MxMIndia

Tag: Punitha Arumugam

  • Wavemaker & Mondelez shine @ Emvie 2024

    Wavemaker & Mondelez shine @ Emvie 2024

    The 24th edition of the Emvies, held last Friday (March22) saw Wavemaker India with 665 points recognised as ‘The Best Media Agency of the Year’ and Mondelēz India Foods Pvt. Ltd. with 440 points declared as ‘The Best Media Client of the Year’.

    Grand-EMVIE
    Grand EMVIE

    EMVIE - Client of the year
    EMVIE – Client of the year

    Grand EMVIE Thirty-five agencies participated to submit 1892 entries, of which 471 entries were shortlisted. Other than one Grand Emvie, 44 Gold and 68 Silver trophies were presented in addition to 88 Bronze prizes.

    Wavemaker India also bagged the Grand Emvie for Mondelēz India’s Cadbury Celebrations. Mindshare with 460 points stood second and EssenceMediacom with 325 points stood third. It was indeed a GroupM show at the top of the agency roster.

    The Emvie for Diversity Equality & Inclusion (DE&I) was awarded to Mindshare for Dove’s Stop The Beauty Test. The Young Emvie of The Year was awarded to Mindshare’s Rowena Rodrigues for Dove – Crafting Cannes-worthy Brilliance!

    Said Rana Barua, Group CEO of Havas India, South East, and North Asia, and President of The Advertising Club: “The calibre of work showcased at the Emvie this year was truly phenomenal. Standing out in their unique ways, each entry exemplified the exceptional quality of work our industry professionals consistently maintain, reaching global standards. We are delighted to celebrate these winners, whose creativity and strategic brilliance set a new standard for excellence. A heartfelt congratulations to all the winners for raising the bar in the media industry!”

    Added Punitha Arumugam, Chairperson, Emvies Committee: “The work submitted for Emvies continues to astound us. Each year, the innovative and ingenious campaigns elevate the industry’s brilliance to new heights. A huge congratulations to this year’s winners! The quality of work witnessed sets a remarkable standard in the media industry, and we are thrilled to see where the continuing work takes the industry next.”

    The prestigious awards were powered by TV9 Network, co-powered by The Times of India, in association with UltraTech Cement, and category sponsors Craving Digital, Celebrity Cricket League (CCL), and South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA).

    EMVIE 2024 AGENCY OF THE YEAR

    EMVIE 2024 CLIENT OF THE YEAR

    EMVIE 2024 RESULTS

  • 12 Industry evangelists to decode inspiring digital campaigns

    The Advertising Club announces second edition of the India Digital Review

    By A Correspondent

     

    After the success of the first edition that addressed the drivers of the tectonically shifting brand ecosystem, The Advertising Club has now announced the 2nd edition of D-Code. The upcoming edition will be held on August 7, 2019, 6.30 pm onwards in Mumbai and will attempt to an idea exchange with 12 Industry professionals showcasing  best in class digital campaigns by their own brands and celebrating other inspiring digital campaigns, all in just 10 -minutes each.

     

    The first round of stalwarts confirmed to speak at D-Code include

    – Bajaj Auto: Sumit Narang, Vice-President, Marketing: Moving the world as the 4th largest three and two-wheeler manufacturer

    – Bytedance (Tik Tok): Sachin Sharma, Director, Sales & Partnerships: Revolutionising short-form digital content

    – Corner Stone Sport and Entertainment: Jogesh Lulla, COO: Talent Management of many sporting icons like Virat Kohli.

    – Dentsu Webchutney: Sidharth Rao, CEO & Co-Founder: Category evangelist making India proud with a lion’s share of global laurels.

    – Facebook: Nirmal Pulickal, Head – Facebook Creative Shop: A beacon for brands to get the most from Facebook and Instagram’s social environment

    – Google: Vikas Agnihotri, Country Director, Google: Just ask Google!

    – Kolkata Knight Riders: Venky Mysore, MD and CEO: A franchise known for upping the cricketing game

    – MX Player: Karan Bedi, CEO: Leading holistic mobile entertainment experience in India

    – McCann Worldgroup: Partha Sinha, Vice Chairman and Managing Director: World leaders in creatively driving effective marketing services

    – Nestle: Rashi Goel, VP- Consumer Communication Media, CRM & NHW: Global leader in Food & Beverage

    – Swiggy: Srivats TS, VP Marketing: Driving the digital revolution in Foodtech

    – Kenny Sabastian, comedian: Redefining entertainment

     

    Speaking about the second edition of the review, Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, media and OOH, Madison Communications & President, The Advertising Club said: “Digital occupies a higher share of mind space of marketers than the share of spends. Partly because they are still trying to figure out how to unleash the true power of Digital. D-Code is the most important calendar entry for these marketers, because it is the only forum where numerous Digital practitioners, will share their best work, someone else’ss best works, and give their essence of learnings on what worked. Miss it at your own risk.”

     

    Speaking about the need for a Digital Review, Aditya Swamy, Head, Agency Partnerships and Creative Services at Google and Managing Committee member, The Advertising Club said: “Curating D-Code with Punitha, we have looked to get views from all sides of the eco system. Publishers, marketers and agencies will put their work and the work of the industry under the scanner to tell you in a rapid-fire format the kind of work that truly makes the cut across creative, media and data. With over 500mn users, digital is now truly mainstream and cracking the D-Code is a huge opportunity to grow your brand and business.”

     

    Added Punitha Arumugam, digital evangelist and Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club: “Similar to D-Code last year, we are ensuring a speaker list that represents the vast and multifaceted dynamics of the online world. Our speakers this year once again include a mix of the established and emerging online publishers, a client list that spans the traditional advertisers to pure online commerce  businesses, representation from the agency world , creators who have built their brands online and the speaker list would not of course have been complete without cricket given its dominating online presence this year . We hope at the end of D-Code 2019, the 24 case studies and 36 tips from these 12 speakers over just two hours would provide great insights on how to use online for brands and business.”

     

  • Yes, the Annual Digital Review 2018 on Wednesday, The Advertising Club conducted a winner of an event

    D-Code, D-Cool!

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Okay, we know the headline looks very pluggy, but hey we aren’t xxxx or yyyy and we don’t get influenced by anything at all. The inaugural annual digital review conducted by The Advertising Club on Wednesday evening in Mumbai was a winner of an event. If anyone complained of event fatigue in the A&M fraternity given the hundred thousand  events and awards conducted by all and now even sundry, this was super. Started not too late – just 45 minutes, and many thought it will be at least twice that. In fact as we told someone this morning: we were touched by the response.

     

    There was no entertainment dhinchak. And those of thought we would starve of F&B given the 150-min sitting, well, the drinks were flowing liberally, as were the chaknas. And, heck, they were even serving Hoegaarden!

     

    But before we go further, let’s look at the downers: One, we thought there was at least one of the speakers went pretty off the brief though tried to offer tips at the end. Two, we missed Agnello Dias. He is an impactful speaker and behind his understated demeanour, there’s a lot of ‘dum’. Aggie is down with conjunctivitis, and wanted to spare us of the infection.  Three, the food was superb, but there were loooong queues. Guess no one expected such a full house, and more importantly, people staying back till the end.

     

    So the brief to the speakers was: share an example of your own work, one work you admire and three learnings you would want to share with the audience.

     

    On the stage were: Ajit Mohan- CEO, Hotstar, Anupriya Acharya- CEO Publicis Media, Anuradha Aggarwal- CMO, Marico, Arun Iyer- Chairman & CCO, Lowe Lintas, Juhi Kalia- Head of India & Anthology APAC for Creative Shop, Facebook, Rahul Johri- CEO, BCCI, Mohit Kapoor- VP Advertising, Reliance JIO, Sam Singh- CEO- South Asia, GroupM, Sapna Chadha- Head of Marketing, India and SEA, Google, Siddharth Banerjee- EVP, Marketing, Vodafone and Tanmay Bhat- Co-Founder, AIB.

     

    Said Vikram Sakhuja, President, The Advertising Club: “The Advertising Club has been at the forefront of driving the A&M industry’s excellence agenda. We are constantly creating forums that enhance the learning curve of the fraternity. With D-Code we have created another engaging property that bring together the industry to debate and deliberate on the stimulating issues of the digital ecosystem.”

     

    Added Aditya Swamy – Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club: “I have always believed in the power of colabs. Inspire and be inspired was the theme of D-Code and bringing together key stakeholders across the industry to crack the digital code was an exciting idea. From my days at MTV where we looked to marry pop culture and brands to now at Google where we unlock the power of digital and tech to deliver value to advertisers, this is a journey that only throws up more and more interesting opportunities. I look forward to being in the centre of this equation as we build centres of excellence.”

     

    And this is what Punitha Arumugam – Managing Committee Member, The Advertising Club said: “Our endeavour while curating D-Code was to create a platform that would showcase pioneering work on digital and facilitate ideas exchange within the fraternity.  We have tried to bring representation of all facets of digital with the versatile panel of stalwarts from across the M&E industry.”

    The five key learnings that the advertising, digital and marketing mavens agreed upon were:

    1. Digital is a medium that everyone is experimenting with and no one exactly knows how to ‘crack-it’. The need of the hour is to approach it with an open mind, keep experimenting and learning from one’s own and each other’s strategies.

    2. Digital as a medium does not exist in a silo. All that media needs are great ideas, beautiful craft and creative people who can utilize the right tools to gain success.

    3. One needs to invest in the right marketing technology, tools, talent and partnerships.

    4 .To execute successful digital campaigns, one needs to fully leverage digital signals, customise messaging, employ data and have performance-oriented goals.

    5 .Partnerships are critical in making digital campaigns effective. Scale for both a campaign and digital as a medium of marketing can be amplified when the power of partnerships is harnessed.

    And one last cool thing about the event: Save Rahul Johri, who we are sure is crazily busy, everyone stayed on till The End. Now which A&M gyaan conference do you find speakers not scooting off after their sessions (and those nine minutes more)?!

    If you want to get an idea of what the three tips each that everyone offered, we recommend a scan of the Twitter timeline of The Ad Club (at https://twitter.com/adclub_in).

  • The appointment comes with the mandate to showcase the power of the Hotstarplatform to leading brands

    Hotstar appoints Punitha Arumugam as Platform Evangelist

    By A Correspondent

     

    Hotstar has announced the appointment of Punitha Arumugam as Platform Evangelist, with the mandate to showcase the power of the platform to leading brands. Arumugam, a media agency veteran, has spent over 13 years at Madison Media where Group CEO was the last position she held and she was later at Google as Agency Director for over five years. While an expert in traditional media, she has now – given her Google experience – increasingly evangelised the use of digital by agencies and marketers.

     

    Before this role, she was at Google where she led itsagency business, first from India and later for the region from Singapore, as Managing Director, APAC Agency for Google APAC. She is currently setting up her own firm in the communications tech space.Arumugamstarted her career in 1990 with Ogilvy in Chennai and subsequently joined Lintas Initiative Media. She moved to Madison in 1999. For the last five years, she has been heading the Emvies organising committee for the Advertising Club.

     

    Commenting on the development, Ajit Mohan, CEO, Hotstar, said “Punitha is a leader in digital who has a fantastic track record of having aided the creation of many agency and brand partnerships in India and around the region. Hotstar is a special place for brands. We are delighted that she is coming on board to help us introduce the unique power of Hotstar to marketers around the country.”

     

    Added Arumugam: “Hotstar is one of the few video platforms in the world that has tremendous scale, very engaged audiences and remains open to advertisers. I believe the world of marketing is evolving quite rapidly, and Hotstar has the unique ability to marry the scale and engagement of television, with the power of audience understanding that digital brings. This is what brands have been waiting for, and I am delighted to play a role in shaping the next phase of the industry’s evolution.”

     

     

  • It seeks to bridge the digital advertising skills gap

    Google unveils second edition of ‘Squared’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Google has announced the second edition of ‘Squared’ – an executive training program that enables advertising professionals to become digital ninjas. Over 50 marketing, media and advertising leaders in India — Dentsu Aegis, Group M, Interpublic Group, Madison, Onmicom Media Group, Starcom and ZenithOptimedia, Shop clues, Max Life — are participating in Squared this year.

     

    The program is designed to impart the next generation of marketing, media and advertising leaders with digital, technological and leadership skills through hands-on labs and mentoring sessions with experts and mentors from the global advertising industry, including Charlie Somers Cock, Head of Global Talent – Impact International , Kunal Shah, Founder – Free Charge, Sapna Chadha, Head of Marketing – Google, Archan Banerjee, Head Digital Marketing – Dabur, Nidhi Bisht, Co-Founder, Director – New Brain Theater Volks, Atul Chaturvedi, Joint Secretary, Dept. of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India and others.

     

    Last year, 40 “Squares” went on to champion change in their agencies. For its second edition, the program will focus on using digital to create innovative and impactful marketing and advertising campaigns, with a particular focus on mobile, digital video and measurement. The two-week intensive residential training program is currently underway in Delhi and will run in Mumbai from July 11th – 22nd.

     

    Punitha Arumugam

    Punitha Arumugam, Head of Agency Business – APAC, Google commented, “Digital is already about 12 per cent of the total advertising spends in India, and is projected to be approximately 30 per cent by 2020. This creates an acute need for leaders who have the skills and expertise to harness the best of the medium. Through our intense focus on training programs such as Squared, we are empowering advertising professionals with deep digital, technical and leadership skills that will help them deliver powerful brand campaigns.”

     

    Squared was first piloted in the UK, where more than 300 professionals from 60 agencies and advertisers participated over a period of time. India is the sixth market of Squared’s global roll-out following London, Singapore, New York, Hong Kong, Germany, Thailand and Indonesia.

     

    Squared is just one example of Google working closely with the agency community in India. Programs like Planner’s Days, YouTube Bootcamps and Mobile Leadership programs aim to contribute to the growth of individuals and organizations. Over the past two years, 1700 Indian professionals have been trained in these programs.

     

  • The event will unfold on 4 February 2016 at Le M’eridien, Gurgaon

    ZenithOptimedia and Google to host Zoogle Day on Feb 4

    By A Correspondent

     

    ZenithOptimedia Group and Google have partnered to present Zoogle Day, a first of its kind event on digital and mobile marketing. The event will unfold on 4 February 2016 at Le M’eridien, Gurgaon.

     

    The ZenithOptimedia leadership, along with top executives from Google will share learnings, insights and case studies where brands have taken the lead in a mobile inevitable world. Some of the subjects that the summit will focus on includes how mobile commerce is shaping up sectors such as banking insurance and telecom, how data driven planning driving programmatic, top trends in ecommerce, the success story of Alibaba and other future-facing business models that are reaping the benefits of a digital economy.

     

    The conference will also have a key address by Craig Greenfield, Chief Operating Officer of Performics Worldwide. Since 2005, Craig Greenfield’s expertise in scaling large client programs and developing company-wide processes and this has helped Performics successfully transition into the first truly global performance marketing agency. In his current position, Craig leads global technology and innovation; a dynamic network of change agents focused on identifying, evaluating and developing new products, services and systems to ensure competitiveness and improved operational efficiency.

     

    Craig works in tandem with Performics’s worldwide leadership, client teams and external partners to help clients identify and capture new business opportunities, negotiate strategic partnerships and enhance operational efficiency.

     

    Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, ZenithOptimedia said, “ZenithOptimedia and Google host Zoogle Day in many top markets around the world and we are very excited to bring this premier event to India. Given the way mobile is increasingly shaping consumer behavior and commerce, we felt this is an opportune time for us to hold this event. Both ZenithOptimedia and Google are leaders in mobile marketing and have valuable lessons and insights to share on the transformation that India is witnessing.”

     

    Tanmay Mohanty, Managing Director of Performics and Resultrix says, “We share a long fulfilling relationship with Google and this event cements this relationship further. They, like us, are driven by the Live ROI philosophy, and have unique data driven insights that help clients derive sizeable share.”

     

    Punitha Arumugam – Director Agency Business India and SEA, Google says “With an estimated 5mn smartphone users being added very month, India’s online populations is expected to cross 500MN by 2018. The Zoogle day chapter we are extending to India is tailored to this reality and will address the mobile and commerce future of this market.”

     

  • The evening saw Shashi Sinha, Meenakshi Menon, Pradeep Dwivedi & Punitha Arumugam speak on combating the challenge of continuous partial attention of audiences

    ‘Is Anyone Listening?’ @ Media Review 2015

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    On a day that threatened to be washed out thanks to a heavy downpour, the Advertising Club hosted its annual event, Media Review 2015, on Tuesday in Mumbai. The speakers included Shashi Sinha, Chief Executive Officer, IPG Mediabrands India, Meenakshi Menon, Founder and Chairperson, Spatial Access; Pradeep Dwivedi, Chief Corporate Sales & Marketing Officer, Dainik Bhaskar Group, and Punitha Arumugam, Head of Agency Business (India & SEA) at Google.

     

    Each speaker spoke on the topic ‘Is Anyone Listening? How Did Ad and Media Industry Combat The Challenge Of Continuous Partial Attention of Audiences.’

     

    “The ad model cannot continue to behave like an ostrich,” Meenakshi Menon said stressing that clients want to see the model changed. Most agencies today have launched a digital unit, but have no idea what to do with it, she added. “Companies live quarter to quarter, clients are restless and CMOs want to change the set up,” Menon said.

     

    Pradeep Dwivedi painted a colourful portrait of the print medium in India. The challenge is of how to get your attention back, he said talking about how we ought to rediscover print. It is not true that print isn’t emotional he said, print can be just as emotional as TV he pointed out highlighting a few print ad campaigns that were much talked about. “Print continues to evolve, and it takes up social issues as well more than any other medium,” Dwivedi said. Marketers need to get out of this metrocentricity, step out of the metros and figure out what people want, he said.

     

    Shashi Sinha, dwelled on the topic of managing media in a continuous partial attention world. He quoted Lord Kelvin, ‘If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it’, he said stressing on the importance of having a reliable measurement system in place. The core reason for the well-being of the industry is measurement, he pointed out. “Programmatic is the buzzword these days and we ought to link digital, TV and print measurement,” he said.

     

    “Big egos have little ears,” Punitha Arumugam said talking about the importance of paying attention to the consumers. “We have to listen to the consumer in this moment, now, not tomorrow,” she said. Arumugam cited examples of advertisements that have paid attention to the needs of the consumer no just on a product level but beyond. She spoke about Dabur’s ‘Brave and Beautiful’ ad campaign as well as Dove’s ‘Be Beautiful’ campaign. She also discussed the thought behind the Horlicks’ ad that set out to prove that Horlicks mixes in milk before you can skip the ad.

     

    Sam Balsara, Founder and Chairman, Madison World led the panel discussion with the four speakers next. The panellists discussed the changes taking place with the dawn of the new media and whether this changes the traditional values in this space. “The pivot is no longer the medium, but the consumer. The industry this needs to change pivot,” Menon emphasised.

     

    Very soon, agencies are going to be independent data providers, Arumugam said. “Tomorrow there’ll be data available in plenty; it’s about how you use the data.”

     

    The evening also witnessed a presentation on AdAsia 2015, Taipei to be held from November 22 to 25, 2015.

     

  • Post their individual presentations there will be a panel discussion with the four luminaries to be moderated by Madison’s Sam Balsara

    Sam Balsara to moderate panel at Media Review

    By A Correspondent

     

    The AdAsia Road Show and Media Review will be held on Tuesday, 21st July, 2015 at 6 pm at the Imperial Hall, 8th Floor, Palladium Hotel, Lower Parel, Mumbai.

     

    The Advertising Club has lined up four industry stalwarts Shashi Sinha, Meenakshi Menon, PunithaArumugam& Pradeep Dwivedi to present the Media Review.  Each speaker will present for 20 minutes. The title of the talk is “Is Anyone Listening?:  How Did Ad and Media Industry Combat The Challenge Of Continuous Partial Attention of Audiences.”

     

    Post their individual presentations there will be a panel discussion with the four luminaries to be moderated by Madison’s Sam Balsara.

     

    Besides the Media Review, a delegation from Taipei is flown in to present the AdAsia Roadshow and the Advertising Club will also handover the travel package, they have lined up with “Kesari” as Travel Partner for the convention and an exciting destination as an Add-on-trip.

     

  • The evening will also witness a presentation on AdAsia 2015, Taipei to be held from Sunday, 22nd November, 2015 to Wednesday, 25th November, 2015

    The Advertising Club to host Media Review 2015 in Mumbai

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club will be organizing its popular annual event, Media Review on Tuesday, 21stJuly, 2015 at 6pm at the Imperial Hall, 8th Floor, Palladium Hotel, Lower Parel, Mumbai.

     

    The speakers who have agreed to make a presentation and later be a part of the panel discussion are Shashi Sinha, Meenakshi Menon, Punitha Arumugam and Pradeep Dwivedi. The title of the talk is “Is anyone listening? : How did the Ad and Media industry combat the challenge of continuous partial attention of audiences.”

     

    The evening will also witness a presentation on AdAsia 2015, Taipei to be held from Sunday, 22ndNovember, 2015 to Wednesday, 25th November, 2015 at the Marriott Hotel, Taipei by a delegation that will be flown in from Taipei.

     

    The Presenting Sponsor for the event is Colors and is powered by Dainik Bhaskar.

     

  • This year the event will have three experts presenting for 30 minutes each followed by a QnA session with the audience

    Ad Club’s Media Review sets its date with members

    By A Correspondent

     

    The Advertising Club’s Media Review has been a hit with the members over the years. It started out with a solo speaker presenting his perspective and the luminaries that did the event as sole presenters included Sam Balsara, Sameer Nair and Subhash Chandraji.

     

    Later the format was tweaked and presented as a panel discussion. Some of the luminaries who were panelists included Nandini Dias, Pratap Bose, Punitha Arumugam, R. Gowthaman, Farokh Balsara etc. This year the event will have three experts presenting for 30 minutes each followed by a QnA session with the audience.

     

    Discovery Communications India has come on board as Presenting Sponsor whereas PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited will be the Associate Sponsor.

     

  • While it's known the former Madison Media CEO has quit Google, her next destination is unknown. For now, it's just some travel

    Will Punitha Arumugam revert to the media agency business?

    By A Correspondent

     

    Punitha Arumugam

    One of the media agency business’s best known second-in-commands until mid-2012, Punitha Arumugam, director, agency business at Google India, has decided to move on after a two-plus-year stint at the search-to-everything digital conglomerate. She will be in at work until November 30.

     

    While Ms Arumugam has confirmed the news and plans a holiday, what is known at the time of writing is her next destination. Could it be a media agency or working with a media owner, there is speculation on which direction she will head to next. She had surprised many when she exited Madison Media as CEO, an organisation she had worked at for around 13 years. However, even as she moved to Google, her linkages with the advertising business were strong. She has in fact been the chief organiser of the very successful Emvies Awards of the Advertising Club over the last few years.

     

  • No longer an option, going digital for publications is now a question of how, and how best, to reach and satisfy consumers

    Digital is changing the publishing game: IMC panel

    By A Correspondent

     

    There is a revolution happening in India, and publications have to ride the wave. This has been the dominant theme ever since the digital eruption began, and the urgency has only grown. The message was echoed at the panel discussion on ‘The State of Digital Publishing – Challenges and Opportunities’ on the second day of the Indian Magazine Congress.

     

    Kirthiga Reddy, Director, Online Operations, and India Head, Facebook, said that according to the Indian Readership Survey, digital media has been growing faster and bigger than print media, and its drivers are technology and changing consumer behaviour.

     

    On the technology side, India has the highest growth rate in internet adoption. “We are in the midst of a smartphone, tablet, featurephone revolution,” she said. “On the consumer side, consumers want to find exactly what they want, when they want it, as the pressure of time is intensifying, and this is changing how people are doing things.”

     

    There are three big opportunities in social media, Ms Reddy said. One is reach, the second is two-way interaction, and third is using that interaction for unprecedented personalization. “On the Facebook platform for example, you can reach one billion people globally. Marketers need to think about platforms including the lowest end feature phones, as well as using the range of regional languages.”

     

    People do not just want to consume information, they want to interact and share it, she said. This desire to share is higher in India than the global average. Some best practices are to have a content strategy that leverages the power of each platform, it’s not about one content strategy for all. The most effective use of social media is when the company thinks of social media as part of everything that they do; it is not something separate.

     

    Moving on to personalization, Ms Reddy said that in five years from now, it will be unthinkable that an individual goes to a website and sees the same thing as other individuals. Consumers are going to demand personalization. No one is going to have the time to flip through pages and pages of matter which is irrelevant to them. One challenge to highlight at this time, she said, is education to help people navigate the new world of new and social media.

     

    Umang Bedi, Managing Director, South Asia, Adobe, said the global trend is to put digital first, and India has to keep in step. The way the world looks at content strategy is about taking content into a digital format first, giving the flexibility of creating content any time anywhere, and rendering that content and distributing it. Then it is about optimizing, personalizing and monetizing the content, breaking down the traditional silos. Adobe, he said, is very close to a solution for meeting the consumer need of personalized customization.

     

    “Mobile traffic has exploded in India, and everyone wants to put content in digital format. And every time someone goes online and interacts, they leave a digital set of signals. Brands need to listen to these signals, assimilate data and make decisions based on these observations which are tailored to each individual. Conversions grow by 4x or 5x when brands are able to differentiate themselves in this way,” Mr Bedi said.

     

    Punitha Arumugam, Director, Agency Business, Google India said that thinking about digital has to go beyond desktop and mobile, but the context is likely to become one comprehensive device – the Google Glasses – as early as by the end of the year. Adapting publishing to existing digital devices has to include developments of the future such as this, she said, which will change the way consumers interact.

     

    The advent of technology has ended up making consumers increasingly lazy, she said, and this also influences the way brands reach them. She cited the example of pizza company Red Tomato, which has a fridge-magnet application that can be used to order pizza instantly based on previously ordered choices. However, when reading a magazine online, consumers behave the same way as they do with magazines in hard copy, she said. Which is, they stop at pages, stop at ads, etc, in contrast with other online behaviour which is search-oriented.

     

    In the publishing space, magazines need to be frenemies rather than enemies, Ms Arumugam said, highlighting that collaboration can help the industry as a whole, and thereby benefit individual brands as well. She also added that measurement needs to include online readership as well as the traditional offline numbers, and the next IRS, in collaboration with Google, would be tuned to reflect this.

     

    The discussion was moderated by Pradeep Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of Cybermedia.