I had the pleasure of attending the Mumbai leg of Exchange4Media’s Conclave where Nitin Paranjpe, CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. was the keynote speaker.

Starting the day’s proceedings with a heavyweight speaker of this kind, set the tone for the day. His talk was thought provoking and virtually posed a challenge, for all of the attendees present, to think if they were preparing adequately for the changing times, and the future that could be!

I was particularly pleased when in the first 5 minutes of his talk – which were in a way, also the first 5 minutes of the conclave – he started talking about how digital has started to grow, and how it can only get bigger now!

Digital and social media figured extensively in the keynote address, and which certainly pleased me, no end!

Paranjpe made it clear at the outset that he was going to throw some thoughts, potentially with an idea to provoke, to challenge, to make people think and consider. Some of his observations were speculative, and he emphasized the same, but the idea as per him was, to wonder how things would be, if those speculations came true. He also emphasized that he did not necessarily have answers, just questions. And that everyone would need to figure out their own answers really!

With this background, I am pleased to share some of his thoughts, with my comments interspersed, as per below:

1. One of the bold thoughts that Paranjpe threw was about how big digital could potentially get, in India? He mentioned that in the US, TV was still a lot bigger, but in the UK, digital had become bigger than TV, in media spend. Could such a scenario occur in India as well, he wondered?

* My thoughts: wow! Even to consider the possibility is mind boggling. Today digital is almost an afterthought for planners and marketers. And it is a small percentage of the spend, with bulk still going to TV. While we consider digital going to a double digit share – and that looks far away – considering an idea that it could possibly be bigger than TV, is certainly HUGE. If anyone else had said it, we’d have dismissed it summarily, but when Nitin Paranjpe speculates this, we have to stand up and think about the possibility!!

2. Paranjpe talked about possibilities that we had not envisaged and how things have got impacted on basis of the same. Be it mobile phones and their population in India, on the one hand, or the use of Digital Video Recorders. As CEO of one of India’s largest advertisers, it was candid of him to admit that most of the television that he himself sees, is on DVRs. And that he certainly fast-forwards the advertising there, except on account of his professional interest! Paranjpe was essentially referring to potential inflexion points. He wondered, if like mobile phones’ usage costs had come down dramatically, what if cost of DVRs came down from around INR 4,000/- to INR 400/-? How will life change then?

* My thoughts: indeed a staggering thought. If more and more television in India gets viewed via DVRs, what does that do to the big budgets allocated for TVCs?? Would there be a strong rethink then?

3. Nitin Paranjpe shared this amazing infographic, about what happens on the Internet in 60 seconds:

A fabulous graphic, this shows the totally dynamic and ever-changing world on the Internet.

* My thought: how many marketers are really prepared for this ever-changing world? If there was an eye opener, this graphic it is!

4. Like in case of DVRs, Paranjpe feared another possible inflexion point. Like the cost of mobile usage, he speculated, what would happen if broadband costs came down rapidly? Say, these became INR 200/- or even free? How will life change due to that?

* My thought: will anyone watch any TV at all? Would you get all the entertainment and news and everything else that you need, on broadband? When you want it? From allocation of media spend, to budgets for content creation, things will never be the same again!

5. Nitin Paranjpe emphasized the three new skills people need to learn and have: Engage, Engage, Engage.

* My thoughts: If this does not spell Social Media, what does?

(In fact, Paranjpe waxed eloquent about Social Media!)

6. An important point Paranjpe made was that consumers see a lot, but remember litte. On one of his visits to small town India, he asked a few people to remember some of their favorite ads of recent days. And they could not recall much at all. That in spite of the fact that television reaches everywhere. On further prodding, they mentioned that they remember the old Sridevi ad, for Lux!!

This is what he meant when he said that while consumers see a lot, there are few things they remember. And which is where the challenge for the marketer lies.

7. Another story that Paranjpe related, again from a village in India, was seeing a young woman there, use fabric softener. On asking, he was surprised to find that the girl completely understood the concept of softener, and it was not accidental use. That prompted Paranjpe to share a masterful insight – that thanks to television “aspirations have become homogenous, even though the means may be heterogenous”!!

Few other thoughts that Paranjpe shared included sharing how Cornetto had used crowdsourcing and social media. The fact that even their agency partners were also still getting an understanding of the new space, and they were learning together.

Paranjpe shared a very interesting personal challenge that he has taken up for himself. That this year, he intends to get familiar with the new media, and he is doing it the hard way. He has a 25-year old “mentor” who is taking him through the paces, including giving him homework and projects! Isn’t this fantastic??!

No wonder, Anurag Batra of Exchange4Media conveyed at the end of the talk that Paranjpe’s speech was better than many that he heard at Cannes recently!!

I was at the Click Asia Summit earlier this year, and shared thoughts on Social Media Planning, and challenges thereof.

A video recording of the same is shared here below:

Would love to read your views on these thoughts. Do share!

It was fun time again this year, at the Global Youth Marketing Forum, organized by Dr. R. L. Bhatia.

I was invited to speak on the subject of how brands are using Social Media to reach youth markets. As our company has many brands that target youth markets using Social Media, I was able to share my experience. A detailed case study that I shared was about one of our clients, Channel V, and a recent, successful campaign that we ran on Social Media, called ‘Sabse Liked College’.

My presentation deck, from the forum is as under:

I had the privilege of being invited to the Click Asia Summit (20-21 Jan, 2011), to be on a panel discussing Social Media Planning.

Over the last 1-2 years that I have been talking at various events on Social Media, I have seen a distinct shift in the awareness levels of the audience. I realized therefore, that it did not make sense at this point, to talking about Social Media Planning from a Social Media 101 point of view. That was what I was doing, perhaps, even 6-8 months back.

However, realizing the maturing of the audience, it was important to put together a higher level thought, and give the participants something more to think about. With that in mind, I put together, the following presentation, and which received excellent response, and also generated good Q&A after my presentation:

Challenges of Social Media Planning

View more presentations from Social Wavelength.

Some pictures from the event:

Marketing is going through a churn, perhaps akin to none other in its history. The fundamental rules of the game that one could swear by, seem to be challenged. And things could never remain the same again!

This is a two post series examining some of the changes and the challenges for marketing today.

There was an interesting cover story that the Harvard Business Review did in December, around the impact of Social Media. As a part of that feature, there was a particularly fascinating piece on “Branding in the Digital Age” by David Edelman.

Picking some thoughts from there, I have put together some thoughts in the presentation below:

Some of the key pointers in this presentation include:

1. The fact that the traditional model of a consumer purchase decision is not quite valid anymore. Earlier a consumer would put together an exhaustive list of options, then based on various inputs, figure his way down to a final choice. The typical funnel effect. But that was then. What a consumer is now doing, is best described in an elliptical curve.

Gathers names of a few brands that he recalls. On account of whatever inputs – be it advertising that he connected with, or referrals or whatever. That is the consideration point. From there begins the consumer’s evaluation journey. Read up blogs, see online content, talk to friends, etc. It is at this juncture that his choices may increase or decrease. He may drop some from his earlier list, he may add others. However all these changes are based on the inputs he is getting, usually from trusted sources.

From here comes the buy point. It is observed that today, a customer may walk into a store, still with an open mind, and final decision is taken at the point of sale.

The story does not end here, though. From this point onwards, begins the loyalty loop. The customer today wants to share his experience of using a product. Good or bad. And here is where he creates the impact for the next prospect.

So the shift from a funnel to an ellipse is the one major shift in marketing.

2. The crucial impact that the above change has, is in context of marketing budget allocations. When the customer was going though a funnel based decision process, the marketer had to ensure that his brand makes it to the awareness point of the buyer (the widest mouth of that funnel) and then, as the customer winds down the path of his decision making process, the brand is able to persuade the buyer to choose it. This may well happen by means of providing best push closer to the point of purchase. Maybe as discounts.

What that meant was the traditional marketing budgets went big time, into the awareness cycle – mass media advertising in a sense – and then into the purchase influence last leg. In terms of spends then, it was a large creative effort for creating the advertising, and then a variable media purchase budget. And planning or budgeting usually meant, only about playing with the media choices, and how much to leave for the sales offers.

Once we get into a different consumer purchase cycle, there may still be a need to be present at the awareness point and the buy point (and hence the spends there), but there needs to be adequate budgets kept for the two most critical touch points, where customer is most likely to be impacted by influence. This is while he is evaluating and when he in the loyalty loop. Usually, traditional marketers have not planned for these and have no budgets to allocate.

3. So what are these evaluate and loyalty loop stages? What is the media there? Unlike traditional marketing where you’d think TV or print or whatever, out here, we are looking at the various forms or owned and earned media for a brand. And how can a brand stay on top of that? Well, by monitoring what is going on there, providing inputs where necessary, and creating their own content as well, to put into those spaces.

The crucial impact where budgets are concerned is that, this is completely new space. Where brands were otherwise looking at creative costs and media purchase costs, this is non-productive expense, in that sense. Expense to monitor and manage the platforms where owned and earned media resides. Putting resources or getting outsourced help for the same. A brand has to start planning and budgeting for these.

4. There is also an evolution of the marketer’s role beyond the traditional work. Today, the brand produces tons of content for itself, far more than the 4-page brochure or the 10-page website that used to be the norm. With blogs, Facebook pages, presentations that are shared, tweets, YouTube videos, white papers, etc., the content produced is large. Add to that, product manuals, FAQs, registration forms, etc. and a brand becomes a serious content producer. If this content is allowed to happen in any which way, there is a risk that it will cause lot of negative response, which will spill over into Social Media space. And do harm to the brand. The marketer then, needs to assume control over such communications, and ensure that it is consistent with the brand’s positioning.

All these are the changes facing marketers and marketing teams, in this changing world.

It is a threat usually, but can also be an opportunity for many. An opportunity for those who can figure this change and adapt themselves, to a more significant role in the organization.

I will continue dwelling on the challenges for marketers in a a follow up post.

Meanwhile, very keen to seek your views on these thoughts. Please do share comments.

At the siliconindia Digital Media Conference held on Saturday, 23rd May, Sanjay was one of the panelists. The topic of the panel discussion was ‘Social Media – What Next’ and this is the presentation we made for the event.

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