The Advertising Club Bangalore recently held its inaugural edition of the ‘Knowledge Conclave – Driving Growth Through the New Era of Measurement’. C-Suite SME speakers from different spaces of the data-tech world spoke and interacted on some of today’s most important topics.
The day closed with a panel discussion on ‘Scaling up at pace in the new era of measurement’.
Suparna Mitra, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Watches Division, Titan Company Limited brought in critical business perspective. Gowthaman Ragothaman, CEO Aqilliz Singapore and Raghavendra Kumar Ravinutala, Co-Founder & CEO Yellow Messenger brought in the data-tech expert view. Sanchayeeta Verma, Senior Vice President Wavemaker moderated the panel.
Discussion focused on the opportunities and challenges in putting into emphatic practice the data-tech of the new era and how to scale at pace.
Context as laid down by Mitra is that technology has impacted business pillars. For TCL product has changed with smart watches/ fitness bands. Digital in marketing communication, and online search interplaying in purchase journey along with ecommerce, makes data-tech critical in many parts of retail value chain. Challenge is of fragmented micro-solutions & estimating business impact. Ecosystem allows fixing only part of a business challenge rather than whole.
This is one of the core issues facing the industry said Ragothaman. Platforms in their race to gain and retain users within their walled gardens, have given rise to many Channel KPIs. Industry needs to move to Consumer KPIs, and define value in ecosystem from consumer standpoint – what Aqilliz calls Authentic Value Discovery. Interoperability is needed between data-tech partners. Indian startup ecosystem and backing of brands and corporates enables this said Ravinutala, as he has seen from his Yellow Messenger experience. This will help create comprehensive joint up solutions.
Finally to scale up at pace, identify where intervention is needed and which data-tech solution can solve it. Blockchain helps resolve trust and transparency between multiple stakeholders in value chain when there is loss of translation in value exchanged, either intentional or incidental. Conversational AI is needed at junctures where lot of interaction, both digital and omni-channel, is happening with stakeholders (E.g. consumers, dealers) ineffectively, and better ROI can be driven by solving the same. Critical to implement & scale a technology, is to start with a hypothesis to test, and measure the results.
Ultimately brands need to build human connections & build deep memory structures in consumers mind, what is the bridge between the tech world and the brand world, said Verma. Panel threw many ways in which technology aid this. Technology used well, makes life better both for consumers and businesses. Technology can enable multiple simultaneous actions across different channels – at a cumulative level this will enable building deep memory structures. It can help can build more experiences for consumers.
In the field of measurement, we are still scratching the tip of the iceberg. As an industry, we need better ways to use technology to measure a lot better, keep up the exploratory spirit and challenge current status quo. A lot of things we do will not work, but a few will. And once we find some pattern that’s working, a lot of focus should go on replicating that pattern across as many customers in as many things we do. This along with measurement will be the most significant in scaling.
Sanchayeeta Verma, Chairperson Knowledge Conclave 2019 said, “In our era of connected platforms, big data signals are being generated and data-driven tech are enabling businesses to harness them. The conclave helped understand how to do this and join the dots between the tech world and the world our brands play in”.
“Knowledge Conclave will now be part of our annual program. Watch out for the 2020 edition“ said Advertising Club Bangalore Executive Director, Arvind Kumar.
