One of the key highlights of the Digital Leadership Summit held in Mumbai was the panel discussion on the topic ‘Building a brand through digital marketing – Pushing the Frontiers’. The discussion moderated by Mr Suneil Chawla, the Co-Founder of Social Beat, had two reputed panellists: Mr Ajith Narasimhan from Sundaram Mutual Fund and Mr Vipin Guliani from Piramal Group. Let’s take a look at the key insights of the session.
Everyone has been talking a lot about the increasing impact of digital marketing in building a brand. But the most important factor that needs to be discussed is the nature of the digital marketing technique, which in fact, plays a major role in achieving the desired results. That very thought started off the panel discussion. So how strategic or technical is digital marketing today?
Ajith from Sundaram Mutual Fund strongly believed in the strategic nature of digital marketing techniques. To substantiate his stand, he explained how the shift of mutual funds from being a push-driven product to a pull-driven product, paved the way towards the necessity of digital marketing today.
Due to major changes brought in by GST and demonetisation, mutual fund companies no longer need a medium of distributors to sell their products. Customers from the newer generation are more interested in getting serviced by the companies directly. Therefore, it becomes very important for companies to build a connection with the customers as well as retain that connect for a very long period of time. This is why the industry gives a highly strategic approach to digital marketing. Doing that helps them understand the need of the customers and provide them with services as per their requirements.
Vipin, from Piramal Group, too emphasised on the strategic nature of digital marketing today. When the aim is to build and sustain the brand, it becomes important to strategise digital marketing. However, he gave equal importance to the technical aspect of digital marketing as well. He was of the opinion that only the technical data mattered as far as the sale of the service or product was concerned.
Both the panellists were of the same view that digital marketing has evolved to a great extent and is no longer just a marketing tool. Over the years, the type of customers who consume different products and services have changed to a great extent. The customers of this generation need to be acquired, nurtured, retained and engaged with.
The need to innovate new ideas in order to connect with and understand these customers is the need of the hour. Apart from giving companies the advantage of targeting the right customers, digital marketing also helps them to understand the needs of the customers and design their brands and services accordingly. Therefore, it becomes important to incorporate digital marketing techniques right when the idea of launching a product or a service comes into the picture.
With changing times, the kind of products and services that customers need are also changing. Ajith was of the opinion that in the coming years, there will be a need to re-categorise the products completely. The need of the hour then would be curated solution-based products and goal based offers. That is when there will be a great scope for bringing in innovation in the digital space and engaging with India's next billion internet users.
Vipin also agreed with him. The requirement now is to first find out what the customers need and then build the product. This involves a lot of research for which innovative ideas have to be developed to find the right information from the customers through the digital space.
The number of consumers has increased rapidly. And not all the people who consume data are recurring customers. There is a need for customer profiling in order to put forth the right suggestions to the customers. Both the panellists agreed that the digital strategy that needed to be applied here varied in the case of B2C and B2B.
Since there has been a shift from mass targeting to micro-targeting, strategies, too, need to be changed. Instead of bombarding all the people with the same digital ads and search ads, it is important to connect with people based on their profiles. This data-driven model would do wonders in the area of lead generation.
In the case of B2B, the target audience is very limited. Therefore, a blended strategy could be used, wherein apart from directly trying to convince the distributors, the help of customers could be taken to influence the decision of the distributors. This could be done with the help of social media platforms like LinkedIn.
The new generation needs easy access to everything. Today, it is not difficult to bring a customer on board if your products are given to them in the most simplified manner. Going the digital way makes sure that customers get instant satisfaction. Therefore, it is necessary to spend the money to upgrade the reach of the company.
As compared to the other mediums, digital marketing is the most objective way of measuring ROI. It becomes easy to determine the success or failure of one’s campaign if it’s ROI driven. Not only does it help to determine the number of engagements, but it also helps in finding out the right platforms that help in targeting a specific audience. With ROI driven marketing technique, brands can easily recognise the right social media platform to connect with their customers.
Both our panellists were of the opinion that digital marketing is a key player as far as the game of connecting with the customers or distributors is concerned.
Events and conferences are a great time to network, showcase your product/service and learn from the best in the industry. However, choosing the best marketing events to attend can get a bit tricky. From the line-up of keynote speakers to the panel discussions held, there are a number of factors you need to consider before you head out to one. Read on for our hand-picked compilation of the top digital marketing events in Bangalore that you need to attend to enlighten your team and grow your business.
Quick Tip: We also have a Digital Marketing book that could provide useful insights
Digital Leadership Summit in Mumbai, Bengaluru & Chennai is a CXO event which brings together Business Leaders and CMOs to discuss how to drive business results through digital marketing and share innovation across Video, Vernacular Content, Voice, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. The business leaders and attendees would be from across sectors, including FMCG, BFSI, Real Estate, Entertainment, Education and Internet Businesses. The last Digital Leadership Summit is in Mumbai in Jan 2020 and the next Digital Leadership Summit is on 27th Mar, 2020 in Bengaluru.
Brand Summit & Hot Brands is a regular event by Paul Writer and they do this across Bengaluru, Mumbai & Delhi. Paul Writer is known for its marketing through research, peer learning, and sharing best practices. The Brand Summit is conceptualized as a power-packed day of masterclasses, discussions, sharing, and learning along with celebrating the achievements of the Hottest Brands in the respective cities. The impressive line-up of jury members includes industry experts and marketing professionals from various renowned organizations of the nation. The keynote speakers include Ravi Desai – Director of Mass and Brand Marketing – Amazon India, Burhanuddin Pithawala – VP Growth and Conversions – OYO and Vivek Sunder – Chief Operating Officer – Swiggy, to name a few.
Where: Taj, MG Road, Bengaluru
When: 8th February 2019. 8:30 am to 6:00 pm.
Join the industry thought leaders as they come together to discuss the digital transformation of the innovative business world at the 5th Inflection Digital Transformation Summit and Awards. Hosted by the Alden Global Value Advisors, the summit is packed with an impressive line-up of panel discussions, forums, insightful keynotes and unmatched networking with the best of the best from the industry. The event also includes an award ceremony where industry leaders are identified for innovation and excellence in logistics, procurement and supply chain.
Where: Vivanta by Taj, Ulsoor, Bengaluru
When: 23rd January 2019. 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.
What better way to celebrate the growth and transformation of the digital hemisphere than by conducting an online digital marketing event? DigiMarCon India 2019 is a larger-than-life online conference and exhibition scheduled to be hosted online – live and on demand. It will be the online hub of leading digital marketing professionals with sessions on a multitude of topics including digital strategy, content marketing, customer engagement, email marketing, programmatic advertising geo-targeting, growth hacking and all things digital. Learn all you need to know about digital marketing with keynotes, bold talks and big ideas presented by industry leaders from across the globe.
Where: Online – Live and On Demand.
When: 4th and 5th September 2019.
With seven keynote speakers covering seven powerful marketing topics that are the need of the hour today, 121 Digital Marketing Summit is a one-stop destination to learn all about digital strategies and branding. From the growth of influencer marketing and how digital marketing in India will change in 2020 to innovative ways to measure the impact of your branding campaign, it covers it all. Attend the session to learn what strategy works best for your business today and the digital approach you need to take up to stay on top.
When: 31st January 2019. 8:45 am to 6:00 pm.
Where: Novotel Hotel, OuterRing Road, Bengaluru
Whether you are a leading real estate giant, a top FMCG brand or a well-established financial organisation, make sure you attend these insightful events to keep up with the fast-evolving digital landscape. You can also check out Digital Bytes - our YouTube channel on the latest digital marketing trends in the industry.
The second edition of our Digital Leadership Summit was a grand success with key insights shared by industry leaders from across India. Among the interesting topics discussed, one of the panel discussions was on ROI through digital marketing videos. The panel was moderated by Vikas Chawla and our panellists included Pradeep Nidamarthi of Reliance Capital, Monish Ghatalia of Focus Communications and Prashin Jhobalia from the House of Hiranandani. They discussed the industry-wide approach to digital marketing.
According to Pradeep Nidamarthi of Reliance Capital, the impact of digital marketing can vary from each organisation as they have a different outlook on its success. Some people in the organisation view it as a long-term strategy where the payoff occurs over time while others have a short-term view and look at digital marketing as something that should bring them value on a quarterly basis.
He says that the success metrics depend on the discovery, conversion and repurchase components of the main cycle. The impact of discovery on digital marketing is often hard to measure, so companies usually look at their engagement and conversion rates as the major success metrics.
Monish Ghatalia of Focus Communications said that one of the key metrics of the business is to understand the digital behaviour of the person. That is how they behave when they watch a commercial on TV vs when they watch an advert on Youtube. As customer behaviour changes, the mindset of the company has to change as well. Additionally, this shift from traditional to digital marketing can also affect various sectors of the business as they start thinking digitally. Statistics show that 5-10 per cent to 15-20 per cent of a business' marketing budget is used towards digital marketing when acquiring a new client.
“For the real estate industry, many companies are not as marketing savvy as they would like to be,” said Prashin Jhobalia of the House of Hiranandani. “This is because they find it a challenge to segregate their customers into different buckets.” However, the impact of digital marketing in the business is its ability to put up numbers as proof. This helps them understand what the money is put towards to justify spends and measure return on investment.
Real estate needs depend on the need of the client and the stage of life they are currently in. Jhobalia believes that a business is able to market its brand to the company if they are able to identify this individual and reach out to them at the appropriate time.
“The customer journey is different for each business,” said Nidamarthi. For example, with Reliance Capital’s general insurance policy, if a person has decided that they want to buy insurance, they have already done the research on the different policies available before approaching Reliance. At this stage of purchase, there is not much the company can do to change the customer’s mind other than the price. Therefore, digital marketing does not have an impact if the customer is already aware of the product. But for products like mutual funds, digital marketing has an impact as the discovery process is longer. He adds that brands should not just spend money on impressions but should also give importance to the visits that lead to your digital property and the interaction with the customer.
Monish Ghatalia says that the fundamentals of marketing believe that more is more (that is, more budgets, more people). However, with digital marketing, the mindset has shifted to less is more. Digital allows us to build the core customer base and because we live in a sharing economy, we can convert this customer base as well. He believes that if 100 core customers are acquired and nurtured, they can lead a business to its next 1000 customers. Therefore, the secret sauce for the business is in its approach to acquiring clients and adopting the framework of the current digital marketing industry. Additionally, businesses should aim to move their customers from conversion to brand loyalty. Instead of spending 99% of the budget on lead conversion, they should spend only a particular amount of the budget to go beyond just conversion and encourage customers to become loyal to the brand.
In the real estate industry, Jhobalia says that the secret sauce lies with the marketer and there is no single solution to success. The business needs to understand its objectives and use relevant information to remarket the brand to the customers.
All businesses have a digital marketing funnel and it is the duty of the companies to either drive people through the funnel or improve conversion through the funnel. Take a look at our in-depth video on full-funnel marketing here for more information.
Alternatively, the business needs to drive the right people into the funnel at the right time. According to Nidamarthi of Reliance Capital, there are 4 steps that all companies need to use to maximise their digital marketing strategy:
Collect and collate your data from all the sources available. This can help you build the user journey from discovery to repurchase.
Once you have collected all the data, you should have a master view of all the channels used by the business. That is the channel used to promote a good or service and the frequency at which the ad is shown.
The CRM process needs to be streamlined and constantly updated.
You need to have employees who are native to the digital world. They should have a good understanding of how digital marketing impacts the customer journey.
Having a good understanding of all these four components can help a business master their business digital marketing strategy.
Reliance Capital has numerous lines of businesses and each of them is in different stages of digital marketing with different regulators across the board. The biggest challenge for the companies over the next three to four years is that the common man will become more aware of privacy and will interpret it differently. When it comes to the use of data and systems, companies need to be more careful about how they use customer’s personal data and err on the side of caution.
According to Ghatalia, the biggest challenge faced by businesses is their ability to converge traditional marketing, digital marketing, technology, Artificial Intelligence and data. Companies need to understand that although these components will change in the next four to five years, the way a customer thinks will not. As a future marketer, they need to leverage this idea and be able to marry vehicle one (digital) to anything else in the digital market.
In the real estate industry, Prashin Jhobalia says that the ability of companies to recreate traditional content for digital media is a challenge. Another problem is the overpopulation of ads that creates competition within the industry. The developer might create an ad to target their customers while the distributors and brokers create different ads to target the same customers, this self-inflicted competition can create a lot of confusion in the industry. In order to overcome this challenge, businesses need to understand and react to the customer’s changing needs in a timely and efficient manner. One way of doing so is making use of vernacular ads.
The panel ended with a discussion with the audience, the panellists provided numerous thought-provoking ideas on the the future of digital marketing and improving ROI.
The Womenwill Leadership Workshop was an initiative conducted by Google. The world’s most used search engine had invited its premium partners to nominate the inspiring female leaders of their organisations. Rachna Ganatra – Head of Strategy and Business Development – represented Social Beat in the workshop. The event was geared towards understanding gender disparity issues that women face at work. It also threw light on how to overcome systematic and personal barriers in career success, building confidence, recognising and creating strong connections and making a robust personal plan to move ahead.
The workshop was conducted by the very accomplished and vibrant team of woman entrepreneurs Jinny Riat and Neha Kalia who used a lot of storytelling and kept the audience engaged throughout the workshop. It was amazing how participants opened up about challenges, personal experiences and collectively worked on exercises that were geared towards a lot of self-reflection and taking ownership to drive solutions.
The day-long workshop was a wonderful opportunity for self-learning and reflection. Additionally, the attendees shared space with other exceptional women in the industry, with a lot of bonding over wonderful personal experiences. Since Social Beat is an organisation which has more than 65% women in its workforce, the insights were really helpful and inspirational.
However, it was not all about learning. The venue, decor, goodies and food were all tastefully done with a thematic layout across. Not only was the workshop extremely enriching and enlightening, but it also had a vibrant ambience, accounting for a day of laughter and bonding.
As the saying goes – A woman is unstoppable when she realises she deserves better. Social Beat is happy and proud to be part of this initiative. You can also read our blog on women in leadership and how to retain talent in a start-up for more insights.
Since becoming a Google Premier Partner, Social Beat has strived to push the boundaries in digital marketing to deliver the best ROI for our clients. We are happy to announce that after being nominated as a finalist for the Mobile and Display Innovation 2018 by Google, our consistent efforts have been rewarded! Social Beat has been selected as the winner of the Mobile Innovation Award at the Google Premier Partner Awards in Mumbai. This award is a testimony as to why brands need a digital-first marketing strategy.
This marks the second consecutive year we have been awarded by Google. In the 2017 edition, Social Beat won the Display Innovation Award for our groundbreaking work with Casagrand. Google only chooses five agencies for this award every year and we are honoured to be one of them.
India Home Health Care (IHHC), a partner of BAYADA Home Health Care, is committed to providing high-quality care for the health and well-being of loved ones from the comfort of their home. Their team includes professionally-trained registered and associated nurses, medical doctors, medical care-takers, occupational therapists and attendants.
The objective for India Home Health Care was to boost their lead generation strategy to acquire better quality leads at the lowest price possible.
Some of the obstacles in our path to achieve this objective were:
To overcome these challenges, we had to think out of the box. Some of the path-breaking techniques we implemented were:
These strategies helped us achieve unprecedented outcomes for our client, IHHC. Our conversion rate increased from 2.16% to 6.17% with a page load time of less than 3 seconds and a 33% decrease in the cost per lead. After the implementation of AMP, the quality score of the keywords increased to 8/10 and conversions increased by 20%. 90% of the campaign was moved to mobile and this resulted in 95% conversions and a 16% click-through rate. The change to the Position-Attribution model allowed us to better understand the consumer decision making process.
We are proud of the hard work and dedication of our Social Beat team that consistently exceeds client expectations to achieve the best results for them.
You can also read our blog to learn more about How AMP lowered CPL by 33% for IHHC.
The second edition of our Digital Leadership Summit was a grand success with key insights shared by industry leaders from across the nation. Mr Omkar Rajadhyaksha – Managed Partners Lead, New Business at Google – was our first speaker who threw light on the strategic methods brands can take up to grow their business through Google in 2019 with focus on futuristic digital marketing trends to look forward to. Let’s take a look at the key insights of the session.
With 650 million active Internet users in the nation, almost half our population is consuming content online. However, 7 out of every 10 Indians access the Internet through mobile, entirely surpassing the desktop and creating a mobile-first ecosystem for brands to leverage. To add to this, the introduction of Jio has led to a five times increase in 4G data being consumed, when compared to the 2G and 3G plans used before. This has contributed majorly to the online growth of brands. Though the nation is still lagging behind in terms of speed, the easy access to inexpensive data plans, coupled with the drop in the prices of smartphones, is a good start.
After Google, YouTube is the second most-used search engine proving that videos are the future. This platform alone has witnessed a 400% increase in video consumption through mobile alone. These staggering numbers only prove that organisations should leverage the reach of videos to tell their brand story. The most-searched genre is that of entertainment with the top searches being comedy clips and song covers. The other genres that are very popular are food-related content, how-to series and mobile unboxing videos that have also contributed majorly to the expansion of YouTube.
The growth of regional content has been one of the biggest digital marketing trends in the past few years and is showing no signs of fading away. As per a recent Indian Readership Survey (IRS), each one of the top twenty publications read across the nation is in a regional language except for Times of India that ranked in the eleventh position. Furthermore, there is no surprise that the same behaviour is being translated online. As per a recent survey conducted by KMPG, a whopping 88 percent of online users said they would click on a multilingual ad rather than one that is in English.
Consumers are adopting innovative ways to search and shop, and voice assistants are playing a huge role in this aspect. As per a recent survey conducted by Google, 28% of queries are made by voice on search apps. Furthermore, there has been a 400 percent increase in Hindi voice searches ever since Hindi was introduced as a language on the assistant. There has also been a 63% increase in phone-unboxing searches, especially when the phone is bought online, with a 70% increase in price-related searches for smartphones falling in the range of Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000.
With digital and mobile merging together as one, the whole formula for brands to drive growth has evolved. Google closely observed the online behaviour of 100,000 active users and noticed that the marketing funnel is no longer just about awareness, consideration and purchase. It is filled with intent-rich moments of consumers when they make direct queries online, redefining the traditional funnel-like approach. The new-and-improved marketing funnel is now not as streamlined and has the potential of adopting an hourglass, diamond or a pyramid shape based on the intent-rich moments of consumers. These moments of intent, also known as micro-moments, play a huge role in either expanding or narrowing down the consideration set of the funnel. This proves that a consumer’s online journey is unpredictable and brands need to anticipate these micro-moments to target a custom intent audience.
So where does Google fit in all this? The world’s largest search engine has seven different products to offer based on utility. From Google Maps and Google Chrome to Gmail, these digital utilities are free and help in the day-to-day digital routines of consumers. They are updated regularly through machine learning and artificial intelligence to adapt to the lifestyle of the users. Furthermore, these products can be monetised to ensure your brand is present across the intent-rich moments of your consumers.
TrueView for action form ads: YouTube has come a long way from a mere video platform to the cusp of performance and branding. Organisations can now drive performance through YouTube with TrueView for Action form ads that present the user with a pre-filled form along with the ad. This is a classic example of how brands can reach out to viewers during an intent-rich moment.
YouTube home feed ads: Just like masthead ads, YouTube home feed ads are plastered on top of the YouTube home feed every day, targeted based on the content consumption pattern of the user. These ads have the potential to create a billion impressions with 100 million unique ones pan India per day. They are all the more enriching since they are in video formats and are far more effective than search and display ads that are almost static today.
Display ads in Discover: Formerly known as Google feed ads, these ads are designed to look and feel native to organic cards for seamless brand placement on Google feeds. However, it is important to focus on the creative and the messaging of the ad and not go in for plain Jane designs.
A lot of digital-first brands are looking at brick and motor. Since the consumer journey has now altered the traditional marketing funnel with more research going into the consideration stage, online brands are adapting to this change with pop-ups and stalls to showcase their products. Even if consumers are completely convinced to buy your product online, they prefer visiting the physical store to experience the look and feel before investing. This proves that it is a merit to integrate your online store with offline sales to capture the entire 360° of the consumer journey. Users get influenced online and experience the product offline making it a win-win for both brands and consumers.
Whichever sector your firm belongs to, marketers should hold their digital media accountable for business. Instead of basic digital metrics like the number of clicks and the CTR, you should also tie up your media spend to revenue, profit margin, gross margin and other business metrics.
It is time we stop considering the average value of metrics to measure digital performance. Instead, brands need to identify the consumers who spend more on online products and let go of the ones who are left over by your competitors. It is essential to look for profitable consumers who will build your business.
As the saying goes - the only thing that is constant is change! Google’s digital utilities work on automation to learn from the changes and provide higher ROI. It is safe to say that in today’s digital age, automation is the way to go. If not, your brand will definitely be left behind by its competitors!
The insightful session by Mr Omkar Rajadhyaksha was an eye-opener for leading brands and marketers. Whether you are a top real estate developer, financial giant, FMCG brand or a B2B organisation, make sure you adapt to the evolving digital ecosystem and grow your business.
16th November 2018, Mumbai - We at Social Beat organised the second edition of our Digital Leadership Summit - a convergence of several business leaders across industries. The first edition took place at Chennai with a focus on driving ROI from digital marketing. One of the biggest talking points of the Summit this year was innovation through Voice, Video and Vernacular with CMOs from various sectors sharing their insights and experiences.
The keynote speaker, Mr Omkar Rajadyaksha from Google, kick-started the event on what businesses can scale up with Google in 2019. The Summit also focused on driving business results through digital marketing with marketers and brands voicing out common challenges they face and upcoming trends.
While there are around 450 million internet users in India currently, this number is set to hit 650 million by 2021. These numbers prove even more significant as the vast majority of new internet users will come from Tier II and Tier III cities. The summit highlighted the importance of tapping into India’s next billion internet users by harnessing the power of Voice, Vernacular and Video for an effective digital marketing strategy.
The keynote session was followed by a panel discussion on building a brand through digital marketing. This session included Ajit Narasimhan, CMO of Sundaram Mutual Fund and Vipin Guliani, Group Head – Digital Marketing at Piramal Group. Moderating the panel, Suneil Chawla, Co-founder of Social Beat, said, “Digital spending is expected to grow 2.5x from $40 billion to $100 billion. This goes to show how businesses are leveraging the power of digital and how it will only continue to grow.”
David Appasamy, Head – Brand and Strategy moderated another panel discussion on AI, Augmented Reality and Vernacular in the future of Digital Marketing.
Appasamy opined, “Digital platforms have, over the last decade, redefined the way we communicate, build our businesses or entertain ourselves at anytime, anywhere. Now artificial intelligence and augmented reality are taking it to a whole new level in terms of efficiency and experience while vernacular is opening up the platforms to native language speakers and new markets.” Appasamy was joined by Channan Sawhney, Head of Digital Marketing at Johnson & Johnson and Pratyush Kukreja, Head – Product Monetisation at Haptic.
The next session focused on measuring return on investment through digital marketing. The speakers of the session were Prashin Jhobalia, Vice President – Marketing Strategy from House of Hiranandani, Monish Ghatalia, Founder of Focus Communications and Pradeep Nidamarthi, Head of Digital at Reliance Capital. Moderating the panel, Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “Today we can track not just online customer acquisitions, but also store visits, leads, calls and brand awareness lifts. This allows marketers to truly attribute how much of an impact digital has on businesses across industries.”
The Summit also had a session on how brands can grow and innovate through digital by Mr Abraham Alapatt, Group President and Head – Marketing, Service Quality and Innovation at Thomas Cook.
The Summit concluded with an interactive workshop where attendees were asked to draft their digital strategy guided by the digital experts at Social Beat.
A number of members of the press and digital news publications were among the attendees and the Summit received a lot of coverage, from afaqs! in particular.
The number of people online today in India is greater than it ever was before. Currently, there are around 450 million internet users in the country and this number is likely to increase to 650 million by 2021. But what is more significant than just these numbers is that a majority of these Internet users will be coming, not from the big metros, but from the smaller towns and villages of India. Along with a shift in audiences, there has also been a change in the way audiences access the Internet and what they do on it.
In the first edition of our Digital Leadership Summit, we discussed how measuring ROI is one of the biggest challenges for digital and content marketing. For a brand to capture the next billion Internet users in India, finding a way to adapt to the new market is essential – which is exactly what we will be addressed at the 2nd edition of the Digital Leadership Summit by Social Beat. In this edition, marketers and brands can get a closer look at the biggest challenges and upcoming trends in the digital space from the reigning experts in the field. As a sneak-peek, let’s take a look at the three factors that have emerged as indispensable in a brand’s digital marketing strategy: video, voice and vernacular.
In 2016, Nicola Mendelsohn, VP of Facebook’s operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa predicted that in 5 years, Facebook’s newsfeed would comprise of videos alone. At the time, this claim sounded far-fetched. However, going by recent trends, video content will soon become the most important type of content created for the Internet. Each day, around 100 million hours of video content are consumed on Facebook alone. When Indians aren’t watching videos on Facebook, they’re watching them on YouTube. As per YouTube Brandcast 2018, the world’s second largest search engine currently has around 225 million active monthly users in India, with this number set to increase to 500 million by 2020. A majority of these users watch videos to help make purchase decisions. Clearly, the fastest way for brands to capture the attention of their target audience will be to make engaging, easily understandable videos to tell brand stories. Check out our case study on how Cholamandalam Finance harnessed the power of videos and vernacular content to widen their reach.
At the Google for India summit in 2017, the growing importance of voice search in India became even more evident. The Google year in search report also mentions, around 28 percent of all Google searches in India are through voice. Even more significant was the fact that a majority of these voice searches were conducted in vernacular languages. Hindi voice queries are growing by around 400 percent year on year. India is also witnessing the increased usage of personal assistants such as Siri, Alexa and Google Home. The advent of voice search points towards a fundamental re-thinking of tried and tested SEO strategies. Since voice search results only pick up the most relevant result (usually the featured snippet), digital marketers will need to optimise their content to ensure it is voice-ready.
Two of the biggest developments in India’s digital story in recent years have been the steep drop in smartphone prices and the availability of affordable high-speed internet, catalysed by the Jio network. Both of these factors have led to the growth of internet audiences from tier 2 and 3 cities and towns in India. For marketers, it is attracting these audiences and not the urban population that will prove crucial. A study found that around 70 percent of Indians trust regional content online more than English language content. If brands want to engage with the next billion internet users in India, the way forward is vernacular content. Currently, Tamil is the most used regional language online with 42 percent, while Hindi follows closely with 32 per cent. To tap into this huge potential, a strong, comprehensive strategy with end-to-end messaging in regional content is indispensable. Read our case study on how a multilingual approach generated 90% growth in leads for further insights.
Apart from these indispensible marketing strategies, the session will also throw light on how artificial intelligence will change the way marketers work. The newer emerging trends around AI, chatbots and machine learning, have proved to be a game-changer in digital marketing, working wonders for brands across all sectors. Immersive experiences like virtual tours of an apartment even before a site visit have added much-needed value to the content being consumed by potential buyers. Automation and machine learning have also pushed smaller brands to adapt programmatic advertising.
Does your marketing strategy tick the three V’s and marketing automation? Find out how your brand can gear up for the future at the 2nd edition of the Digital Leadership Summit by Social Beat. Our first Digital Leadership Summit covered the rise of digital marketing in India, but the digital landscape has changed drastically since then. Register now to get the latest industry insights from some of the biggest names in the field!
At Social Beat, being imaginative and innovative is part of our DNA. We work hard to reach our client’s goals and exceed their expectations. So it’s always a wonderful feeling when accolades come our way! The recently concluded Big Bang Awards 2018 by The Advertising Club, Bangalore was a celebration of India’s digital advertising talent.
Social Beat won Silver for the Digital Award in the Real Estate Category. We were recognised for our stellar work for Brigade Group – the leading player in India’s real estate industry.
Awards like this prove why real estate brands need to shift from print to digital.
Established in 1986, the Brigade Group has a pan-India presence with a diverse portfolio that covers both commercial and residential properties. Apart from property development, Brigade’s repertoire also includes property management services, hospitality and education.
Brigade approached us with a simple objective - build user-generated content and create a buzz around Brigade’s social media handles. Keeping this in mind, we came up with a photo contest idea. While the campaign was centred on audience interaction, it reaped a two-fold benefit – the pictures sent in would promote Brigade and thus increase visibility, as well as encourage people to follow the company across social media platforms.
One of Brigade’s top priorities before the start of any campaign is to be as unique as possible, and the Photo Contest campaign did just that. Brigade’s audience was able to actively engage with them. Each participant had to send a maximum of 5 images, of which at least two had to feature Brigade properties. Participants also needed to add specified hashtags to their posts and follow them on social media platforms. This helped Brigade gain visibility and increased their social media followers.
To help spread word about the campaign, we created a small video that held all the details. The results achieved were staggering. In fact, this campaign also won Silver for the Best Social Media Brands under the Real Estate category at Social Samosa’s digital marketing awards.
There were over 15,000 views and engagement of more than 30,000 people, with more than 3000 clicks.
We received over 500 entries in response to the campaign. The majority of our audience was between the ages of 18 to 24.
This one-of-a-kind approach to creating engaging real estate marketing strategies is what sets Brigade apart from their competitors.
This award is further proof of Social Beat’s commitment to pushing the boundaries and delivering only the best in digital marketing for our clients.
You can also read our Complete Guide To Digital Marketing For Real Estate for more insights.
Our creative, quirky campaigns have always won the hearts of our clients, but when they win awards too, it’s always an added perk! The 2018 edition of Social Samosa’s much-anticipated digital marketing awards was held on July 31 and included 19 categories with 14 special categories.
Social Beat has won two Silver awards for the Best Social Media Brands under the Real Estate category. This was in recognition of our exceptional work with Brigade Group and Casagrand, two of the largest real estate developers in South India. These awards are further proof of why real estate brands need to shift from print to digital.
Casagrand is one of the most reputed developers in South India, with a 14 year legacy behind them. Established in 2004, Casagrand has developed over 12 million sq.ft. of premium residential real estate across Chennai, Bengaluru and Coimbatore. Their core values of innovation and quality have translated into their engaging real estate marketing strategies.
Some of their best-performing social media campaigns were able to tap into the variety of emotions that make a house a home.
The #FeelAtHome campaign by Casagrand was a creative representation of the small things that make our homes special. This campaign featured day-to-day things most of us do, but often take for granted. Each post was crafted along the lines of the philosophy that it’s emotions that go into making a home and not just four walls and a ceiling.
This post, for example, depicted a colourful rangoli, a staple at the doorway of almost every South Indian household. It performed very well on social media as a large part of the audience were able to relate to it on a personal level. The familiar feeling of waking up in the morning to the sight of rangoli being drawn at the entrance of the house is something most had grown up with.
One of the factors contributing to Casagrand’s win was their willingness to experiment with new formats and push the boundaries. During the Wimbledon season, we created a 3D post for Casagrand, which also acted as a quiz for the audience. It featured a tennis ball and users could move the 3D image around to check which side of the court it was on. The post was also able to creatively plug in a mention of Casagrand’s amenities in a non-intrusive way.
The Brigade Group, first established in 1986, is focused on property development. Apart from residential properties, Brigade has a multi-domain portfolio covering commercial property development, property management, hospitality and education. The same attention to detail and drive for excellence that sets their projects apart also drives their social media marketing strategy.
One of Brigade’s key differentiators is their unique way of showcasing new project launches. For Brigade, we have looked past the usual promotional posts and instead, depicted new projects in a way that captures their true essence.
For the Brigade Woods launch, we structured the entire campaign around the abundance of greenery that was the biggest USP of the project. These watercolour-style posts depicted the joy that comes with owning a house in the midst of lush green spaces.
Brigade’s social media approach also involves using creative ways for their audience to actively engage with them. One of the best-performing contests by Brigade is a photo contest. Each participant had to send a maximum of 5 images, of which at least two had to feature Brigade properties. Participants also needed to add specified hashtags to their posts and follow them on social media platforms. This helped Brigade gain visibility and increased their social media followers.
These awards are further proof of Social Beat’s commitment to pushing the boundaries and delivering only the best in digital marketing for our clients.
You can also read our Complete Guide to Digital Marketing for Real Estate for more insights.