Latest news with #BrandWorldSummit
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
ETBWS 2025: Cricket advertising drives full funnel impact
For decades, no sport has united audiences quite like cricket. In recent years, however, the way the game is delivered and consumed has transformed, with digital and immersive formats reshaping how audiences engage with the sport. Brands looking to connect with cricket viewers are also evolving, crafting campaigns that drive awareness, consideration, and sales in more innovative ways. At the 7th edition of the Brand World Summit, organised by ETBrandEquity, a panel of marketing leaders explored how India's most-watched sport can be leveraged for full-funnel impact. The panel featured Lakshmi Narayanan B, CMO, CEAT Tyres; Inderpreet Singh, head of marketing, Birla Opus; Bhawna Sikka, CMO, Adidas India; Zameer Kochar, CMO, Angel One; Aniruddha Haldar, senior vice-president and business head, commuters, EV and corporate brand, TVS Motor Company; and Robin Das, founder and CEO, Brandintelle. The power of creativity, particularly in legacy-driven categories such as paints, emerged as a central theme. 'For me, advertising performance hinges on the creative,' stated Singh. 'I've seen it across 23 years of my career, the biggest delta that you get. You can talk about it qualitatively or run market mix modelling; whichever way you do it, it's the creative that makes the final difference much more than efficiency or other parameters.' Birla Opus entered a competitive paints market dominated by 70–80-year-old brands, and Singh noted that differentiation was non-negotiable. 'We had one brief: be different. If you want to win, you must be very, very different. So that's what it is for me, the power of creativity.' While creativity sets the stage, cultural integration amplifies its impact, particularly through cricket, which serves as a shared national moment. 'When you say India's largest playground for ads, nothing can beat the IPL,' said Haldar. 'We've tried pure digital, pure TV, and now follow a hybrid, because different consumers are pointedly available on their chosen medium.' For TVS, which operates in fast-growing categories such as EVs and scooters, brand experiences must extend beyond traditional advertising. 'Cricket reaches the last mile. When RCB is in the final, it's not just Bangalore, it's Bharat. If your ad fits that moment, in that flavour, it gets spoken about and earns its own media,' Haldar added. Cricket's ability to deliver upper-to-lower funnel continuity is another significant advantage. 'Cricket is the big one,' observed Sikka. 'When you look at BARC data, whether it is Champions Trophy or IPL, this year we've had 350 million audiences on linear TV, 250 million audiences on mobile. For a brand, it's the biggest platform to reach at scale.' As the official kit sponsor of Team India, Adidas does more than simply buy media; it plays a central role in the fan experience. 'When you see the Indian cricket team play in three stripes, it's unparalleled pride and equity you can't monetise. That's the upper funnel,' Sikka shared. 'Mid to lower is the product: aspiring athletes looking at footwear, fans buying the Team India jersey. During big matches, jersey sales shoot up. Are we there when people want to express their fandom? Absolutely.' Cricket also contributes to brand saliency in low-frequency purchase categories. 'The media landscape is highly fragmented. You need to be sharp to find the right media mix. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. But cricket is right on top,' noted Narayanan. CEAT's journey with cricket dates back to 1995 through CEAT Cricket Ratings and, later, a visible on-ground presence during IPL matches. 'For a category like tyres, where buying happens once every five to seven years, cricket opens the top of the funnel not just in India but globally through the diaspora,' said Narayanan. Kochar emphasised the integration of brand and business objectives. 'Brand and business are two sides of the same coin.' Angel One leverages data-driven media mix modelling, analysing 18 months of data to optimise creative, media choices, and budgets for improved RoI (return on investment). 'Our IPL association boosts visibility, recall, and consumer sentiment, with strong lifts in traffic, installs, leads, and positive business trends such as CAC (customer acquisition costs) and lifetime value,' Kochar added. Das pointed out that brands can still achieve impact without large budgets by leveraging shared viewing experiences. 'There are ways brands can leverage IPL without spending that much, especially at the bottom of the funnel,' explained Das. 'Things like more streaming, where people watch together and engage, that's something brands can explore. Not every brand has a big budget, but engagement and conversion can happen in those shared moments.'
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
ETBWS 2025: The consumer funnel is collapsing; discovery and purchase are happening all at once
Consumer journeys are increasingly non-linear, and the boundaries between entertainment and commerce are dissolving by the day. Today, consumers stream, search and shop seamlessly across multiple platforms. For marketers, this presents new opportunities to influence purchase decisions and foster brand affinity at every touchpoint. Neha Markanda , head of industry, e-commerce, Google India, took the stage at the 7th edition of the Brand World Summit , organised by ETBrandEquity, to discuss this dynamic consumer landscape. Effectively engaging audiences, she noted, requires understanding how attention spans stretch and splinter across media channels. Highlighting the meteoric rise of cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi after his IPL performance, Markanda said, 'Suryavanshi's rise turned into an overnight sensation, thanks to the internet rallying behind his achievements. Within hours, more than 25,000 pieces of content were created about him, amassing over a billion views. But the story does not end there. Today's unpredictable consumers are not confined to a single platform like live cricket or the IPL. They are constantly searching, streaming and scrolling, often simultaneously.' Consumer engagement now extends far beyond the action of a live cricket match. To remain relevant, brands must meet audiences across a variety of touchpoints and moments. With attention spans shortening, it is particularly notable that short-form video content, once synonymous with mobile, is increasingly consumed on large television screens as well. Short-form video has emerged as a powerful new-age tool for impact, particularly during the two to three high-value occasions each year when brands seek to be seen, heard and drive measurable outcomes. The traditional notion of the consumer journey as a linear funnel is rapidly collapsing. It is no longer a simple progression from awareness to purchase. Instead, the journey is fragmented, dynamic and ever-evolving, more like a map of influence than a funnel, challenging brands to identify where and how to create meaningful interactions that deliver results. Today's consumers are not just passive viewers; content actively fuels their curiosity, prompting deeper and more frequent research into brands. Beyond the sheer volume of research, the nature of search itself is shifting. Queries are longer, more complex and often conversational. 'This transformation is powered in large part by AI,' Markanda emphasised. 'AI Overviews are now available in over 100 countries, with more than a billion global users each month tapping into them to explore, discover and make decisions in an intuitive, conversational manner.' For Generation Z, search has become a critical touchpoint in the shopping journey, serving as a launchpad for new brands, price points and product line extensions. However, this shift poses a challenge: how can marketers keep pace with the sheer velocity of change in the digital ecosystem? Unlike physical retail, where a display window can be carefully curated, the online marketplace is a perpetually evolving environment with millions of products in a constantly updating feed. Here, AI becomes a key enabler. Rather than deploying large teams to manually craft detailed product descriptions, AI can automate and optimise product listings, boosting both accuracy and efficiency. 'Once brands deploy AI tools , they can dramatically improve product discoverability. I encourage every marketer to explore how AI can be leveraged across three core objectives: relevance, measurement and creativity,' Markanda concluded.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
ETBWS 2025: A new VUCA mindset to lead marketing in age of uncertainty
Marketing must evolve to keep pace with changing consumer expectations . In today's VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), planning long-term strategies is increasingly difficult. With expectations shifting constantly, marketing must adapt in real time. At the 7th edition of the Brand World Summit, organised by ETBrandEquity, a panel of leading CMOs discussed how VUCA has taken on new meaning. Once defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, it now stands for versatility, uncomfortable feelings, collaboration and agility – traits they say are critical for modern marketers. The panel featured Ashwin Moorthy, CMO, Godrej Consumer Products; Rohit Bhasin, president and CMO, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Sunder Balasubramanian, CMO, Myntra; Virat Khullar, AVP and vertical head, marketing, Hyundai Motor India; and Milind Pathak, chief corporate marketing officer, Proximus Global. Marketers face the challenge of applying core principles such as cost-efficient acquisition and effective service delivery while navigating a fragmented landscape. 'Media is now splintered by content formats, platforms, and how those platforms function. This fragmentation extends to distribution. Quick commerce has scaled, e-commerce is growing fast, modern trade offers multiple formats, and general trade remains strong. The task is to stay grounded in fundamentals while adapting to multiple business models,' said Moorthy. For Balasubramanian, versatility means evolving with audiences. 'A few years ago, Myntra was seen as a brand for the urban woman. Now we cater to non-metro women too, each with different expectations. The challenge is personalising the experience for all segments while maintaining brand consistency – that is versatility.' Discomfort, the panel said, is a given. 'When AI arrived, I felt genuinely uncomfortable as a marketer. Two things should unsettle every marketer – data use and the shift from creative to performance-driven marketing,' said Bhasin. 'Every CMO must lead the creation of a strong customer data platform with analytics and tech teams. If you are unwilling to learn and implement this, you risk becoming generic.' He added that marketers unwilling to own the full funnel risk being replaced – not by AI, but by those who understand the customer journey better. Pathak said collaboration has replaced complexity as a defining challenge. 'Marketing is perhaps the only team able to take a four- to eight-quarter view. We have formed multi-year partnerships with Microsoft and Infosys, where both sides co-invest in product development and align to meet market needs. Such collaboration drives sustainable growth.' 'While sales and distribution teams focus on today's revenue, marketers must think three or four quarters ahead. Actions taken now that appear in the profit and loss statement a year later are what drive saliency.' He added that future marketers will need to work seamlessly with AI agents, complementing and extending their capabilities. The final trait, agility, has replaced ambiguity. Marketers must update campaigns, retarget loyalty efforts, and adjust communications frequently to match shifting consumer behaviour. 'Take car buyers. Is the decision-maker the father, the mother, or the children who influence the brand and model? Understanding how they consume content is crucial. Are they just scrolling reels, or engaging with material where purchase decisions happen?' said Khullar. 'Cars have long lead times. Agility is vital not only for understanding evolving preferences, but for tracking sentiment, anticipating competitors and responding quickly. Organisations must move faster to market than rivals.' 'Agility is no longer a differentiator, whether you are in FMCG, e-commerce, or a high-involvement category. Consumers are upgrading faster than ever. Agility is not a strategy; it is a way of life – for marketers and for organisations,' Khullar concluded.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
ETBWS 2025: Buying media at fixed rates is fundamentally flawed
As digital media continues to dominate overall advertising expenditure by brands, the demand for premium digital inventory is growing at a rapid pace. With a limited supply of such inventory, marketers are grappling with rising customer acquisition costs (CAC) and diminishing returns on investment (RoI). Audiences today are no longer confined to search and social media. Increasingly, consumption is shifting towards emerging channels such as OTT, connected TV (CTV), and retail media. At the 7th edition of the Brand World Summit, organised by ETBrandEquity, Tejinder Gill , managing director of The Trade Desk, addressed one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary advertising: marketers often persist with publisher-first strategies, despite audiences being fluid, unbound by platform loyalty, and constantly shifting across channels. Gill noted, 'This fragmentation is further compounded by delays in actionable insights. Campaign reports arrive a day, a week, sometimes even a month later. By then, the moment has passed, and the opportunity is lost. Delayed insights equate to missed revenue. Real-time optimisation delivers tangible results, and dynamic planning will always outperform static forecasts.' While consumers are perpetually 'always on', marketers continue to work in silos, often planning and investing out of step with where genuine attention lies. 'There is a fundamental disconnect. Over 50% of India's consumers today spend their time on the open internet, OTT platforms, audio content, podcasts, news, and live sports, yet most marketing budgets remain disproportionately skewed towards walled gardens,' Gill explained. 'As Indians, we instinctively negotiate, whether with vegetable vendors or for cab fares. Yet in advertising, we continue to buy media at fixed rates. This approach is fundamentally flawed in a world where every consumer is different,' remarked Gill. He elaborated, 'The bottle on your table may carry an MRP of ₹6, but its true value is context-dependent. If you're not thirsty, it is worth nothing. If it is biodegradable or serves another purpose, say, your pet plays with it, its value may rise to ₹10. This is the essence of dynamic pricing, and the same principle must apply to advertising: why are marketers serving the same ad to two completely different individuals? If no two users are alike, neither should their advertising experience be.' The future, Gill emphasised, lies in real-time, audience-based programmatic buying, particularly on the 'open internet', where opportunities for precise, context-aware engagement are abundant. 'The open internet offers scale, diversity, and flexibility; what's needed now is a shift in mindset towards smarter, dynamic media investment,' he concluded.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
ETBWS 2025: CMOs decode AI's role in marketing transformation
Marketing is undergoing a seismic transformation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how brands connect with customers, predict behaviours, and deliver personalised experiences at scale. From content generation to predictive modelling , today's CMOs are using AI to accelerate decision-making, enhance customer journeys, and unlock real-time growth opportunities. At the 7th edition of the Brand World Summit, organised by ETBrandEquity, a panel of leading CMOs explored how AI and data are revolutionising not just marketing operations, but also customer engagement . The panel featured Ashish Mishra, CMO, Acko; Darshana Shah, CMO, Aditya Birla Capital; Sai Narayan, CMO, Policybazaar; and Krishna Kota, head of marketing – consumer business, DBS Bank India. While AI currently acts as an enabler, it is expected to become a key growth driver. Mishra noted that most current applications focus on AI's predictive capabilities, including customer segmentation and fraud detection. On generative AI , he said: 'It's easy to get carried away by the scale at which content can be generated. Internally, we are still vetting its use. I believe predictive and generative AI will eventually work in tandem, but for now, our emphasis is on predictive applications.' Shah said, 'When the omnichannel ecosystem first emerged, AI-powered bots gained traction. These systems, fuelled by vast datasets, enabled voice conversations, journey mapping, and drop-off detection. With martech platforms now leveraging data for highly personalised interactions, AI has shifted from being an enabler to a true growth driver in many areas of our business.' She added, 'There are challenges around built-in biases. For example, when prompting tools like Gemini to generate an image of an Indian woman of a certain age, the results often default to cultural stereotypes – a bindi , sindoor , or brown skin – irrespective of context. Even in categories like health wear or activewear, such biases persist. We are actively retraining these models to mitigate these stereotypes.' Narayan said, 'Although insurance is largely digital, customers still require human support when selecting a policy. Traditionally, queries that came in after business hours were only addressed the following morning, which led to lower conversion rates.' To address this, Policybazaar introduced Finova AI for its life insurance division, an AI-powered bot that replaces human agents outside working hours. 'Finova AI understands Indic languages and responds contextually, facilitating seamless, engaging conversations. These interactions not only extend engagement but also enhance the quality of next-day human follow-ups, resulting in higher conversions.' Kota said, 'If your data is well-organised, AI capabilities can truly scale. For DBS Bank, this journey began with the basics. In 2017, we built ADA (Analytics Data Architecture), our central data lake, which now powers all AI-led initiatives.' DBS handles extensive behavioural and transactional data. 'In Singapore alone, we track over 10,000 signals per customer, from spending patterns to salary flows.' To use this data ethically and effectively, DBS developed NBN (Next Best Nudge), an AI-driven framework that delivers timely, personalised suggestions influencing customer decisions. 'We have also created NBC, or Next Best Conversation, enabling our relationship managers to engage customers with data-driven insights. Whether through nudges or conversations, intelligent engagement represents the future of banking, and AI sits at its core.'
