2022 is set to be a pivotal year for the EdTech sector: Ankit Khirwal, upGrad

Over the last few weeks, Adgully’s annual feature – TRENDING NOW – has been bringing insights from industry leaders on how their organisations are geared up to seize the opportunities in 2022, break through the Covid disruptions and find growth and remain resilient.

Trending Now presents the strategies and views of a cross-section of industry leaders as they go about reclaiming lost time and market opportunities and build for a stronger future, armed with the lessons of the pandemic period.

In conversation with Adgully, Ankit Khirwal, Head of Marketing, upGrad, speaks about the trends that will dominate in the Edtech industry in 2022, the challenges and opportunities emerging in the year ahead, India poised as a global thriving hub and more.

What are the trends that you expect to dominate in your sector in 2022?

One of the most critical trends which are set to dominate the space is content marketing. It needs to be relevant and well-integrated to ensure that the desired message is communicated right and perceived by our audience without intrusion. Adding to the same, personalisation is also going to be a significant game-changer. We no longer operate in times where standardised products/content can work. Nowadays, it’s more about how well we are prepared with our content to be able to reach the right set of audiences, at the right time. Such informed marketing efforts will propel brand visibility and drive up recall for long-term results.

Secondly, the increased focus on lower-funnel impact than mere awareness is going to be of top-most importance as high referrals, word of mouth, and repeat-learner base equally contributes to the growth.

Thirdly, creating new markets will be critical to expanding the business for driving desired growth, and lastly, the concept of ‘Life Long Learning’ has to be instilled among the working professionals as means of advancement in their professions through an appropriate media mix.

What are the challenges and new opportunities that you see emerging in the year ahead?

As businesses become focused on the bottomline, finding the correct media mix and operating model will be a challenge while growing organic interest in the brand through a concerted 360-degree effort. Additionally, the times we operate in, are extremely data-driven and it will be a critical driver for improving the desired ROI around the year. Working professionals will need to analyse key data points in a most useful manner to identify media channels, and understand the market and customer sentiments, for maximum business growth.

How is this year’s turnout expected to be in this sector as compared to the last two years? How strong will the recovery be? What are the changes that have happened in this sector in the last two years? How strong will this sector’s growth be compared to the last two years as well as the pre-Covid period?

2022 is set to be a pivotal year for the EdTech sector, with outcomes and profitability coming to the forefront, while India is also poised to emerge as a global thriving hub for EdTech and education with a focus on digital learning. The recently formed India EdTech Consortium (IEC) and a common code of conduct will go a long way in strengthening the EdTech sector and establishing India as the Teaching capital of the world.

The huge capital inflows into the sector have given rise to a number of EdTech companies that have different capabilities catering to the different needs of the customers. Critical mergers and consolidations within the EdTech space would bring several passionate entrepreneurs together for building an inclusive and powerful learning ecosystem for millions.