The 16th Marketing Conclave organized by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), held on Aug 27-28 with the theme ‘Towards The Tipping Point’ was inaugurated by Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises. Shri Javadekar stressed on the need to counter fake news and termed fake news as more dangerous than paid news.
The marketing conclave, which is one of the biggest in India saw industry leaders share their insights on the post-COVID scenario and how through responsible marketing, consumer demand can be regained. Delivering a keynote address, Harsh Mariwala, Founder & Chairman Marico mentioned that it has it is now crucial for brands to innovate on a perpetual basis. He further stated with the world facing an unprecedented crisis, and the role of innovation and purpose in brand building has drastically increased as organizations look to create a meaningful connection with their consumers.
Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group & Chairman, IAMAI Digital Advertising Committee, said: “The current times have taught that messaging and communication has never been more important, the content has never been less commoditized and the reason to look beyond the shares of customers wallets, has never been more crucial for business sustainability.”
Ajit Mohan, Vice President, Facebook spoke about the pandemic’s impact on the digital world. He highlighted that the digitally influenced purchase has shot up by at least 15-20% for some of the largest consumer categories such as apparel, mobile phones packaged consumer goods that traditionally had offline chains.
Tushar Vyas, President, GroupM South Asia in his address said: “I’m glad MarCon 16 is happening at an appropriate time when everyone is curious to understand and decode what is the scenario going to be in the post-pandemic world. There is a visible change in consumer trends along with how brands are evolving their marketing tactics. COVID-19 has given a rise to challenges and changes across the marketing ecosystem but on the other side, it has offered a fresh perspective into the new reality and help accelerate digital adoption. Digital, data, and technology have a larger part to play in the post COVID world to help turn the tide, he said.
Nitin Paranjpe, Chief Operating Officer, Unilever, in his keynote address on ‘Way forward for early adopters’, said: “Purpose creates relevance. When you find meaning or a way to touch people’s lives around issues that matter to them, you drive better effectiveness, efficiency, and better returns.”
Sharing his perspective on Fantasy Sports, Harsh Jain Co-Founder & CEO Dream11 outlined the importance of proper marketing and gave an insight into how marketing will work if the product is good.
Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group spoke about how the regional newspaper industry is growing while English newspapers are recording a dip in readership. He however said that at the same time, digital news platforms recorded high growth. Thus, as a change of strategy, print reporters, besides writing articles for newspapers have begun to contribute to websites.
Jagran News Media CEO Bharat Gupta stressed on the need for creating trust and credibility. He said that these two factors should be of paramount importance for content creators in the digital world. He further said that the focus should be to embrace change with innovations as legacy alone will not help traditional companies survive.
The conference was wrapped up with a very interesting panel discussion about the challenges and opportunities that an agency faces when there is a paradigm shift in the Marketing Ecosystem. Anant Goenka, who moderated the session said brands should invest in finding a role in society and look for a larger purpose. He stated the importance of communication and how a brand should focus on building up a relationship with their customers.
Ashish Bhasin, CEO APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu Aegis Network Consumers said today the consumers are very smart, particularly the younger generation. He asked brands to be responsible in their messaging and not focus only on earning a brownie point. Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World when asked about how brands go about finding a larger purpose, said younger people get attracted to a brand’s cause and when a brand takes up a cause, what they should look for its authenticity.
In an interesting session on the evolution of story-telling in India, famous author Amish Tripathi, in his conversation with noted filmmaker Anand Tiwari, opined that any story without a philosophy embedded in it is like a body without a soul, and there is no purpose. He said that there must be a philosophy that must be conveyed in the story. It is up to the readers to accept those philosophies or reject them. But the key should be to provoke the readers to think.
The conference also saw an interesting chat on Audio: The Way Forward between Neha Dhupia, Indian actress, and Amarjit Singh Batra, Managing Director, Spotify India.
The conference had an online gathering of more than 3000+ registered delegates from across the globe with 150+ speakers. Some of the speakers at the two-day conference included Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group; Harsh Mariwala, founder and chairman; Marico; Satyan Gajwani, vice-chairman, Times Internet; Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group; Mark Read, CEO, WPP; Nitin Paranjpe, COO, Unilever; Harsh Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, Dream11; Sam Balsara Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World; Ashish Bhasin; CEO APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu Aegis Network; Vishnu Mohan Chairman & CEO, Havas Group; Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India, Film Director Bharat Bala among others.
About IAMAI
The Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] is a young and vibrant association with ambitions of representing the entire gamut of digital businesses in India. It was established in 2004 by the leading online publishers, and in the last 16 years has come to effectively address the challenges facing the digital and online industry including mobile content and services, online publishing, mobile advertising, online advertising, e-commerce, and mobile & digital payments among others.
Sixteen years after its establishment, the association is still the only professional industry body representing the online industry in India. The association is registered under the Societies Act and is a recognized charity in Maharashtra. With a membership of nearly 300 Indian and overseas companies, and with offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata, the association is well placed to work towards charting a growth path for the digital industry in India.
