What this BrandMasters episode teaches about brand purpose

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 2 of Brand Studio Live. I'm Ramit Arora and it's my honor and privilege to once again welcome a fantastic set of brand masters to the Hindustan Times newsroom in Delhi. Hosted jointly by HT Brand Studio and DMA Asia, Brand Studio Live brings the best marketing minds of the country to co-curate a path of brand excellence, a purpose that we at HT Brand Studio strongly share. Without further delay then, because we have an action-packed program ahead, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to our guests

here and to everyone who's watching us online. Today's theme is not just close to my heart. It is also at the heart of everything we do here at HT Digital Streams and that is finding newer and more innovative ways to tell stories. Three years ago when we created the HT Brand Studio, our digital native content wing, the goal was simple. We wanted to find the best, most creative solutions for our partners while ensuring that our content remains what it's known for. Premium, high quality and inspired by over a century of excellence in journalism.

Over the past three years, we've leveraged our innate storytelling skills on behalf of more than a hundred top brands to create unique impactful stories for our audiences, for their audiences. Some of these campaigns have won awards. Some have received global recognition. Many of these have translated into long-term relationships for us with those clients and for those brands with their audiences. But what all of them have taught us is that we cannot compromise on quality. We are proud to partner

with brands that understand this and who've enabled us to create fantastic campaigns through collaboration. One of which is the HT Brand Leadership Series for which we are gathered today in partnership with DMA Asia. Having said that, at HT we feel there's a lot we still need to learn, not just from our own work, but also from other brand leaders and their combined experience in the field. And that's why today we have these seven experienced brand leaders, our brand masters,

to give us their unique insight on storytelling and content journeys. Without further delay then, I'd like to welcome Karthik Nagarajan, Chief Content Officer at WaveMaker, as our first guest and our first brand master for the day. As a practice leader for branded content, Karthik helps brands create and execute purposeful content, strategies across multiple media platforms, and guided by insights and data, solutions for scores of clients.

Karthik gives us his insight on branded content as it stands today and where he sees it going as brands continue to evolve and reimagine their content journeys. Karthik, welcome to HT. Thank you. And the stage is all yours to open today's session. Thanks, Amit. Thanks for having us. I wanted to speak a bit about the evolution that is happening in branded content as we speak. I think if you were to break this evolution into four different areas, I think the main evolution is in the creator side of things.

I think if you go back six, eight years, if you're looking at who was creating content, it would probably be filmmakers, studios, advertising companies. Artists. Artists, broadcasters. So that used to be the realm of people who create content. And I think what has happened in the post-YouTube world is that universe has been democratized. That has been blown out of the water. And what has that done to our industry? It has now created new voices. It has now created new stars. You could be straight out of college reviewing films on YouTube.

And then two years down the line, you're one of the most sought after stand-up comedians in the country. The same goes for long-form writers. The same goes for short filmmakers. The same goes for people who are creating platforms like TVF and much more down south. I think that has been one big change. The other big change for me is in the form factor of things. I think the moment we say content, even for an agency like us, five, six years back, it used to be fundamentally something we did on television. We used to call this the advertiser funded program.

And content was always something you would do with a TV station, with a studio. The only exception to this probably is what we do within film and some of the other things. And of course, there was activation. What has now happened is, I think we have to calibrate ourselves for the new definition of content. Today, I think content has become extremely media agnostic. Whether it is a Facebook post, whether it is a tweet that you put out to a customer who's not very happy, whether it's a piece of video you put out on YouTube, whether it's rural marketing,

whether it's activation in a mall, whether it's a branded integration you're doing with the next big Bollywood film. All of these, to me, are branded content. Because these are different touch points that your brands have with your customers. And they can't be more valuable, less valuable, different in tonality from each other. They have to be the same. They have to speak the same language. This is a significant change. Because it also means that the stakeholders like us, who are working in the industry,

whether it's producers of content, whether it's agencies, we have to upgrade our skill sets accordingly. So no more should we be having a social media team, a video team, and a TV sponsorship team, or a sports marketing team, for that example. All of these needs to come together into one unit. That's a huge change. The other big piece for me that is part of the evolution is the measurement. Again, we used to be fundamentally a primary research-based measurement market as content. Everything used to be based on a survey. You'll ask, have you seen this?

Do you like it? Do you remember the brand? So on and so forth. But I think the last five to six years, the most amount of entrepreneurial investment, in my opinion, most amount of investment dollars have gone into measurement and analytics. And when I say measurement, I'm not just talking about content effectiveness. That is one part of it. Today, I think every move you make, whether it is an ambassador for the brand, whether it is a platform you're choosing, whether it's a tonality for your communication, all of them can be data-driven.

Whether they are data-driven, I'm not sure. That's a journey for all of us. But it can be data-driven. I think that ecosystem has evolved splendidly. So has measurement. Today, we are working with neuroscience scientists in terms of understanding how branded content actually impacts the user. Is it any different from how an advertisement impacts a user? We are using brand lift in a much, much more scalable way than we did earlier. Today, we have more insight into what's happening within the app ecosystem than we ever did.

So all of these are huge changes. Given all of this, what is the big change as part of this evolution for the brand? For me, it's the purpose. I think thanks to all the things we just discussed, content is no more just a great idea. Content is no more about winning cans, winning the next best award, doing great PR for your brand, all of that. I think the purpose of content has changed. Content is no more a solution looking for a problem. I think today you need to measure your investments in branded content exactly the same way you measure

your investment in any other communication. To me, content, if I have to put it in a single definition, it is communication beyond advertising. And you need to measure it that way. And what I mean by measure it that way, you need to measure it against business goals. If you're a watch brand trying to become a fashion brand, you need to measure your content with the same lens. You need to see for the end of the year, have you moved the needle on that? If you are a bike brand who is trying to increase consideration,

you need to measure content against the same standards. So that for me has been the big, big change, both in the ecosystem as well as in the brand's journey, as far as branded content is concerned. Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you so much. I think measurement is the key piece and metrics that can string together the customer journey. Yes. Really is where you're leading us to. Absolutely. We just want to check if there's some questions from anybody in the audience. Radhra. So this is one, you mentioned measurability.

Clearly one of the sort of biggest frictions in this space is between creative aspect and the numbers metrics aspect. Sort of the ones who are part of the creative team always say that should the numbers be driving what the ideas are? Where do you sort of stand in that debate? What is your two cents on that? I think it's the answer is by far at least to me and to us as Waymaker fairly obvious. If the question is can data drive creative direction, the answer is absolutely yes. Data should drive creative direction.

The choices you need, the choices you're making should be in line with the journey that we spoke about. Now, is data all that is required for a fantastic idea? Obviously, the answer is no. Data should take you to a place beyond which the leap will and should always be entirely creative. But you should be in that place to be able to make that jump. Sometimes it's very difficult to link the last mile business goal to a piece of content on the internet. What's the closest brand metric that you've found sort of universally links content? Yeah.

I think one of the things we should do immediately, right, like before leaving this room is to stop looking for universal metrics. I think it's a very bad habit. Yes. And we as media agencies are probably part of the problem. We've inculcated that habit in many brands. But, you know, if you're going to measure content against business purpose, then you need to reinvent measurement for every brand separately. Right? Because your objectives, the place where you start from is very, very different. So, measurement has to be entirely customized.

One size does not fit all. And it is not even worth trying to answer this holy grail question of there is one measurement for content. Obviously, no. That's the perfect answer. So, thank you very much, Karthik. Thank you. Very efficient. Our next guest today is Solomon Wheeler, Vice President and Head Marketing at Vistara Airlines. With over 15 years of experience in launching, building and managing brands, Solomon's career spans multiple geographies and industry verticals. Solomon, welcome to HT.

Tell us, how is Vistara using content to deliver sharp messages to audiences? And, you know, what can we learn from your experiences through the years? Okay. So, I'll start talking a little bit about my experience first, which has been that, you know, I've been the traditional advertising guy. That is where I started my career, where it all started with a 30-second commercial, 60cc, 100cc ad, or at best a billboard, or, you know, at time you would do some activation. Now, all of that was also about storytelling and content in some way.

But with time, you know, things have changed. Things have changed in the sense there is a lot more data which is now available to us as marketeers, which helps us in decision making. And what that has done is that has made us wiser. Today, I feel that marketing and communication or brand building is more progressive.

From our point of view also, it makes sense that, you know, we're constantly learning, we're constantly evolving ourselves to ensure that, you know, we're in line with the way customers are evolving, the way they are consuming our brands and so on and so forth. What our learning here has been that, you know, advertising was one to many or everybody. And it was more the brand's point of view. What content has allowed you to do is bring the customer's perspective in.

And I think that is the big shift, which is allowing us as marketeers to have a more meaningful, a more engaging dialogue with our customers through pieces of content. Not really anything can be content, you know. A tweet which is put out, a post on Instagram, a video which is intended to be viral in most accounts. But, or, you know, a partnership like the one we've had with SD Digital, you know, trying to build certain products for certain specific audiences. Brands like us don't necessarily cater to just one type of audience.

We have different audiences in mind because we have a product mix which we have to offer. We have a business class on board, we have a premium economy on board, and we have economy on board. And we're catering to different segments at the same time. Therefore, getting the right mix, the right content going out is very important. But what still remains true is that all this content that goes out needs to be joined at the hip. It needs to be meaningful. It needs to be insightful. It needs to be compelling. It needs to get the engagement going.

But at the same time, the task is also to ensure that, you know, it translates into some profitable action for us as a business, as an organization. Now, a lot of times, the young folks in my team and the young folks from the agency come to me with a lot of buzzwords. And I try to stay clear of them. But what I tell them is that, you know, things like content, advertising, these are processes. One has to invest in them and stay invested in them because they are long-term processes. You have to make sure that, you know, you're in it for the long run.

There are a lot of metrics that, you know, people look at, like CPC, CPM, engagement scores. Those are things. Those are things which can act as guiding lights. They can act as, you know, for you, direction for you to course correct. But they cannot be the only measure for you to go by. Brand preference ultimately is the ultimate goal of a marketer. And I think that is what one should eventually try to achieve and do in the long run.

Also, what has happened is, you know, the way media has been consumed has drastically changed in the last 10, 15, 20 years. If everyone was switching on the television at the same time a few days, a few years or months back, that has changed. Now, people are consuming content when they want to. And you have to be there with the right audience on the right platform when they are consuming their content. So, therefore, you know, it has changed very, very significantly the practice of media buying also.

And therefore, your content strategy cannot be in isolation of your media strategy. All of them need to be in sync with each other. There are a lot of activities that, you know, brands like ourselves do on social media, whether it is creating advertising content, whether it is promoting our products and services. But also what we do is we take care of customer service through our social media platforms. That is also creating content. That also drives preference for us.

And that also helps us in bringing the brand closer to the customers that we are trying to connect with and building a brand in the long term. So, I think given the choice of media options that is available to us, though we may be always spoiled for choice, always be looking at newer options as to what is it that we can go ahead and who we can go out and partner, it is always important to have your measurements in place and see what is really working for you. We've had partnerships with brands like Adobe

where we're trying to use email more effectively and efficiently. And I think that is one way of still delivering content to our base, our brand subscribers in a more very effective and efficient manner. Fantastic. So, brand preference is the key. Brand preference is the key for us. On that note, we can open up for some questions. So, tell us a little more about how you conceived the Vistara Retrojet campaign. It's been creating a lot of buzz around social media and the experience. In fact, I was coming from Delhi and I saw that craft.

So, I was quite curious. So, what is the genesis? How is it helping you? How does it tie into your scheme? Of course. So, I think in a time when things are getting commoditized in almost every category, it is very important to create differentiated stories, stories which will engage the right kind of audience. Vistara Retrojet, as we call it, is a tribute to our heritage. It is in line with the 150-year celebration of the Tata Group and our attempt to stake claim to the heritage of what Mr. J.R.D. Tata had initiated in the 1930s

with the then Tata Airlines. And what we've done is we've taken our new Airbus A320neo aircraft and done it up in the livery of the retrojet, which Mr. J.R.D. Tata himself flew, and tried to create an experience for our customers on board, which celebrates the golden age of flying, by having a crew dress up in retro uniform, by serving meals which were on board, which were favorites of J.R.D., and trying to create conversations and stories about how and what the glory days of flying were and how Vistara and Singapore at Tata Airlines come together

to create the magic of flying again. Thank you very much, Solomon. That was a fantastic and very efficient session. A crucial link to native success, as all brands will vouch, is finding the right publishing partner. I would now like to introduce and welcome our CEO, Rajiv Bansal, for the next session. Hands-on, metrics-focused, Rajiv has a track record of successful turnarounds through building some very strong teams focused on customer engagement and revenue. Today, he offers a publisher's perspective on native content

and how trust and authenticity of voice go a long way in furthering a story's reach and impact. Rajiv, the floor is on yours. Rajiv Bansal,, and the floor is on your own. Thank you, Ramit, for that generous introduction. So, I'm going to talk about why should brands partner with premium publishers. When you think about it, a way to explore the answer to this question is to start exploring the question of what happened when the train accident happened in Amritsar a few days back. What did we do?

A lot of us got forwards from WhatsApp or we saw a story posted on Facebook and then we were actually looking at the link within the story. We were seeing, is this from Hindustan Times? Is it from Times of India? Is it from Indian Express? And then we were not satisfied. We were actually going to our primary news source and going and verifying where this actually took place because we get lots and lots and lots of forwards of misleading, sometimes fake information. And what we've seen in human history

is whenever consumers have a lot of different choices, a few of them being very, very questionable, they go towards brands. And this is why premium publishers stand out. We stand out because of our trust and authenticity. Now, a glib way for me to answer the question of why do we have trust and authenticity would be to go and say, look, we have 100-year-old brands and we have trust and authenticity built into our 100-year-old brands because we've been around so long. But, you know, it goes much deeper than that.

That history of 100 years definitely helps a lot and certainly at Hindustan Times we have a bunch of brands which are that old. But it really comes down to the processes that we follow. You know, I've spent my career building consumer products and businesses based on deep consumer engagement. But I'm new to news. And one of the things I was unprepared for when I joined HT was the rigor that goes into news. One of my formative experiences at HT was a few weeks in, we got a call from the government. And, you know, we were in trouble.

And why were we in trouble? Because we had taken out a print ad. In the bottom corner of the print ad, there was a small map of India. If you used a magnifying glass on that small map of India, you could see the India-Chinese border was slightly off. And in order to prevent situations like this, we go to extreme lengths, especially online. We have a team that focuses on fact-checking, that makes sure news comes through very, very quickly, but with authenticity. We make sure we have nuances and grammar built in. And all of that takes a lot of work.

And I think that's where premium publishers really, really stand out. So that would be the second reason in addition to the longevity. The third is we are very picky when we actually partner with brands. So when we think about, you know, who brands want to be associated with, it's not only us as publishers, it's also other brands that they want to be associated with. So we're very picky in the basket of brands that we go and partner with. So those three would be the reasons which actually form the bedrock of trust for consumers and authenticity.

One being our longevity, having done it for so long and so well. The second is just the extreme rigor that goes into making sure that we have authenticity and trust built into all the content we put out. And the third being that we're really picky about who we partner with as well. So I think those would be the three things that I would start thinking about in terms of trust and authenticity. I think those are very, very valuable to most brands. So what does a brand gain by associating with the trust and authenticity

that premium publishers like HD bring to the table? Yeah, I think Solomon was talking about it. I think it comes down to brand preference. So when we think about how do consumers pick brands that they actually have some preference for, it really comes down to do I trust the brand's message? And when you think about exploring that question a little bit further and sort of peel the layers of the onion there, it comes through who's telling that message, how they're positioning that message, how does that message translate

into what are consumers interested in? And I think in all of those areas, trust and authenticity that premium publishers represent really stands out. Fantastic. We can open it up to questions if anybody has one. I had a question about the audience side of things. We live in an age where we've been devaluing long form content for a fairly long time. We've been overexcited about video, though apparently now we realize much of it has been misreported, so on and so forth. Do you really feel a brand story can be told well and consistently throughout the year

in long form text? Are we living in that world right now? I really think that, you know, as humans, we are experiencing content in a very, very wide set of different interfaces, right? So text is one of those interfaces, but video is also definitely something that's very key and very important to human consumption. When you think about how to get a brand's message across and content across, you have to think about the constraints of the interface, what a consumer's mode of consumption is, and then map the two. So, for example, in the early morning,

a lot of consumers are really into getting quick headlines. In those cases, getting into a long form video might be very, very hard for consumers. When you're talking about snippets during the course of the day, when a consumer has maybe a little bit more time, then you can go for a short video. Or when you're thinking about, you know, towards the end of the day, when people are in leisure mode, in lazy mode, and really in the mood for deep consumption, that's where, for some consumers, you know, long form video comes into play. But when you think about

the whole gamut, every consumer is different, every audience set is different. So, what I'm talking about are broad generalities. It really comes down to what's the audience that you're trying to reach and what's the best way to reach them. Rajiv, first of all, congratulations to you and the team here. You guys are doing a fantastic job of partnering brands like ourselves to create great content. You know, you're one of the very few publishers who've actually invested in a full-fledged brand content studio. So, what is next that we can expect

as a part of this journey? Well, thank you, Salman. So, in terms of the next steps in our journey, we have a very publicly stated strategy that we are all following. And that strategy has a few different pillars. One of the pillars is local languages. We fundamentally believe that, you know, most content consumption in India is going to be driven by a large amount of local language consumption. So, we are going and launching a bunch of news products in local languages. We are also extending the capabilities of our brand studio to go hit audiences

which are going to come consume content in these local languages. Some of these audiences are going to be audiences that actually read text similar to how audiences behave with the English language format. But some of these audiences are not going to be literate. So, that's where audio, that's where video really comes into play. So, that's one. Another place where we are really going very deep into is video. So, one of the reasons why we started the brand studio is really explore multimedia overall. Not only in terms of the different channels of reach

such as social media, websites, mobile apps but also in terms of formats of storytelling. So, we are really going and expanding our video capabilities quite a bit. We are building three studios here in CP as we speak and we have a broad set of partnerships which are also going to explore and expand our video capabilities. From a publisher perspective, in terms of branded content, how do you make sure, I'm a consumer, it's not something that you are putting off. So, how do you balance that content that way? So, you mean how do we maintain our authenticity

in terms of information you're putting out? Right. Also, brands have a different perspective. You know, how do you maintain that balance? So, we're pretty focused on making sure that we separate out content which is authentic and which is news reporting and which is very factual from things that we do which are around making sure we're bringing brands into the play and we're really telling a brand story and we actually segregate both those things out. That's good for consumers because they can understand where we're actually reporting things

versus where we're talking about a brand. That's also great for brands because they don't want to get in the mix of our storytelling around let's say that train accident that took place in Amritsar. And so, we are pretty careful about how we're doing both. What consumers have told us is they're really into native advertising. So, they really want to have sponsor stories told within the context of content that they're consuming overall. So, we make the friction go down in terms of how we tell brand stories within the concept of consumer engagement

around content. By the same time, we really make sure we segregate what's advertising versus what's storytelling from a news perspective. Thank you, Rajeev. That was a wonderfully done session and bang on time. Our next guest today is Himani Agarwal, Director Integrated Marketing Microsoft India. Himani has a track record of innovative solutions in the B2B space leading to customer expansion and new customer acquisition. across 20 years in the industry. Today, Himani talks about embracing AI for content personalization and generation. And I'm going to

leave it to Himani to actually tell us what. thanks for having me here. I think it's a great time for the marketers and the agencies with art and science of marketing being all the more important on a daily basis. With the technological wave being led by AI, marketing function is very well set to evolve and lead the revolution that digital is leading What becomes more important in the information overload that all of us are living in today and the reduced attention span, maybe even less than that of a goldfish, less than that of a goldfish,

that the storytelling still remains very, very important. That story that connects with the right target audience is the differentiator. And hence the marketers need to ask what is the content that I need to deliver? What is the content that will create that social buzz? And how do I bring that content to scale? And I believe that scale and the right content is today required and can be made available with the help of the analytics and technology. So in order to put all of this together, the pieces of the puzzle, let's just look at

when do you need to deliver that content? What content do you need to deliver? And how and who do you partner with to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time? So if I look at when do you need to deliver? There are a lot of journey, like the entire journey that we have today. There are so many touch points in that journey and the differentiation of one brand versus another brand or the brand loyalty is not about an inability of a brand to prove itself or live up to the expectation. But it is about whether

I am able to present my story effectively in a new way to the right TG. And to make that difference, you need to understand each touch point. There are a lot of organizations today who are actually looking at those touch points and looking at data to know that and understand that and deliver it. Last week, I was just reading Inmobi for an example has announced an acquisition of Pinsight, which is Sprint's media and advertising arm. And they actually believe that the whole data signals that are passing through the network, they can actually use that

and create that journey for their consumers to whom they need to offer the platform. So right from, you know, using your tablet at home to a smartphone in the car and to a laptop or a desktop while you are in the office. So the journey, the content, the content format will change. As Rajiv said, whether it is a long format, short format, video format, etc. It changes to the form factor that you are delivering. So it is the availability of data that is actually making it happen today. Now let's look at what do you need

to present as we have talked about when. When we look at the what, it's actually the right content. And that content at scale, which I spoke about, is actually there are a lot of ISV vendors for an example, or ISV partners that are there who are looking at this data, a lot of millions of data points that are being ingested from YouTube, from Instagram, from various other social media platforms. And the videos, for an example, are being created automatically real time so as to personalize that to the people who it's being served to.

So it's personalization of the content and the real time generation, which is at play here. Now, with this when and what, you really need to look at who are the real partners that you can go to, to work with them. And that becomes very important. So you really need to look at a partner who can bring the breadth of assets to you, which would mean maybe a cloud solution, the productivity solutions, the devices, and of course the intelligent systems in a very trusted, safe and compliant way to make your digital transformation a reality for the marketers.

And it's on us brands, which is very important as brand marketers that we need to look at what is the trust that we are building with our consumers or our customers. And we are not, not in any way infringing on any privacy violations, etc. So as the brands are trusted, the consumers can believe in you. So that's my two bits on how AI can actually empower the real time personalization and generation. Thank you. Fantastic. And bang on time. Do we have any questions? While we're talking about, you know, the automating processes,

which will be powered by AI or chatbots. And today, you know, there is a positive impact of that. But what do you think in the whole scheme of things about data security and privacy? How is the impact going to be in time to come? Sure. So I think, as I said, that that's the most important thing that any marketer has to think first. Your metrics can wait, but your data privacy violation cannot wait. So anything that you plan for has to be within the ethics of doing business in a right way. And especially when it comes to AI, ethics become very important.

So you need to train the data. You need to be partnering with the organizations who believe in that. They do not, they don't look at individual consumer data, but they aggregate it and get the information and get the insights from that aggregated data to define that category, and then use that to reach out to your target audience. So we've heard a lot about the new momentum and the new change at Microsoft, especially over the last couple of years. Can you talk us through that? How, because you've been at Microsoft for a few years

and industry for many, many years. What is different? So I think what is different for us is of course the empathy. So the first thing that we believe in is that when you are in your customers' shoes, that's when you understand. And that's the ethos that we are actually living, breathing while we are talking to our customers, so that we empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Excellent. Thank you. Interestingly, we've spoken about AI and empathy in the same breath, which is fantastic. Right.

And I think that's been our mantra, our astra as marketeer. And as I was telling Ramit earlier, so it's the art, science, technology, rigor and analytics, which have to come together for us as marketeers to really go out right with the wrapper of trust and ethic. The first buzzword for the day is well, astra. Astra. I have one question as in branded content or content is lot of emotions and human element into it. How do you address it by AI into this piece? How do you build that up? Sure. So AI is, it's not that it's artificial,

while it is called artificial intelligence, it is actually intelligence. It complements the humans in their way of interpreting. So the signals that you and I as a human being can find within the data, the emotion that we are trying to understand or from the reactions that our customers are giving us for the messages that you're taking out as brand, it's those interpretations that AI is doing at scale. So when you train the models, when you build those models, you bring that empathy so that you can actually get the right insight about the customer.

Thank you so much, Imani. Thank you. Rapid technology advancements in the last few years have completely changed the way we, as well as our customers, consume content. My next guest has over a decade of experience and interest in the domain of smart connectivity and artificial intelligence. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Pankaj Rana, Division Head Mobility Sales at Panasonic. He'll share his insight on mobile-first content consumption and how it influences engagement and storytelling, which is the theme for today.

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How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology?

How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology?

How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology?

How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 4G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology?

How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology?

How is the impact of 5G technology? How is the impact of 5G technology? 15 years before when I started my career. So it was more of a selling the specification to the end customers. That these are my USP compared to the competition benchmarking. Now in the online space, last 3 years, 4 years, if you talk about USPs or your specification with respect to the competition, nobody bothers about your product. Here you have to knit your story with the consumer. You have to be very, very innovative. You have to upgrade yourself in the storytelling skills.

That how in a subtle manner you connect with the consumer. So brand plays a very, very important role here. You have to communicate the brand value, brand ethics, and what is your brand tone for a longer duration with the end consumer. Working in the Japanese from last 9 years working in Panasonic, so what I learned over here that whatever we do in any field, be it mobiles, be it in any other area, it has to be a very long term approach or a very sustainable approach. Though at this moment mobility industry is very cut throat if we only see the devices.

But even in this scenario we want to connect, we are connecting with our consumer. We are closing the loop, communicating with them on the regular basis that what they like about us, what they don't like about us. Moving beyond from mobility products, we are moving to the mobility solutions. Because the solutions is the thing which our friends have also talked today, that this is something the future. Here people will not only talk about the content, they are creating the content also, and how we will deliver to the relevant audience.

So I think mobile as a first source of content creator or content provider to the end consumer is playing a very, very pivotal role in the Indian market. Thank you. So if you got the buzz word of the day in the last session, we got the quote of the day, the Chinese think we are an English speaking country. They have lots to discover including Indian Chinese food clearly. But any questions? Anybody? So a lot of handset makers today are having a lot of preloaded content on their phones. Any specific example that you have from Panasonic or industry,

or the way you are looking at these preloaded content, or maybe why you choose, and what kind of content? So here we have played, as I said, Panasonic always thinks for the long term perspective. Here we played a very intelligent move. So we have created our own platform which we call within Panasonic Arbo Hub. This is an artificial intelligence backed platform where all the apps or the contents are available within one app. And it understands the customer preference and experience and the preference also. I'll just take maybe 30 seconds to explain this.

For example, if you are booking every day morning 9am Uber. So it will understand your behavior over a period of two weeks or three weeks. Then on the 15th day or 20th day it starts giving you that notification, it's time to book Uber and it's the price gap between Ola and Uber. So one, customization and learning your what you are doing. So these types of platforms we have built within Panasonic for ourselves. We were just speaking about this before the session. I think Panasonic has been one of the long term supporters of sports as a concept,

especially the Olympics. Where does it come from? Is it part of the DNA of the brand? Where is your love for sports, your patronization come from? So if you see Panasonic primarily, we all know Panasonic as an audio brand. Correct? We know Panasonic as a VCR brand because most of the black market VCR was coming to India for the Panasonic only. So being the audio brand and audio or the music most connected with the athletics or basically the sports personality.

So Panasonic not only in India but if you see anywhere from the Europe side we are connected with the soccer. Overall Panasonic is associated with the Olympics for close to 95 years. And in India also we keep on sponsoring sports even most of our media friends and agencies friend knows about this. So Panasonic has that connectivity. And if you see 2020 Tokyo Olympics, so Panasonic has partnered in a much, much bigger manner. And most of the equipments within the stadiums are Panasonic. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Pankaj. Thank you.

My next guest has spent his career at the intersection of media, marketing, communication and technology. Building leading edge strategies that solve the most demanding marketing challenges for brands. I am pleased to welcome Amit Bajaj. Lead content strategy for Nissan Motors. Amit today will talk about content versus context. And how to tell stories that both win hearts and influence purchase. Welcome to HT Amit. The stage is all yours.

Today what I want to talk to you all of you about is how contextually right communications can really help all of us as marketers win the share of the wallet as well as the share of the mind. Today a lot of us are creating brilliant pieces of content. We are using various platforms. We are working with our media partners to kind of really get the right metrics. But a lot of us really think short term.

You know, once I read actually a video of Joe Pulizzi who actually shared that, you know, if you're in the business of content creation, don't just think short term. Nothing tactical would work or a six month or a nine month period won't work for you as far as your content strategy is concerned. So if you're contextually right and if you're culturally relevant in the audience that you're talking to and if you think long term for a year or two years or three years, then I think you can really see some success.

To win the share of wallet, you really need to also win the share of mind first. So if you're not emotionally connected with the audience, if you are not trying to build a one on one relation today, you're kind of losing in the game. Lots of tech today is helping us to kind of really boil down to the bottom of the funnel and talk to the guy we really want to talk to. But at the same time, you know, you need to kind of really be appealing to mass audience as well. So there is an India within India, as we say, there is a language war.

We just, you know, heard that only China thinks that we speak English, but actually there is a multi, you know, we are a culturally rich country and there's multiple languages and platforms we utilize to communicate today. And if we fail to do so, we're actually losing out on a large chunk of audience. I've spent my career between a B2B brand and now doing B2C. You know, what fundamentally doesn't change the way you are talking to them.

You might be using different platforms, you might be using different metrics to measure, but the core thought of communicating and being culturally relevant hasn't changed. So as brands today, we probably need to kind of create earned centric content, but very social by design. If we can't do that, probably we are not in the game to win. We probably be performing very mediocre. Another part of context is also to kind of really move out of the genres that you are in currently, you are in.

So for example, if I'm in the automotive space, I don't really need to talk to the auto guys only. I need to move out of my comfort zone and talk to people who are interested in food, talk to people who are interested in travel, talk to people interested in music, move out of my genre of just being in auto and talk to those guys who are interested in something else. But suddenly I build in my product.

You know, last year I did a very interesting content series where it was nothing to do with mobility of my product, but it was all about actually going and exploring. So you are a French company, you are in India, not a lot of people know you. So let's get together, get an Indian influencer, come on board, let's explore secrets around India. And you just became an enabler. And that actually helped us win lots and lots of consumers. And we had great turnaround with our dealerships to kind of, they were happy with the kind of content we were producing.

So I just found in that experience contextually we were doing the right things. We were very relevant as far as the cultural thread of the country is concerned. And at the same time we were looking at a big wallet share coming in. So if I as a marketer or I as a communicator today are able to solve that mystery, there is no one size that fits all. But if you are trying to do your A-B testing faster or you are doing your MVPs and you learn from them and tailor them up and kind of really go back into market,

I think you have a winning success formula there. Sure. Thanks a lot. I'll start with a question. Amit on Facebook and Amit on an auto site are the same person but different people. Obviously. And the context is also obviously very different. And going back to Rajeev's presentation, Amit on a news site is also slightly different person depending on what he is engaging with. So is that context relevant to you or are you looking at Amit to Chase? No, obviously I am looking at that one particular person who is also has varied interests.

So if it is news, if it is auto or if it's your personal lifestyle, I think it really depends on what you learn from the data that you get of how the media is being consumed on Facebook versus how the media is being consumed on an auto site. I may be kind of a very private person on Facebook which is my social network and I would probably want to be talking about things that I like. But my other side of content consumption on professional networks would be very different.

So we learn from the data that we are getting. But yes, you need to take chances and which is why I was saying the A-B testing and you do your MVPs so that you learn faster. And if you are making a mistake, it's easy to kind of change it in today's day and age with all the digital products that you have. But yes, you need to kind of be relevant to what you are showing. I can't really show an ad for perfume on an auto site probably. It's not so relevant for the person. But maybe while I am on free time on Facebook, I may as well be able to do that.

Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions? Any other questions?

So actually very well put. And I'd say lots of our products in the Indian, you know, where we are today are family decisions. Whether it's home or cars or even for that matter, jewelry, you know, there is a whole dingbang that goes together to buy all of this. So yes, you need to address the primary audience first. But you can't really leave the secondary and the tertiary audience because those are your big influencers.

They may not be shelling out the money for it or not swiping the card for it. But at the same time, they get influenced by even kids. You know, kids have a huge role to play when it comes to choice of colors or the kind of, you know, model that you need to pick whether it works for them and their toys or it doesn't. So you need to kind of really build in a very intelligent strategy of where do I influence the influencers and where do I really target the guy who really needs to shell out the money.

Yes. So with content, we kind of really do both things. So there is a direct targeted content that we produce for the purchase decision maker. And for the influencers, very different, very subtle, which is built in and it comes emotionally to you. And I'm humanizing the brand for you versus giving you a very targeted information. So as an auto brand, you live and die with launches, right? That entire organizations are focused towards what is the next big launch, etc.

In that sense, I feel it's very unique as a category. So how do you view content between launches? Do you see that as something that keeps the buzz going? What is the role of content for you? See, role of content, in my opinion, in the auto industry is not just limited till the launch. Our journey actually is halfway through the launch and when the sale of product happens, it also goes beyond that.

So once I've sold the product, I also need to be sure that the guy is coming back to me for service, the guy refers me to someone else, the guy also comes back to me for the second purchase. So the cycle for me between launches is not just over. For me, it is a continuous evolution of how I'm providing content at every step and influencing him or her to really come back to me as a brand. Because if I just live and die between launches, it would be a half-hearted effort for not just cars, it is just for everyone. I'd say that.

Though as asked by Himani, auto is quite an emotional decision or family decision but still I feel in last one or maybe last two years, the auto purchase has a lot to do with the content or the branding content you guys are putting up. Even if you see the data, test drive has actually gone down after the AR technology or VR technology used by you guys. So in the circular customer journey, which is actually initial stage to the actual consideration and then actually the over-purchase also, how you use the various branded content in customer journey?

Actually, every journey or every stage is very different for you guys, correct? Yes, every part of that journey is very different and we kind of offer different content solutions to people who are in that journey. And I was doing the discussion on another platform where I said that there are at least 23 such touch points on digital from where you start thinking that you have to buy a car until actually you buy the car. And it's just not your website. It's everything else after that. So one of the 23 is your website.

And if you start building content whether with relevant partners, whether with influencers, which I'm a big fan of, whether you do it yourself and put it out, you really need to address an issue that the consumer has. Whether it's about your after sales product, whether it's about your current offering that you have. Yes, to your point, tech has helped me. Test drives may or may not have reduced and I don't have data to support that.

But definitely if I'm trying to put my product upfront to the consumer and I show them the content of what the car is all about or what my product is all about and what features I bring. And I don't just say it myself and I actually bring other people who are relevant to you or to everyone else who's watching the content who are more believable. Then I think we are home with that. But yes, you need to kind of really customize it, create it in a fashion that is sort of a way to do it.

And also of course, you need to be tech savvy and you need to be mobile first and all of that is taken care of. That's hygiene. But emotionally, if I'm able to connect with people, I think it's a winning situation for me. Thank you so much, Amit. That was fantastic. Thank you. What is the purpose of content if it won't achieve or support your brand objectives? Ask any marketer and he'll tell you the answer is none. Vishal Chinchankar, Chief Digital Officer at Madison, is our next guest.

Vishal is a senior leader in the Indian digital industry with over 18 years in the digital medium across companies like GroupM, Reliance ADA Group, MediaTurf and Madison Media. Today, he gives us a lowdown into the branded content space, especially on how we can all tie the content we create to the goals and objectives of the brand. All yours, Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal. Vishal.

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