Brands Must Adopt Effective Communication Strategy: 16th Marketing Conclave

 The16th Marketing Conclave organised 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 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 organisations look to create a meaningful connect with their consumers.

Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express & Chairman, IAMAI Digital Advertising Committee, said digital advertising is increasingly being adopted by brands in order to chart an effective communication strategy that involves a two-way communication process between the organisation and its consumers. “The current times have taught that messaging and communication has never been more important, content has never been less monetised and the reason to look beyond the shares of customers wallets, has never been more crucial for sustaining,” he added.

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 said,

Sharing his perspective on Fantasy Sports, Harsh Jain Co-Founder & CEO Dream11 outlined the importance of proper marketing and gave an insight of how marketing will work if the product is good.

Girish Agarwal, Director, Dainik Bhaskar Group spoke about how 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 a high growth. Thus, as a change of strategy, print reporters, besides writing articles for newspapers have begun to contribute for 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 new 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 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 is authenticity.

 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; 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 among others

 The conference along with many eminent marketing maestros also saw the presence of many big Bollywood celebrities like, Neha Dhupia, Actress; Anand Tiwari, Actor & Filmmaker; Bharat Bala, Director among others.