Panasonic’s engagement with consumers hit an all-time high at 10-12%: Shirish Agarwal

Shrugging off the disruptions of the year gone by, businesses and agencies are looking for a strong revival in 2021. Over the next few weeks, Adgully – as part of its annual TRENDING NOW endeavour – will be presenting 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 2020. 

Shirish Agarwal, Head - Brand and Marketing Communications Officer, Panasonic India, is positive about 2021. In keeping with the health and safety requirements fuelled by the pandemic, Panasonic India is introducing innovative technology in its new product launches slated for the year ahead. 

Strategy for 2021 

The year 2021 brings in hope as developments around the COVID-19 vaccine have been gradual and progressive. At Panasonic, we have introduced our Nanoe X – an advanced technology that is capable of inhibiting 99.99% bacteria and viruses, including the novel coronavirus. The technology will be launched in our air conditioners in the coming year and, we will be focusing our marketing energies on it. Additionally, as per our strategy, we continue to capitalise on the topical content and drive a two-way communication for the upcoming events. 

Learnings from 2020 

Early 2020, the DAN Ad Spend Report estimated Rs 76,000 crore to be spent on advertising. With the pandemic’s mighty blow, the industry took a severe hit and revisions were made to a scale of Rs 55,000 crore, as of today. From acknowledging-to-accepting the situation, the industry is looking at life-beyond in 2021. Consumer behavior, on the other hand, has been altered drastically. Confined within safety cocoons, consumers today are seeking value-based home appliances that help them multi-task, such as our AI-enabled refrigerators (550 litres) for storage, large screen 4K Android TVs (50+ inches) for entertainment, fully automatic washing machines for hygiene, microwave ovens for DIY cooking, to name a few. 

Digital remains the key constant 

Amidst all these, digital remains the key constant. From consuming content to offering services – the industry witnessed a shift in the marketing mix and thus, realised the underlying potential digital had to offer. So much so that going forward, the industry today is looking at channelising its market budgets to digital. Come 2021 (and beyond), digital advertising and marketing will be here to stay. 

As a diversified technology company, we at Panasonic India had already understood this trend and revised our marketing strategy to focus on digital. Keeping in mind the topicality of the situation, our endeavour has always been to keep the content more humanised than product-centric. Be it the #KapdoKiImmunity for our washing machine range or, #IntelligentHAI for our AI enabled refrigerator range – we have always tried to fine-tune or content to make it more humane and relevant. 

Driven by positive sentiments and a pent-up demand, I am pleased to share that our engagement with the consumers registered an all-time high, with a 10-12% increase in the engagement rate as compared to last year.