If you do just digital, ROI can go horribly wrong - Punit Misra

The two-day disruptive marketing, communications and technology conclave – Zee Melt 2018 – concluded on a high note yesterday (May 31). Day 2 witnessed impressive and engaging sessions across the advertising, television and technology domains. Zee Melt, as the name suggests, had innovative ideas, workshops and sessions across marketing, technology and communication space forming synergies. 

5 marketing tips from Burger King’s Fernando Machado 

Fernando Machado, Global CMO, Burger King, shared his marketing mantra as well as tips on how to convince clients to take risks in his address, titled ‘Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. But Do It’. 

According to Machado, creativity helps clients thrive the business and grow their brand. He advised clients to start one campaign at a time, understand the business and see what ticks with people. He also noted that people always have this fear – what if it didn’t work? 

Machado listed 5 things that will help clients cope with the fear: 

  • Need to understand the brand – It is about not doing random stuff. You need to understand the positioning. The positioning and personality of the brand should match
  • Create a great brief – Challenge your client with a one line brief
  • Let the idea grow – Trust on certainty
  • The biggest risk is not taking any risk – We are afraid all the time. But the thing is if I am not afraid, probably I won’t do it
  • One Team – Marketing, agency and everyone else together should be one team.  Fight with everyone, together

Doing better business in an era of rapid change: Tom Goodwin 

In his session on ‘Better Business in Times Of Chaos’, Tom Goodwin, EVP, Head of Innovation, Zenith Media, spoke about the power of digital transformation, where he mentioned 3 key aspects to be taken care of: 

Understand people – People go to the Internet consciously and get off it only to be reminded to go again. Brands still think of it as a pattern. But the consumer is obsessed with the idea like it is a behaviour. It is not helpful. It is a hybrid world that transcends it. People are disappointed if they don't get the same experience as any other brand. 

Apply technology at the core – Consumers are inclined towards everything that has a quick turnaround. Brands are realising this pattern and providing quick, cheap and hassle free service without understanding that this remains as the outer most layer without deeper existential question. Younger brands are utilising contemporary technology and it is incredible to see how much value they have created. 

Rethink everything – The key is to think without expectations. The greatest threat to incumbent business is to not know too little or being naive, it is about having too much knowledge. 

Future without advertising is far-fetched: Ana Milicevic 

Ana Milicevic, Principal, Sparrow Digital Holdings, revealed a picture to a future without advertising and also shared her discernment on how to market for the always-on consumers in an interesting session, titled ‘A Future without Advertising’. 

A deluge of intrusive formats, high-profile data breaches, ad blockers, and low perception of value have all contributed to increased consumer backlash towards all manner of ads. Milicevic also deliberated on how to transform from a relentless pursuit of measuring each individual interaction back to persuasive storytelling in due time. 

She noted, “The advertising industry is stuck in between the technology change. As an industry and as professionals it is important that we are constantly changing and are not being outdated. There has to be a balance between speaking to the audiences and amplifying annoyance. Future without advertising is far-fetched. Hence, we need to focus on today’s advertising trends and that is story-telling. Every interaction the brand has with consumers, it becomes advertising. It is imperative to stay relevant or risk getting skipped.” 

India has the highest number of ad-block users: Nelson Rodriguez 

Audience behaviour, consolidation, and the duopoly are threatening profitability in the publishing industry. Ads, subscriptions, and transactions all face significant challenges. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Nelson Rodriguez, Global Director of Industry Strategy, Akamai, highlighted some technical and business innovations that offer hope for the present and future in his address – ‘The Money Problem: Fixing Monetization In The Publishing Business’. 

While stating that digital advertising still has a lot of noise, Rodriguez mentioned that India has the highest number of ad-block users across the world, although ironically, India is an ad-driven market. 

According to him, “There are three innovations happening today in transforming relationship with audiences in this market:

  • Relevance – Every industry that goes through change has an opportunity to build on that change by being relevant
  • Value – Customer should have the power of consuming content. That is where optimisation can enter
  • Choice – With micro-transactions in boom, customers can be charged according to the amount of content they want to consume.”

“So, with consumers being provided with relevant content, with more value in exchange of attention and more choice, there will be a transformed relationship with the audience and not just transaction,” Rodriguez remarked. 

When women take the streets, they can light fires: Babita Baruah 

Making a strong case for gender equality in the workplace as well as all spheres of life was Babita Baruah, Managing Partner, GTB India, when she spoke on ‘The Glint of Broken Glass: Breaking The Glass Ceiling’. 

While stating that this topic was close to her heart, Baruah added that she had always thought a lot about how to have more women in corporates – not in terms of mere numbers, but in terms of decision-making roles and how this journey can be kept going. “Melt and, of course, any forum where you have the industry coming together is a good place to start off this kind of conversations to get points of views. 

Baruah stressed, “I think it is important for women to share their personal journey. Because there is a lot of learning from what someone has gone through. And a narrative or story-telling is always a good way to connect.” 

Creating impact through digital word of mouth: Patrick De Pauw 

While highlighting ‘The importance of creating impact through digital word of mouth’, Patrick De Pauw, CEO, Social Seeder, noted, “There is so much clutter when it comes to brands today, where all are shouting for attention in some way or the other. But to get visible, I believe there are 2 things a brand should swear to follow, and that is – stay relevant and do something so unique that it helps you gain recognition between this mainstream clutter.” 

He further said, “There is paid media and owned media today, but earned media is the word of mouth which works in favour of your brand, creating a high decibel impact. An ambassador (on a voluntary basis) is an internal or an external person that is more than integral to spread a word about your organisation. But being an ambassador starts with you.” 

Day 2 concluded with a Keynote session by James Southern, Managing Partner, Front Row Advisory. He addressed the audience on the topic, ‘The Next Seismic Shifts In Television’. The session was followed by a panel discussion hosted by SureWaves and moderated by Paritosh Joshi, Principal, Provocateur Advisory, featuring Punit Misra, CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd; Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands; and Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC. 

When asked about the move to launch Zee5 being defensive or a strategy to be at the front foot in the industry, Punit Misra said, “Advertisers look for ROI. ROI on TV is significantly higher than any other. But it is a business of content and there is huge consumption happening on digital. However, if you do just digital, ROI can go horribly wrong. In fact, I am thinking of how to bring digital to television again.” 

Sharing his views on the path proposed by BARC to tackle other screens that is not TV, Partho Dasgupta said, “It is all about how you measure content. Unfortunately, it needs to be discreet in this digital space. Although there is a convergence at every level, which makes it important to measure what India watches today now more than ever.” 

The discussion concluded with the unveiling of the TV automation platform logo by SureWaves.

For More Stories Visit Here.

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment

More in Media