Latest news with #IndiaCommunicationSummit2025
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
ICS 2025: Breathe Easy-The Mental Health Revolution
HighlightsNikhil Taneja, Co-Founder & Chief of Yuvaa, emphasised that mental health encompasses daily experiences of joy and personal balance, challenging the notion that it is only relevant during crises. Taneja argued that therapy should be viewed as a strength and 'the coolest thing in the world', advocating for a shift in how society perceives emotional wellbeing. The session highlighted the importance of genuine conversations in the workplace, exemplified by Taneja's organisation's practice of sincerely asking employees 'How are you?' to foster a supportive environment. In a refreshingly candid conversation about mental wellness, Nikhil Taneja , Co-Founder & Chief of Yuvaa , alongside session chair Devesh Gupta, Content Lead - Product & Community at at the India Communication Summit 2025 shattered traditional stigmas surrounding mental health, transforming a potentially heavy topic into an enlightening and empowering dialogue. Taneja, a passionate advocate for mental wellness, challenged conventional narratives by highlighting that mental health isn't just about crisis moments, but encompasses daily experiences of joy, happiness, and personal balance. "Mental health isn't spotted only in crises," he explained, "It's about every moment we experience." Drawing from personal experiences, Taneja shared his own journey of recognising anxiety, emphasising how vulnerability can be a strength. He provocatively argued that therapy isn't a weakness but "the coolest thing in the world" - a perspective that could revolutionise how we perceive emotional wellbeing . The session brilliantly dismantled archaic language around mental health, moving beyond terms like "disturbed" or "mental" to create a more compassionate dialogue. By encouraging meaningful check-ins and genuine conversations, the speakers demonstrated how workplace cultures can transform. A standout moment was Taneja's revelation about his organisation's COVID-era practice of genuinely asking employees, "How are you?" - not as a perfunctory greeting, but as a sincere invitation to share your heart. The conversation was a rallying cry for normalising mental health conversations, breaking down barriers, and creating supportive environments where individuals feel safe expressing their emotional experiences.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
ICS 2025: Corporate Social Responsibility as a Force for National Progress
Corporate social responsibility in India is undergoing a profound transformation, as revealed during an insightful fireside chat at the India Communication Summit 2025. The session, "Purpose in Practice: Building Authentic Social Impact Narratives ," brought together industry leaders who are redefining how businesses create meaningful societal impact. The conversation featured Puneet Anand, AVP and Vertical Head of Corporate Affairs, Corporate Communication and Social at Hyundai Motor India , alongside Ravi Bhatnagar, Director of External Affairs and Partnerships at Reckitt – South Asia. The session was moderated by Anirban Roy Choudhury, Senior Associate Editor & Lead, Product, who guided the discussion through strategies that elevate CSR from obligation to opportunity. Throughout the dialogue, Anand emphasized how authentic community engagement contributes to national progress, noting that CSR initiatives can play a crucial role in building a more developed India. His perspective highlighted the potential for businesses to drive societal advancement through strategic social initiatives. Hyundai structures its community programs around three foundational pillars: earth, mobility, and hope. Their "Be the Better Guy" road safety campaign stands as a testament to long-term commitment. Launched in 2016, this initiative partners with state governments to address India's road safety challenges through awareness programs and technological solutions. Strategic collaboration emerged as a recurring theme when Bhatnagar stressed the importance of selecting the right partners and rapidly scaling successful programs. This collaborative approach has enabled both organizations to maximize their impact across diverse sectors and regions throughout India. The discussion revealed how innovation drives effective CSR, as illustrated by Hyundai's telemedicine program. With 55 centers established across 11 states, the initiative has dramatically improved healthcare accessibility while reducing costs for rural communities – demonstrating how corporate resources can solve critical infrastructure gaps. Reckitt's nutrition intervention program showcased similar strategic thinking. By focusing on the crucial first 1,000 days of motherhood and employing culturally resonant communication, they've successfully addressed malnutrition challenges in aspirational districts across the country. Community empowerment took center stage when Anand discussed "Art for Hope," an initiative providing rural artisans – including those with disabilities – platforms to showcase their talents globally. This program illustrates how CSR can preserve cultural heritage while creating economic opportunities for marginalized communities. Both leaders emphasized that meaningful social impact requires patience, authenticity, and measurable outcomes. Their experiences reveal a fundamental shift in corporate mindset – from viewing CSR as compliance to embracing it as a strategic opportunity for creating shared value. To conclude, the session presented practical insights into how corporations can become genuine catalysts for societal transformation, contributing meaningfully to national development while building deeper community connections that extend well beyond traditional business boundaries.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
ICS 2025: From obscurity to 1,800 media exposures, the curious case of MakeMyTrip
HighlightsSameer Bajaj, the head of corporate communications and corporate affairs at MakeMyTrip, discussed the importance of data-driven communication at the India Communication Summit 2025. MakeMyTrip faced a challenge of low headline presence despite a significant share of voice, prompting a year-long effort to align internal teams and produce unique insights and reports. The campaign resulted in 1,800 media exposures at no cost, a 50% increase in media visibility, and 46% of mentions being headline placements, significantly boosting the brand's engagement with travelers. In today's digital era, where data is the new oil, data-driven communication uses analytics to craft tailored messages for specific audiences. By decoding customer behaviour and preferences, brands can create personalised, resonant content that boosts engagement, sharpens decision-making and delivers impactful outcomes. At the India Communication Summit 2025 , Sameer Bajaj , head of corporate communications and corporate affairs, MakeMyTrip , addressed the audience on data-driven communication. Presenting an insightful case study, he showcased how leveraging data enhances communication strategies, driving impactful engagement. Kicking off the address, Bajaj highlighted the challenge MakeMyTrip was facing: despite having a significant share of voice (SOV), the brand was not making it to the headlines. Elaborating on this challenge, Bajaj said, 'We were reaching travellers from every angle, supporting offline travel agents and capturing signals from direct browsing, but how do we leverage these signals for communication? In the travel sector, trend stories dominate PR, yet MakeMyTrip's headline presence was low. We were part of trends but not leading them'. To address this challenge, MakeMyTrip spent one year aligning internal teams to unearth unique insights and produce exclusive case studies or reports that competitors couldn't replicate. 'These insights became our USP because MakeMyTrip processes 230 transactions per minute. This effort culminated in three distinctive reports, showcasing our ability to transform data into compelling narratives that strengthen brand communication and elevate our industry presence,' Bajaj noted. The report resonated across the ecosystem and achieved PR success. The results were remarkable: 1,800 media exposure s without spending a penny. Additionally, the report, distributed only to national outlets, engaged every major newspaper. This led to a 50% surge in media exposure and added fresh visibility. Most notably, 46% of mentions were headline placements, underscoring the campaign's impact. Concluding the session, Bajaj noted that the report's success boosted engagement from travellers. 'It not only amplified our media presence but also built greater confidence among all stakeholders, beyond just media outlets,' Bajaj concluded.
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
ICS 2025: Championing context, insight, and storytelling for impactful communication
HighlightsChandan Mukherji, Director and Executive Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Communication at Nestle India, emphasized the distinction between content and communication, stating that content serves as the core message of a brand while communication is the strategic delivery across various platforms. Mukherji highlighted the importance of using data to develop accurate customer personas, noting that understanding the context in which consumers live is essential for creating effective communication that resonates with diverse audiences. The Director and Executive Vice President stressed the need for brands to optimize content for different platforms and moments while maintaining a consistent core story, ensuring a cohesive brand experience that evolves with its target audience. 'What does content-driven communication mean? Why differentiate between content and communication? Why insist that content should drive communication?' asked Chandan Mukherji , director & EVP, strategy, marketing & communication, Nestle India , while addressing the audience at the recently concluded India Communication Summit 2025 . From Mukherji's lens, content is the core of a brand's message, the story, emotion, or value it aims to spark. It's the 'what' that defines the brand's narrative. Communication is the 'how', the strategic delivery across diverse touchpoints, timings, and platforms like digital or press. 'In today's multifaceted world, with varied audiences and connection opportunities, brands must craft meaningful content tailored to resonate deeply. This creates a synergistic ecosystem where content and communication align to engage effectively, fostering trust and driving impactful brand interactions,' Mukherji noted. At the heart of communication and content lies data; your communication is as good as the brand's understanding of its customer and in a data-driven world, developing accurate customer personas and the context they live in is key to developing good communication. Elaborating on this idea, he said, 'Brands need to use all forms of data to understand consumers deeply, identifying who brands target and their contexts. Consumers live across multiple contexts, requiring content that is either broadly encompassing or highly specific to a single context, or a blend of both.' Mukherji highlighted three key elements that brands need to work on to deliver accurate communication: context, insight and storytelling. Context defines the 'where' and 'when' of communication, ensuring relevance. People exist in varied contexts, requiring adaptable content strategies. Insight is the 'why', the substance rooted in the brand's purpose, its reason for existing in people's lives, and the impact it seeks to create. This 'why' forms the foundation for meaningful engagement. Finally, storytelling translates these elements into narratives that resonate, connecting with audiences emotionally and authentically. In today's dynamic landscape, brand stories must be compelling and easily discoverable for customers, whether through user-generated content, influencer collaborations, or branded content. Mukherji stressed the importance of search-optimised content to ensure discoverability, as unoptimised content risks being overlooked. For performance-driven goals, brands must craft content optimised for measurable outcomes, aligning with consumer search behaviors and platform algorithms. With more touchpoints for customers to shop on than ever before, social commerce is an emerging way that merges social media and e-commerce, letting users discover, share, and buy products directly. Mukherji stressed on optimising content for social commerce. He said, 'Broad-brush approaches, assuming one piece of content suits all platforms, are outdated. Instead, consider diverse elements and tailor content to create nuggets that resonate deeply with consumers, ensuring meaningful connections across varied touchpoints.' Concluding the session, Mukherji highlighted the importance of crafting varied content for different platforms and moments, creating a cohesive ecosystem. However, the core story, the 'what', must remain consistent. 'For brands, a unifying thread is vital to deliver one brand experience. Marketers must identify a central nucleus, around which content is developed, tailored for diverse moments, contexts and occasions. This ensures the brand remains relevant, meaningful, and evolves with its target audience over time,' Mukherji concluded.
Time of India
27-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
ICS 2025: Turning brand spokespersons into brand ambassadors
How can communication s professionals transform subject matter experts into compelling brand evangelists without sacrificing their authenticity? In a dynamic media landscape, where credibility and relatability are paramount, communication professionals face the challenge of balancing technical expertise with accessible storytelling when subject matter experts from their brands interact with the media. At the recently concluded India Communication Summit 2025 , industry leaders convened for a panel discussion to discuss how communication professionals can turn subject matter experts into brand evangelists. The session featured Anjali Kakkar, VP - Corporate Communications, CoinDCX; Shonali Chakravarty, Head of Enterprise Tech Comms, ISG & SSG, Lenovo Asia Pacific; Rashmi Vasisht, VP – Corporate Communications & Employer Brand, Cognizant, India; Rachit Mishra, Head - Brand Marketing & Communication, CJ Darcl Logistics. It was chaired by Prasad Sangameshwaran, Editor, The discussion kicked off with a key question: Should modern corporate communicators allow subject specialists to engage freely with the media, or leverage their expertise to guide these interactions for maximum impact? Vasisht began the discussion by emphasising the critical role of communication professionals in lending a hand to the brand spokesperson so that they resonate with a wide range of audiences. 'Every brand has leaders with expertise, experience and media credibility. The challenge is evolving these experts, who deeply understand their field, into advocates for the broader brand narrative. Can they connect their knowledge to the bigger picture? If communication professionals get this right, they can truly succeed,' added Vashisht.' Reflecting on a personal experience, Vasisht shared a lesson she learned. 'I once arranged for a globally recognised expert to speak with a senior editor for 40 minutes, confident in a successful outcome,' she recalled. 'But two weeks later, no story appeared. I then realised that journalists pursue specific angles, while my expert delivered an academic white paper. Reflecting further, I saw the mismatch: he would have excelled on a podcast, but perhaps not in a print story. As communications professionals, we must strategically align leaders not only with the right message and moment but also the right medium.' Building on Vasisht's response, the question arose: When preparing key spokespeople from brands, for media interactions, how much control should communicators exert and how much should they allow these experts to leverage their own strengths? Mishra shared his perspective, emphasising the importance of authenticity. 'These are subject matter experts, over-controlling them risks stripping away their authenticity, which audiences crave,' he said. 'Today's experts are channel-fluid. However, their insights can be rigid. If we restrain them too tightly and their insights fall flat, it undermines the expert, the interviewer and the audience. The key is to maintain flexibility while preserving the essence of their authenticity,' Mishra noted. Deviating from Mishra's stance, Chakravarty highlighted that the challenge and the opportunity of working with subject matter experts, especially whether it's technology or any core area where there is a lot of technical knowledge required, is that you have to turn these specialists into generalists. There are a lot of subject matter experts in every company, but are all of them expected to become spokespersons of the organisation? 'No,' she said. 'We want spokespersons to be a little bit more generic, a jack-of-all-trades when they're speaking to the press. So, there is an element of unlearning. You've got to force the specialist to do so that the person puts himself or herself in the shoes of an average reader. The spokesperson may know everything about IT services or technology or logistics, but my average reader, even for a mainline or a financial, is hoping that we meet them somewhere in the middle. How do we make this exciting, interesting? That's where I think, to Rashmi's point as well, that grounding in, maybe it could be through a grounding of the organisational values, how do you link it to the larger vision of the brand, or a grounding in what B2B communications experts do best, data, can make it all a little bit more desirable,' Chakravarty highlighted. Joining the conversation, Kakkar underscored the importance of subject matter experts adopting the perspective of the reader, rather than simply evaluating media interactions through the narrow lens of ROI. She emphasised that such interactions play a pivotal role in long-term brand building . 'When I joined CoinDCX, I went to my founder and presented two media opportunities, encouraging him to participate. His immediate question was, 'What's the ROI?' I had to explain that while you might not see 100 sign-ups on the platform the moment the article is published, media exposure builds credibility. It shouldn't always be viewed from a sales conversion perspective,' Kakkar resolved. She continued by underlining a broader point about subject matter experts—a principle she believes applies across industries. 'All industry leaders are experts in their domains. But it's our responsibility as communication professionals to help them understand that effective messaging requires seeing things from the reader's point of view, not just their own,' said Kakkar. Using the example of her industry, she said, 'Take crypto, for instance. It's already considered a cryptic world and when experts fill their messaging with jargon, they alienate the audience. A subject matter expert's messaging must be crafted around what his audience understands and needs, not just what they want to say.' To conclude, in today's dynamic media landscape, communication professionals face the challenge of transforming subject matter experts into authentic brand evangelists. By aligning the expertise of subject matter experts with storytelling techniques, brands can reach a wider audience. Prioritising the audience's perspective and the right medium while maintaining authenticity allows corporate communicators to build credibility and resonate with customers.
