Hareesh Tibrewala is an engineer by education and a serial entrepreneur, by vocation. A visiting faculty at numerous management institutes, his name has figured in Impact magazine’s “India’s Top 100 Digital Professionals” list in 2013 and 2014. He has founded several ventures such as IFCM Counsellors, a management consultancy firm; Homeindia.com, an online retailer of ethnic Indian products and Social Wavelength which was last year acquired by WPP company JWT.
Social Wavelength calls itself a social first digital agency. It specialises in digital strategy, content production, analytics, media buying, social listening and technology platforms. In a conversation with FE Brandwagon’s Anushree Chandran, Tibrewala talks about the merits of a socially connected world and the opportunities presented by it. Edited excerpts:
How did the idea for Social Wavelength come about?
Digital media, and specifically social media, has taken off in the last three to four years. We sensed an opportunity in social media; we knew intuitively that Facebook and Twitter were going to be very big. It pays to be ahead of the curve. It doesn’t make sense to start a business venture when everyone is already there. From day one, our objective was to build up scale, build our team and acquire customers. We soon became the largest social agency in India, employing over 170 people and working on more than 50 brands.
Last year, we became a part of the WPP Group. We were looking to get access to WPP’s global resources and imbibe best practices. And we will work with JWT’s global clients.
What sort of work do you do for companies and brands?
We have worked extensively with the Apollo chain of hospitals. Apollo’s problem was that in the real world, they are very huge. But in the digital world, they were not as talked about. As a brand, we took the position “let’s talk healthy”. Apollo wanted to see how it could own the eco-system.
It needed us to create a whole lot of digital content for them on social networking sites and a lot of specialised applications for communities. For instance, there is a community called Blood Connections. If you are a part of that community, it will ask on your Facebook page your blood group. This is a social utility and yet it builds complete brand connect. We also launched another application called the 24/7 emergency application. If anything untoward happens, this application gets people help in the form of the nearest doctor, or pharmacy.
We also did work for Franklin Templeton where we created a series of awareness videos in regional languages. We also did work for salon brand Naturals where we encouraged customers to take “selfies” and help build positive word of mouth.
What are some of the advantages that social media offers?
Digital has the power to transform businesses and to create some amazing consumer experiences. For instance, retail brand Tesco in South Korea recreated store shelves on subway platforms where every product was displayed – in pictures — exactly the way it is displayed in a store.
When you stand at a railway station, you can walk from one end to the other, exactly like in a store. If you want to make a purchase, scan the bar code using a mobile application. Indicate the quantity and place the order. The same day or the next morning, the items are at your doorstep. If you can’t go to the store, the store comes to you.
Another example is what McDonalds did in Singapore using near field technology (NFC). Normally, every McDonald’s outlet has a play area for kids but it could not be done in Singapore because real estate is very expensive there. McDonalds used NFC and attached NFC under each table.
Now when you place a cellphone on the table, a game loads up and the table becomes the playground for the game. Similarly, we have done some work for a car battery brand. If I have an application on my phone which reminds me that I need to service my battery, it will be of great help.
Similarly, it also tells me what I ought to do if I am facing trouble with the car battery. All of a sudden, the brand and the car driver become friends. Here is where social media scores over the kind of communication we see on television.
When Tata Nano did a re-launch, there were different types of people who wanted to invest in a Nano. For instance, a guy from Borivili who had got a promotion and wanted to graduate from a scooter onto a Tata Nano; or an indulgent parent from Cuffe Parade who wanted to gift his daughter a car. Mass media forces a brand to put out a message and everyone to take their messaging from the same creative. Social media allows you one-to-one communication.
It is said that hyper-personalisation will be a big theme for 2015. What are your views on it?
Absolutely; it will be hyper-personalisation in place of mass communication. Social media delivers very high return on investment. Today if you are in the hotel business and are not ranked well on TripAdvisor, you might as well shut your hotel and go. The consumer doesn’t see your glossy pictures anymore. He looks at what consumers are saying. For any brand, the power of social media is that I can get all my customers to speak good things about me. This in turn gets me more business. Zomato, Burp, TripAdvisor, they all build brand advocacy. We are rapidly moving from demographics to psychographics. Because of social media, you can actually figure out how a person thinks. Psychographics is soon going to be our metrics.
To give another example, if I am a large telecom operator, I am tuned to think in terms of average revenue per user. Now I also need to value social currency—how influential is a particular customer in shaping views. Brands should try and offer solutions fast in case of complaints—especially in the case of influencers because those guys have the ability to create positive advocacy for the brands through word of mouth. A brand needs to cultivate these customers and engage with them a lot more
What does the marketer of the future need to be equipped with?
The marketer of the future will need both analytical and creative skills. Out of every two marketing dollars that are spent, one works and one doesn’t work. And we don’t know which one. But in digital, there are so many data points available. The excuse of not knowing doesn’t work anymore. What page did the customer enter from? Where did he go? Which key words did he use? Marketers will need to know how to use all this information. Creative and analytical skills will have to go together.
Some brands look to manipulate social communication with false ‘likes’, etc. Does that work?
There is zero room for manipulation in social media. A lot of brands ask us to project them in a positive light on consumer forums. We don’t entertain them because in the digital world everything can be traced back. If a brand is caught manipulating ‘likes’ and conversations, it can backfire and cause irreparable damage. The digital medium forces brands to be honest.