The pandemic has brought about notable shifts across industries, and the case has been no different for marketing. Today, digital marketing has become a crucial aspect in order to acquire new customers and retain existing ones. In our weekly BrandWagon Ad Talk series, industry experts highlight what has changed over the past two years and more importantly, are these changes here to stay. Sonia Khurana, chief operating officer (COO), Digitas India, talks to BrandWagon Online, about the dos and don’ts of digital marketing, best marketing campaigns, and more.
What is the difference between launching a brand in today’s digital era versus earlier?
Many differences but in my opinion, two of the biggest ones while launching a brand today are: One, that a singular strategy or execution doesn’t cut it. With hyper everything – hyper-personalisation, hyper-targeting, hyper-localisation, hyper-real.., multiple strategy and execution streams have to be considered from the get-go. Two, brands need to think about connected audience journeys through the funnel and not just the top-of-the-funnel.
What are the recent best marketing or advertising campaigns you have seen and why?
I think this one will be on almost everyone’s list – Whisper’s The Missing Chapter. I love it for its platform thinking and the impact it is and can create. The other one is The Unheard Break that we did for our client boAt to celebrate World Music Day earlier this year. All the ad inventory on Gaana was bought out between 4-6 pm on the day. No ads were played during this time, not by boAt or any other brand resulting in an uninterrupted music streaming experience for everyone including free subscribers. Delivering a simple, clever and endearing experience that’s meaningful for music fans. Also, highlights the power of thinking media and creative together.
Which brand in the last year has made the best use of digital and how?
It’s difficult to call out one brand in this context. Almost all brands have been pushing the envelope on the use of digital to drive outcomes relevant to their business. Some of these initiatives are visible; some are not. As partners to our clients, we see ourselves doing the same – whether it is experimenting with a metaverse activation for boAt or running a hyper-localised campaign for Bengali-speaking markets for Duolingo that gave tremendous results (the Duolingo app saw a 400% increase in active users with Kolkata becoming the third largest user market for Duolingo in India – all attributable to the campaign) or creating a multi-lingual, mobile app-led program for MP Birla Cement that encompasses a KOL program and a digitised sales ordering process to track and capture revenue.
In a post-Covid world, what are the dos and don’ts of digital marketing?
This has been a hot topic since last year and has been endlessly discussed and dealt with. The lessons that came up in these discussions – communicating with empathy, focus on CRM, emphasis on digital, not drastically cutting down digital spends, among others, and continue to be relevant today.
One recent bad case of advertising you have seen, and why?
There have been some unforgettable advertising in the year but bad advertising isn’t about just storytelling anymore. It is about the entire customer experience. For instance, I remember clicking a shop-now ad recently for a fashion brand and when I got to their website, the particular product that I clicked the banner for, was sold out. And then I get retargeted with the same product ad! That to me is a case of bad advertising.
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