Specialisation & orchestration needs to happen hand in hand in marketing: Vishal Jacob

Wavemaker India has just released SPOTLIGHT 23, a study that focuses on the top 23 strategic priority areas in digital and emerging technologies for 2023. These areas of attention include big tech, e-commerce, AI, cloud computing, Web3, digital payments, and some potentially disruptive technologies that may have an influence on the industry and business as a whole.

In conversation with Adgully, Vishal Jacob, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer, Wavemaker India, speaks about the newly launched report, the idea behind it, addressing the privacy concerns of advertisers, and more.

Could you give an overview of what the Spotlight 23 report is about? Where did you get the idea that these are the few things which will work within the ecosystem and create some kind of conversation?

Technology is constantly evolving and disrupting businesses across industries in various ways. All these changes have happened far and quickly, leaving a lot of businesses with no option but to put digital technology at the very centre of the organisation and fundamentally change how they operate and deliver value to its customers. Currently there is no reference point to understand some of the disruptive trends in technology and Spotlight 23 was launched to do just that. Spotlight 23 was launched as a report that puts a spotlight on the top 23 strategic focus areas in digital and emerging technology for the year 2023. This took us 3 months to put this report together and it has been co-authored by some of the domain experts at Wavemaker.

Which, according to you, are the ‘hero’ ideas that your clients would want to incorporate into their marketing strategies and advertising plans per se?

The topics covered in Spotlight include big tech, e-commerce, AI, cloud computing, Web3, digital payments, and some potential disruptive technologies that may show some advancement in 2023. The trends covered in these topics have been curated by our experts by analysing the potential impact they could have on businesses and our attempt has been to keep the report concise with broad implications and potential impact on each of these trends. While we have tried to capture a wide array of topics, the ‘hero’ idea would really differ from client to client depending on what problems they are looking to solve.

When it comes to privacy, what kind of addressability do you think should be done?

There are a lot of start-ups that are coming up with solutions to address privacy concerns that marketers may have. Data clean rooms is one such possible solution that’s caught people’s attention. Simply put, a data clean room can help brands exchange their data with partners and activate campaigns in an enriched way in a privacy compliant manner. For instance, a brand could partner with a BookMyShow and a Flipkart and come up with an audience cohort basis the kind of movies they have watched and their shopping cart behaviour without really compromising on user’s personal data.

What is the moot point here?

I think the key point to remember is that specialisation and orchestration needs to happen hand in hand. Marketing as a function is becoming far more complex, and traditional marketing alone cannot solve this complexity. There needs to be a good mix of people, who understand technology and data working collaboratively with good story tellers to craft great campaigns.

As an agency, we are trying to create a structure where specialists and generalists come together to solve marketing problems. The diversity that we bring to the table is the big differentiator for us. We believe the future lies in having good orchestrators who can bring in the right specialists, who have the depth to co-create solutions and solve marketing problems.