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. Vasuta Agarwal, chief business officer – consumer advertising platforms, InMobi, 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?
Whether you work in the world of advertising or not, as a consumer you would agree that a lot has changed in ad land over the past decade. How this transformation has come about is evident: The internet has taken the craft of mainline advertising into the next stratosphere with the scale of digital marketing.
This has impacted brands in five keyways:
The first and second can be characterised by how the volume and range of content have dramatically increased, contrasted by the fact that attention spans have hit a rock-bottom low. In India, people spend nearly five hours on their smartphones each day. Thousands of hours of content are generated – with more creators and brands trying to reach people online than ever before. With this burgeoning volume of content, consumers only give you about three seconds to capture their attention. So, if a brand has to be impactful, it has to break through the clutter and hook consumer imagination.
The next three critical contours highlight the positive ways in which the digital era has impacted marketers: ease of measuring success, enhanced speed and scale, and limitless possibilities for innovation – all in real-time. Digital platforms have made measurability easier and a lot more accurate. Earlier, you’d launch a brand or product on media and wait for the results, finding ways to measure the performance of your campaign through proxies. Today, you can instantly see the results, such as installs, post your mobile marketing campaigns or the engagement on your social media posts. Furthermore, speed, scale, personalisation and innovation are seeing new heights with the entry and evolution of AI. This gives brands that are launching today a lot more room for creativity and plenty of opportunities to drive effectiveness.
Ultimately, this means advertisers no longer have the room to be complacent, even legacy brands that have enjoyed success for decades – it is imperative to change with the times.
What is the recent best marketing or advertising campaigns you have seen and why?
While it is extremely difficult to pick one, what immediately comes to mind is the Zomato-Blinkit Doodh Mangoge campaign that went viral and created a trend jacking wave. The campaign stood out to me for the following reasons:
Firstly, it took on a clever, topical take and achieved contextual precision by bringing pop culture with a beloved Bollywood dialogue. Secondly, it leveraged relatability and appeal to human emotion by infusing fun into everyday essentials and implying that people will get exactly what they order and nothing else.
Finally, the effortless integration of both brands into pop culture without making it seem force-fit made it an example of creative excellence.
The best part about the campaign was how it created engagement by the sheer nature of the content. Brands poured in with their takes on the dialogue, ensuring engagement. This made it an unforgettable moment for the brand and the country.
Which brand in the last year has made the best use of digital and how?
I feel like great ads are everywhere. Brands are finding new ways to innovate and elevate their presence. I will share a few examples from my observations.
A campaign that has been all the buzz at Cannes for two years, and for good reason, is Mondelēz’s Not Just a Cadbury Ad with Shah Rukh Khan. The way the brand combined technology and creativity to drive delight for both businesses and consumers at scale was commendable. Achieving such impact alongside efficiency and brand love for their business is not easy, but Mondelēz did this brilliantly.
Pizza Hut ran an interesting awareness campaign where it aimed to get the news about its new pizzas and deals for India’s youth. What they did to ensure their campaign was unmissable was interesting. They drove serendipitous discovery of their deals and pizzas before people unlocked their phones by showing them on the front page of mobile. They leveraged special days meant for food sharing, such as Easter and Friendship Day, so the context was also right. The result was amazing Pizza Hut saw the highest-ever single-day activity on their website!
Swiggy and Meesho have driven bottom-funnel impact effectively over the past few years. But how do you take it to the next level? Both brands drove one-click app installs directly from the smart lock screen. Swiggy employed location targeting to tempt Indian foodies with their favorite local dishes, and Meesho brought its Maha Indian Savings Sale deals to tier-2 and tier-3 Indians on the very first touchpoint on their mobiles. They saw powerful results, with Swiggy witnessing a 30% lower cost-per-acquisition and Meesho getting high-intent installs, with one out of two installers adding products to their cart.
In a post-Covid world, what are the dos and don’ts of digital marketing?
It is an understatement to say the world changed after COVID. Both consumers and brands have now become faster and have to be.
The top three DOs for digital marketing are:
- Capture attention at a glance: It takes one glance for audiences to decide whether your content interests them. By combining the power of concise messaging, compelling visuals, personalising for different audience segments, and landing a strong call to action, brands can make a real difference.
- Embrace AI: Brands must think of AI as the smartest new intern on their teams. From content generation to audience segmentation, AI can make a real difference for brands when the right guardrails are put in place. It is up to marketers to define and scale the implementation of AI on their teams.
- Reimagine omni-channel strategies: In a post COVID-world, there are multiple ways in which a consumer could discover your brand – from the smart lock screen to a retail store in their favourite mall. It is critical to ensure that the consumer experience across each of these multiple touchpoints is consistent and engaging.
The three major DON’Ts for digital marketing are:
- A “one-size-fits-all” approach: As I mentioned before, brands should never resort to spray and pray approaches. They must be willing to understand today’s consumers, cater to their diverse needs in a personalized and meaningful way, and experiment with engaging platforms and strategies.
- Disregarding data: Today we live in a world with an abundance of data. Marketers must ensure that they synthesize the multiple signals they receive to make data-backed decisions and optimize marketing strategies for better results.
- Overlook storytelling: Brands should not stop at merely selling and showcasing what their business offers. It is important to have conversations with the consumer and explore interactivity to enhance brand love and engagement.
One recent bad case of advertising you have seen, and why?
People often talk about formulas for good advertising. My observation has been that there is also a formula for bad advertising. Looking for these five red flags before can help marketers prevent bad advertising:
1 – Not addressing the consumer’s needs: If a brand does not show the consumer how it solves their challenge, it will not resonate with them and therefore, will not deliver results.
2 – Bad timing and lack of context: Empathy, honesty, and awareness of the current context must be at the core of the campaign. Otherwise, backlash is bound to follow.
3 – Forceful integrations into media and situations: Brands must be authentic and do what feels right for them. This could mean not embracing a trendjacking moment or trying a platform they have never tried before. Essentially, consumers can always see through brands and will resonate with authentic ones.