The consumer purchase decision process has transformed and has become more dynamic as communication is no more one way. For a brand to be successful on digital platforms, a relationship based on credibility and trust has to be formed. That means listening, responding, engaging and acting – in other words, the power is shifting to consumers. This dynamism can be seen in the purchase decision process, which is being powerfully impacted by the digital world.

exchange4media Staff Dec 16, 2013 12:00 AM

There is nothing wrong in radio being a reminder medium and I am very happy with that. Let me put it very differently, somebody had once said, “Radio is like vodka, you can mix it with any drink”. So, you can mix radio with print, television, outdoor, digital, and events. The best part is that you can have this vodka while driving, which makes radio the most flexible of all mediums.

exchange4media Staff Dec 16, 2013 12:00 AM

Our body language has changed, India has really benefitted from being a signed up member of a network, we can see that in the P&L, in the types and calibre of people that we are hiring. We can see that in the work we are doing now, and it is only a year right now, we are planting the right seeds now for a longer term play.

exchange4media Staff Dec 13, 2013 12:00 AM

You still see resentment among some TV news channels that the internet has come and wrecked their business model. Print in some parts of Europe and America is having a very tough time coming to terms with the internet. Mobile consumption has seen a rapid uptake, however, advertising monies have been quite slow to move to mobile.

exchange4media Staff Dec 6, 2013 12:00 AM

I think marketing needs to be meaningful. We are spending a very important and considerable amount here in India, but it needs to be meaningful, which means it needs to be in line with what you want to achieve with your marketing strategy, because you can also spend a lot of dollars and yet that could be useless... The driving factor for Rado in the past 55 years and in the coming 55 years was and will be innovation. The day we stop innovating, we will probably kill the brand.

exchange4media Staff Nov 29, 2013 12:00 AM

Roughly 20 per cent of our revenues globally come from digital, which didn’t exist just three years ago. It’s not just about digital – that is the whole engagement play, which is why we now call ourselves an ‘engagement agency’, because so much of what we are doing now is really strategic content. Most of our clients have woken to the fact that they already produce such an incredible amount of content that they factor to become publishers. The serious dollar now is in helping companies to effectively become publishers of their own material across multiple platforms and engaging with the audiences directly.

exchange4media Staff Nov 29, 2013 12:00 AM

Our strategy has been to provide and communicate enhanced value equation to the consumer. As long as I can touch the consumer’s heart and say I am providing you far better value than any other brand, my growth is happening. Our marketing strategy is to constantly bring out products and concepts that enhance value by giving good quality products at a value pricing methodology.

exchange4media Staff Nov 22, 2013 12:00 AM

While we are seeing strong growth in urban areas, we are also seeing very strong growth in semi-urban and rural areas. As more and more of India gets electrified, clearly there are lot more opportunities for lighting going forward... Currently, our share in the LED space exceeds 46 per cent.

exchange4media Staff Nov 8, 2013 12:00 AM

I feel innovation and more consumer engaging outdoor activities are two things which a brand needs to look at going forward. There are opportunities of international level of branding that make OOH integrate well in the city landscape, strategically placed to highlight and make the brand’s message stand out interestingly.

exchange4media Staff Nov 2, 2013 12:00 AM

Clients expect the team to concentrate on their job, which is to sell more products. If you want your agency to be interested in your sales, you have to pay your agency to be interested in the sales, which is why with Tata Motors we get paid commensurate with how many sales they get. We follow the pay-for-performance model, linking compensation directly to client growth. It’s a simple rule that we follow and I think this is how the clients should behave. The client should not pay by commission or fees, but they should pay by sales.

exchange4media Staff Nov 1, 2013 12:00 AM

Don’t forget who the consumer is – what drives consumers as humans is shared values and interests, which in the offline space manifests as friends, communities, clubs, teams. This manifests differently in the online space, but the core reason or the driver is the same. Digital is not a one-way communication like television, but a two-way conversation, so you have to be extremely authentic and honest, else it could lead to a dissatisfied consumer.

exchange4media Staff Oct 30, 2013 12:00 AM

Radio being a powerful frequency medium, marketers can achieve best results only if they invest a higher percentage of their media spends and improve the intensity of their campaign. In fact, those who have tried that have got a better impact and response.

exchange4media Staff Oct 28, 2013 12:00 AM

Great interpretation of good data is also specialised artistry at real cost. The industry is in danger of pricing itself out of creativity if its benchmark is only cost – the advertising world of the future is badly in need of ‘Ideas’, which will not only come from crowdsourcing. And in this department, as we’ve seen through the history of business, a truly passionate start-up can give any WPP/ Publicis Onmicom a run for their money, scoring as creative maverick business people.

exchange4media Staff Oct 25, 2013 12:00 AM

If we look at the digital ecosystem, it involves talent in technology, quality content tailored for this medium, monetisation opportunities where you can work with brands, and good quality network. Experts are needed in analytics as well. A lot more work needs to be done. The main barrier to entry as far as desktop internet was concerned in India was that it was very expensive. Today, data charges have come down significantly. So, what inhibits usage is only the quality of the product and not the access. It is up to us to build the ecosystem.

exchange4media Staff Oct 21, 2013 12:00 AM

Our clients in India are truly blue chip. This allows us to do good work, get recognised and learn. India is a jewel in the crown for Maxus APAC.

exchange4media Staff Oct 18, 2013 12:00 AM

Outdoor plays a critical role in telecom communication as products/ tariffs tend to be different in different markets. Outdoors is an effective way of communicating specific products/ plans available in the local market. Tata Docomo builds its business by weaning away customers from their current operators, leveraging the recharge moment of truth to deliver effective churn arguments.

exchange4media Staff Oct 18, 2013 12:00 AM

Social media seems to be the new kid on the block. Every marketer sees the need to have a social media presence – given the penetration of Facebook and YouTube in the Indian market. However, the role and the objectives for getting onto these channels are not always clearly defined. The other issue that often remains unanswered is about measuring success and failure. A fundamental question often raised is how to monetise social media.

exchange4media Staff Oct 17, 2013 12:00 AM

We see digital and mobile media as a blank slate. There are parts of online and mobile media where it behaves like television, radio, print, etc., instead of services such as Google and paid search, and we think marketers are starting to understand that you can’t lump digital/ mobile all into one category. In new media, there are sites and services like Saavn that are about upstream demand creation as well as downstream sites and services like Google that convert that demand into sales.

exchange4media Staff Oct 11, 2013 12:00 AM

We are making big strides in analytics. We are going beyond our competition and using analytics to understand the most efficient channels and the most effective vehicles. We are going beyond that to see how we can evaluate from a quantitative perspective content opportunities for certain genres of television and certain insights around our audiences that we can leverage back into our target insights so we can literally feel becoming better at targeting by knowing what’s working.

exchange4media Staff Oct 11, 2013 12:00 AM

In today’s cash-strapped world, marketers are under pressure to deliver big campaigns with smaller budgets hence, I strongly feel that the old creative principle of OOH industry – ‘Less Means More’ – can work in cash striven ad-world, wherein even with less budgets we can have more meaningful, creatively driven conversations on key strategic sites, which further would drive home the buzz for the client via earned-media coverage across other media verticals.

exchange4media Staff Oct 9, 2013 12:00 AM