDFC Life. The discussion was divided in to four parts: the cultural change in companies due to digitisation, KPIs beyond sales and marketing, the changes in roles within the organisation and leveraging digital marketing dashboard. In the context of digitization, Soni said: “It has impacted quality and speed of decision making†and was quick to add that digital is a way of living for Myntra. The panelists agreed that the widespread digitisation has helped in breaking the hierarchies within a company. Consumer engagement and creating a consumer centric product were some of the major talking points in this discussion. Chopra shared that his company has developed a unique algorithm bus code to understand the consumer demands better and so that the bus operators start taking the consumers seriously. A case study session was being taken in parallel by Theodore Hayes, AVP Analytics, iProspect Communicate 2.
Next was a presentation followed by a discussion session with the presenters. The presenters included Apurva Chamaria, Vice President and Head Corporate Marketing, HCL, Virat Khullar, Head Marketing, Renault India, Karthik Jain, EVP Head Marketing and Customer Analytics, HDFC Bank and Raja Hussain, Chief Executive Officer, Airloyal, who also moderated the discussion. The topic was ‘ Maketing Automation: Golden opportunity for marketers’. Chamaria was the first presenter, he discussed the transition from MarCom (Marketing Communication) to MarTech (Marketing Technology) and now, MarOp (Marketing Operations). He said there is a need for agile marketing strategies in MarTech through personalisation , geo-based targeting, programmatic SEO strategy etc. The next presenter, Khullar shared how Renault launched its new car Kwid in the digital platform and developed an exclusive app for it. He emphasised on the effective usage of social media for marketing automation. Jain, named his presentation ‘Sharper Marketing’ and he said that it is very important to be customer centric. He also advised that the Analytics and Campaigning teams have to work closely to succeed. Last but not the least, Hussain focused on how feedback is the life blood of marketing and it can be used to make a bigger impact. The discussion that was followed mainly highlighted the personal experiences and the challenges that each panelist faced in their respective fields. The common consensus of the discussion was that it is important to understand the consumer psyche and change the mindset about digital, that is digital should be looked as a priority.
Parallel case study sessions were held by Deepak Kumar, Vice President- Ambient OOH, Posterscope India Group and Martin Nygate, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gentay Communications, who took the session on ‘Mobile advertising is killing your brand. What if we could make it powerful?’
After an insightful discussion on various techniques of marketing, Tushar Vyasconducted a one-on-one with Prasant Peres, Director- Marketing (Chocolates), Mondelez India. They discussed about ‘The old-new age curve of brands: how new age brand’s marketing techniques are different than old age brands and vice versa’. The chat started with a quick volley of questions thrown at Peres, from which it was concluded that: the ad character Lalitaji is still stuck with him and he is a Kishore Kumar and Shahrukh Khan admirer. After the fun beginning, Vyas was back to the topic of discussion. He asked Peres to describe the evolution of marketing. “Marketing evolved not in the last 10 years but in the last five years, which was quite dramatic. Digital is a big change and we have become a mobile nationâ€, was Peres’s reply. He also added that he was awestruck by the transformation in mobile. “Engagement has become a core point of marketing,†Peres said. Another interesting point that was raised by Peres was that family TV viewing might become nostalgia as the current scenario demands focus on individual demands. He also said the success and failures in digital should be treated similarly as in traditional mediums.
The post-lunch panel discussion was moderated by Deepali Naair, Advisor, IAMAI and the topic was ‘Beyond numbers: The art of digital marketing’. Karthi Marshan, Head Marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Gulshan Verma, Chief Revenue Officer, Times Internet, Priya Jayaraman, Cofounder and Business Director, Propaganda India, Gyan Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, DB Digital and Sanjay R, Marketing and Network Head, Flipkart ads were the panelists. ‘Brand building’ and ‘brand engagement’ dominated most of the discussion. With everyone agreeing that digital offers ample opportunities for brand building and should be used to its potential. A workshop on ‘Out of stock in 24 hours- Marketing Exclusively on Digital’ was being conducted simultaneously by Anthony Padayachi, Associate Creative Director, BC Web Wise and SiddharthPednekar, Business Director, BC Web Wise.
This was followed by a session on ‘Mobile Storytelling’ by Vishal Rupani, Business Head, M-Canvas, Affinity. The highlight of his presentation was he drew analogies between the immensely popular HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’ and the mobile storytelling. He demonstrated a few examples on how advertising can be made interactive and engaging for the audience. “Seduce your consumers through beautiful story telling through brands†was his tip to every marketer.
The last panel discussion was moderated by Milind Pathak, Chief Operating Officer, Madhouse and the panelists were Dhruv Chopra, Chief Marketing Officer, Carwale, PrakashSikaria, Business Head, Flipkart ads, Gaurav Gandhi, Chief Operating Officer, Viacom 18 Digital Ventures (Voot) and Vishal Rupani.  The topic was ‘Mobile: Is it minor screen or the major screen?’ “Digital marketing is equal to mobile marketing†said Pathak at the start and set the tone of the discussion. There was a unanimous agreement that mobile should be given more importance and content for mobile should also be given thought about seriously. “Mobiles should be the only screen looked at,†said Chopra in answer to the topic. “We believe that over time data price will neutralise and you will have opportunity to charge for content as well. The future looks very good of online video per say and eventually every screen will be connected.†said Gandhi, when MxM asked him about consumers not being ready to pay for content.