Brand management is about consistency of your promises: Deepak Bhatt, IIM Ahmedabad
In an interview with exchange4media, Deepak Bhatt who manages communication, public relations and digital marketing at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), one of Asia’s finest B-schools, spoke about the challenges of managing brand communication in an era of hyper connectivity.
Managing brand communication has seen a big shift over the years. With the rise of social media platforms and newer technological innovations, the task communication experts have become all the more complex and demanding.
In an interview with exchange4media, Deepak Bhatt who manages communication, public relations and digital marketing at the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), one of Asia’s finest B-schools, spoke about the challenges of managing brand communication in an era of hyper-connectivity. Edited excerpts:
1 How has the role of communication specialist evolved from managing media to engaging the target audience directly?
I believe a part of the answer is already in your question – the shift from passively managing to actively engaging. Firstly, the role moved from interacting with media – print and electronic media – to the digital, social platforms, for instance. Some of the old rules don’t apply anymore. Your audience is not just consuming messages that you send out, say, by an advertorial or some PR exercise. Your audience enters into a dialogue with you, they may probe deeper and understand your offerings and your values better. The audience is a lot more informed, a lot more alert, a lot more driven.
Secondly, there must be a strong connect between what values you claim to uphold and what you actually do. You can’t get away by polluting the local river or destroying the local forest or upsetting the local ecology just because your product sources some raw material from there. You are more answerable. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is not a buzz-word, it’s a reality.
And I love the way viewers, consumers; users are turning more alert and more demanding. That helps corporates and brands remain alert too and grow into more responsible organisations.
2 With the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, has the definition of communication management and brand management taken a new meaning? How?
Well, the essence of businesses is still the same: remain true to your core values, respect your audience and keep delivering value. To that extent, the integrated communication has grown, but not really changed. Maybe evolved is a good word.
Modern day communication management requires you to be active, updated and truly passionate. You can’t afford to sit back and relax – your audience expects you to be a step ahead. But that also means you have umpteen opportunities to share great news on the go. In fact, even the smallest of corporate achievements can now be showcased instantly – a tweet, an FB post, an Instagram update .
This also presents an amazing opportunity to stay relevant and respond faster. Your brand can communicate that you really care about your consumers. For instance, if a consumer complains about a faulty product, the brand can take the right steps instantly. Rapid action pleases customers. And that action, that moment when your brand truly listens and cares, that moment can go viral; your consumers will make it go viral. After all, brand management is about the consistency of your promises, right?
3 IIMA is one of the most formidable brands known, how have you managed to leverage digital platforms to give it an equally impactful digital identity?
That’s quite an interesting question. Much before social media happened, the IIMA was already a huge brand – and that too without aggressive marketing. Our alumni, spread all over the globe, had further reinforced the strongly positive image of the IIMA. Corporate placements and surveys of educational institutions repeatedly showed exceptional confidence in brand IIMA. So we already had a good ground on which to build.
And yet digital success for us didn’t happen all by itself. We looked around and proactively identified some key areas for our presence on social platforms. For instance, we started out by getting our official Twitter and FB accounts verified and committed ourselves to a deeper level of engagement.
Next, we reached out and bonded with students and faculty – past and present – to ensure our communication was truly 360-degrees. I mean, it’d be unfortunate if we reached out strangers and not talk to our own faculty or students, right? We listened and understood their expectations from our digital entities.
Simultaneously, we put in a lot of planning. Earlier our efforts weren’t that well-targeted, but now we know what we are doing and what direction we’re heading. We teach management, so it’s only natural that we manage our presence well.
4 What are the three biggest challenges for Communication and Brand managers today in your view?
Some challenges are timeless – like staying true to your core values, as I said earlier. Others are contemporary and present themselves on varied magnitudes along the time continuum.
I believe the first challenge is staying alert. You simply cannot lag behind – it makes no sense if your consumers know about things and you’re the last to know. On the one hand, it means you must be able to share great news real-time and assure your consumers that they are trusting the right brand. On the other hand, it also means you can sense potential PR disasters and be better prepared.
Displaying that you care enough is another challenge. Your consumers and stakeholders must view you and come to trust you as a brand that listens, engages and responds. Sometimes, a simple acknowledgment email is all that takes, but you need to do that too.
And, you’re under constant scrutiny. Anything that a corporate organisation does or says will be viewed under a microscope. So the third challenge is to maintain that tactful balance and walk the delicate path of public communication with utmost care. You must choose your values carefully.
5 With the rise of interactive platforms, has crisis management taken on a new meaning? Is brand management more difficult to practice at such times than ever before?
Typically, crises management may be broken into three distinct phases: the actual incident, acknowledgment that it’s a crisis and the organisation’s response to the crisis. Each of the three phases is seeing a compressed time-cycle. We see crisis being reported a lot faster, and, with all the social media presence everywhere, people are also keeping a close tab on how and when you respond. That means you’ve got to be nimble in acknowledging if it’s a crisis, in identifying what exactly went wrong, owning up if your organisation is responsible for any lapses and offering a solution quickly. Everything must be handled swiftly, accurately and transparently.
And social media helps all parties. It helps consumers to quickly register complaints, even share pictures of faulty products online. Conversely, it helps organizations instantly see what’s gone wrong and deal with the issue in a mature manner, with full transparency. Swift and sincere responses from organisations also help it win many more new customers, who begin to trust the brand better.
Having said that, I’d also say crisis management can also provide an opportunity for organizations to go out and tell the world they are professionals. While organizations don’t exactly look forward to crises, some buckle under pressure while others thrive on it.
As for brand management, I wouldn’t say it is getting difficult. Or at least, it isn’t the only thing that’s getting difficult! If you’re good and have got your value proposition right and you’re agile, you’re on the winning side. I suppose agility is key.
6 What according to you are the three best practices for effective campaign building?
Best practices for campaign building cannot be truly isolated from best management practices. Everything that your organization and your brand stand for will be reflected in the way you handle your campaigns. For instance, at the IIMA we stand for management education at the global level and we aim at building responsible, successful business leaders.
That means our campaigns also draw from those core values and strengths. For instance, sincerity is something we value highly, so while our campaigns do need to reach out to more people, our message is always subdued and sincere. It’s like we under-promise and over-deliver, both in the good sense of the word.
Next, you need to understand the medium you are using. Clichéd as it may sound unless you know the medium well, your message will be lost, or worse, distorted. What works on FB won’t work very well on LinkedIn, so the message and context must be suitable for the medium and the platform you are using.
Finally, clarity and brevity are the twins one needs to espouse. Consumers are flooded with hundreds of messages so your campaign must stand out by understanding that less is more and small is beautiful, as they say. Keep it simple, keep it clear and keep it direct.
7 What kind of trends do you predict in the coming time as far as managing communication strategies are concerned and how far will technology play a role in that?
Technology is playing an increasingly critical role and that’s the way it’s going to be from now on. Technology has been such a wonderful enabler – it’s quickly erasing the differences between large organizations sitting on huge resources and smaller organizations with numerous constraints.
Small organization, even when resource-constrained, can come up with great campaigns, manage social media better and communicate a lot more effectively. That’s what is interesting. I mean, managing your brand on the social media isn’t necessarily expensive. You can pull off some great stuff, your messages can be interesting and carry the potential of going viral at virtually no cost, so there is surely a big opportunity.
I see nimble organizations of all sizes pulling ahead and growing at unprecedented speeds. That’s a major shift from yesterday’s economy where only the cash-rich organizations grew.
Next, I see there’s a lot of room for communicating in an entertaining way. Of course you need to sell your product, and for that, you’ll need to promote the product, but are your messages entertaining or boring? I’m willing to bet that the fun element, to the extent it suits the brand and its core offering, will provide a major differentiating factor.
Finally, engagement will increase. No prizes for guessing communication is truly now a two-way process. Both the organization and the consumer constantly interact and listen to each other. Organizations will need to pick up subtle messages that consumers, whether satisfied or disgruntled, leave behind. Subtlety, therefore, will be key.
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Social Beat wins SEO mandate of Tata CLiQ tag rss
The account was won after a multi-agency pitch
e4m e4m Social Beat has won the SEO mandate for Tata CLiQ, one of the fastest-growing omnichannel marketplace in India. Social Beat has been entrusted with optimizing existing content, as well as launching new, optimized category pages systematically on Tata CLiQ’s platform to scale monthly organic traffic by 2x over the next year. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced by Social Beat’s offices in Mumbai.
Shishir Kataria, Director - Marketing, Tata CLiQ, “Shoppers, e-commerce or otherwise, continue to heavily rely on search and discovery throughout their shopping journey, be it engaging with the latest fashion trends or hunting for the best buys. No wonder a platform's ability to be a part of this journey organically drives significant consideration for it amongst potential shoppers. We, at Tata Cliq, are confident that Social Beat will help us develop and optimise content that is highly discoverable to grow our engagement and revenue. Our goal continues to be to drive more and more shoppers to our platform with optimised and curated products and relevant content.”
Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata CLiQ in their growth journey. We aim to scale traffic to the Tata CLiQ platform manyfold over the next year. Our team of specialised SEO and Content strategists will be working closely to achieve this”
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ShareWill OOH dazzle this festive season?
As the celebrations begin, experts tell us the trends and challenges for the OOH sector this season
Be it the flower-clad taxis in Mumbai for Made in Heaven Season 2 promotion or Zomato’s ‘kheer mangoge kheer denge’ billboards, India's OOH advertising sector has undergone substantial transformation and expansion in the recent years. Even though the medium was severely hit during the pandemic years, it has now managed to rebuild its status. Now, with the onset of the festive season, elections and the cricket world cup, OOH is expected to see more and more advertisers come on board.
Amarjeet Hudda, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media Group, believes most of the clients spend a lot of money during the festive season, especially for Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali, targeting their customers in a festive mood. The categories that spend heavily during these months are Auto, Consumer Durables, Real Estate, Organised retail, and E-commerce.
According to Dipankar Sanyal of Platinum Outdoor, there was a huge surge in the festive season last year, and he expects the same this year too. “Last four to five years have turbulent for outdoor. It was picking up in 2019, but then Covid came and everything went flat for two years,” he mentioned.
According to EY-FICCI’s M&E Report 2023, OOH media grew 86 percent in 2022 to Rs 37 billion. The value includes traditional, transit and digital media, but excludes untracked unorganised OOH media such as wall paintings, billboards, ambient media, storefronts, proxy advertising.
Sharing the brand’s perspective, Shivam Ranjan, Head of Marketing, Motorola-APAC, said, “We are going into this festive season with a strong mix of media, including OOH. Within OOH, we are focusing on digital OOH, due to its capability of programmatic serving, measurability, and near real-time insights that allow us to be agile with the communication and optimisation of our campaigns.”
With urbanisation, improved infrastructure, rising consumerism and an increased spending power, clients' expectations from OOH advertising too have evolved. “The clients expect better ROI on every investment, best in class innovations, tech-led planning and execution. Today, technology plays an important role starting from planning the campaign, to measuring metrics to ROI,” Singh explained.
Another trend that Sanyal has observed is that traditionally advertisers looked at spending on OOH nearly two weeks prior to the festivities, but now, most advertisers have now started advertising a week earlier so that they can get maximum eyeballs. Additionally, the digital OOH advertising (DOOH) has also emerged big. The digital OOH screens increased to around 100,000 and contributed eight percent of total segment revenues.
“Now with digital, there is more space for advertisers to come in one frame. Because of this, you can see it is getting more attractive. The innovations too are coming in at a much lower cost and creating a greater impact,” shared Sanyal.
The only challenge with the medium, according to Ranjan, is OOH being a fragmented industry with lack of measurability and agility. This becomes a serious issue for ROI-centric brands. However, the growth of DOOH, which is dynamic, agile and measurable, is giving marketers the confidence to invest in the medium backed by relevant data and outcomes.
Adding to this, Hudda highlighted that availability of good media spots is the biggest challenge in this season as media assets are limited and demand is very high. Due to the gap in the festive season, many clients are not able to fully optimise their campaigns. Rather sometimes, clients are even compelled to divert their budget which adversely impacts the industry, he shared.
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Banking on positive consumer sentiment: BFSI optimistic on doubling festive AdEx : Cache
Some categories within the sector, however, may spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season
The BFSI sector is expecting a surge in demand for loan during the festive season and is looking at increasing its ad spends to cash in on the celebration spirit. Industry leaders say they are hopeful of witnessing a good growth in the number of applications for auto loan, home loan, credit card and health insurance during October, November and December due to positive consumer sentiment this year. However, though most of the BFSI players are planning to double their advertising budget this time compared to the previous year, there are some who are not investing too heavily on marketing during the festivals as they plan to save the money for the fourth quarter.
According to Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BOB Financial, they witness incremental growth every year during the October-December quarter, and they anticipate an increase in consumer spending as well as new enrolments for cards this year too. “There remains a surge in customer demand for credit during the festive season,” said Singh.
Singh shared that the company is fully geared up for the launch of #FestiveShoppingRewards on all Bank of Baroda credit card variants under the theme ‘Reimagine Festivities’. They would kickstart festive offerings with the start of Navratri.
The festive season does not just see the demand for credit go up, but there is an increase in applications for health and motor insurance too during this time of the year.
Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, BajajCapital Ltd, shared that among insurance products, health insurance and motor insurance reign supreme during festivals. According to Khare, the demand for mutual funds and SIPs too sees a hike.
“Overall, the festive season presents an opportune moment to secure insurance coverage. A plethora of attractive products and services are on offer, with financial institutions extending special discounts and promotions to entice new customers,” said Khare.
The company launched #BlessMeGanesha campaign during Ganesh Chaturthi. “Our goal for this festive season is not only to provide financial solutions but also to create memorable experiences and deepen the connection with our customers,” said Khare.
Though all major sectors spend heavily on advertising during the festive season, within the BFSI sector, some categories spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season.
Explaining the trend, Samir Sethi, Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com, said that the festive season has varying impacts on the BFSI sector. In the banking sector, for instance, the demand for loans surges as many individuals purchase items and undertake home renovations. Conversely, in the insurance category, the festive season doesn't result in significant changes. Instead, the insurance industry experiences its peak season after the festive period, particularly during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
“As the festive season approaches, there is a noticeable increase in car sales though, leading to a surge in the demand for motor insurance. Consequently, we see a significant uptick in the requests for motor insurance policies. During the festive period, there is an upswing in demand for various categories, such as electronics. However, in the insurance sector, this period doesn't significantly affect us, so we don't run specific campaigns targeting festivals. Nevertheless, we do roll out multiple campaigns throughout the year, and some of them may coincide with the festive season,” said Sethi.
According to the TAM AdEx report on BFSI sector across media for H1, the advertising volume of the sector grew on TV, radio and digital, but declined in the print medium. The report indicated that ad impressions on digital saw 91% rise during Jan-Jun '23 over Jan-Jun’22. The increase was 32% for radio and 4% for TV. The ad space of the BFSI sector decreased by 7% in print.
Speaking on media mix, Singh shared that BOB Financial has a good mix of customer segments belonging to Tier I, II and III. So, understanding their needs and preferred form of media channels, the company will reach out to them through relevant media promotions. “For the easy discovery of our offers, we shall have a dedicated offers page with regular promotion of top offers on our social media and other digital channels,” said Singh. Without disclosing the figure, Singh shared that the company’s promotion budget has surely increased from last year and it will be visible through their multi-channel promotional activities.
According to the TAM report, in the BFSI sector, life insurance is the leading category on TV and radio whereas mutual funds is the top category on digital.
Khare highlighted that in recent times, Bajaj Capital has observed a significant growth in audiences on online platforms and the changing preferences of their clientele. “This observation led us to recalibrate our marketing approach, placing a heightened emphasis on digital avenues,” said Khare.
He further added, “Our promotional efforts are primarily digital-focused, accentuating areas like social media engagement, search engine outreach, content-driven marketing, and targeted online advertising. As we approach the festive season, we've fine-tuned our online approach. By harnessing the insights from data analytics, we aim to grasp our clients' needs and inclinations better, ensuring our content is both tailored and pertinent.”
Khare also mentioned that Baja Capital has doubled its advertising budget compared to the previous year.
“This increase in our ad spend signifies our confidence in the opportunities this festive season presents. This impressive surge in our budget allocation underscores our dedication to maximizing the potential of this festive season and driving significant expansion within our business. We firmly believe that this increased investment in advertising will not only elevate our brand presence but also lead to an exceptional uptick in customer engagement and sales.”
For Policybazaar.com, the media strategy primarily involves a blend of television and digital platforms, an approach that has remained consistent in recent years and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
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OMD appoints Dileep Raj Singh as Head of Digital for APAC
Singh will report to Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC
OMD has added a Head of Digital (HOD) to its Asia Pacific (APAC) regional leadership team with the hiring of Dileep Raj Singh.
Singh is a digital native and brings with him a wealth of experience across product, media agency and client side in APAC, North America and the United Kingdom. His last 10 years have been spent building diverse digital marketing teams covering areas like performance marketing, digital media planning, ad/martech, product marketing, branding and measurement.
As HOD, he will accelerate OMD’s digital leadership agenda, rooted in helping clients address their business challenges and digital ambitions. He will be supporting OMD’s local teams in APAC on operational excellence, and digital transformation frameworks and roadmaps; and the development and implementation of our digital leadership agenda. He will also be working hand in hand with both our regional and global networks to initiate complementary workstreams for our clients in APAC.
“We will continue to invest and win in digital as part of our wider goal to be our clients’ most trusted business transformation partner,” said Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC.
“It is our global ambition to continue our leadership position in digital, data and technology. In line with this ambition, we are excited to have Singh come on board the OMD APAC leadership team. His background of agency, in-house and start-up experience position him perfectly to understand and address our clients’ business needs,” added Lee.
“Digital media and access to our audience, as we know it, is changing quite rapidly around us. This puts most of us in a delicate but remarkable position, a position from which we can shape and contribute to conversations about the next evolution of digital media. As we embark on this journey, I want to leverage the strength of the OMD network – people, technology, data, tools and platforms – to help our clients pivot and navigate through all the new and evolved possibilities in digital media. With this, I aim to position OMD as an unrivaled partner for our current and future clients; to dominate and succeed in this incredibly competitive and multifarious digital realm,” said Singh.
Singh will report to Lee, and work closely with the team including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), David McCallen, and Chief Client Officer (CCO), Sadhan Mishra, to drive and support APAC local markets as well as regional clients on digital, data and technology needs.
Mishra was promoted to CCO of OMD APAC recently in June 2023. He will continue to be CEO of OMD Singapore, a position he was promoted into last August. Mishra has been with OMD for over 13 years and in his concurrent new role as CCO, he will focus on key client relationships, understanding their business needs and ensuring we remain a critical partner on their transformation journeys.
McCallen was elevated to the role of CSO of OMD APAC in April 2022, and was previously the CSO of OMD New Zealand for five years where he helped the agency to attain the top place in the market for new business, overall billings and award wins. Since starting in the APAC role, his focus has been on connecting and elevating strategic best practices across the region, building capabilities across a range of strategic outputs, and supporting new business growth both regionally and locally.
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Chandrayaan 3: Brands over the Moon
Some of the best moment marketing posts on India's crucial lunar mission
The nation is in a celebratory mood with its moon mission Chandrayaan 3 making its smooth landing on the lunar surface on the evening of August 23, 2023. The Pragyan rover is in pursuit of discovering water on the moon and is a vital feat for India's ambitious space research.
To celebrate this momentous episode in Indian space research history, netizens have taken to the internet to express their excitement, hopes and fears for the nation's lunar mission. Joining them are brands who have crafted creatives to mark the historic occasion and capture the emotions of the nation who have their eyes set on the moon. Here is our pick of some of the best Chandrayaan 3-moment marketing posts.
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BCCI rakes in Rs 4670 cr in Women's Premier League team auction: Jay Shah 26 Jan
WPL has broken the inaugural auction record of Men's IPL in 2008, tweeted Shah
As expected, Wednesday turned out to be another historic day in Indian women's cricket with BCCI having a windfall gain of Rs 4,600 crores by auctioning five team franchises for the first season, a higher sum compared to what men’s IPL franchises offered to the cricket body during the launch in 2008.
Adani, IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW- GMR cricket and Capri Global have won the bid, BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah shared in a series of tweets, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
The country's top corporates had bid aggressively for the league. Over 16 groups including IPL franchise owners, Adani group, Torrent and Haldiram were believed to be in the fray.
Given the popularity of IPL in India, the event is touted to be a big draw for all stakeholders involved.
The BCCI was reportedly expecting ₹4,000 crore gain through team auction.
It’s noteworthy that Viacom18 has won the Women's IPL media rights for Rs 951 crore for the next five years creating euphoria around the league whose first season will be held in March.
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