Exclusive | Aiming for thought leadership:Techshashtra's Nishith Shah

Established in 2001, TechShastra India was one of the earliest technology companies to delve into customized digital, mobile, e-commerce solutions space to help companies reach out, engage, and delight their customers. Today the company is not only the advance level partner of IBM for development of software applications, but is also associated with all major telecom service providers and handset manufacturers in India such as BlackberryTM (RIM) and Bharti Telecom to name a few. On the digital media company front the firm has a proven track record and a strong customer base that includes brands such as Pepsi, Axe, Pepsodent, Maggi, Red Label, Vaseline, Surf Excel and Nescafe for which TechShastra has successfully provided a mobile solutions platform.

With several accolade winning campaigns to its credit, the company continues to be a thought leader in the industry. TechShastra has always strived to push the envelope and create innovative ideas that help brands break the clutter and achieve a high brand recall in the minds of their consumers. Some of the successful ones were the “Red Label- Call Sonakshi’ campaign that aimed at creating a high level of brand engagement through the star power of Red label’s brand ambassadors along with educating the audience about the health benefits of drinking Red Label tea. This campaign received an overwhelming response of more than 2.6 million calls and gave the brand a very high recall in the minds of their audience. The other was the ‘Taaza’ campaign aimed at exploring the growth opportunity in Maharashtra’s rural markets by increasing its (SOR) Share of Requirement, both at the retailer and the consumer. The objective was to create an on-going engagement with their target audience and creating valid database in the process which can help in future campaigns. TechShastra created a highly localized campaign by giving consumers ‘Free Talk-Time’ along with every purchase of the product. This campaign witnessed a redemption rate of over 20 per cent in just 3 weeks.

Reminiscing about the journey, Nishith Shah, CEO, TechShastra India says, “Our journey since the very early days of 2000, when very few dared venture into the uncharted waters of digital, has been no less than an adventure. I feel quite delighted as I look back and see how we have today grown into a company which specializes in offering strategic marketing solutions across the digital landscape.” He was speaking to Adgully.

Commenting on what makes a successful mobile campaign, Shahs says, “The basic parameter that marketers evaluate and rate a mobile campaign against these days is consumer engagement. A successful mobile campaign is one which innovates and helps set new benchmarks, thus raising the bar for all mobile campaigns thereafter.”

The mobile platform has given marketers the ability to create highly targeted campaigns which offer their audience the right offer at the right time. There has never been a better time for e-commerce in the country. With the growth of mobile in India, consumers are consuming more and more of digital content on their phones today. Brands and online retailers have realized this potential and are constantly evolving themselves at a very fast pace, through smarter and more efficient ways of converting a consumers into customers.

However there are many hurdles. Says Shah, “Brands are often a little averse to taking risks by developing and nurturing new and innovative ways to engage their audience. Getting the pulse of this cultural shift and the willingness to bet on innovation and the power of effective consumer engagement seems to be the biggest hurdle right now.”

TechShastra has recently launched QUOPN, a consumer acquisition platform, which is designed to help brands reach out to their audience with highly targeted offers, at the right place, at the right time, thus giving consumers the right push to go and purchase the product. QUOPN also possesses the capability to capture and analyze consumer data and create new and more effective campaigns based on past learnings. On future plans Shah said in conclusion, “In the near future, TechShastra will also be looking at offering effective video engagement opportunities for marketers. In the next five years, we aim to become one of the largest mobile marketing companies in the region.”