Future of Brand Agency Relationship and why it has changed forever

` 100

VO LUM E 1 3 | ISSUE 06 | JULY 2019

FUTURE OF

BRAND

AGENCY RELATIONSHIP

and why it has changed forever

FEATURE

Perfetti: 'Center-ed around sustainability and profitability"

BRAND CONNECT

Marketing Herbal, The Lotus Way

TECH

The Road Ahead Traditional Marketing: Digital Marketing

JURY CHAIR

MARZIN R SHROFF MD & CEO

ABHISHEK GUPTA

AJAY DANG

ANIRBAN MUKHUTI

ANUJ ARORA

ARVIND R P

ASHISH OHLYAN

Chief Marketing Officer

Joint Executive President & Head - Marketing

Head Marketing

Head Marketing (Home Textiles)

Director - Marketing & Communications

Head of Marketing & NPD

GIRISH HINGORANI

HITESH MALHOTRA

MINAL SRIVASTAVA

PUNEET DAS

Chief Marketing Officer

VP, Growth, Strategy & Marketing

Vice President Marketing - India

BIDISHA NAGARAJ Chief Marketing Officer

DEEPALI NAAIR Director Marketing

Senior General Manager, Digital Marketing & Ecommerce

IBM India & South Asia

PRESENTS

CO-POWERED BY

ROSHNI DAS

SAMYUKTA GANESH IYER

SHARAD SOMANI

SRINIVAS RAO

VINEET SINGH

Marketing Director

Head of Marketing

Head - Marketing South Asia & IndoChina

Sr. Vice President – Marketing

Head of Brand & Marketing, India

Western Union CO-GOLD PARTNER

ASSOCIATE PARTNER

For all Media Ace Awards related queries, please contact: Cara Dsouza: cara.dsouza@exchange4media.com | +91 9820247582

AWARDS NIGHT

To RSVP for the Awards Night, please contact: Prateek Goyal: prateek.goyal@exchange4media.com | +91 9769124432 For sponsorship opportunities, please contact: Runa Sinha (Chief Revenue Officer): runa.sinha@exchange4media.com | +91 9810497903

6:00 PM ONWARDS

COVER STORY

32

JULY 2019

ADD AN

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Annurag Batra Director Amit Agnihotri Director Nawal Ahuja

AGENCY

EDITORIAL TEAM

Associate Editor Kartikey Ambardar Correspondents Anam Khan Sanstuti Nath Contributor Simran Sabherwal

DESIGN TEAM

Art Director

Shivaji Sengupta

Senior Graphic Designer

Joby Mathew

Photographers Ashish Chawla (Mumbai)

Suresh Gola (Noida) Cover Design

Shivaji Sengupta

AD SALES Runa Sinha (National Business Head) runa.sinha@exchange4media.com - 9810497903

Sneha Walke (VP Special Projects & South Head) sneha@exchange4media.com - 9845541143 Ashish Kudalkar (Regional Manager West - Sales & Business Development) ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com - 9820541742

0FFICES

NEW DELHI: B-47, Ground Floor, Defence Colony, New Delhi -110 024 NOIDA: B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phone: (0120) 4007700 Mumbai: 301, Kakad Bhavan, 3rd Floor, 11th Street, Bandra (W), Mumbai - 400 050 Phone: (022) 2640 3303/09/14/16 Bengaluru: # 18, 3rd B Cross, Domlur II Stage, Bangalore 560071 CIRCULATION/DISTRIBUTION

Vinod Sharma (Delhi) - 9999447209 vinod@exchange4media.com Anandan Nair (Mumbai) - 9819445200 anair@exchange4media.com On News-stands ` 100/www.pitchonnet.com Printed and published by Annurag Batra on behalf of Adsert Web Solutions Pvt Ltd B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Printed at All Time Offset Printers, F-406, Sector-63 Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201 307 An exchange4media Publication

4 | PITCH | JULY 2019

SHANTISWARUP PANDA, CMO, Raymond Limited

VIVEK SHARMA CMO, Pidilite Industries Ltd

MARKETING

Industry leaders gets their perspective A NEW REALITY with an aim to figure out the comparison between bigger agencies starting a vertical on their end versus acquiring or partnering with a smaller agency.

FEATURE

PERFETTI: ‘CENTER’-ED AROUND SUSTAINABILITY & PROFITABILITY With Perfetti Van Melle completing 25 years of operations in India, Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India tells us how the company plans to capture 25% of the Indian confectionery market and maintaining sustainable and profitable growth in the coming years.

16

FEATURE

INTERVIEWS

AIMING TO BECOME INDIA KI PHARMACY

Anand Pathak CMO, Netmeds.com

TECHNOLOGY

08

BRAND CONNECT

MARKETING HERBAL, THE LOTUS WAY

HALLMARK OF GLASS PURITY

48

A R Unnikrishnan Director, Sales & Marketing, Saint-Gobain India

42

Nitin Passi Jt. MD, Lotus herbal Ltd.

GUEST COLUMN

28

52

Y

THE ROAD AHEAD TRADITIONAL MARKETING

DIGITAL MARKETING Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India

HOW AI CAN HELP YOU TARGET YOUR CUSTOMER AND MARKET BETTER KULDEEP CHAUDHARY Chief Executive Officer, ADOHM

53

Rohit Kapoor,

Director - Marketing Operations, Perfetti Van Melle India

SMART MARKETING OF A COOL BRAND YUJI IKEDA Marketing Director, Unicharm India

ACROSS THE GLOBE

12

GADGETS

26

APP STORE

46

RAPIDFIRE

58

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 5

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S NOTE

FUTURE OF BRAND-AGENCY RELATIONSHIP AND WHY IT HAS CHAGED FOREVER T DR. ANNURAG BATRA Chairman & Editor-in-Chief abatra@exchange4media.com @anuragbatrayo www.facebook.com/anuragbatrayo

he last few years has seen a significant change in how the relationship between a brand and the agency has evolved.

The relationship between the client and agency used to be longlasting, collaborative with both being seen as equal partners.

However, today it has been a norm to see brands calling for pitches at regular intervals. The explosion of Digital has also seen the emergence of specialised agencies with brands now working with multiple agencies depending on their requirements. In this scenario, we try to decipher how brands and agencies connect and what drives their relationship. We also look at the pros and cons of bigger agencies starting a new vertical versus acquiring or partnering with a smaller agency.

‘Hila ke rakh de’, ‘Dimag ki batti jala de’, ‘Zubaan per rakhe lagaam’ –these are just a few taglines from advertising campaigns that are now part of the pop culture in India.

What’s common to the above taglines is that they are all for products from Perfetti Van Melle, India (PVMI),the Italian Global confectionery major which recently completed 25 years of operations in the country. As for the future, Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India tells us how the company plans to capture 25% of the Indian confectionery market and maintaining sustainable and profitable growth in the coming years.

Positioned as ‘India Ki Pharmacy’, the Indian online pharmacy Netmeds.com, has grown rapidly, 3.5 -4X just in the last two years. What’s contributed to this is the aggressive marketing that the company undertook since its launch in 2015. Anand Pathak, Chief Marketing Officer, Netmeds.com tells us about the company’s core marketing philosophy, the challenges of operating in the e-pharma space and how associating with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and cricket has helped the brand.

From the medical space to beauty space, we talk to Nitin Passi, Joint Managing Director, Lotus Herbals, who tells us about the brand, talking to millennials in their language and why as a beauty company they are targeting sportspersons and betting on IPL. Also in this issue, we take a look at French multi-national Saint-Gobain’s recent campaign that highlights the measure for purity in a glass. AR Unnikrishnan, Director, Sales & Marketing, Saint-Gobain India Private Ltd. - Glass Business talks to us about 654 PPM- the new standard in Clarity and Purity, the challenges in communicating the purity aspect and more.

PITCH || JULY JULY 2019 2019 66 || PITCH

T W I T T E R AT I

JULY 2019 2019 || PITCH PITCH || 77 NOV-DEC JULY 2018

FEATURE

AIMING TO BECOME INDIA KI PHARMACY Since its launch in 2015, online pharmacy Netmeds.com, has grown rapidly, 3.5-4X just in the last two years. Anand Pathak, Chief Marketing Officer, Netmeds.com tells us about the company’s core marketing philosophy, the challenges of operating in the e-pharma space and how associating with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and cricket has helped the brand.

By Simran Sabherwal

P

Anand Pathak CMO, Netmeds.com

8 | PITCH | JULY 2019

ositioned as ‘India Ki Pharmacy’, the Indian online pharmacy Netmeds.com, started in June 2015, draws its legacy from its parent company, the over 100-year old Dadha Pharmaceuticals. In its very first campaign’, the company’s intent was clear: To announce that the company was ready to service the medical needs of the entire nation. Today, Netmeds.com serves more than 3.7 million customers in more than 610 cities and 19,000 pin codes across the country. Anand Pathak, Chief Marketing Officer, Netmeds.com says, “We understand the importance and seriousness of the business, that we are taking care of people’s lives. As we deal with medicine, it has to be dealt with the utmost accountability and responsibility.”

Online pharmacy is still at a nascent stage in India, and a big challenge for online pharmacies is the lack of online pharmacy laws in India. Conflicting court judgements – The Delhi High Court ordering the closure of all online pharmacies in December and the Madras High Court then suspending the ban after e-pharmacy companies filed an appeal – and the regulatory grey areas have

not helped the sector. However, the government has come out with a draft proposing that only government registered e-portals can sell medicines, and they must retain prescriptions and verify details of patients and doctors. This puts a stop to online marketplace/aggregators from selling medicines. This new policy is expected to be rolled out in the next two to three months. Commenting on this, Pathak says, “We expect some clarity in terms of policy and guidelines for operation of licensed e-pharmacies as prescribed under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act of 1940 in the coming months.

The Madras High Court’s order suspending the ban on online sale of medicines recently, validates our commitment to provide affordable and accessible medicines to

OUR MARKETING SPENDS ARE GOING TO BE DEFINITELY HIGHER, WE WOULD BE SPENDING SOMEWHERE AROUND

15%- 25% MORE THAN LAST YEAR. customers across the country.

As a fully licensed pharmacy, Netmeds.com is committed to adhere to all the guidelines and standards as prescribed under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act of 1940.” Pathak adds that Netmeds. com does not process any order without a prescription, and each order passes through a stringent verification process by a certified pharmacist. Another challenge is delivery and serviceability, particularly to remote areas.

Accessibility, Affordability And Quality Healthcare Netmeds.com rolled out its first pan India campaign within two months of its launch, in August 2015. Speaking on the company marketing philosophy, Pathak says, “Our philosophy is ‘India Ka Khayal Rakhe, India Ki Pharmacy’.

Our core marketing strategy is accessibility, affordability and providing quality healthcare across India. Accessibility means being accessible across the nation. By affordability, we mean that we are not charging extra, and even rewarding customers with some percentage of discounts. Quality health care means we are providing consumers in non-metros the same quality of medicine and healthcare that people in metro cities enjoy.”

A marketing challenge

for online pharmacies is the restrictions on digital marketing placed by Google and Facebook.

Pathak explains that not all the properties on Google or Facebook are available to online pharmacy players. “Due to policy clearance issues, Google or Facebook properties are available in a very restricted manner. These have to be compliant with their legal team.”

Leveraging Dhoni & Cricket What has become a hallmark of Netmeds.com’s advertising is its brand ambassador, Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MSD) and cricket. Commenting on what makes Dhoni a perfect fit, Pathak says, “The synergy and connection between Dhoni and Netmeds.com is strong. Dhoni is one of India’s most successful captains and a trustworthy face.

The Dadha Pharmaceuticals business footprint goes back to 1914. Since he has come on board, we have utilized this connection to connect with his fan base across India. This partnership has worked phenomenally, as we saw a very high up-tick in brand recall, and in some surveys the brand recall was as high as 300%-400%.”

Taking the association with cricket forward, the company has spent heavily on cricket. Last year, Netmeds.com was the title sponsor for India’s Tour of Ireland, and also a sponsor for the 2018 Asia Cup. In January this year, the company was the title sponsor for the One Day International (ODI) and T20 series held in New Zealand. In fact, Netmeds.com launched its latest campaign ‘Har Ghar Mein Mahi’ during this period. Commenting on being cricket focussed, Pathak says, “We had Captain Cool as our brand ambassador, and therefore we had an immediate connection with cricket. For a start-up like ours, we need a celebrity like Dhoni to spur growth. Though spends on cricket are higher, it also deliver the numbers. Compared

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 9

COVER STORY FEATURE to cricket, the numbers from other sports is not that big. Having said that, if we find there is a synergy, we will be happy to associate with other sporting properties too.”

As for Netmeds.com’s preferred media platforms, the company has four main verticals that it focusses its monies on – Television, Digital, Print and Sports – this does not include on-air sponsorships but only on-ground sponsorship and activations.

An important marketing initiative for the company is engagement and educating the consumer. A challenge that the company faced was getting consumers to upload valid prescriptions, as many Indians continue using old prescriptions or even buy medicines without one. “There are rules about what makes a prescription valid, and we have made videos to showcase and educate consumers about it.

We are changing the consumer mind-set and behaviour, as purchasing medicine offline and online is different,” says Pathak.

To educate consumers about this, short videos were made, and since then content marketing has become an important part of the company’s marketing plans. Netmeds.com’s content is divided into three verticals. The first vertical is information about medicines, where the company posts informative short videos about various medicines such as their side-effects etc. Pathak forcefully says that these videos are not advisory in nature, as the company cannot advise consumers on what the medicine is for. The second vertical is curated content for general health and chronic conditions. Depending on the customer’s condition, curated content is sent to them, so a consumer with diabetes is sent curated content on diabetes while one who suffers with hypertension, gets the relevant content. “In each vertical we curate the content and this content is meant for our consumer base, to educate them and take care of them in terms of their health and wellness.” The third vertical is social media, where an in-house social media team is focussed on engaging with consumers.

When asked about the monies that the company is looking at spending this year, he said, “In terms of spending, the company’s

10 | PITCH | JULY 2019

Indian e-pharma market expected to reach $2.7B by 2023: EY A recent report by EY, ‘E-pharma: Delivering Healthier Outcomes’ says that the combined market size of Indian e-pharma players is expected to reach $2.7 billion by 2023, up from the current size of $360 million, in the next four years.

Key Growth Drivers for the E-pharma Industry: • Increasing internet penetration and smartphone ownership • Ease of ordering medications through an ecommerce platform • Increase in chronic diseases • Rising per capita income • Resultant healthcare spend Nearly 35% of the domestic pharmaceutical market relates to chronic medications and the remaining 65% to acute medicines.

Of this, e-pharmacies are expected to target 85% of the chronic market and 40% of the acute medicine market by 2023, up from 25% in 2019.

According to the EY analysis, NetMeds raised $49 million funding in the last two years growth trajectory is focussed on the top line, and our goal is to take it higher. Therefore, our marketing spends are going to be definitely higher, we would be spending somewhere around 15%- 25% more

than last year.” He continues, “Percentage wise, the spends will remain similar in terms of media verticals, and we may reduce the spends on sports. Last year was cricket heavy, and the reach and brand recall that the focus on cricket has given us is amazing.

However, cricket is not cheap.”

Recently, Netmeds.com acquired health tech start-up KiVi Health, a clinic management platform providing cloud based, AI powered tools for effective doctor-patient interaction.

KiVi Health is a practice/clinic management platform, and its USP is built around its unique “digital prescription pad” tool, which allows doctors to generate digital prescriptions. This acquisition is part of Netmeds.com’s goal to transform into a complete healthcare product and service company.

Future Plans: Meds & More The online pharmacy’s association with medicines has also been strengthened partly because of its name, and the brand also has not done much to dispel the notion that there’s more to Netmeds.com.

In addition to medicines, the online pharmacy also sells homeopathic and ayurvedic products and even non-prescription health, wellness and personal care products. In short, Pathak says the company is a one-stop “health and wellness” platform. Recently, the company also launched its service for online consultation with doctors’ and is in the process of launching online lab testing soon, where customers can book appointments for lab facilities online. Currently, Netmeds has 14 Fulfillment Centers (FCs) across the country in 12 cities spanning over 3 lac sq. ft, and will set up 12 more FCs by 2020, in an effort to reach rural as well as urban areas and facilitate quick and efficient last-mile delivery of medicines. Looking at the growth, Pathak says that the company has grown by 3.5-4 X over the last two years with, non-metros accounting for 60% of the revenues. He attributes this to the pan India Television advertising, which helped the brand reach across the country and establish brand Netmeds.com in small town India.

Looking ahead, he says, “We would like to continue to grow at the same speed, i.e. 4X.”

#MarTechIndia

Over 7,000

MarTech Solutions to Choose From Just One Event to

Make Right Choices

WHERE MARKETING MEETS TECHNOLOGY

23.08.2019 THE LEELA AMBIENCE

GURUGRAM, DELHI-NCR CO-PARTNER

MUSIC COMMUNITY PARTNER

TRADE MEDIA PARTNERS

BUSINESS MEDIA PARTNER

www.futureplay.in

For attending the event, please contact: Shilpa: +91 7838151967 shilpa@exchange4media.com

For sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please contact: Runa Sinha (Chief Revenue OfďŹ cer): +91 9810497903 | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com Ashish Kudalkar (GM West-Sales & BD): +91 9820541742 | ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com Sneha Walke (VP Special Projects & South Head): +91 9845541143 | sneha@exchange4media.com Ashima Mehra (Regional Manager - Sales): +91 9899571579 | ashima.mehra@exchange4media.com JULY 2019 | PITCH | 11

ACROSS THE GLOBE

GLOBAL MARKETING NEWS Vistara to go international in second half of 2019

V

istara, the four-year-old full-service carrier from the house of Tata Sons, is planning to launch international services in the next half of 2019.

The joint venture between Tatas and Singapore Airlines, Vistara might also start long and medium-haul flights and take advantage of the void left by the grounding of Jet Airways.

In the annual general meeting

of airlines’ grouping ISTA on June 2, Vistara CEO Leslie Thng said, “We see India as a growing market. We are here for the long

term.” He added that the airline plans to begin its international operations in the next half of this year.

McDonald’s unites marketing, food development and insight under new CMO in UK and Ireland

IKEA recreates living rooms from ‘Simpsons’, ‘Friends’, and ‘Stranger Things ’with its furniture

T M

cDonald’s is restructuring to bring together marketing, customer insights and food development under its marketing leadership team in Ireland and the UK. The change comes after

12 | PITCH | JULY 2019

the appointment of senior vice-president and chief marketing officer Gareth Helm.

Helm replaced former vicepresident of marketing and food development, Emily Somers in May this year.

he Swedish furniture giant IKEA has launched a new, creative marketing campaign called the “Real Life Series.”

With this new campaign, IKEA recreated famous rooms from popular TV shows, Friends, Stranger Things and The Simpsons using its own furniture and products.

With the new campaign, IKEA aims to highlight the wide range of products the

Prasanth Kumar takes over as GroupM CEO as Sam Singh moves on to join ByteDance

Huawei’s disruptive growth despite US sansctions.

D

espite the US ban on the use of its 5G services, Huawei has so far obtained 46 commercial 5G contracts in 30 countries.

Huawei is also working on its own Operating System (OS) called ‘Oak OS’ after Google refused to provide Android software for the Chinese tech giant’s phones. Currently, Huawei is accessing Android on a temporary licence which will expire in August.

After the Trump administration ban, some of the world’s major tech giants have restricted their employees to interact about technical and technology standards with counterparts at Huawei Technologies.

The Chinese telecom giant is emerging as a leader in super-fast telecommunication system industry.

A

s Sam Singh, the current CEO of GroupM, is moving to Tik Tok’s parent company ByteDance as Vice President, Prasanth Kumar (PK) who was Chief Operating Officer, South Asia, GroupM, has been appointed the new CEO. Commenting on PK’s appointment, Mark Patterson CEO GroupM Asia Pacific said, “PK has performed to the highest levels for fifteen years in GroupM and agency leadership roles.

He is uniquely and perfectly positioned to take on the CEO role... PK has been very much a part of our success to date and will be in the years to come in his new role.”

Uber’s operating, marketing chiefs stepping down in leadership overhaul

U

ber’s chief operating officer, Barney Harford and chief marketing officer, Rebecca Messina are stepping down, after a tumultuous stock debut.

In an email to employees, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained that the departures were prompted by his decision to directly control the business core.

Khosrowshahi said “This will allow me to be more

brands sells. “We brought to life the iconic living rooms of the most beloved families of all times, through tons of furniture combinations in lots of different styles and sizes – and at affordable prices,” IKEA says. “We’ve grouped all the products for each room for you, so it’s easy to recreate what you see here in your own home.

Take a look and make your living room iconic with IKEA.”

hands on and help our leaders problem-solve in real time, while also ensuring that we make our platform vision a reality.”

Because of this organizational change, Khosrowshahi said Harford and Messina agreed that their roles in the company “no longer make sense” and decided to leave the company.

Khosrowshahi said he also decided to combine Uber’s marketing, communications and policy teams in order to maintain a “unified narrative to consumers, partners, the press, and policymakers.”

The executive shakeup comes about a month after the ridehailing company went public.

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 13

#TechManch

THANKING our

EMINENT SPEAKERS!

TAMARA MCCLEARY CEO Thulium

THOMAS BARTA Author Former Partner of McKinsey

ARTHUR CARMAAZI Global top 10 thought leader in organizational culture and Leadership

VIKAS AGNIHOTRI Country Director, India Sales Google India

DHRUV DHAWAN Group Head- Accelerator Business Google India

HAANI MIRZA

VISHAL SUBHARWAL AJAY DANG Joint Executive President, Executive Vice President & Head of E-commerce & Digital Marketing Head Marketing, HDFC Life Ultra Tech Cement

SABYASACHI MITTER

Founder&Managing Director Fulcro

Ignition Labs Google India

SURESH NARAYANAN Chairman & MD Nestle India

RAMAKRISHNAN RAMAMURTHI SUHAIL SAMEER Chief Executive CEO Polycab RP - Sanjiv Goenka Group

SURESH THANKAVEL Founder & CEO Augray

ATUL JALAN Founder-CEO Manthan Systems

REENA MISHRA

AMIT GUPTA

Senior Partner, Sales Executive Microsoft search advertising

SAUGATA GUPTA MD & CEO Marico Limited

GM- India Zapr

PRACHI MOHAPATRA CMO Fbb, Future Retail

( L to R): Session Chair : Clyde Nunes, Director-Sales,Truecaller; Jahid Ahmed Digital Content & Marketing, HDFC Bank; Reilly Rebello, Head Marketing, Zee5; Shibu Shivanandan,CEO & Founder, Pivotroots; Suvrita Saumya, Sr. Manager Marketing Communications – Head Digital, CVBUTata Motors; Vishal Chinchankar, CDO, Madison.

( L to R): DJ Suketu; Dhvani Bhanushali, Singer; Amish Tripathi, Author; Dino Jones,Rapper; RJ Vrajesh Hirjee; Ankit Vengurlekar, Editor,Tech2

( L to R): Jayraj Jadhav, Vice President, Head Marketing & Digital Business, TataAIG General Insurance; Nipun Kaushal, CMO,PNB Metlife ; Pallav Jain, Co CEO, Performics India; Vivek Sharma, CMO, Pidilite; Sanjay Mehta, Joint CEO,Mirum India; Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, South Asia, Isobar; Mangesh Panditrao, CEO, Shoptimize; Sachin Killawala, Director, Marketing, Nivea

( L to R): Ajay Dang, Jt Exec President & Head-Marketing, Ultratech; Vishal Subharwal, Executive Vice President & Head of E-commerce & Digital Marketing - HDFC Life; M. Yeshwanth Nag, Founder, The ThickShake Factory; Noor Warsia, Group Editor – Marketing & Advertising BW Businessworld & Digital Market Asia

( L to R): Rishi Sharma- Assistant Vice President & Head Digital Marketing (Brand Liva), Grasim Industries Limited, Pulp & Fibre; Ravi Kumar, VP Partnerships, AdLift; Amaresh Godbole, CEO; Digitas; Rohan Mehta, CEO, Social Kinnect; Pallavi Chopra, RedBus, Vice President- Brand & Head of Marketing

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Priyanka Bhadouria at priyanka.bhadouria@exchange4media.com FOR PARTNERSHIPS, PLEASE CONTACT: Runa Sinha - Chief Revenue Officer | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com | +91 9810497903 Ashish Kudalkar - General Manager-Sales & Business Development (west) | ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com | +91 9820541742 Sneha Walke - VP Special Projects & South Head | sneha@exchange4media.com | +91 9845541143 Ashima Mehra - Regional Manager - Sales (North) | ashima.mehra@exchange4media.com | +91 9899571579 Co-Partners

Associate Partner

Promotion Partner

Gifting Partner

Live Webcast Partner

Knowledge Sharing Partner

Trade Media Partners

CMO Lounge Patner

Music Community Partner

www.futureplay.in

Outdoor Media Partner

Business Media Partner

FEATURE

PERFETTI: ‘CENTER’-ED AROUND SUSTAINABILITY & PROFITABILITY With Perfetti Van Melle completing 25 years of operations in India, Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India tells us how the company plans to capture 25% of the Indian confectionery market and maintaining sustainable and profitable growth in the coming years.

By Simran Sabherwal

H

ila ke rakh de’, ‘Dimag ki batti jala de’, ‘Zubaan pe rakhe lagaam’ – these are just a few taglines from advertising campaigns that are now part of the pop culture in India. What’s common to the above taglines is that they are all for products from Perfetti Van Melle, India (PVMI), the Italian Global confectionery major which recently completed 25 years of operations in the country. Now, PVMI is aiming to capture 25% of the Indian confectionery market in the coming years. This is on the back of innovative products, “massive” distribution network, price point starting from ` 1 for mono-packs and creating value pack formats at higher price points.

The first product, launched in 1994, was the centre-filled chewing gum Center fresh.

Recapping the journey so far, Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India, says, “We’ve managed to significantly delight the consumers through innovative and differentiated products. In the last 25 years, we have built a massive distribution footprint and are available in over four million outlets. Last, but not the least, we have great talented people who work with us. We have managed to grow a good sizable business, which has resulted in us becoming a market leader and remaining on top over many years.” Today, PVMI’s portfolio has seven core brands - Centre fresh, Centre fruit, Alpenliebe, Juzt Jelly, Chupa Chups, Mentos and Happydent - with variants under each mother brand.

Driving Efficiencies

In 2016, de-monetisation and the implementation of GST in the following year, impacted the entire FMCG industry, and PVMI was no exception. The company recorded flat growth during this period, and

16 | PITCH | JULY 2019

last year PVMI went through “a lot of transformation”. “The last couple of years were challenging, and last year we went through a transformation. We tried to get our route to market in place. We worked on driving efficiencies in the system. We are now seeing a healthy double-digit growth, somewhere in the mid-teens,” says Ramakrishnan.

Building efficiency, the focus was on revamping the sales network, with the intention being to increase the number of outlets that PVMI directly targets. Ramakrishnan adds, “The whole idea was to pick up different aspects of the business, whether operations, supply chain, manufacturing, etc, and see how we could build efficiency by taking an outside-in approach: What are the opportunities for driving productivity? What are the best global practices that we can implement in India? There were a host of projects that were done to improve the margins and to reduce the costs.”

Raising The Price Point

Operating in an intensely competitive and fragmented category, PVMI competes with not just national and local players, but also hyper-local players who operate at a price point as low as 50 paise. On its part, PVMI has over the last few years worked on upgrading the price-points across its portfolio, with a single mono unit pack now priced at ` 1. What has helped move up the price point has been innovation, both in terms

of the product offering as well as pack formats. The company is also betting big on multi-unit packs, with PVMI’s two-pronged strategy being to use the ` 1 price point to drive higher penetration, particularly in the semi-urban and rural markets, while in the urban markets the push is on the loyalist consumers who have an affinity towards the brand, to upgrade to the higher price points. An example of the upgrade is Alpenliebe Juzt Jelly, which was introduced in the bag format to promote on-the-go and

Perfetti Van Melle’s journey in India

“THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS WERE CHALLENGING, AND LAST YEAR WE WENT THROUGH

A TRANSFORMATION… WE ARE NOW SEEING A HEALTHY DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH, SOMEWHERE IN THE MID-TEENS.” JULY 2019 | PITCH | 17

FEATURE in-the-home consumption. Today, almost 25%-30% of revenues within the jelly category come from the bags portfolio. Even the mints category now sees a large part of the contribution coming from the higher price points. Says Ramakrishnan, “Ultimately, it’s all about the value you provide to the consumer - it could be in the form of convenience, instant reach, or multiple pieces.”

The Variant Game

In terms of product differentiation, the company is focussed on its seven core brands, with variant brands under each mother brand.

For example, the company recently launched Centre Fresh Mints, an extension of the gum brand Centre fresh - that stands for fresh breath - into the mint candy category.

Elaborating on this, Ramakrishnan says, “It’s about trying to find that sweet spot between what the consumers are familiar with, and combining it with something aspirational, for an experience that they have not had before.”

He further explains, “For instance, chewing gum is a Western concept, and Indian consumers seek flavours which are familiar, like a chatpata flavour, in a chewing gum.

Or putting a spicy guava flavour in a jelly. It’s about finding such unique experiences that we can offer the consumer.” When asked on whether the company would look to introducing new brands – home-grown or bringing down a brand from PVM’s global portfolio, Ramakrishnan says, “In terms of brand assets, we have seven very strong assets, so I don’t think we need to get more brands in at this point of time. What’s important is how do we further build on these brands, what’s the architecture for the brand, and what are the various things that the brand can take under it. The more brands you get and proliferate, supporting them becomes a big challenge. I don’t think we need more brands. It’s about growing the current brands in our portfolio, making them bigger and getting them to scale.”

Looking Ahead

The Indian confectionery market is estimated to be around Rs 12,000 crores, with PVMI garnering more than 20% share, and with the immediate game-plan of cornering

18 | PITCH | JULY 2019

THE POWER OF SEVEN • CENTER FRESH: A center-filled chewing gum with a splash of minty liquid, for a fresh & cool breath, anytime anywhere!

• CHUPA CHUPS: An iconic international brand with innovative range of offerings.

• CENTER FRUIT: A liquid filled fruit flavoured bubble gum • JUZT JELLY: A pulpy jelly made with 25% fruit pulp.

• ALPENLIEBE: The brand speaks to the ‘child in everyone’ & is one of the few brands that has successfully connected with both kids & adults alike.

• HAPPYDENT: A coated functional gum for sparkling smiles • MENTOS: An offering that comes in a variety of mint and fruit flavours. It’s round shape combines taste, freshness and functionality.

“THE MORE BRANDS YOU GET AND PROLIFERATE, SUPPORTING THEM BECOMES A BIG CHALLENGE. I DON’T THINK WE NEED MORE BRANDS. IT’S ABOUT

GROWING THE CURRENT BRANDS IN OUR PORTFOLIO, MAKING THEM BIGGER AND GETTING THEM TO SCALE.”

25% of the market. When asked on how the company is looking to achieve this, Ramakrishnan says, “It’s about understanding the consumers’ needs. We’ve got iconic brands, so how do we leverage these brands to make them more meaningful to consumers? How do we leverage and combine our global expertise and strong local understanding in creating our products? How do we continue to build on the distribution? How do we continuously up skill talent?

The fundamentals don’t change, it’s a question of continuously reinventing ourselves on the fundamental pillars and driving growth.” As for launches, expect to see more new products from the PVMI stable hitting the shopping aisles in Q3 and Q4.

THE MEMORABLE CAMPAIGNS

CENTER SHOCK BARBER AD

CENTER FRESH REPORT CARD

Creative Idea

Creative Idea

Sign-off Line Hila ke rakh de

Sign-off Line Zubaan pe rakhe lagaam

MENTOS CLASSROOM AD

CENTER FRESH SAXENAJI

Creative Idea

Creative Idea

A man enters a local barber’s shop and asks for an Afro hairdo, only to have a Center Shock chewing gum stuffed into his mouth. He shakes uncontrollably and gets the desired hairstyle.

Not only did it introduce consumers to a new brand of liquid-filled chewing gum, it effectively communicated - in a bizarre fashion, the punch the product carried in its belly.

The ad drew a parallel between the ‘Mentos Life’ and an ‘Ordinary Life’. The ad begins with a young student who tries entering a class and is being reprimanded by the teacher for coming late. It then cuts to a second situation (the ‘Mentos Life’) where the student walks backward as if he is leaving the classroom, at which point the teacher sternly asks him to take his seat immediately. The ad established that Mentos consumers had a smarter way of living -“Yeh hai Mentos zindagi” Sign-off Line Dimag ki batti jala de

There have been multiple renditions with “zubaan pe rakhe lagaam” theme. What set these campaigns apart was the portrayal of the protagonist as the butt of all jokes. Be it this particular ad where a son offers a Center Fresh to his father before showing his abysmal report card. Though it doesn’t save him from being beaten.

The commercial tells an everyday story of a young boy, who has an unexpected visitor at the door, a beautiful girl. The girl at the door is looking for someone, who unfortunately doesn’t live there. But the guy decides to tell her so only when he is sure that he is ready to answer in the best possible way – with a mesmerising fresh breath, courtesy Centerfresh. The TVC urges the consumer to keep fresh breath handy.

Sign-off Line Taazi saans, hamesha rakho paas JULY 2019 | PITCH | 19

FEATURE

CENTER FRESH HELLO WALIMINT Creative Idea

The launch campaign for Center Fresh Mints highlights various relatable situations in the lives of today’s youth when you would need instant fresh breath. The film shows discrete consumption of the mints by a boy or a girl in different situations (where they are going to interact with the opposite sex) like classroom, library, night party, lift, new neighbour or when looking for the right directions on the road. These occasions have been made captured through a memorable and hummable music track.

Sign-off Line Taazi saans, hamesha rakho paas

CENTER FRUIT JUGALBANDHI Creative Idea

Centre fruit is positioned as an irresistible, lip smacking, rib tickling chewing gum. It rightfully captures the mouthfeel of the gum –your tongue plays with the fruit filled gum. And a signature move of “wagging tongues” was created. One of its most memorable campaigns, the Jugalbandi commercial (a musical playoff), is a humourous take on Centre fruit’s presence in the middle of a duel between a tabla maestro and an experienced classical singer where both are trying to outdo each other. When eventually one fails as he gets distracted by the presence of the irresistible gum.

Sign-off Line Kaisi Jeebh Laplapayee

CHUPA GFL HOSTEL

CHUPA CLASSROOM AD

Creative Idea

Creative Idea

Schools try to discipline and regiment children into order and structure. And Chupa challenged that source of authority. To communicate the same in a playful manner Chupa Chups got in the teachers (an authoritative individual) to encourage the teenagers to take fun seriously.

The commercial shows a school teacher entering a hostel. The kids get stressed as the teacher asks them about who locked his bathroom’s door while he was bathing. Then in a very serious tone of voice the principal says ‘Shaabash!’

(Good job) and pats his back. This unexpected gesture of the teacher surprises the kids.

Sign-off Line Fun Ko Seriously Lo 20 | PITCH | JULY 2019

The commercial depicts a classroom where children are getting ready to write an exam.

This is when the principal of the school walks in and very seriously introduces Chupa Chups Sour Belt and Sour Bites to the kids and goes on to demonstrate the different fun ways in which the products can be consumed, parting with the message “Fun ko seriously lo”.The unexpected announcement adds fun to the serious atmosphere of the ongoing examination.

Sign-off Line Fun Ko Seriously Lo

HAPPYDENT PHOTOGRAPHER AD

HAPPYDENT PALACE AD

Creative Idea

Creative Idea

The idea was to dramatise white teeth as a human flash light,which manifested into beautiful non urban photo studio.

The photographer’s assistant literally flashing his pearly whites after chewing on Happydent for a flash.

The larger-than-life theme to extend the human flash light to the idea of lighting up an entire fantasy world, where people are employed to do the oddest of jobs, we see a bunch of human bulbs employed to light up a king’s palace by their shiny white teeth. Again dramatising on the concept of dazzling white teeth as a source of light.

Sign-off Line Happydent white chewing gum for sparkling smile

ALPENLIEBE JUZT JELLY BEARS & BOTTLES AD Creative Idea

Set in a make-believe world, where the Bears and Bottles have come alive and have a mind of their own in addition to being irresistible to the family, they are enablers of fun in the family banter. Like in this film, how the Bottles and the Bears try to outsmart each other for their survival in this fun loving family.

Sign-off Line Family mein masti challi

CHLORMINT PAANWALA AD

ALPENLIEBE CROCODILE AD

Creative Idea

Creative Idea

The TVC set in a small town, shows a paan wala making paanfor his customers. In lieu of tendering change to the customer, he gives him a Chlormint. The customer questions why Chlormint?

The clever approach to highlight the ingredient for freshness and the rational support for the brand along with the quirkiness of the ad made it memorable.

Sign-off Line Ab doobara mat poochna

The idea was to establish Alpenliebe so irresistible and tasty that even an animal as wild as a crocodile can be your pet. Therefore greed is an unchangeable truth, be it for humans or animals. Keeping the thought as the central idea for the commercial, we see Kajol feeding an Alpenliebe candy to a crocodile in the zoo. The crocodile finds it so tasty that it keeps following her around, in greed of getting more of it.

Sign-off Line Laalach aaha laplap!

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 21

FEATUREREPORT GROUND

‘We would like to stay ahead of the category in terms of growth’ Sustainable and profitable growth has been the mantra for Perfetti Van Melle India, says Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India. In conversation with Pitch, he talks about the challenges in remaining relevant and growing faster than the category.

What was on your to-do list when you took over as MD in July last year?

In terms of overall strategy, pretty much nothing changes.

Sustainable and profitable growth, that’s has always been the mantra, and that has not changed. The challenge is that with consumer

needs changing, how do we ensure that the brands reinvent themselves and reposition themselves. For example, Center fruit as a brand has always been on the platform of irresistible taste, and the fundamental core of the brand doesn’t change. We still deliver irresistible taste products, but what has now changed is the positioning of the brand. It has changed to, how do I position my brand to be relevant and meaningful to the consumer in the present context. We have done a lot of work around the demand spaces that a consumer is looking for. A key finding for us was that there are a lot of occasions when the consumers are in a neutral or negative mood, and they need something to transform them to a positive mood. It’s here that the new Center Fruit Chatpata Sparkiezis uniquely poised to deliver a tasty experience that can transform consumers’ mood.

Which brands are leading the growth?

The good news for us is that all the brands are going well, and in the last few months, we have seen growth across all brands.

What’s the growth you are looking at for the year ahead?

The category is growing at around 10% to 12%. We

22 | PITCH | JULY 2019

would like to stay ahead of the category in terms of growth, and thereby gain share as well. That’s the clear objective. And of course, while we are doing this, it’s also about profitable growth. You want to grow at the top-line, but you also want to make sure that you’re growing at the bottom-line as well.

25 years of Perfetti and some really iconic campaigns from the company. According to you, what has been the role of communication in building brand Perfetti?

I’ve been working for 25 years, and at the previous organisations that I worked in, I always used to look up at Perfetti’s advertising as the gold standard, and say that one day I wish I could work for this company. Some of the iconic ads that stand out for me are Happydent ‘Palace ad’, Center Shock ‘Barber ad’, the Chlormint ‘Ab doobara mat poochna’ and Mentos ‘Dimag ki batti jala de’.

There have been fantastic ads, that have been the principal drivers for building these brands. So, to me they have played a very, very critical role in the whole piece.

Finally, what can we expect in the next 25 years?

We have had a fantastic run in the last 25 years. We are all looking forward to the next 25 years and building on our strong foundation to take the company to the next level, and I’m absolutely excited to be a part of the journey.

Innovating and delighting The Consumer Innovation and delighting the consumer, says Rohit Kapoor, Director - Marketing Operations, Perfetti Van Melle India, is the mantra that is reflected in the company’s communication. He also speaks on how the company is looking to engage with consumers, the importance of brand architecture, and how the brand’s advertising ensures that the rub off from the variant on the mother brand continues to be high

Perfetti is known for many iconic campaigns. What’s the challenge in ensuring you maintain the same gold standard bar?

We are fortunate that the industry and consumers have loved our advertising over the last 25 years. While that is appreciated, it also puts a positive pressure on us as a client, and our creative partners, McCann Worldgroup India and Ogilvy India, to keep churning out stuff that is loved by our consumers and is better than our previous communication.

What’s the core marketing proposition for PVMI? The marketing philosophy is to continue to innovate and delight the consumer in the best way we can, whether it’s via our communication and advertising, positioning and products, innovation or pack formats. This has been our mantra since the beginning, and is reflected in the work we have done over the last 25 years.

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 23

FEATURE

How has your media mix evolved over the years?

We are a TV heavy client, and a large part of our ad spends still go to TV. However, we have now shifted a portion of our ad spends to digital. Between 85% - 90% of our ad spends are still on TV with 10% - 15% on digital, depending on the brand and the target group. For a brand like Centre fresh, where the TG is young adult, there is a larger role for digital, but for a brand like Alpenliebe Juzt Jelly, where we talk to kids, the ecosystem on digital for kids is still limited. In a nutshell, we look at the brand individually to decide what will be the contribution of TV and digital. We have definitely moved from only TV to TV plus digital as an advertiser. TV is looked largely as a reach medium, while digital is reach, and most importantly, engagement. We also look at other platforms, as we have a licensing association with the kids channel Nickelodeon, and our brand Center fruit is associating with the new movie release, Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Are you looking to up your ad spends this year?

At the moment, our marketing spends are adequate to support the intervention we have planned for the year ahead. Without giving a number, right now, we are funding each of our brands sufficiently, and shall continue to tweak the ad spends based on the brand need, the competitive environment and the pipeline of ideas. We have to activate and decide our advertising and promotional (A&P) spends accordingly. There has to be a threshold level of advertising support which has to be given to each of our brands, and we are giving that support to each brand. We follow the five power brands strategy, where the five power brands are TV plus digital, and two of our brands are only supported on digital.

What we also try and consciously do is that whenever we are bringing in a new pack or a new flavour or a new variant under a brand, if part of the A&P spends are going towards that, the advertising platform is still for the mother brand.

24 | PITCH | JULY 2019

WE HAVE PLANNED FOR THE YEAR AHEAD. WITHOUT GIVING A NUMBER, RIGHT NOW, WE ARE FUNDING EACH

OF OUR BRANDS SUFFICIENTLY, AND SHALL CONTINUE TO TWEAK THE AD SPENDS

BASED ON THE BRAND NEED, THE COMPETITIVE

ENVIRONMENT AND THE PIPELINE OF IDEAS. For example, the positioning of Center fresh is on fresh breath, and if we bring in a variant, the advertising platform will be around fresh breath, so the rub off from the variant on the mother brand continues to be high. We are trying to build a portfolio like that, that’s why when we advertise Center Fresh Mints, the advertising platform is fresh breath.

What are the other ways that you are connecting with the consumer, particularly on the digital platform?

Influencers play a big part on digital and for our soft candy offerings – Chupa Chups Sour Belt and Sour Bites, we tied up with five teen influencers on Instagram. Recently, we

collaborated with leading chefs such as Amrita Raichand, Saransh Goila, Shipra Khanna, Ajay Chopra, Meghna and Kanak, to create innovative recipes using Alpenliebe Juzt Jelly, which is featured on the brand’s social media assets. We also unveiled the brand and product Chupa Chups on social media via the unboxing route, where we had again associated with some influencers. We also tied up with the rapper Baba Sehgal for Chupa Chups for a short video, and pushed the video using his handle and our social media platforms. These have been some things that we have done, and the results have been mixed, but it is a good area to be in as it provides you the opportunity to connect with the teenagers and young adults who are on the platform.

You released a campaign for your first brand in India, Center fresh, celebrating 25 years. Can you tell us more about this?

We actually capture the typical boy-girl first time meet, where you have the confidence to approach the opposite gender because of the fresh breath confidence that comes from Center fresh. It’s a continuation of the strategy and positioning that the brand Centre fresh has been built on, the fresh breath social confidence. We have the 25 years insignia on all our small mono packs, the jar labels, so that the consumers can be made aware about the association.

Vanakkam Chennai After Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, it’s time for

SUMMIT 2019 - CHENNAI

THEME

6

th SEPTEMBER |

BUILDING A PERSONALIZED CONNECT

FRIDAY 2019

FOR ANY QUERIES INFORMATION & SPEAKER OPPORTUNITIES, PLEASE CONTACT Simran Sabherwal | +91 9920910690 | simran.sabherwal@exchange4media.com Anam Khan | +91 7505710961 | anam.khan@exchange4media.com For Partnerships, Please Contact: Runa Sinha (Chief Revenue Officer): +91 9810497903 | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com Ashish Kudalkar (GM West-Sales & BD): +91 9820541742 | ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com Sneha Walke (VP Special Projects & South Head): +91 9845541143 | sneha@exchange4media.com Ashima Mehra (Regional Manager - Sales): +91 9899571579 | ashima.mehra@exchange4media.com MUSIC COMMUNITY PARTNER

TRADE MEDIA PARTNERS

www.futureplay.in

BUSINESS MEDIA PARTNER

GADGETS

WONDERS OF GADGETS ONEPLUS UNVEILS ITS COSTLIEST PHONE YET, THE ONEPLUS 7 PRO

A

t a time when premium Smartphone companies like Apple, Google and Samsung are going budget to appeal to the customer’s sensibility, OnePlus launched its most premium device to date, the 7 Pro. The new phone a 6.67-inch display with familiar curved sides of the edge to edge design. 7 Pro promises uninterrupted screen time with pop-up front camera and absence of a notch or a pin hole.

On the rear, the device has a three-camera system that pairs a 48-megapixel lens with a 78mm telephoto and 117-degree ultra-wide angle.7 Pro is powered by Snapdragon 855 with 6-12GB of RAM and either 128 or 256GB of storage. The device has a 4,000 mAh battery.

ZOOMING INTO THE DISTANCE WITH OPPO RENO 10X ZOOM

O

ppo recently launched its flagship smartphone Reno 10x Zoom. The new phone is powered by Snapdragon 855 with a premium glass design.

The new phone has a sharkfin pop-up camera with 10x zoom and a notch less AMOLED display. Reno also sports an indisplay fingerprint reader and an optional 5G version.

26 | PITCH | JULY 2019

MI SMART BAND 4, A FITNESS TRACKER WITH A COLOUR DISPLAY

X

iaomi recently launched the upgraded version of its smart fitness tracker called Mi Smart Band 4. The new wearable fitness tracker sports a bigger AMOLED display than its predecessor and features support for XiaoAI, the company’s voice assistant that can be activated with a voice command.

The bigger display supports 16 million colours and 77 customized themes and allow users to quickly glance at notifications and fitness stats.

QUALCOMM AND LENOVO UNVEIL WORLD’S FIRST 5G PC

Q

ualcomm along with Lenovo, recently announced the launch of the first Snapdragonpowered 5G PC. The two companies describe the new PC as “the world’s first 7nm platform purposebuilt for PCs that offers 5G connectivity.” The ambitious project is called Project Limitless.

The laptops will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform, which is designed to support both 5G and 4G connections, combines the Qualcomm Adreno 680 GPU with the same Qualcomm Kryo 495 CPU. According to Qualcomm, the battery can last for several days. The platform uses the Snapdragon X55 5G modem, which has download speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps.

APPLE UNVEILS ITS MOST POWERFUL COMPUTER, MAC PRO

A

pple just announced its most powerful computer yet, the all new Mac Pro. According to Apple, the new super computer is designed for ‘pros who push the limits of what a Mac can do’. Pro is breakthrough workstation which comes with a Xeon processor up to 28 cores, a massive 1.5TB memory capacity and world’s most powerful graphics card. It also introduces Apple Afterburner, an accelerator card that enables playback of three streams of 8K ProRes RAW video simultaneously

SAMSUNG PRESENTS THE FUTURE OF TV WITH QLED 8K

T

he future of television is here.

Samsung has recently launched the world’s first QLED 8K TV in India.

QLED 8K comes with an AI upscaling feature via its Quantum Processor that uses machine learning to transform all content on the TV into 8K. The TV is equipped with 33 million pixels, which are four times the resolution of a 4K UHD TV and 16 times the resolution of a Full HD TV. It runs on a m Quantum Processor 8K that optimizes audio and video to a specific content on the screen.

This Quantum Processor 8K creates a detailed sound experience by customizing the audio settings to better suit the layout and surrounding of the room.

And to add at to everything, this new QLED TV also comes equipped with a new Bixby feature that allows users to control and access content on the TV via voice commands using voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant.

The TVs would be available in four sizes including 98-inch (247 cm), 82-inch (207 cm), 75-inch (189 cm) and 65-inch (163 cm).

ECHO SHOW 5 PUTS ALEXA ON A SMALLER SCREEN

A

fter the launch of Echo Show smart display speakers, Amazon has launched a smaller variant of the device, dubbed Amazon Echo Show 5, in India recently.

Echo Show 5 comes with a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 960×480 pixels. It is powered by the MediaTek MT8163 processor and comes with a 1MP camera located on the front and a single full-range 1.65-inch speaker.

The device can take both audio and visual cues with the help of Alexa, Amazon’s own AI assistant. Amazon sells Echo Show 5 at Rs 8,999.

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 27

TECHNOLOGY

THE ROAD AHEAD TRADITIONAL MARKETING

DIGITAL MARKETING

*

By Anam Khan

T

he concept of marketing has changed over time and it still continues to change till this day. Marketing supposedly evolved through classical stages as well as contemporary stages.

With numerous brands coming into existence, the competition has led to stronger concepts of marketing.

THE HIERARCHIAL GROWTH OF MARKETING The late 90’s and the early 2000’s were an era when the primary driver of sales was mass production. Manufacturing effectively and efficiently was the main concern for businesses. Businesses believed that mass production was the marketing technique of the era. It was a simpler time with a simple marketing conception where marketers thought that if products would be made, consumers would just simply buy them.

Then came into existence a sales era, which was the age of competition. Businesses could no longer easily sell their mass made products. It increasingly became more difficult for companies to sell products to consumers. This era is where we see the concept of marketing, as

28 | PITCH | JULY 2019

it is today, emerge. Companies had to aggressively promote their products and persuade consumers in order to sell products.

Followed by this came an era which we now find ourselves inthe age of social marketing.

THE ELECTRONIC HIGHWAY OF MARKETING This one was a game changer for the field of marketing.

The internet and social media has opened up new gates of marketing for the diverse brands

DIGITAL HAS REALLY PLAYED AN

IMPORTANT ROLE IN COPING WITH THE COMPLEXITIES OF CREATING THE BRAND-

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

which has led to a strong digital marketing movement.

In digital marketing things are always changing, evolving, and innovating. In the world of brand experience, the technology that helps us to advance our narratives is evolving at breakneck speed.

It seems like every week we hear about a new device or application that promises to revolutionize the industry and open new doors for engagement. For marketers, it’s a pretty wonderful time to be alive.

In 2016, we saw that the top five channels for marketing spend were Email, social, online display and retargeting, mobile, and search. But time flew and we saw brands emerging through social media platforms. The success story of brands like Nykaa, Shein and Amazon is not hidden from anyone.

From fashion brands to beauty brands, electronic products, food and what not we consistently look to these apps for our every day necessity. Digital has really played an important role in coping with the complexities of creating the brand-customer relationship.

Brands have taken a leap from traditional marketing practices and have shifted over to more modern times by incorporating strong digital presence in their

marketing agenda.

Ride-hailing company- Uber has rolled out a special campaign for world cup enthusiasts and have created a strong foothold on social media. Talking about the marketing strategies from their end, Manisha Lath Gupta, Marketing Director India South Asia, Uber, discussed about how Uber has successfully done a multi-country campaign this world cup for both Uber drive and Uber eats.

“Uber is one of the associate sponsors of the ICC Cricket World Cup, which is happening in England and Wales, across June and July. For the first time, Uber has done a multi country campaign across 7-8 countries.

And for the first time India has led that multi country campaign. And for the first time we are doing a campaign across Rides and Eats both. Traditionally, we have been operating campaigns quite separately. But for the World Cup, we have actually built a joint campaign across Eats and Rides.

From a campaign perspective, what’s interesting is that we have tried to do as much brand building through this campaign as demand generation.”

Adding, “There are four films.

One of them has Shakib from Bangladesh, because he is also a brand ambassador of us. And this campaign is playing across Bangladesh as well. On the Eats side, just a simple demand generation campaign telling people that if they order on Uber Eats, they could actually get a chance to go see the World Cup”.

Speaking more in detail about their digital marketing strategies at Uber, Gupta elaborates how they are leveraging their marketing on social media for this world cup.

“On the marketing end, the World Cup campaign is the biggest that we’re going to be doing this year. So you can expect a lot of action over the next 45 to 60 days. We have some very exciting ideas on social, which you should watch out for. And they will roll out over the next 45 days. We have also put together a really exciting anthem Way-O, Way-O which has been sung by five singers from around the world and will also break towards the end of the month. It has been

Uber is one of the associate sponsors of the ICC Cricket World Cup, which is happening in England and Wales, across June and July. For the first time, Uber has done a multi country campaign across 7-8 countries.

Manisha Lath Gupta,

Marketing Director India South Asia, Uber, written by Sonal Dabral from Ogilvy, and the music has been crafted by Mikey Michael McLean.

I think that should give us a long tail” said Gupta.

BRANDING THEIR WAY THROUGH DIGITAL MARKETING-

A Harvard study found that 64% of people say “shared values” is the main reason they follow a brand. They trust that the brand provides them with accurate information and follows through on what they say.

53.9% of people don’t trust commercials, infomercials or ads from a brand they don’t know.

You can run ads all day, but if consumers don’t trust, they won’t buy. 78% of people say that they trust companies that build their brand on providing relevant, custom content.

Branding increases company visibility online by over 400%.

That translates to more traffic to your physical store. Convert it to sales.

Now that has led to the rise of new term in the cluster of digital world and that is Digital Branding.

WHAT IS DIGITAL BRANDING? Digital branding is a brand management technique that uses a combination of internet branding and digital marketing to develop a brand over a range of digital venues, including internetbased relationships, device-based applications or media content. It has emerged strongly over the last decade along with its roots from direct marketing.

Avinash Pant, DirectorEnterprise Business, Resulticks, enlightened us about how the digital sphere is changing the customer experience. According to pant, “Today’s customer is a well informed, and omnichannel customer who expects consistency of experience across channels offline as well as online.

So, you have to engage with the at every touch point of their journey and talk to them one on one even within the crowd. This complexity will only increase and we can cope with only through a tech-enabled digital approach and mindset. Martech powered with AI and Machine learning will be evolving faster in the future and be the most efficient rivers to keep pace with the evolution of the digital media, thereby, impacting the customer experience at every touch point.”

Agreeing to Pant’s statement on the importance of AI integration in the advanced marketing approach, Prashant Puri, CEO and Co-Founder,

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 29

TECHNOLOGY Adlift said, “Digital has the power of laser targeted messaging and adapting and improvising to customer’s buying patterns. Both these technologies driven capabilities gives digital the capability of significantly advancing the customer experience be it through intelligent AI integration, advanced remarketing or adopting voice technology to improve customer experience.”

BRANDS JOURNEY FROM URBAN CITIES TO RURAL The availability of internet throughout the country has been a blessing for brands, as well as consumers. The digital transformation has incorporated the newer trends like Artificial Intelligence, the key one being chatbots which are already embedded in many social messaging systems and ready for businesses to use for customer service.

This has somehow maintained the brand - customer relationship.

It is not just urban cities that are looking up to internet, rural areas have also discovered the wider aspects of the internet.

Talking about how rural areas are seeing digital transformation, Ranjivjit Singh, chief marketing officer and senior vice-president of Samsung India talked about how in their recent campaign ‘India, Ready Action’, they are motivating youngsters to make short form videos which is turning out to be a great way of engaging the customers.

“We brought all the insights together and prepared the

‘India, Ready, Action!’ campaign.

It’s an invitation to millennials to showcase the real India as seen through their eyes.

What we are asking them to do is shoot a video that’s up to 60 seconds long and share the same on Instagram with #IndiaReadyAction, followed by the hash tag that captures the essence of the video, like food, culture or entertainment.

The best videos will then be set on an interactive map of India, which will appear on our website. If you visit Calcutta on the map then you will see your entry and those from others in 30 | PITCH | JULY 2019

A HARVARD STUDY FOUND THAT 64% OF PEOPLE SAY “SHARED VALUES” IS THE MAIN REASON THEY FOLLOW A BRAND. THEY TRUST THAT THE BRAND PROVIDES THEM WITH ACCURATE

integrated with each other that support content. Content is one of the power houses for today’s marketing strategy for the marketers.

“The most vital piece of digital marketing is – integration. It’s imperative that all channels of digital marketing speak to each other through a common central hub. To me this is content. A powerful content strategy is a

INFORMATION

Browsing the social media pages and internet for some content has become a basic norm. Talking about the best digital campaigns of 2019, a year which is turning out to be tumultuous for marketers, Chaddha spoke about the Avengers Endgame campaign with Google. According to him the campaign was a big success because of its sheer simplicity.

“Avengers Endgame campaign with Google was simple yet so effective that even a person who doesn’t know about Avengers will now search for the same to get all the information. It’s a great example to reach maximum people in the most impactful manner”, said Chaddha.

Discussing about the favourite campaign Puri mentioned about Kent CamEye campaign.

“Kent CamEye has captured significant market share by targeting the right audience via their content and customer acquisition digital strategies”, said Puri.

Digital campaign is one of the ways of staying in touch with the consumers and users. Hence, the more engaging the content, higher are the chances of brand appearance. Thus, digital has somehow taken the road ahead of traditional marketing to make it more tech-savvy.

the city. The campaign is open to everyone and you don’t need to be a Samsung user. Also, let’s not forget the new Samsung smart TVs, which can be used for video chats”, said Singh.

CURRENT TRENDS OF DIGITAL ECOSPHERE

Digital transformation is a boon for the user; hence, everybody is now on their tabs and smart phones when it comes to shopping. Talking about the current trends of the digital ecosystem, Rohit Chaddha, CEO, ZEE- Digital Publishing emphasized on how digital transformation acts as a catalyst for growth by giving brands access to new markets and ways to reach consumers in a never before done manner.

“AI and big data are the keys to make intelligent decisions based on past knowledge of consumers so as to deliver more personalized information and campaigns to enhance the user experience,” said Chaddha.

Digital channels are mutually

must”, said Puri.

THE ICONIC DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS

Subscribe Now and get upto

` 100

30%* Off!

Volume 13 | Issue 05 | May 2019

CMO

OF THE

Yes, I would like to subscribe to the Pitch magazine:

FUTURE A blueprint of the chief marketer of tomorrow

Inside

PITCH CMO SUMMIT DELHI COVERAGE

Serial No:

Period of Subscription

Magazine Cost ` 100 each

Discounted Price

Courier cost Rs.24 inclusive of taxes each only western region

Total Cost Inclusive of courier + discount

1

One year - 12 issue

` 1200

1080 @ 10% discount

288 for 12 issues

1368

2

Two year - 24 issue

` 2,400

1920@ 20% discount

576 for 24 issues

2496

3

Three year - 36 issue

` 3,600

2520@ 30% discount

864 for 36 issues

3384

I will pay through:

Demand Draft

Cash

No. Bank drawn Dated My Personal Details: Name: Address:

Home

Office

City: E-mail: Mobile No.:

Phone No. Home/Office:

DD to be drawn in favour of ‘Adsert Web Solutions Pvt Ltd.’ B-20, Sector - 57, Noida 201 301 Tel : +91 120 4007700

Terms & Conditions

Rates and offers are valid in India only, Please allow 3-4 weeks time for delivery of the magazine through courier/registered post. Indicate your name and address on the reverse side of the DD. Offers valid for a limited period only. Publisher will not be responsible for delay or non-delivery of the magazine. For subscription related queries please contact: 0120-40007700, 022-23643303/3309/3314/3316/3319(in Mumbai) or email us at subscribe@exchange4media.com. Inclusive of one Anniversary Issue at Rs. 100/-

COVER STORY

ADD AN

AGENCY In the ever-changing world of business, the client-agency relationship has reached a point where specialist agencies are employed for a specific vertical of marketing. The traditional setup where a client did all their business with 1-2 agencies at the most has now evolved to a point where a micro specialized agency is brought on the retainer.

Is this ever growing network headed towards a consolidation phase?

The PITCH team talks to industry leaders and gets their perspective with an aim to figure out the comparison between bigger agencies starting a vertical on their end versus acquiring or partnering with a smaller agency.

32 | PITCH | JULY 2019

By Kartikey Ambardar

A

s most relationships, the equation between a client and an agency has consistently evolved over decades. While most on both sides would claim that the ride has been nothing but smooth, a good relationship is really only as good as the ups and downs it faces. In the era gone past budgets and expected payouts were considered the prime factors in deciding the agency to be tasked to carry out a brand’s brief. However if industry leaders are to be believed this trend is gradually changing as more clients look at the possibility of a ‘cross cultural’ fit as the deciding factor to secure the relationship. Mr. Anand Bhadkamkar - COO, Dentsu Aegis India says “The traditional agency model is being challenged, even when you look at the bigger agency groups. Since the practices and models are prevalent for so long, it would take a while for the change to come about. Agency networks are looking to bring new skill-sets and new abilities to cater to clients. Sure, the agency model is changing and it is the need of the hour.”

All large agency groups acknowledge that the traditional agency model needs to change and is in fact changing, which is why agency networks are trying to find ways to acquire new skillsets and create new capabilities for themselves in the market. There is even a competition set from non core agencies (IBM, Accenture) that have come into play. So models are changing, however since it is such a well laid out and structured industry it might take slightly longer but it is progressing rapidly. And it is the need of the hour. No network can afford to sit back and not agree with the change.

ANAND BHADKAMKAR, COO, Dentsu Aegis India

JULY May 2019 | PITCH | 33

COVER STORY A NEW RELATIONSHIP We live in a world where the very definition of ‘marketing and communication’ is changing on a daily basis. New media, new platforms and new narratives are driving the industry and most executives are trying to stay ahead of a learning curve. The conventional belief would lead one to conclude that the traditional agency model is quickly becoming obsolete. Clients are looking for curative and tailormade solutions that are spread across a number of specialist agencies. This would lend credence to the speculation that the ad world and the relationships themselves are headed for a phase of absolute fragmentation. With radical change though, come radical opportunities and this sentiment is echoed on an optimistic note by Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman and Group CEO, FCB Ulka, “While the needs of the consumers, the platforms we communicate

Increasingly we need to get all the pieces (agencies) together. Which necessarily means that clients need an agency which has the capability to handle all services together. As a result many brands are pushing back and saying we would rather deal with one network of agencies. This is in case they don’t find a particular service in the agency, the network of that agency will deliver.

ROHIT OHRI, Group Chairman and Group CEO, FCB Ulka

with them through and the way we communicate with them is evolving, this is the best time for an advertising agency, in the history of advertising”.

HEADING INTO A NEW AGE On the flip end of things, the agency business is seeing a boom like never before. With the world’s access to information consistently increasing there is a rising demand for more, a lot more communication from brands. We are also in a phase of technological developments where there is quite literally a new breakthrough for communicators to exploit as a platform every month. The result? The rise of the specialist agencies.

Ex-advertising executives are

34 | PITCH | JULY 2019

chasing their entrepreneurial dreams and branching out to helm their own agencies bringing their experience into play.

However most haven’t seen the true longevity of their personal dreams as we witness most of the micro agencies merging with the long standing big guns of the industry. Mr Ohri, sums up the trend that has prevailed and is set to continue for a while, “A lot of small agencies have come up in the last decade and a half. But what is really happening is most of these small agencies have been consolidated into bigger agency networks. And this is becoming a cyclical process. However, what is important to understand is what the future client needs?”

Is this a flash in the pan phenomenon? Do smaller newer agencies only exist for the golden buyout day? Or can they actually craft a niche for themselves and ensure an independent survival?

“As clients increasingly seek holistic & integrated solutions, bigger agencies will absorb and merge smaller specialist agencies to expand their offerings

CLIENTS ARE LOOKING FOR CURATIVE

AND TAILORMADE SOLUTIONS THAT ARE SPREAD ACROSS A NUMBER OF SPECIALIST AGENCIES. WHICH LEADS TO THE SPECULATION THAT THE AD WORLD AND THE

RELATIONSHIPS THEMSELVES ARE HEADED FOR A PHASE OF ABSOLUTE

FRAGMENTATION. & services for the benefits of brands. It is incrementally more effective & efficient for brands to consolidate and work with agencies who can offer a full breadth of services. However, the trend will continue as micro specialist agencies will get

acquired, merged or grow bigger therefore giving room for the smaller agencies to work with a few clients & build services around their requirements.” Says Mayank Bhatnagar – EVP Carat Global.

WHICH ONE IS THE ONE?

The key factors for successful agency client relationship is the amount of freedom clients give the agency to accelerate growth. Flexibility of the partnership model which encourages the agency to continue evolving. The other most important aspect of the relationship is how connected both parties are and how they take collaborative decisions that enhance capabilities for brand evolutions.

MAYANK BHATNAGAR, EVP, Carat Global

What is it that the brands of the future are looking for while setting the mandate for their agency? Anil Nair - CEO, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi offers the answer, “Today, brands want agencies who can move the needle not just on campaign deliveries but on business outcomes. Integrated services without deep capabilities aren’t going to cut much ice with astute clients. So merely checking boxes is not enough, one has to demonstrate rich capabilities in each of the specialist units with best in class case studies.” This would suggest that agencies that are labouring to comprehend that every client has a unique requirement are the ones that seem to be blossoming. This in turn helps establish a level of trust, compatibility and confidence that can cement a

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 35

COVER STORY

relationship as quickly as it can break one down. And this is the key factor that has led to this era of absorptions by the big names. The smarter traditional agencies are trying to keep up with the times and their ‘thinking’ clients by creating a differentiator for themselves versus their competition through these mergers which onboard several in-house marketing specialisations.

This vacuum didn’t always exist though. Rapid advancement in technology and the availability of highly refined data has helped budding advertisers find and craft a niche for themselves.

Creativity alone isn’t paramount for brands while settling on an agency. A combination of creativity, data science and a propensity towards cutting edge technology is what is enabling the oasis of agencies expand

Today brands want agencies who can move the needle not just on campaign deliveries but on business outcomes.

Integrated services without deep capabilities aren’t going to cut much ice with astute clients. So merely checking boxes isn’t enough, one has to demonstrate rich capabilities in each of the specialist units with best in class case studies.

ANIL NAIR, CEO, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi

36 | PITCH | JULY 2019

incrementally. A space dominated by well known giants is now experiencing an era of mergers, takeovers and collaborations with smaller organizations.

Experts and leaders agree that the traditional agency model is dying, as it rightfully should, and an era of collaborative efforts is the way ahead. Mr Nair goes on to say, “The agency model has to evolve from suppliers of creative services to customer acquisition and retention specialists. Selling creative solutions for brands using various mediums and charging accordingly are things of the past. Linking the agency KPIs to the business KPIs and playing the role of business builder is imperative.

The need of the hour is a super shop of specialist services, much like the hospital model.”

A BRAND’S JOURNEY With the radical evolution of the communication mediums, brands are dealing with an increasing number of agencies on their roster. Rana Barua - CEO Havas Group India shares his prediction, “I see integration and a one stop agency as the best way of partnering clients. In a fragmented media world it makes complete sense that we have a single brand custodian who can mirror the CMO and help by offering integrated services that help in delivering solutions across many disciplines.” While this ideal situation may be a while away, does it also point to the fact that in the current scenario, the CMOs job is slowly yet surely transforming more into a coordinators role that can effectively manage all partner agencies? Mr Ohri shares his perspective on the evolution of the brand manager and the CMOs job, “Clients have become orchestrators of brand communication in many ways.

They are the centre point and they coordinate between creative agencies, media agencies, digital agencies, activation agencies and so many more that they employ. The client’s job as a brand manager has become one of managing agencies.

Fundamentally, clients are now increasingly realising that they need their brand managers to manage the brand and not manage the people who manage the creative marketing for the brand.”

A GOOD DAY TO BE A CLIENT Martin Sorrell for WPP is considered the champion of establishing ‘group-think’ models for their clients. Borrowing talents from their various organisations and teams to curate a specific squad tailored for a client as he did for Team Detroit for Ford and Red Fuse for Colgate Palmolive among others. This definitely helps seduce the client into the core network for an agency.

The prospect of having the best talent at your disposal from the arms and legs of the agency network can often be the decisive factor for a brand to sign on.

Mr. Bhatnagar goes on to define their culture, “Uniquely at Dentsu Aegis Network, we operate under one P&L that enables us to build teams from across agencies that seamlessly work together and design the right solutions. This

RAPID ADVANCEMENT IN TECHNOLOGY AND THE AVAILABILITY OF HIGHLY REFINED DATA HAS HELPED BUDDING ADVERTISERS FIND AND CRAFT A NICHE FOR THEMSELVES. ensures we provide the right disciplines and capabilities that take precedence over traditional team structures that centre on a single company. We’re uniquely set up to remove any barriers in collaboration and we act as one business with connected capabilities around our clients – providing seamless access to the full breadth of our agency network. It’s not only our structure that drives

our connected collaboration around our clients, but also the unanimous unity in a clear vision to ‘innovate the way brands are built’.” This is further echoed by Mr. Barua, “Havas Group is clear that we have integration at the heart of our existence. We have 57 villages across the world with another 4 opening in 2019.

Each Havas village is located in a single building, creative and media together, all under a single P&L – while boasting of a unique and unparalleled entertainment offering through our partnership with Vivendi. Each of our agencies is individually focused on becoming the best it can be but can draw on the additional skills and expertise within the village and from our parent company Vivendi.”

WHO GETS THE BIGGER (MONEY) PIE? It is a clearly echoed sentiment that the agency format is evolving and smaller, newer agencies are establishing their niche as well.

What happens to the big budget

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 37

COVER STORY

purse of the client? Are we in an era of budgets getting split a lot more than ever before? Is the money pie getting smaller with a lot more agencies vying for a smaller slice of it? Mr Nair tries to explain how budgets are being segregated and allocated over time, “The overall kitty has expanded but the growth is primarily in the marketing technology bucket. Clients aren’t paying more fees or giving bigger production budgets therefore overall increase in advertising expenditure doesn’t necessarily reflect in ad agency

38 | PITCH | JULY 2019

income growth. The big money is going to move towards data and consumer engagement technology capabilities. I am expecting data services and technology to take upto 30% of total marketing budget in the next two years time.” This is a forecast that is shared by most industry leaders. “Budgets are moving away from TV & print and going towards digital, basically towards more measurable platforms. For better or for worse you are able to get similar outcomes on lower budgets. Clients are still spending big, but are spending smarter.

From a purely advertising spend, budgets are now oriented more towards martech and digital solutions” says Mr. Bhadkamkar.

Mr. Bhatnagar brings some

hardcore numbers that helps decipher the money pie a lot more, “Ad spends growth rate is pretty healthy, growing at 11% and will continue to grow at similar pace. TV & Print leads the contribution however digital media is expected to grow at CAGR of 32% and its share is expected to increase from 17% to 29% by 2021.”

So is the picture grim? Or do agencies predict an age of dominance where collaboration and takeovers will be the order of the day. Mr. Bhatnagar provides a template blueprint of the agency of the future, “We work in a people and service driven business. We know people matter. An agency needs to be agile and adaptive to provide highest standard of the services & embed talent planning into the business strategy.

Agencies that help accelerating growth via Change is a constant and driving value we must imbibe newer proposition and expertise and strengths. The agile collaboration across client single biggest threat is the units partners, pricing model we have all delivering balance through strong trapped ourselves into. We planning analytics must be clear that we are and an agile mindset. Agencies communication and media also need to build experts who understand the structures and consumer the best. We must mechanics that bring the best charge a premium for the specialists and same, and not give it away for the best tools and system to enable free. brands to execute their brief with excellence and RANA BARUA, plan effectively.”

Mr. Nair CEO, concludes on an Havas Group India optimistic yet realistic note, “The future belongs to creative thinkers and story tellers who can play with data and dance with technology. The business enablers of the future aren’t going to be large tech firms but smart creative firms who have mastered the art of making tech powered creative solutions.”

GUEST COLUMN

SMART MARKETING OF A COOL BRAND

Innovative initiatives and smart media planning key to building Brand Sofy in the Indian market YUJI IKEDA MARKETING DIRECTOR, UNICHARM INDIA

SOFY COOL IS A BREAKTHROUGH INNOVATION BORN OUT OF UNICHARM’S SOLID CUSTOMER CENTRICITY AND A CULTURE OF INNOVATION. THE SOFY COOL CAMPAIGN IS A CUTTING-EDGE MARKETING STRATEGY, DELIVERED THROUGH EMERGING MEDIA PLATFORMS, TOTALLY RESONATING WITH THE YOUNG, CONFIDENT AND THINKING INDIAN WOMAN OF TODAY.

40 | PITCH | JULY 2019

F

or a brand that believes in providing innovative solutions to its consumers, it is only befitting that its marketing campaigns to reach the consumers are innovative too. Sofy as a brand stands for providing solutions to women so that they can lead an unconstrained life and progress towards their dreams and aspirations fearlessly even during their periods.

Among our fast-growing brands in the Indian market, Sofy’s range includes quality sanitary napkins, tampons and pantyliners for women.

Being a brand that has timetested Japanese approach to customer centricity and working on consumer feedback, Sofy’s research revealed that 68% females feel that it is important that their sanitary napkin should not cause itchiness or irritation during periods*. This led to the launch of a breakthrough innovation and a cool, new product for the Indian woman – Sofy Cool.

A COOL CAMPAIGN A first-of-its-kind offering in India, Sofy Cool has a “Coolpad Technology**” with menthol formulation that gives a feeling of coolness for an “Irritation Free Period”. Along with this, it also has a ‘Deep Absorbent Sheet’ that absorbs up to the

last layer and hence prevents leakage. The launch of Sofy Cool was a game-changer in the Indian market, and the ‘#KeepItCool’ launch campaign was focused on building a buzz around the brand-new variant, creating awareness about its unique features.

Sofy unveiled the ‘#KeepItCool’ campaign through a series of digital films with actor Bhumi Pednekar as the anchor of the campaign, and young influencers Barkha Singh and Namrata Purohit depicting the period-time dilemmas of the modern Indian woman, totally relating to the younger, confident, innovative and independent group of women.

The campaign captures small instances that women face in their day-to-day lives, and how Sofy Cool gives a feeling of coolness for an Irritation-Free

Period. The perfect synergy of brand values and smart media planning ensured a phenomenal yet costefficient reach of 87-million impressions in just two months, and the numbers will continue to rise in the weeks to come with the justlaunched TVC, which is more peppy, catchy and cool.

Keeping with Sofy’s brand identity, the multimedia campaign for Sofy Cool was primarily targeted on online platforms like mobiles, blogs, websites and news sites, supplemented by print presence and simultaneously boosted through social media interventions. The planning

was sharp, the rolling precise and the impact phenomenal.

Within days of the release, our Bhumi Pednekar brand film logged 7.5-million impressions, including 7.2-m on Instagram and 2,70,000 on Facebook. The brand film collectively registered 6.6 million impressions on FB, with a reach of over 5-million, 1.7-m views and active engagement of 8,300 people.

Overall, the digital campaign was a cool success, with 7.9 million impressions, reach of 6.03-million and 1.9 million video views, hitting home the idea of ‘#SwitchToCool’ to ‘#KeepItCool’.

A CULTURE OF INNOVATION The high-impact Sofy Cool campaign was the latest in the series of innovative marketing

THE PERFECT SYNERGY OF BRAND VALUES AND SMART MEDIA PLANNING ENSURED A PHENOMENAL YET COST-EFFICIENT REACH OF 87-MILLION IMPRESSIONS IN JUST TWO MONTHS, AND THE NUMBERS WILL CONTINUE TO RISE IN THE WEEKS TO COME WITH THE JUST-LAUNCHED TVC, WHICH IS MORE PEPPY, CATCHY AND COOL. and advertising strategies in the 10-year journey of Unicharm in the Indian market. These strategies have been integral to the consistent year-on-

year double-digit growth of Sofy, with increasing volumes and improving market share.

Sofy was the first to advertise tampons in the country, with its #embracethenew initiative aimed at tackling myths around the use of tampons and educating the young, evolving Indian women about its usage. With the launch of Sofy Pantyliner, Sofy informed females that now there is a solution to the issue of vaginal discharge/ spotting on

Non-Period Days giving them a comfortable, dry and hygienic feeling. Be it encouraging interaction through campaigns like Sofy Conversations or creating awareness about women’s hygiene, Sofy’s communication with consumers goes beyond promotion. The period calculator, period guide and a dedicated blog that addresses all concerns of the modern Indian woman, Sofy is truly an enabling and educating partner and all marketing strategies of the brand are built around these tenets. * Source of Information - U&A Study, 2018 conducted by Nielsen **As per Unicharm survey, it is the only napkin that gives cool feeling due to menthol formulation among major brands as on Nov’18

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 41

BRAND CONNECT

MARKETING HERBAL, THE LOTUS WAY While staying true to its herbal roots, Lotus Herbals has launched a range of new products and entered into categories such as baby care range, professional makeup range and is now targeting the millenials with IKKAI, the range of organic skincare products. In conversation with Pitch, Nitin Passi, Joint Managing Director, Lotus Herbals, talks about the brand, talking to millennials in their language and why as a beauty company they are targeting sportspersons and also betting on IPL

By Sanstuti Nath When Lotus Herbals started 26 years ago, it was a pioneer in the herbal natural cosmetics space. Since then, the segment has grown dramatically with more players entering. How do you differentiate yourself?

Nitin Passi Jt. MD, Lotus herbal Ltd.

42 | PITCH | JULY 2019

Our biggest differentiator is research and development.

We have introduced a range of innovations, in terms of formulas and concepts, which are relevant for our new age customers. For example, 15 years back, we were the first company in the country to introduce sun protection; we

tested our products and labelled it with the sun protection factor (SPF) number. Eight years back, we were also the first company to introduce an organic skincare summer product range, Phyto-Rx which is free of preservatives, artificial colours and fragrance. We also pride ourselves in successfully communicating our innovations to the Indian consumers and making them realise the relevance of our product in the subcontinent’s climatic conditions. Our consumers are value sensitive and we provide the best quality product at a very reasonable price. So, innovation and affordability are the two key differentiating factors for Lotus Herbals.

What is your strategy to stay ahead of competition?

Typically, we spend anywhere between Rs 40 and Rs 70 crore on advertising and also spend additionally on promotions.

We prefer to take up high impact properties on TV. For example, we were the beauty partners on Indian Idols on Sony Entertainment Television and recently associated with the channel for Super Dancer Chapter 3, which is one of the top three properties on Indian television. For the last couple of

years, we have been associated with the The Indian Premier League (IPL) and also sponsored the Delhi Capitals team. All these associations have played an important role in increasing the brand awareness level among customers.

The beauty industry is still under penetrated in the country. If you look at the per capita consumption of personal care products, it’s amongst the lowest in world. So, I see tremendous opportunity and

IF YOU LOOK AT THE PER CAPITA

CONSUMPTION

OF PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS, IT’S AMONGST THE LOWEST IN WORLD. SO, I SEE

TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY AND WHEN THE MARKET GROWS, I BELIEVE WE WILL CLEARLY BE A BENEFICIARY BY DEFAULT.

when the market grows, I believe we will clearly be a beneficiary by default.

Speaking of IPL, Lotus Herbals recently launched a sunscreen for sportspersons and you also are into sports sponsorships. Why is a cosmetic brand giving this much attention to sports?

Lotus Herbals, as a brand, speaks to millennials. Today, the youngsters in India are health conscious and actively into sports, with marathons, swimming, tennis and soccer gaining huge popularity among the youth. However, the youth are unaware about the damage caused by UV rays. Sportspersons spend a lot of time outdoors and are continuously exposed to UV rays and the normal sun block does not work for them.

Professionals take good care of their skin, but the normal kid or any person, who plays is still not using sports sun block. It’s a challenge to educate them and sports sponsorship helps here. Also, IPL is the number one sports property in the county and our association has contributed to the brand visibility.

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 43

BRAND CONNECT

Do celebrity endorsements contribute to the brand image? Also, who is your current face?

WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF

INTRODUCING A NEW FACE FOR OUR BRAND. SHE IS A BIG BOLLYWOOD FACE,

We do a lot of celebrity endorsements and it does contribute to the brand image.

Celebrities like Fatima Sana Shaikh, Shilpa Shetty and Huma Qureshi have endorsed Lotus Herbals. In fact, some of them personally use our products and if you visit the social media pages of these celebrities, you see that not only the celebrity but also some of their family members use Lotus Herbals and this inspires the consumer too.

Currently, we are in the process of introducing a new face for our brand. She is a big Bollywood face, who stands for a lot of things that Lotus Herbals stands for. She is known to for her healthy lifestyle, she practises yoga, and is an environmentally conscious person who is into natural products.

WHO STANDS FOR A LOT OF THINGS THAT

LOTUS HERBALS STANDS FOR.

What is your take on Influencer Marketing?

We take influencer marketing with a pinch of salt. Personally, I’m not a very big fan of paid influencer marketing; unless and until that influencer clearly mentions that it is a sponsored post. There are still no rules in India regulating this sector.

On numerous occasions the influencers fake the gratification and this is damaging to their, as well as the brand’s, reputation if their claims are not true.

However, despite not being a fan, I know that influencer marketing works and we do tie up with some influencers.

Lotus launched a baby care range called baby+.

The theme for that campaign was adoption.

What was the strategy behind it?

We wanted to communicate to our consumers that you don’t need to have a biological baby to start a family and that an adopted baby is as important as a biological baby. The mindset of the society needs to evolve.

Today, we see a lot of people are

44 | PITCH | JULY 2019

having problems conceiving.

Also, if you talk about the LGBT community, I’m pretty sure in the next one or two years they will be able to legally adopt babies and raise them as good citizens. As a brand that is pro people, it’s our responsibility to bring forth the changes we would like to see in society; in terms of the thinking, and that is why this campaign was developed.

This was a cause marketing campaign.

Today, how important it is for a brand to associate itself with a cause?

Cause marketing is very important for beauty brands, especially because there is so much of science involved. For a campaign to appeal to the consumer, it must emotionally connect with them. Beauty is not just about the physical aspect but also about emotions.

From that perspective cause marketing is probably the most important element in the marketing mix. Looking ahead, we will focus a lot more on cause marketing versus the conventional product marketing.

You launched a professional makeup range called Proedit.

What was the reason behind going into professional range?

What we observed in makeup was that basically, the customers loved our products, but they wanted a certain kind of expertise. Consumers found our products to be good but believed that we were not experts. So we collaborated with some international makeup experts, and developed the Proedit range. This is a fantastic range for the consumers and is priced keeping affordability in mind and I believe that Proedit is going to be a big success.

overall wellness of consumers in mind.

What was the strategy behind the launch of IKKAI?

What is your growth strategy looking ahead?

Are you looking at organic or inorganic growth?

Few years back, we found that most brands don’t talk to the millennials in their language and also don’t stand for things that they believe in. Most skincare brands, including ours, have been around for a few decades and have been used by people who are 25 years and above. Young adults, aged 16-21, starting their professional career do not relate to these brands. That’s because these brands are either on the science platform or an emotive platform, but they are not on the youth platform.

Our growth strategy is based on multiple pillars. We are expanding our product portfolio distribution and are exploring new age channels of sales, which is in digital and e-commerce.

We are also looking at directly reaching out to the consumer through our own website and other channels.

Every company has two kinds growth strategy, organic and inorganic. Acquisition is part of our in-organic strategy to grow the business. As and when we feel there is a right fit we will definitely pursue it and will make an announcement at the right time.

About The Company

Internationally, many brands are talking to the youth in a very different language and they have a very strong product side story.

IKKAI was built on the same fundamentals, understanding that the youth want something different, something affordable, but at the same time, a product that was organic, natural that they could relate to. That’s the reason we coined the phrase “fun organics mission” or “fun organic beauty”, this was the genesis of brand IKKAI.

Do you plan to extend beyond beauty and possibly venture into the wellness segment in the near future?

The lines between beauty and wellness is getting blurred.

Beauty is no longer just physical, it’s also a state of mind, and your own sense of well being.

At the moment, we still not in services and just do the product marketing but we have many that are being developed keeping the

LINES BETWEEN

BEAUTY AND WELLNESS IS GETTING BLURRED. BEAUTY IS NO LONGER JUST PHYSICAL, IT’S ALSO A STATE OF MIND, AND YOUR OWN SENSE OF WELL BEING. AT THE MOMENT, WE STILL NOT IN SERVICES AND JUST DO THE PRODUCT MARKETING BUT WE HAVE MANY THAT ARE BEING DEVELOPED

KEEPING THE OVERALL WELLNESS OF CONSUMERS

Established in 1993 by Mr Kamal Passi, Lotus Herbals Ltd. is a leading manufacturer and marketer of quality natural cosmetics based out of India. Lotus Herbals provides retail as well as professional range of over 250 researched, targeted and exciting skin, hair care, sun care and color make-up products which marry the ancient wisdoms of the Vedas to 21st Century Technology.

The company’s products are sold in more than 16 countries including USA, Germany, South Africa, Malaysia, Mauritius, Maldives, Bulgaria, Japan etc. In India Lotus Herbals retail range reaches 700 cities and towns through eight branch offices and 700+ distributors. The brand is currently available at 75,000+ leading retail outlets including specialty health & beauty chains. Lotus Herbals’ professional division, Lotus Professional currently serves 200 cities through 250+ distributors with world class technical products, education and services reaching 10,000+ beauty salons and spas making it India’s leading professional skin care brand.

IN MIND. JULY 2019 | PITCH | 45

APP STORE

WHAT YOU GOT IN YOUR MOBILE? WHATSAPP WILL SOON GO DARK

A

ccording to reports, WhatsApp is working on a new feature called “Dark Mode” or “Night Mode”. The new mode aims to darken the app interface instead of the current white and UFO green colour scheme.

According to a tweet by WAABetaInfo, the Night Mode, which is being tested on the beta version of the app is randomly appearing on users screens as the version contains lots of bugs. However, WhatsApp is yet to bring the Dark Mode to a stable release.

PRIVACY FOCUSED TOR BROWSER IS NOW ON ANDROID.

T

here is good news for privacy-focused folks. The Tor browser, which provides tracking prevention mechanism and defence against fingerprinting attacks, is finally on Android with a stable release.

Though, if the reports are to be believed, the Android version of the browser might have some features missing from the desktop version, but it’ll still sniff web traffic without breaking encryption.

YOUTUBE MUSIC AND YOUTUBE PREMIUM LAUNCHES CHEAPER STUDENT PLANS IN INDIA

Y

ouTube Music and YouTube Premium, which officially arrived in India two months ago are now looking forward to raking more subscribers in the form of college goers. YouTube came up with ‘Student Plans’ for both services which provide subscription to student of accredited institutions at 40 percent less than the standard monthly subscription fee

46 | PITCH | JULY 2019

AUTOMATE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR $39 WITH POSTIBLE

M

anaging various social media marketing platforms at one place has just got cheaper with Postible. TNW Deals is cutting down the price for lifetime access to the site by 90 percent at just $39.

Postible works on all mobile devices and does not need to be downloaded. Users can either schedule posts with videos, links and images on various social media platforms or upload them instantly. With its bulk uploader, thousands of posts can be scheduled at once.

LOOKING FOR CHEAP AND EDUCATIONAL TV, TRY CURIOSITY STREAM

F

or the lovers of old school television, which was affordable and intelligent, there is a new streaming platform in the market called Curiosity Stream. Curiosity Stream is the work of John Hendricks, the founder of Discovery Channel. The online streaming platform is purely devoted to nonfiction, with documentaries dealing with history, science, nature and technology. The site is currently home to more than 2,400 shows, with constantly new shows been added.

The app is pretty affordable with $2.99 a month and $19.99 a year as two options. The first week is free for new users.

ITUNES’ DEAD; 3 NEW APPS REPLACES IT

‘CALL OF DUTY: MOBILE’ LAUNCHES IN INDIA

T

he gamers delight, “Call of Duty” (COD), is now available on your phones. Activision, in collaboration with Tencent’s TiMi studio has brought “ Call of Duty: Mobile”. The new version of the game has free-to-play multiplayer option and will be available for iOS and Android users.

Talking about the new game, Chris Plummer, VP-Mobile, Activision said that the company’s goal was to create COD for mobile that still felt familiar and authentic to longtime fans.

The game already has had soft launches in India and Australia, with other regions to follow soon.

DROPBOX IS NOW AN ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION WORKSPACE

i

Tunes is shutting down. Apple has confirmed the death of its most famous music app at 2019 WWDC event.

The two-decade-old app, which powered the iPod and iPhone era, will be replaced by three individual apps for music, podcast and TV. In recent years, the old app became bloated and slow as Apple kept on adding more features to it. It was also widely criticised for the same.

The new changes in the app will come in the market with the new version of Mac OS, Catalina, which will be released later this year.

D

ropbox is no longer just a file storage system; it is evolving to an enterprise software portal. Now users can coordinate work with their team on the data storing app. Recently, a new version of Dropbox was launched which permits users to launch apps with shortcuts for G Suite. In addition to that, it allows users to built-in Slack message sending and Zoom video calls. The app lets the user search across all their files on their device their other enterprise tools, and comment on their team’s work. Dropbox can now also be used as a task manager. It permits users to add notes and tag co-workers in to-do lists attached to the files.

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 47

INTERVIEW

Hallmark of Glass Purity French multi-national Saint-Gobain’s recent campaign highlights the measure for purity in a glass. AR Unnikrishnan, Director, Sales & Marketing, Saint-Gobain India Private Ltd. - Glass Business talks to us about 654 PPM - the new standard in clarity and purity, the challenges in communicating the purity aspect and more.

By Simran Sabherwal

A R Unnikrishnan Director, Sales & Marketing, Saint-Gobain India

What is the primary objective of your new campaign?

Saint-Gobain started in India in 2000, and our first campaign in 2001 spoke about establishing Saint-Gobain as a brand in the clear glass category. We created a differentiation for Saint-Gobain and established the clarity of the product. Since then, we’ve had other campaigns which were product specific, for mirrors, solar control glasses etc. For our latest campaign, we are again focusing on clear glass. We are synonymous for clarity in glass, and our latest campaign, called ‘Subway Baby’, goes beyond clarity and brings in purity as a new dimension and establishes that glass can also be measured for purity, just like other precious metals.

The lesser the iron content, the clearer and purer will be the glass, and we have the lowest amount of iron content in glass.

We have brought down the PPM (parts per million) of iron content to just 654 compared to the present offerings within the industry, that are at 1000+ PPM of iron content. Simply put, 654 highlights the perfect measure for purity in a glass. All this is very technical, and we needed a commercial which conveys this in an interesting fashion within a very short period of time, without getting into explaining all the technicalities.

We have also created #PuritykaPerfectMeasure and #DekhoMagarSideSe to drive the conversations on digital media.

Whenever you see glass with a greenish tinge, it indicates a high iron content. If you look at the glass from the top, it is very difficult to make out the difference, so if you really want to see the difference, you have to see this from the edge. That’s why we are telling customers, #DekhoMagarSideSe

What is your media mix like?

The TVC is just one part of it, but we are supporting that with a 360-degree campaign. We are doing a lot on the digital and social media front. There is a lot of action happening at the point

48 | PITCH | JULY 2019

of sales (PoS) on the ground at our dealer outlets, close to 2,000 outlets across India, and with our influencers. In terms of spends, roughly around 70% is spent on television, around 20% on digital and the rest 10% is on BTL activities.

On the ground, we are

educating our dealers about purity and what 654 stands for, so that they are able to convey this message to their customers.

Explaining the technical aspect about PPM is complicated, so we have created tools such as shade cards, demo kits and comparison kits, which help the dealer easily explain to his customers and clearly demonstrate the difference between a SaintGobain and other products.

What was the brief you gave to the creative agency?

As I mentioned, our first campaign established clarity as the medium, and once you have established that, the brief was, how do you build on that? The first campaign had a novelty effect at that point in time, but you can’t repeat yourself. You need to do something very different while building on clarity, that was the challenge on the brief. Emotional connect is very important in this category, as is humour, and the commercial has to have a likeability factor. Our latest campaign starts off with a mystery, like in a horror film, and ends with you having a smile on your face when you see the glass panel at the very end. In fact, our TVC is for 40 seconds, and the average time that people have spent is 38 seconds, which means almost everybody has seen the full ad.

You operate in a low involvement category,so what is the challenge in marketing and remaining foremost in the consumer’s mind?

Yes, it’s not a daily purchase category, but it’s

EVEN THOUGH IT MAY NOT BE A HIGH

INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT, WHEN YOU BUY GLASS YOU SHOULD HAVE A REASON TO CHOOSE A

PARTICULAR BRAND. WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO CONNECT WITH THE CONSUMER,

FABRICATOR, CARPENTER, AND INTERIOR DESIGNER, GIVING THEM A REASON TO CHOOSE OUR BRAND

AND PRODUCTS.

an important category. You buy glass for your house, which is a one-time big investment that’s close to your heart and very emotional. Also, over the last 20 years, the amount of glass that is used in buildings and homes has gone up. For eg., gone are the days where you had a wooden

dining table, now it is a glass dining table. Similarly, glass is used in furniture, partitions, showering enclosures, etc., so there is a lot of glass getting used in the house. So even though it may not be a high involvement product, when you buy glass you should have a reason to choose a particular brand. We are attempting to connect with the consumer, fabricator, carpenter, and interior designer, giving them a reason to choose our brand and products. We have been successful in influencing a large number of people, and people do ask for the brand when they go to buy.

How do you engage with the influencers?

In addition to clear glass, we manufacture a host of other products that are used in the interior and exterior applications for windows, and our influencers – carpenters, installers – need to be educated about the products, their applications, and the new trends that are happening. We conduct educational sessions

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 49

INTERVIEW time you can get reach and impact. In India, our business is much closer to the end consumer, and our mission in India has been that we should bring out more products with more functionalities like soundproofing, preventing fire from propagating, etc., and electrochromic glasses where the amount of tinting can be controlled. We have a wide and sophisticated range of products and want to bring in multiple other products, therefore it was necessary for us to be connected to the end consumer, and important that people recollect the brand.

for them. We provide our influencers with simple tools and catalogs to educate, suggest and convince their customers. For example, they could suggest to a customer to use a solar control glass instead of a clear glass.

What is the brand philosophy for SaintGobain in India?

Saint-Gobain is a 354-year - old company that is 100% French. The image and brand association with SaintGobain is multinational, truly world class, trustworthy and sophisticated. We are sticking our necks out and saying we will give you 654, as we can deliver on our promise. It’s all about building on that trust.

What are the challenges that the company faces?

What’s interesting is that Saint-Gobain doesn’t advertise in other markets. Why did the company choose to not follow the path tested in the other markets and advertise in India?

That’s the beauty of SaintGobain. We don’t follow one kind of approach and understand that each market is different. France is very different from India, in terms of the size of the population, the sophistication, the education, and the aspirations and likes and dislikes are very different. In a developed market like Europe, we never had to advertise because we are several steps away from the consumer, and you sell your product to an intermediary, which could be a channel, and then it finally reaches the end consumer.

In India, it was very different.

Saint-Gobain was a brand that was completely unknown 20 years back, and the challenge was how to make people aware of the brand Saint-Gobain within a short period of time and also ensure that they are able to recall the brand. The easiest way was to take the TVC route, because in a short period of

50 | PITCH | JULY 2019

THE IMAGE AND BRAND ASSOCIATION WITH

SAINT-GOBAIN IS MULTINATIONAL, TRULY WORLD CLASS, TRUSTWORTHY AND SOPHISTICATED. WE ARE STICKING OUR NECKS OUT AND SAYING WE WILL

GIVE YOU 654, AS WE CAN DELIVER ON OUR PROMISE. IT’S ALL ABOUT BUILDING ON THAT TRUST.

There are many challenges, because India is not a very easy country to operate from multiple points of view. It’s a large country with varying tastes and difficulties. Logistics can be a nightmare, as reaching every part of the country can be a challenge. As a market leader and as a company that believes in India, we are constantly investing in the country. We have a pan India presence, and can’t omit any district. The third challenge is it’s also an industry where your cost increases can be quite substantial from time to time, especially when oil prices go up, but the ability to pass on the cost inflation to the consumer is limited. Therefore, there are times where your margins are really squeezed.

Another challenge is at the commodity end. The Indian government has imposed an anti-dumping duty on China, who in turn has invested in South-East Asian countries with whom India has a free-trade agreement, and from where these goods are being imported.

What can we expect from Saint-Gobain looking ahead?

More new products, as we have made a big investment in a huge R&D facility in India at the IIT Madras Research Park. We have over 100 researchers who work on all our products and are looking for solutions for the hot and humid climate.

#TheMaddies

er … f f O d ly Bir r a E e h Avail t

with your

BEST CAMPAIGNS to NOMINATE

under these

D

CATEGORIES B

HALL OF FAME

C

CHANNEL/ MEDIA STRATEGY

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES

A MARKETING STRATEGY

OCTOBER 11TH 2019, FRIDAY | MUMBAI REGISTER TODAY: www.e4mevents.com/the-maddies-awards-2019

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Priyanka Bhadouria at priyanka.bhadouria@exchange4media.com FOR PARTNERSHIPS, PLEASE CONTACT: Runa Sinha - Chief Revenue Officer | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com | +91 9810497903 Ashish Kudalkar - General Manager-Sales & Business Development (west) | ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com | +91 9820541742 Sneha Walke - VP Special Projects & South Head | sneha@exchange4media.com | +91 9845541143 Ashima Mehra - Regional Manager - Sales (North) | ashima.mehra@exchange4media.com | +91 9899571579 Music Community Partner

Trade Media Partners

www.futureplay.in

Business Media Partner

GUEST COLUMN

HOW AI CAN HELP YOU TARGET YOUR CUSTOMER AND MARKET BETTER KULDEEP CHAUDHARY CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ADOHM

A

product becomes successful not just by its own virtue but also with the right marketing strategy.

Marketing is all about reaching the right customer with the right message at the right time.

A brand blossoms exponentially overtime if the strategy is crafted in the right manner.

With the advent of social media, the channel of communication and the scale of reach has widened over time.

The rules of the game have now evolved, urging almost everyone to jump in the digital bandwagon to stay afloat in this competitive market. Digital marketing has proved to be effective because of the value that can be generated with the help of enormous amounts of consumer data.

The volume, variety, and velocity of the data have compelled businesses to make use of advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reach the customers much more effectively and reap better return on investments on every dollar spent. Artificial Intelligence and data science, with the recent advancements in machine learning tools, computing power and data, has taken over almost every field head on, and marketing is no different.

A survey by Salesforce infers that 51% of marketers are already using AI, and 27% more are going to adopt it by the end of 2019. AI helps companies to reach out among the sea of

52 | PITCH | JULY 2019

A SURVEY BY SALESFORCE INFERS THAT 51% OF MARKETERS ARE ALREADY USING AI, AND 27% MORE ARE GOING TO ADOPT IT BY THE END OF 2019.

AI HELPS COMPANIES TO REACH OUT AMONG THE SEA OF

CUSTOMERS

customers, the relevant ones and engage with them in a personalized way. Personalized engagement includes approaching the potential consumer with the correct message, appropriate time of contact and the frequency of communication to capture their attention. Further, the consumer data helps companies build a buyer persona for each customer enabling them to offer relevant recommendations across multiple channels of communication.

AI algorithms also help understand the customer sentiment, current trends in the market and to segment different customers based on similar buying behaviours.

Marketing now can be done with a proactive approach rather than a reactive one with the help of predictive analytic capabilities of machine learning models. AI can also help build a stronger relationship with the customer in a cheap, efficient and consistent manner with the help of chatbots. Effective customer engagement helps not only retain customers but make them as promoters of the brand.

Marketing automation with AI allows businesses to enhance customer satisfaction around experience, not channel. Companies like usoffer services to use AI for automating the advertising process to get a higher return on investment in advertisement across multiple channels. Automating ad campaigns such as on Google

and Facebook helps companies reduce the advertisement budget wastage and simplify the media buying process. The use of AI enables to identify and learn which platforms are most profitable and then channel the investment toward them. This results in autonomous targeting, autonomous media buying and optimized marketing campaigns.

On top of that, insights about consumer behaviour through advanced analytics and dashboards can help make better decisions and to design improved marketing campaigns in the future. It gives full visibility and monitoring of the impact their marketing strategy is having with consumers.

The three main roadblocks to executing an AI strategy, according to marketing leaders, are budgetary constraints, customer privacy concerns, and lack of the right internal skill

AUTOMATING AD CAMPAIGNS SUCH AS ON GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK HELPS COMPANIES REDUCE THE ADVERTISEMENT

BUDGET WASTAGE

AND SIMPLIFY THE MEDIA BUYING PROCESS. THE USE OF AI ENABLES TO IDENTIFY AND LEARN WHICH PLATFORMS ARE MOST PROFITABLE AND THEN CHANNEL

THE INVESTMENT TOWARD THEM

set (for example, too few data scientists). But with automated marketing, now even smaller businesses can use off the shelf tools for automated marketing campaigns, without getting into the hassle of building in house teams.

AI is not meant to replace marketers but to act as a tool enhancing their capabilities allowing them to focus on what they do best. The trend is on the upwards of the use of AI in marketing, and the ones who would leverage its potential and adapt would outperform others who don’t.

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 53

GALLERY

exchange4media formulated the 10th edition Indian Digital Media Awards in 2010 with the objective to recognize, celebrate and encourage the work being done in the digital media space... specifically, internet, mobile, gaming, social media and the blogosphere. exchange4media group hosted the 3rd edition of Techमंच on 26th and 27th June, 2019, in Mumbai at Taj Lands End where advertising, marketing and media fraternity of the country came together to discuss DIGITAL. The two day evednt witnessed the speakers from brands like Google, Nestle, HDFC, Pidilite. The conference was concluded by the evening of Indian Digital Marketing awards which recognised the great work done by our favorite brands in the year 2018.

Here are some of the glimpses from this year’s conference and awards.

1

2

3

5

7 54 | PITCH | JULY 2019

6

8

9

10

4

11

12

13

16

17

14

15

1

Vikas Agnihotri of Google India

2

Ajay Dang of Ultratech , Vishal Subharwal of HDFC Life , M. Yeshwanth Nag of The ThickShake Factory, Noor Warsia of BW Businessworld & Digital Market Asia

3

Clyde Nunes of Truecaller, Jahid Ahmed of HDFC Bank, Reilly Rebello of Zee5, Shibu Shivanandan of Pivotroots , Suvrita Saumya of Motors , Vishal Chinchankar of Madison

4

Tamara McCleary of Thulium

5

Prachi Mohapatra of Future Retail

6

Jayraj Jadhav of TataAIG General Insurance, Nipun Kaushal of PNB Metlife, Pallav Jain of Performics India, Vivek Sharma of Pidilite, Sanjay Mehta of Mirum India , Shamsuddin Jasani of Isobar, Mangesh Panditrao of Shoptimize , Sachin Killawala of Nivea

7

Sabyasachi Mitter of Fulcro

8

Arthur Francisco Carmazzi of Global top 10 thought leader in organizational culture and Leadership

9

Atul Jalan of Manthan

10 Masterclass by Haani Mirza of Google India 11 Ramakrishnan Ramamurthi of Polycab 12 Rishi Sharma of Grasim Industries Limited | Pulp & Fibre,

Ravi Kumar of AdLift , Amaresh Godbole of Digitas, Rohan Mehta of Kinnect, Pallavi Chopra of RedBus

13 Reena Mishra of Microsoft 14 Suhail Sameer of RP Sanjiv Goenka group 15 Ankit Vengurlekar of Editor of Tech2, Dhvani Bhanushali,

RJ Vrajesh Hirjee, Amish Tripathi, DJ Suketu, Dino Jones 16 Dhruv Dhawan of Google India

18

17 Suresh Thankavel of Augray 18 Mr. Suresh Narayanan of Nestle India

JULY 2019 | PITCH | 55

GALLERY

PITCH CMO SUMMIT Bangalore edition of Pitch CMO Summit concluded on Thursday, May 30, 2019.

Presented by The Hindu, summit took place at Taj MG Road, Bangalore. The theme for the Bangalore edition was ‘Demystifying Brand Building Experience’.

At the time when thousands of brands are competing in a small market space, a lot goes into making the best stand out of the rest and what it takes to stay in top of the game. At the summit, the top marketers shared their experience about building their brand and the challenges they face in the digital age. They also discussed about how brands and marketers can utilize the digital platform to their advantage

56 | PITCH | JULY 2019

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1

S. Ravikant of Titan Company Limited

7

Rajesh V Menon of RCB & DIAGEO India

2

Abhishek Ganguly of Puma India

8

ctors Sanjjanaa Galrani, Ashwin Kakumanu A and Director - Harsha V of Aivar

3

Preeti Reddy of Kantar 9

nnurag Batra-Chairman & Editor-In-ChiefA Business World & exchange4media Group

10

ajiv Singh of Sony Pictures Networks India, R Kishankumar Shyamalan of Wavemaker, Amit Doshi of lenovo India, Amitabh Pande of IKEA India, Anurag Kumar of Tata Sky, Raagaleena Sripada of Bigbasket, Ramita Chaudhuri of Mahau India, Sridhar Aranala of The Hindu Group and M. Yashwanth Nag of The Thickshake Factory with Suresh Krishnan of The Hindu group

4

Pradeep Hejmadi of Aidem Ventures

5

Arjun Ranga of Cycle Pure Agarbathies

6

Ramesh Jude Thomas of Equitor Value Advisory, Mangesh Panditrao of Shoptimize, Samyukta Ganesh Iyer of Baskin Robbins India, Meera Iyer of Medlife.com, Ashutosh Vaidya of Kur-lon, Aarti B Iyer of Unibic and Suneil Chawla of Social Beat & Influencer.in

10 JULY 2019 | PITCH | 57

FEATURE RAPID FIRE

MANISHA LATH GUPTA Head Of Marketing, Uber India and South Asia

So what’s your idea of a perfect vacation or what is your favorite vacation spot?

Idea of a perfect vacation is to be with the family, which is my husband and two daughters. My favorite vacation spot is actually my farm in a village. And I like a quote, which I read it somewhere, “You travel the whole world, and then you realize that your village is the best.”

Sometimes I feel that my family gets a little upset because every time when there’s a holiday, I say let’s just go to the farm. But that’s really where I like to spend my time.

It’s near Chandigarh.

How do you de-stress after a long day at work?

I sing. I’m not a singer, but I am learning how to sing. I’m not sure if my family’s very happy about it because my kids ask me to do my singing practice when they go down to play.

Your favorite go to app for work or otherwise which app do use the most.

I think apart from the normal email apps, WhatsApp and Google Hangouts, the other apps I spend my time on are LinkedIn and Facebook. I’m old school that way.

If not a marketer what would you be?

Oh, I would most likely be a farmer. And I’ve been saying this for a while, but I haven’t gotten down to be one. I do hope to be a full time farmer someday.

What are your favorite forms of entertainment?

I like to watch some series on Netflix. I finished watching Delhi Crime which I thought was really good and moving. I also like watching some of the International stuff which is a little bit off beat like Derry Girls.

It’s hilarious. It’s an Irish series.

While my husband is good at finding what to watch, I just watch.

58 | PITCH | JULY 2019

#Screenage

MARK YOUR CALENDER

2nd Edition

to attend the India’s leading Mobile Marketing Conference

i

ba um

RNI NO: DELENG/2009/27694

M

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Priyanka Bhadouria priyanka.bhadouria@exchange4media.com FOR MOREat INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Priyanka Bhadouria at priyanka.bhadouria@exchange4media.com

FOR PARTNERSHIPS, PLEASE CONTACT: FOROfficer PARTNERSHIPS, PLEASE CONTACT: Runa Sinha - Chief Revenue | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com | +91 9810497903 RunaManager-Sales Sinha - Chief Revenue Officer | runa.sinha@exchange4media.com | +91 9810497903 Ashish Kudalkar - General & Business Development (west) | ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com | +91 9820541742 Ashish Kudalkar - General Manager-Sales Business&Development | ashish.kudalkar@exchange4media.com | +91 9820541742 Sneha Walke - VP Special&Projects South Head |(west) sneha@exchange4media.com | +91 9845541143 Sneha Walke- -Regional VP Special Projects-&Sales South Head | |sneha@exchange4media.com | +91 9845541143 Ashima Mehra Manager (North) ashima.mehra@exchange4media.com | +91 9899571579 Ashima Mehra - Regional Manager - Sales (North) | ashima.mehra@exchange4media.com | +91 9899571579 Music Community Partner

Trade Media Partners

www.futureplay.in

Business Media Partner