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At the Pitch CMO summit, Mihir Karkare, EVP, Mirum India shared insights from the Mirum India Martech report 2023 on the state of MarTech in India today

by exchange4media Staff Published - Mar 27, 2023 2:51 PM | 4 min read

In todays world where technology is an integral part of our everyday lives, marketing has become as much about technology as it is about creativity.At the Pitch CMO Summit Mumbai held on March 24,Mirum India EVP Mihir Karkare spoke about the learnings from the Mirum India Martech Report 2023. Mirum, a part of WPP, is a full service digital and MarTech agency.

The report, which was released during the summit, is based on insights garnered from more than 200 marketing decision-makers and marketing leaders spread across multiple industries in the country, including BFSI, e-commerce, FMCG, retail, hospitality, real estate, automobile, healthcare and consumer durables, to name a few.During his session titledRise of the MarTech explorers & insights from the state of MarTech in India. Karkare also shared a glimpse of the methodology and extensive work that went into putting together the third edition of the report.

Globally, the percentage of spends that marketers make on MarTech is over 25%, but in India, less than 15% is spent on MarTech, as per the reports findings. This even though there has been a significant buzz around the topic in the last few years, which means there is a significant headroom for growth in MarTech in India, said Karkare.

Significantly, 88% of respondents have shared that they plan to increase their spends on MarTech in the coming years. Some of these companies have moderately used MarTech tools, but will substantially increase their spending & somewhat in the next three years. Some others are extensive users of MarTech tools currently and will increase their spending substantially in the next three years, according to the report.

Another aspect that stood out, said Karkare, was that most of these companies were looking at hardcore business results as objectives from their MarTech spends, which can drive leads and sales.

So while lead generation, customer engagement, and brand buildingwere counted as the top four objectives to be achieved using MarTech last year as well as this year, this was the first time that driving sales made it as one of the top four business goals achieved using MarTech, said Karkare.

Karkare also shed light on some of the biggest challenges that marketers faced in adopting or using MarTech tools. The organizations that refrain from using MarTech tools, cite that the biggest hindrance is being unable to measure ROI. The other challenge that companies encountered are the complexity in setting up or implementation of the MarTech tools. Companies also found the process of choosing Martech tools as too complex.

Some of the hindrances that respondents have shared include not having the required skill sets to use MarTech, their audience not being digital-first, and their partners not having the required skill sets to use MarTech. Another stumbling block that marketers faced was being unable to convince the decision makers.

There is also a marked difference in the approaches of CEOs and CMOs in an organisation when it comes to the adoption of MarTech tools, and how an organisation perceive and use customer data. CEOs tended to be more critical of their organisations data maturity and capability, as compared to CMOs. This critical approach taken by CEOs on customer data unification will ensure a significant top-down push for adoption of marketing technologies like CDP in the immediate future, said Karkare. The duo also differed on their viewpoints on the preferred MarTech team skill sets: where CEOs tended to follow a more holistic and broad-based approach when it came to their MarTechs team skill sets, CMOs tended to prefer some specific skills far more than others. 71% of CMOs cited data and analytics as their most preferred skill in the team, and this is reflected in their approach for executing marketing campaigns.

Significantly, when it came to the preparedness of an organisation for new and emerging technologies like Web 3.0, metaverse, blockchain and so on, a vast majority of respondents claimed that their organisation was unaware about the implications of these technologies. Another set of respondents shared that the awareness about them was sparse and that there was no systemic way to address these changes, according to Karkare.

With the advent of Web3.0, and the movement towards a cookie-less world, rethinking marketing strategy is on the cards for most organizations. However, not everybody seems to be prepared for this change, noted Karkare.

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There is a significant headroom for growth in MarTech in India: Mihir Karkare - Exchange4Media

The Innovation Lab will work with brands and agencies to create innovative solutions in print

by NATIVE CONTENT Published - Mar 28, 2023 1:48 PM | 2 min read

Times of India is known for its pioneering spirit and has been the torchbearer for print innovations in the country. From a French window to a talking or 3D newspaper to unique use of content, the innovation team at TOI has always managed to create exciting options for brands to create impact and get talked about.

All this happens in what is now branded as Times Innovation Lab, a collaborative space where diverse minds come together to create the next big innovation idea.

The Innovation Lab will work with brands and agencies to create innovative solutions in print, designed to meet specific brand objectives and enhance the effectiveness of a campaign.

"We are thrilled to formally launch Times Innovation Lab and continue our commitment to driving innovation in the print industry," said Malcolm Raphael, Senior Vice President, Times Response. "As one of India's leading media companies, we understand the importance of staying ahead of the curve and providing our clients with ideas that not just use the latest printing technologies, but also integrate available technologies to enhance a consumers engagement with an ad and bring alive a brands promise in the best way possible.

Lets have a look at some recent innovations in The Times Group publications:

Rocket Boys 2 Archival Jacket: Recreating history with this iconic innovation, Sony Liv launched the second season of the hit series Rocket Boys using a jacket ad that replicated the front page from The Times of India marking an important milestone in Indias journey of progress. This was the second time that the OTT platform used this innovation, following the launch of the first season of the show.

OnePlus 3D Vantage: OnePlus decided to make the unboxing experience for its new OnePlus 11 truly out-of-the-box with a unique Front Vantage innovation with 3D effect that immediately grabbed reader attention and made for a more immersive introduction to the latest phone as they turned the page and revealed the contents of the sleek red box.

Hyundai Augmented Reality Innovation: A futuristic innovation for a futuristic brand, Hyundais ad came alive upon scanning the QR code, allowing the readers to view and interact with Spot, the cutting-edge robot right on top of their newspaper.

If you have a brand brief requiring customised solutions or if you are a technology/gadget provider looking to collaborate with us, then please write to timesresponse@timesgroup.com.

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CORAL SPRINGS, FL / ACCESSWIRE / March 25, 2023 / Tommy Smith, president of All Year Cooling and Heating, was featured in IdeaMensch Magazine. IdeaMensch is an interview platform for entrepreneurs, makers, and doers. Its purpose is to inspire action through the curation of daily interviews and content. It has conducted over 6,000 interviews with entrepreneurs, visionaries, and nonprofit leaders. Tommy Smith is a notable entrepreneur and business owner who is known for his insights on leadership, business ownership, and the HVAC industry. In the interview, Mr. Smith offered his thoughts on a wide range of topics on entrepreneurism, the HVAC industry, and how to lead a successful business.

In his interview, Tommy Smith covered a wide range of topics, including where the idea from All Year Cooling and Heating came from, what his typical day looks like and how he makes it productive, and how he brings ideas to life. In response to a question about what trend excites him, Mr. Smith replied, "From a product standpoint, I am seeing more people take an interest in energy-efficient products. Everyone wants to save money on their utility bills, especially in Weston, Florida, or any part of South Florida, where it can be pretty brutal for half of the year. I am most excited about the smaller, more energy efficient cooling options that we offer, such as our compact size wall unit or even a blower style that is small enough to install in your closet!"

Tommy Smith commented on a habit of his that makes him more productive as an entrepreneur: "I constantly try to improve my craft. I think the ability to be the best at something is very important and constantly learning how you can do that better will always help you as an entrepreneur. Learning about lean startup, SCRUM master, or any other management system has helped me improve as a manager of people and processes."

Mr. Smith went on to discuss what advice he would give his younger self, something that is true that no one else would agree with him on, and something he recommends that everyone does as an entrepreneur. He also explained a strategy that has helped to grow his business: "We have tried a variety of successful marketing ideas including print advertising, event sponsorships, internet marketing efforts on Google Adwords, Facebook ads, etc For us though the best return on investment has been our website with its online store front management system. So much work goes into every single sale that comes through our site. Our team works tirelessly to ensure each product meets our clients' needs."

Tommy Smith also opened up about what a failure he had in his early days of entrepreneurship and how he overcame it: "My early years as owner were pretty tough. I had a terrible time hiring the right people and bringing in good customer service. I found that everyone acted like they were doing me a favor by working for my company and taking advantage of every situation to make extra money. That played out through decreased work ethic, lack of attention to detail, and increased theft. After much trial and error we finally came up with processes and systems that would be effective at making sure everyone gave us their best effort as well as ensuring that our customers got the quality services they deserved!"

To learn more about Tommy Smith and All Year Cooling and Heating, please visithttps://allyearcooling.com/

About Tommy Smith, president of All Year Cooling and Heating

All Year Cooling and Heating is owned by Tommy Smith, who currently resides in Weston, Florida. Tommy possesses the professional knowledge and years of experience required to deliver best-in-class service to his customers, having grown up around the business. He has put in the time and effort to ensure that everyone of his employees is well-trained in order to provide the finest possible service to the families of South Florida. During his time at All Year Cooling and Heating, Tommy has transformed the company from a small business with a few employees to a well-known, thriving enterprise. The company installs and services a variety of York, Goodman, Trane, and Ruud air conditioning units, as well as other brands.

All Year Cooling and Heating, based in Coral Springs, and Tommy Smith, based in Weston, Florida ensure that their customers throughout South Florida-from Homestead to St. Lucie County-get prompt and efficient service. They provide free quotations and typically deliver same-day installs since they value their customers' time. All Year Cooling and Heating performs duct cleaning in addition to installing and servicing air conditioning units to ensure that their systems function more efficiently and that their clients' homes have clean air.

Tommy Smith resides in Weston, Florida, with his wife, Erin, and their four children, where they are active in community outreach and charitable activities. Tommy and his company have donated funds to help children attend the JT Reading Room, which helps pupils improve their literacy abilities and increase their school success rates. They often donate to Broward County Schools and Cancer.org, and his family and business are both participating in Project We Care, which gives food, clothing, and other necessities to veterans of the military services. When he's not working or helping, Tommy Smith enjoys spending time with his family, whether it's traveling to new locations or simply establishing new memories at home in Weston, Florida.

Media Contact:Jessica Smith | Market News[emailprotected]phone: 1-415-837-8371

SOURCE: All Year Cooling and Heating

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Udit Agarwal, VP and global head of marketing, Exotel, talks about the companys role in helping manage customer engagement, key trends to look for and more

by Ruchika Jha Published - Mar 28, 2023 1:16 PM | 8 min read

The marketing industry has been witnessing novel trends, especially with the advent of artificial intelligence and now ChatGPT; the industry is priming to adapt to these new changes. With AI taking centre stage, chatbots will become an important tool in the customer engagement space, says Udit Agarwal, VP and global head of marketing, Exotel.

In a conversation with exchange4media, heshares his views on the companys role in helping manage its clients customer engagement, key customer engagement trends to look for and more.

Excerpts:

What are the key customer engagement trends to look out for?

In the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in the last ten years, businesses must create engaging (or connected customer journeys) customer journeys that provide seamless and individualised experiences across all touchpoints if they are to stay one step ahead of their customers.

There are trends that can help in improving customer experience and business outcomes. One such trend is demolishing data silos of customer information.Though relatively new, this helps enterprises to be context-rich so that customer engagement by any department in the organisation is more empathetic and personalised, even as customers scale rapidly. This will help enterprises gain a more complete understanding of their customers, personalise interactions, improve efficiency, enhance data accuracy, improve collaboration and ensure better data security and compliance.

The other trend is omnichannel presence, which requires businesses to have a strong presence in multiple spaces, including physical and virtual. With advancements in telephony, AI-enabled chatbots can supplement voice-only calls in sales and marketing practices. This helps offer seamless customer interactions, and bots will become an essential part of the customer journey going forward.

Exotel believes that chatbots will become an important tool in the customer engagement space. However, we do not consider them to be a replacement for human interaction. Bots will work alongside human agents to improve customer service. The future of customer engagement is in multichannel communication, including SMS, messaging apps, voice and video. The first customer contact will be a bot, and if required, the customer can transition to human agents. This will guarantee seamless cross-channel communication between the client and the business. With the help of these trends, businesses can remain relevant and satisfy changing customer demands.

With fears of an economic recession, how are brands rechanneling their marketing strategy to stay competitive?

As the global economy braces for an impending recession, marketers are looking for ways to rethink their marketing strategies, pivot their efforts, and focus on building lasting customer connections. Given the weaker-than-expected performance in H1 FY 2022-23, Deloitte's recent report on India's economic outlook revised its growth projections for the Indian economy. According to the report, India will grow at a rate of 5.8 per cent 6.3 per cent in fiscal year 2023-24.

Businesses are facing greater pressure to maintain cost- and competitive consciousness as long as the recession threat exists. Despite these challenges, AI is emerging as a key driver of transformation in customer interactions, assisting businesses in retail, healthcare, and hospitality to improve customer experience and build stronger connections with customers. Investing in customer experience improvements can ultimately yield a positive return on investment in a digital market where customers have too many choices.

To differentiate themselves from competitors and provide more value to customers, brands need a unified approach for conducting and tracking customer engagement and gaining valuable insights into customer behaviour and preferences. Investing in enhancing the customer experience can result in a favorable return on investment in the digital marketplace. Exotel's full-stack engagement platform can help organisations build valuable customer relationships, which is the most valuable currency in today's business world.

The larger role that the customer experience is playing in marketing strategy for companies across sectors.

In recent years, the customer experience has become a critical element of marketing strategy for companies across a range of sectors. Customers now have more choices than ever before, and they are increasingly demanding high-quality experiences from the companies they interact with.

One reason for this shift is the rise of digital technologies, which have made it easier for customers to interact with companies in a variety of ways, including through websites, mobile apps and social media platforms. This has created new opportunities for companies to engage with customers and provide personalised experiences.

In today's competitive market, customers are becoming more selective in their purchasing decisions and expect brands to go beyond just delivering quality products or services. To drive growth and remain competitive, companies need to offer exceptional customer experiences that exceed customer expectations.

AI-powered tools such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and voice assistants can automate customer interactions and personalise communication at scale, allowing companies to interact with customers quickly and efficiently while providing a personalised touch. Additionally, AI-powered analytics tools can help companies collect, analyse, and utilise customer data to enhance the customer experience by tailoring their offerings, predicting customer needs, and personalising communication.

Customer engagement is an essential marketing tool. What are the pitfalls that brands should therefore avoid?

When it comes to customer engagement, 'notification fatigue' is a major issue. Customers who are already pressed for time and attention due to information overload are irritated by too many messages, emails, and pop-up notifications. However, the old adage "out of sight, out of mind" also applies here. It is critical to strike the right balance between being visible and not being intrusive.

Additionally, privacy concerns must be taken into consideration, not only in light of data protection laws but also in light of rising customer awareness and demand for open and honest business practices.

To navigate these challenges, professional expertise and guidance on how to use the latest technology and tools are essential. With the right approach, businesses can effectively engage customers while maintaining their privacy and avoiding notification fatigue.

Please share some interesting cases of brands such as Ola, Swiggy and the role that Exotel has played in helping manage their customer engagement.

Exotel is a platform that specialises in customer engagement and offers various tools to help businesses of different sizes achieve their goals. The primary objective behind the creation of Exotel was to ensure that companies don't lose customers due to ineffective communication strategies or unanswered calls/messages. By using Exotel's cloud-telephony solutions, businesses such as Swiggy, Ola and BluSmart have been able to customise their engagement with their customers, improving response times and customer satisfaction.

For instance, Exotel provided Swiggy with automated calls to restaurants, number masking to protect the privacy of customers and restaurants/delivery agents, and verification of Cash on Delivery orders to minimise the risk of fraudulent orders. Exotel also offered Ola a smart IVR solution that enabled the tracking of drivers' awareness about new features and training videos.

With BluSmart, our partnership has been instrumental in supporting the company with reliable 80 per cent - 90 per cent call connectivity rates to its riders and drivers, giving way to a significant increase in customer satisfaction. Our custom cloud-based architecture has also been able to scale BluSmarts customer engagement activities while they were experiencing a period of 25 per cent MoM growth.

Exotel aims to help businesses throughout the entire customer engagement cycle, from lead generation to sales conversion and customer retention. Its tools help companies build high brand equity and interact with their customers effectively. Overall, Exotel offers a valuable platform for businesses seeking to enhance their customer engagement efforts.

ChatGPT is the new buzzword. How do you feel it will benefit the CX solutions? How is Exotel leveraging it?

With ChatGPTs open source model and advanced language processing, it has significant potential to disrupt the customer engagement space, strengthening companies conversational AI products. The opportunities GPT and further iterations present will work towards boosting the self-service capabilities of chatbots, resulting in decreased costs for businesses over time.

However, this does not signify a complete automation of the customer engagement process. As part of the customer journey, we envision chatbots being the first point of contact between a customer and a brand, addressing common queries and raising more complex matters with human agents. The goal of these advanced improvements in AI is meant to enhance human agents workflow rather than replace them altogether. The self-service functions can be explored across a variety of use cases like ordering food from a restaurant via WhatsApp, monitoring customer sentiment, translating customer queries into the appropriate language, and giving more tailored responses to customers.

How do you envision Exotel's marketing strategies in the coming years?

Within the coming years, we are looking to further expand our full-stack suite of offerings into markets within Southeast Asia and the Middle East. So far, the full-stack platform has been rolled out in Indonesia and the UAE, and we are currently increasing local operations within those countries.

Regarding our customer base, it has been a trend that internet-first tech startups are more recipient towards incorporating cloud-based software solutions into their practices, as they tend to be early adopters of emerging technologies. However, we have noticed that more traditional sectors in emerging markets like banking, real estate and manufacturing are increasingly migrating their operations to the cloud. Our approach will be to draw more focus towards reaching out to these segments, acting as reliable partners in their journeys towards digital transformation.

The content in this section is curated by the PR and Communications team. For any feedback kindly write to karan.bhatia@exchange4media.com.

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The summit will be held on Friday, 24th March, 2023, in Mumbai

by exchange4media Staff Published - Mar 22, 2023 8:38 AM | 3 min read

exchange4media Group is back with the on-ground Mumbai edition of its flagship property - Pitch CMO Summit after three years. The upcoming edition of the conference will be held on Friday, 24th of March, 2023, from 10am onwards. Fancode WebEngage and ABP News are the Co-Powered by Partners for the summit while the Co-Gold Partners are DoubleVerify, Pepper Content and Torc ai.

Pitch CMO Summit Mumbai 2023 brings India's most reputed brands and top management to interact and share insights on their game-changing success stories under one roof.

The theme of this edition of the conference is The Agile Marketer.

Apart from the keynote sessions and two panel discussions, many spotlight sessions are also part of the summit agenda.

In todays world led by the likes of ChatGPT and Google Bard, brands that are shying away from using AI for advertising are at a continuous competitive disadvantage. Most advertisers are already using AI to identify and segment audiences, build ad creatives, test ads, improve ad performance, and optimize spend all automatically, in real-time, at scale. To take us through the enormous opportunities that can emerge by marrying Human creativity and AI, Pawan Rochwani, Head of Brand & Partnerships, Pepper Content will speak about Content ROI With & Beyond Generative AI.

AI has revolutionized the advertising industry by enabling marketers to deliver personalized, targeted, and relevant ads to consumers. AI-powered advertising solutions use machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data on consumer behaviour, preferences, and demographics to predict and target ads to the right audience at the right time and place. To share some case studies of Many Industry Firsts With VI Ads, ROHIT VERMA, Chief Executive Officer, TorcAI will speak at the summit.

Conversational commerce is transforming the way consumers interact with businesses, allowing them to shop, order, and pay for products and services through messaging and chatbot technologies. No more clunky websites, no more frustrating phone calls - just natural language conversations with brands they love. Sharing more on End of Broadcasting, Beginning of Conversations will be Tamanna Dhamija, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Convosight.

Gone are the days of Mad Men-style marketing, where creative ideas were enough to win over customers. Today, marketing is as much about technology as it is about creativity. The rise of MarTech (Marketing Technology) has given birth to a new generation of marketers who are just as comfortable with code as they are with the copy. To share more insights on Rise of the MarTech EXPLORERS & Insights From the State of MarTech In India joining the summit will be Mihir Karkare, EVP, Mirum India.

The conference will be followed by the award felicitation ceremony of The Pitch Best CMO Awards 2023.

For more details, please check out the microsite:

https://e4mevents.com/pitch-cmo-summit-2023/

To attend the summit and awards, get in touch with

Chandrakant@exchange4media.com or kapil.ramudamu@exchange4media.com

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