 Welcome to this special panel discussion that we have today. We have an eclectic mix of speakers. The topic for today is making search work for your brand from awareness to conversion. Just to put a little context before we proceed, as we know with a spike in digital consumption, search has become a critical channel for advertisers as millions of customers, customer decisions are made, you know, the journey begins with this concept called search. There is consensus among brand experts that search advertising can help capture premium yet unexplored customer geographies and profiles. However, to do so, there is a rule book at play at work and to decode that rule book, we will have our experts joining us. Before I introduce them, I want to thank our partners, Microsoft and inMobi for partnering in curating this engaging webinar. As we know, Microsoft advertising provides intelligent solutions that empowers to deliver engaging personalized experiences that value people and inMobi drives real connections between brands and consumers by leveraging this technology platforms. Before we go further, I want to introduce our first speaker, Mr. Amit Tiwari, VP Marketing Havoc. Mr. Tiwari brings a solid experience of almost two decades in the field of marketing. He is currently entrusted with the responsibility to establish a strong brand identity and presence in the market via strategic end-to-end marketing solutions. Welcome Mr. Tiwari. We also have Ms. Rubina Singh, CEO, Eye Prospect. She has over almost two decades of experience and has an enviable track record across digital print and broadcasting. Under her leadership, Eye Prospect India has grown rapidly and now serves 100 plus clients and empowers over 200 plus people. Welcome Ms. Singh. We also have Ms. Bhavna Mittal who is VP Head Media and Digital RPSG Group. She started her professional journey with Saachi and Saachi launching Hyundai, Santru and Accent in India. From advertising, she moved over to media auditing, helping Accenture set up and established the offering in India in 2007 before pouring into the brand site. Welcome Ms. Mittal. We also have Mr. Devesh Sani, Head of Performance Marketing. He is a graduate from IIM Bangalore with over 10 years of experience in strategy, turn key projects and setting up a digital marketing team. Welcome Mr. Sani. We are also joined by Mr. Jahid Ahmed, VP and Head Digital Marketing HGFC Bank. Mr. Ahmed is an astute digital marketing professional with over 14 years of experience in VFSI sector. He has been instrumental in institutionalizing data-driven digital campaigns and transformation set up across various VFSI organizations. And the session chair for today is Mr. Rohit Doshi, Director of Microsoft Advertising in Mobi. Mr. Doshi is the Director of Microsoft Advertising Business at Mobi. He is responsible for P&L management, revenue growth, strategic partnerships for Microsoft advertising businesses across India. Welcome all of you. We will have a question and answer round which Mr. Doshi will be guiding you on that and posing those questions towards the end. And over to you Mr. Doshi. All the best. Thank you for the introduction and a very warm welcome to all the panelists for today's webinar. The topic of today's webinar is how to make search work for your brand. But I think before we get into the panel discussion, I just wanted to take this opportunity to talk a bit about the user behavior and insights of premium audience in India that we have specifically seen on Microsoft search in the past few months. Talking about the SEM market in India, the digital media spends, I think if you look at the share of spends, they are skewed across various formats, right? I think that includes search, social display, video and a few others as well. But search specifically continues to dominate a major share of digital advertising spends in general. Just if I kind of, you know, look at the year over year growth at an overall level, search ad spends have seen 17 to 20% growth at an overall level. Although spending on different formats, it varies for different verticals, but I think search sees a fair share of advertising budget for most of the verticals. Verticals such as e-commerce, BFSI and consumer durables, they still spend the highest share of their marketing budget on search itself. And I think with lockdown and slow down in overall marketing spends this year due to the pandemic, a lot of formats have gotten affected in terms of overall spends from brands. But search is one of those formats that continue to be an area of investment for brands in different verticals till now. Getting into some insights of what's trending among Indian premium users that we've seen on Microsoft search itself. There are some key trends which we have seen for premium audiences on Microsoft search. I think in terms of what users have been searching specifically. There are certainly a few categories which are quite a boost in the number of users looking out for specific products, brands, services, etc. in some specific categories. And I would kind of, you know, want to talk a bit about the key trends in the changing behavior of Indians in these categories. Few of these categories are hyper-local services, online learning and education, e-commerce, remote working, etc. which have seen a huge uplift. Even I think with some of the niche categories like health and wellness, home and garden, right? These categories have also seen a huge spike in the user queries. I think users are now searching now more than ever, right? And there are a large number of users looking out for brands and products in these categories. Moving on, just deep diving a bit into each of these categories. For hyper-local and e-commerce, right? There has been a huge spike in the number of users looking out for hyper-local services. Search queries with the presence of specifically near me, right? In them, as the users are looking for several things around them. I'm sure each one of you have kind of, you know, all searched about things with, you know, queries or phrases like near me when you search online, right? And I think with the lockdown first and the pandemic continuing, users are searching for grocery shops, wet hospitals, doctors, stationary shops, hardware shops, etc. around them. And just in terms of, you know, delivery related queries, if we see, right? We've seen almost these queries spike up by more than 200% in the last few months. Home delivery of medicines, right? Like food delivery, home delivery of medicines have seen more than 500% increase in just user queries post lockdown with everyone staying at home. And I think with the comfort, with everyone kind of, you know, staying within their comfort, right? This trend is expected to continue in the months to come. E-commerce is a category has witnessed a huge growth in users searching overall for apparels, electronics, appliances, the likes of online grocery buying, right? With the presence of players like BigBasket, Swiggy, Dunzo have seen a massive surge. Larger e-commerce players are also seeing like a positive trend in terms of just online user shopping behavior in general. E-learning, right? E-learning has kind of totally hit it off, right? Online learning has seen a huge rise in user searches. And I think as a category, I think with learning and education centers, which is schools, colleges, etc. being closed, a huge number of audiences is getting used to the e-learning methods. And I think this continues to be one of the most sought out categories by the users. And when I say online learning, it is not only people enrolling for online courses, right? But users also looking to learn new things. It could be, you know, how to do stuff, right? How to bake, how to cook, finding new recipes, etc., right? So I think these type of queries have seen a huge jump. Online courses type of queries have witnessed more than 500% increase. I think with everyone looking to learn online and enrolls for online courses as they stay home and they look to upscale and pick up more things when they stay at home. Talking about categories specifically like, you know, home improvement, I think a lot more people are now willing to invest in their homes, right? As the amount of time that everyone is investing or is present at their home has significantly gone up. And a lot of folks are now picking up new hobbies and interest levels as well like gardening, fitness, healthy eating habits, etc. So they are also exploring all of that on search. That is, those are some of the trends that we have been seeing at least in this category. We have seen a huge increase in user queries. User queries such as appliances like dishwasher, refrigerators, etc. This is primarily, again, because of absence of I think household help during lockdown. Particularly this is more proof for Indian ecosystem. But I think people are looking for, you know, kind of appliances like dishwasher and refrigerators. People are optimizing for space at home. And I think space saving furniture is another category which has actually seen a huge growth in search volume with people searching for things like Murphy beds, sofa beds, etc. So this is another category and an interesting one which has started to come up in the past few months. Moving on, I think with most of the offices closed now, remote working has kind of become the new normal, right? And all of us have adjusted to working from home. As a result of this, categories like work from home equipment, which is, you know, people are looking out there for laptops, printers, scanners, and other accessories, right? Even video conferencing software, VPN related queries have seen a huge uplift in this category. Remotely associated categories with, you know, working from home even, right? Like work from home office furniture, study tables, chairs, laptop tables, etc. have seen a huge rise. And I think with, you know, prolonged remote working situation, users have been researching a lot more and more about investing in setting up workstations or workplaces at their homes itself. Moving on, health and finance again, you know, have been critical now more than ever. Online doctor consultation and immunity related queries have seen a mega spike in the last quarter. People have started to now invest a lot more in financial safety. They've started to invest a lot more in health during this pandemic. And they've also started to prepare for similar future events. So I think health and finances is another category where we have seen a huge uplift. A lot more users are now looking to invest online and they have been searching for investment options online. So queries such as mutual funds, health insurances and other investment plans have also seen a huge uplift. I think online transactions in general have went up, right? With a lot more people shopping online, the payments are also happening online. So I think payments is another category which has kind of, you know, seen a huge uplift. And I think with the adoption of online payments, I think it is only going to continue to see that trend in the quarters to come. So what does this actually mean for brands, right? Across verticals. I think users are searching now more than ever and users are spending a lot more time online. I think brands are also being a lot more innovative and brands for different verticals are finding new and innovative ways of interacting with their users. Brands are definitely looking to leverage this increased online activity, increased search activity, right? And a lot of them are just not using search for performance, right? But they're also using search advertising for driving awareness and consideration. And I think search is continuing to be a very effective medium to drive consideration and awareness as well. So I think with that thought in mind, I think there is a huge opportunity for brands to capture their users online. The interesting part would be as to how can brands rise to the challenge, right? And with that thought in mind, I would like to open this panel discussion on the topic, how to make search work for your brand. Okay. So once again, a very warm welcome to all of you to this webinar. First of all, I think I'm super excited to be hosting this panel discussion and I'm looking forward to the webinar. I think the past few months have been very challenging and I would say unique for everyone, right? I'm sure each one of us has gone through probably something like this for the first time ever and with everyone being stuck in homes itself. A lot of us have also picked up new hobbies, right? Activities, we've got to spend like a lot more time with our families. In terms of behavior and traits as well, a lot has changed in the past few months in terms of things that we have been looking out for around us. Even what we have been searching online, right? So with that thought in mind, let me start by asking everyone this, what have you been searching for online lately? Yeah. So I kind of wanted to open up the session with a question to understand what have you been searching for online? So Rubina, you want to go first? Sure. Thanks for having me here. First of all, I'm really pleased to be part of the panel at the cost of sounding a bit like a spoiled brat. But the fact is that I've never cooked in my life. So thanks to the lockdown, I've had to learn how to cook. I have pleasantly surprised myself, I would say, and my family also believes that I've turned out to be a decent cook. So obviously for me, the journey began by searching easy recipes. To now it has graduated to being a bit more experimental, trying new things. And I've been looking up, so I've been looking up everything on the cooking space, you know, right on YouTube, checking on assistants, when I'm cooking to be the ingredients or even looking at Instagram for inspiration and follow hashtags to see what I can cook for my family for dinner and what's the new meal I can cook. So that's been on my mind. Jai, do you want to go next? Hi. So yeah, thanks. See, I think I am literally searching and literally something that's intriguing me to the core. That is Rasoime Koltam. That's that's what I've been searching for. And then when and I'm hoping I'll get the answer soon. And the other one I'm really searching for is how to get out of the border. Okay, no pun intended. Okay, and that's I'm talking about the Netflix series. Don't take me out of this. Sure. Thanks. I think I've been actually searching how to keep my kids quite engaging online. I think that's that's a bigger starts to look for because every two hours they have something or the other as a query. So this is this is done what next for me. And that that becomes a bigger challenge for us. And if I see from the entire spectrum, it's a it's a big challenge because if they're actually trying to invest from six hours, they're energy and how do you can actually devote their entire time on online. And that's the biggest search that I think one thing which I've actually been curiously doing it very religiously is to find out the date when we can actually have a vaccine for Corona. That is the two things that I've been searching for quite some time. Yeah, I think that is something that we all have been searching for. So, yeah, I think, you know, still awaiting good news on that. You want to share what you have been searching for online lately. Thanks, Rohit. I guess for me, search is something which is just a thought away. So, you know, when you pose that question, I was actually thinking of what I've been searching. So it's been started from maybe the banana bread series, which everybody was trying to do and which I never got to cooking. So, Rubina, you're not the only one I can assure you and I still haven't learned cooking. So to maybe, you know, something on YouTube on some DIYs and how to try out some natural things for your hair or your face or how to fix something at home. So it's literally actually, you know, just it's been across platforms. It's on Google Maps. You want to just check how the driving distance to maybe Delhi is decreased from Gurgaon. So it's like, actually, you know, you realize that you pick your phone up so many times. You end up searching for something or the other every time you're actually on the device. Yeah, I think the driving distance one has happened with me a lot. I think with Bangalore, I mean, there is no more traffic on the roads, right? So I'm kind of sometimes surprised that, you know, is the time being shown to my office or any of the things that you usually visit with the right one or not. So I think sometimes it keeps me amazed and wonder as to, you know, what, how things can change so drastically. Gaveesh, you want to share what you have been searching for online? Sure, yeah. So I have a one and a half year old. She gets bored with everything, as Amit said, right? So I've been searching various books, toys that can engage her. And she has an interest panel of exactly three minutes. So for you, it's to us for me, it's three minutes. So I think it's challenging there. Second thing I've been searching a lot is how to ease my burden on Bhartan, Jharu and Pocha. So I'm finding all the equipment that make your life easier on that because now that responsibility has come on us. So that's the two things that I'm searching. Okay. Okay. Thank you. But Rohit, just so that Rubina and Babla doesn't, doesn't feel left out over there. I've been searching for Dalgona coffee and I can like kind of make it with a plomb nowadays here. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that, Jai. Yeah. Okay. So I think thank you for everyone. Everyone's sharing, you know, what you have been searching for online, online lately, I think I couldn't relate. I could not relate more to kind of, you know, what everyone has been searching because I think some of these things I've been searching for myself. Right. So thanks for sharing. I think that that brings me to my next question. What have, what has been the search behavior? If I were to kind of, you know, talk about search behavior specifically in your verticals or spaces, right? And more specifically for your brands. If you could, if you could share specific insights, you know, on user behavior that you have been seeing in your vertical. I think that is something we would love to know. Bhavna, you want to go first? Sure. So we have quite a few verticals within our business and I think one of the biggest thing which we've seen, especially in the snacking space is the whole online snacking. So people because they're now all home and are doing all the Netflix and chill and the binge watching are looking for snacks and the availability online. So that's gone up pretty high. And then in terms of Saragama, we've seen a lot of increase in the whole music space. So people are listening to a lot of online music and especially as Divesh mentioned about the Charu Pocha Bhatt and so specific playlists were made for actually using the jobs for you. So that's on the music space. One business which has we've seen a huge growth in the search volumes. And again, all of you would identify as the immunity. So for our online, I read the business doctor where there's we've seen a lot of search volume and traction on immunity as well. So how to build your immunity natural ways I read the quiz. It's like, there's millions of search words, which are existing on car has formulations and stuff like that. So I guess that's the those have been the trends during the lockdown. And we see these kind of continuing even post the unlock has happened. Thanks for sharing. Amit, do you want to share, you know, in terms of what what you have been seeing in your space specifically and for your brand. Sure. So right if you see our particular space basically which is consumer electronics and consumer durable as a space we have on an average of 32 verticals that we actually work. And there's some significant aspect which we actually saw, which was related to the categories and some some significant aspect we saw as an overall brand. If I talk about overall brand in last three months, if I take the data, every one of the two consumers really are almost 50% of the people really search. What is the offering as a brand that you're actually trying to do to fight corona and what are the any products that you're actually trying to build, which is anti virus or something like that, which is which has been a huge, huge search across any category to talk about, let's say, even a very, very non involving category, let's say a wire. Still people are searching that do you really have something which can actually protect home from different it has nothing to do with because it doesn't come in contact. For example, led bugs, people are searching that any anybody can actually have an impact where you can actually lose the impact of virus to look. So if you see coming to the consumer durable part of the entire story, everybody is actually trying to do two types of searches primarily one is in the aspect of how to do and how to run and how to do any technical glitches that comes to your product. So for example, what a prefer is one category where people really want to start learning how can you actually change the candle, how can the taste of the water is changed and how you can actually improve on that. Second thing which is also done is maximum searches across the consumer category which has happened is dishwasher across the categories around close to around 95% of the searches have been born only on dishwasher, how to use a dishwasher, what are the technical glitches, how to do it on yourself, how you can improve those glitches. If I actually talk about a more pure data on an average consumer durable as a category on a scale of 100 we get around 50 52% searches across the category. This time surprisingly that search percentage has gone to 98%. And which is a huge term in terms of the change that we actually see. So these are the ways from my side. Yeah, I think those are some fantastic insights. I mean, I think there is something that I've been searching for, for, you know, myself lately a lot so I think I can totally relate to that. And passing this question on to Rubina, I think, you know, while we kind of, you know, would be great if you could share you know insights across different verticals that you kind of see and work with. Sure. So, you know, a common theme that you know we're really seeing is that overall consumers still face continued, but less uncertainty I can see that. And you know, we've seen it across our clients and across industries that we work with, that you know, is it safe searches are declining in volume, but increasing in uniqueness. So what I mean to say is that in the beginning of the crisis, you know, everybody had the same focus around safety so people are asking is it safe to fly is it safe to travel is it safe to order food. I think as time has progressed, our worries about safety have become less singular and more personalized. So for instance today, somebody wants to know is it safe to go out by somebody else wants to know is it safe to swim is it safe to play is it safe to walk is it safe to reach out is it safe to drink is it safe to, you know, go for the staycation is it safe to use this is it safe to get this into your home so you know, they've really gone very personalized their queries. And having seen the challenges as well as the rewards of a different word, consumers are making everyday decisions how they want to live and what is important for them, and they are optimizing their new normal. So that is the common theme that, you know, we're seeing apart from it, I'm not going to take time getting into the industrialized trends that we've seen because we've covered it very much in detail. And the other thing interesting that we're observing is that be simply the best in the digital world, you know, because what is happening is that there is abundance of choice which is arising from the internet from a consumer, and consumers at the same point in time in that currently are very mindful of their consumption and they're not spending as they were six months ago, right. So what it really means is that consumers are increasingly looking for the best product that they can get. And this is a significant change in the Indian context where, you know, earlier all the searches were on most of the searches were around cheap. And now they have moved into the area of best. So those are the two broad things that you're noticing apart from, you know, industrialized trends, which you've covered. Thanks. Jai, do you want to share, you know, some of the user insights that you've been seeing specifically, you know, for the BFSR vertical or particularly for your brand. Yeah, so, so see, I think we were slightly lucky. See, people who are going through health concerns, but I think we also realize that people are going through the concerns of uncertainty and more to do with financial uncertainty. So what was happening is we saw bank, obviously bank as a brand keyword did take a dip, but we were still lucky because let's say we had an overall deeper on 24% as compared to an aggregators or the, you know, the NBFCs of the world where they took a deeper on 27 to 30%. That was the kind of, and because people want to be more secure in their space. And if you also remember P COVID, there was a lot of, a lot of news with banking as an industry. Also, after the finance minister kind of announced, we saw a huge spike in SME loan searches. So that was some, we kind of really established that we had to really kind of get our, get a platform straight from SME loans point of view. From call to actions, we saw there were two specific call to actions called instant and apply. Previously, lot of eligibility, EMI calculators, they were on this on the spot. But now we have realized people are now going for more instant and more, which is kind of end to end straight through process. That is the kind of thing that people are looking for. So and we have adapted and not only we I think everybody in the BFS industry now I've adapted to the end to end straight through process. And last but not the least, I think we have seen a very good trend in terms of search from the auto, because we banking industry is obviously we are the means to fulfill your dreams. We don't have an end product. So what we are seeing is all of a sudden auto has taken a sharp U turn and within auto used cards have taken a sharp U turn. And that to government employees and tire one and tire two cities. So very interesting, you know, search trends that's coming out. So and how it's helping us obviously is vernacular targeting the government organizations is really helping us in getting more and more traffic instead of just doing a spread out campaign for auto loans. Thanks. Thanks for sharing. David, you want to share something on what's going on? What are the user insights and behavior that you're seeing specifically for retail and e-commerce verticals? So as you said, right, e-commerce definitely has grown. We benefited by that, but there are certain subcategories which have grown way better than the others. Right. For example, leisure wear or lounge wear or comfort wear has definitely taken a growth over, let's say a footwear or a party wear. And that's obvious because people are spending more time at home. Similarly, in the whole consumer durable electronics category, things which are home oriented, for example, home wear conditioners, televisions, appliances and smartphones and laptops. So people, things people will use at home either for educating themselves, educating their kids or living comfortably. That's the kind of searches internally as well as externally that we are seeing through. Right. And users are now actually viewing much more products than they were doing before. So for example, if people were viewing two to three products when they came on the site, now they're viewing four to five, which means they're surfing more. They're exploring the site more. They're exploring products more. They're exploring the categories more and ultimately taking their time to decide something, but definitely buying something more than what they were before. Thanks, David, for sharing, you know, insights on what is going on in your vertical. Specifically, a question for you. If I were to kind of, you know, talk about digital spend, right? I think on one side there is social and then the other side there is search, right? What according to you is the difference between social and search, right? And what should brands know? Sorry. So while the bell will go off in like 15 seconds, but the social for me is basically a behavior of the customer acquiring, right? It's an acquisition by behavior. It's influenced by what piece of person sees, but search is more intent driven. Intent driven in the sense that people will definitely search for appliances before they buy that. So something which comes in the awareness and consideration way before someone makes a transaction overall, right? And therefore search plays an important role for me while we're exploring heavy intensive categories like air conditioners and televisions that I mentioned. But if it's fashion, if it's loungewear, social plays a much more important role because it's a spur of the moment decision. So for me, category wise, both we are very key role. Yeah, I think thanks for sharing that. And I think I can totally relate to how search and social fit in. And I think while a lot of marketers think of search as a performance marketing channel, but I think I personally think that search does play a pivotal role, not just in driving performance, but I think for driving brand awareness, creating influence and driving consideration as well, right? So my next question for everyone is, you know, what's your take on using search for branding specifically? Because I think there are a lot of users searching for their brand and things related directly to your brand. So let's say there might be people who might be searching for soup recipes, right? And ideally, you know, kind of, you know, approaching them with a soup ad itself, right, would kind of, you know, make sense. So any thoughts on that specifically? Bhavna, you want to go first? Sure. So I think search as much as it is a performance marketers tool is also a brand marketers tool. And there are ways to actually leverage search for brand building and awareness. So it's not only like the bottom of the funnel that you go and pick up and buy something, but it also builds the whole brand imagery as well. And there are few brands who have used it pretty well. So actually, as like taking a bit of a cue from what they wish was saying, you know, how the intent related searches happen, where it could be specifically by now or near me or those kind of things to something which could be fairly exploratory. So like, you know, if suppose I'll take an example from my previous company where we were handling the toll. So if somebody is looking for soaps, or if somebody is looking for hand cleaning solutions or just cleaning solutions, you had to have a very, very different message. Versus if they were actually coming to your digital soap and wanting to know what the toilets especially has versus if they were doing something which was totally like category cues. So things like disinfectants or how to kill germs or something. So it's very important that brands take a notice of these things and actually leverage their search advertising so that each of the consumer query there is answered to what is best for the brand there. And of course, there are places where people have taken search to another level by completely taking over the competitive keywords and try, you know, especially in the auto industry. We've heard of a lot of examples where people have actually gone ahead and do and done that. So I guess that's the way you can actually use search for building your brands as well. Rubina, you want to share any thoughts of or any specific cases where, you know, brands have really, you know, leveraged search for branding, you know, in a really great way or any any specific insights on how what you thoughts on, you know, how should ideally brands look out on search for branding. I think broadly, it is what you said, you know, I think we all know that search is a vital channel for driving conversions and we also understand that, you know, search is advertising at the end of it, right. It's an opportunity for a brand message to impact a target audience and influence the market perception. But the fact of the matter is that, you know, the effectiveness of search advertising doesn't always translate into a prominent place in a brand's media plan. And this really stems from the fact that most brands still look at the last click attribution. And it is because of this, the search for search for branding seems more expensive, right. By other display media, you know, are more typical for brand marketers, such advertising presents a, you know, such advertising also presents another facet to it. But unlike those channels, the way to look at it is I would say the way to look at it is that search can impact brand awareness in moments that matter to consumers. You know, then they are shopping and gathering product information. In other words, a brand can get access to interested audiences at the moment, the consumers are interested. And savvy marketers have taken advantage of search advertising as a way to showcase their brands prominently and distinctly, distinctly, you know, among category interested, if I can call undecided consumers, right. We've got several cases that we've worked with, you know, in India and globally, Intel being one and L'Oreal another. They have found that search is a way to drive awareness and consideration and not just conversions. Is there any insight specifically on, you know, where you have, you know, you search for branding or primarily as a medium only for performance? Sure. So, so while we talk about search a lot, I think the answer also lies between the market for this, right, marketing technology for this. How integrated are you between a brand campaign and a performance campaign? How integrated are you with your campaigns to your search partners? Both of them play a key role, right, just to give a context to it. For example, let's assume and for us brand campaigns deliver a lot of visits, a lot of installs because we are heavy app driven, which then integrates with our platform, and we are able to pinpoint better who to target for performance and the efficiency therefore increases, right. The feedback is reversed to when the performance converts a particular set of customers, the feedback is given back to the brand saying this is the kind of customers that we need to pitch brand as well for. So while you're making brand campaigns efficient, you're also making performance campaigns efficient. Now the third thing which I talked about is integration with the partners. Various both the partners have brilliant tools while you can actually search for cohorts of customers that are very related in fact in the brand perspective as well, right. It can give you a set of audiences that you need to target. So in this presentation, Mark Tech really plays a new pivotal role for us while we're deciding brand, because it's not brand in isolation, but it's how brand will perform with performance and with partners together. Thanks. Thanks for sharing everyone. I think that that brings me to my next question. I think you know with with the technological advancements, you know, catching up pace, right. When I say technological advancements, advancements in search, I would actually specifically want to spend some time on talking about voice, use of voice in search, right. So any any specific thoughts on it on that specifically. Rohit, if you actually see apart from voice voice is definitely already taken I think it is not a technology which is coming already if you see on most of the marketplace platforms you already have voice which is actually been active and that is how actually moving across and voice from both the tangents text to voice and voice to text both are actually making a huge thing but also I was just reading one of the case studies it's an MIT case study. There's I think apart from voice is also visual will actually make a huge difference. So if voice takes 10 seconds visual takes 13 million of the seconds to actually get an impact for what we're actually searching for it. So if you see if I want to divide what exactly technology is trying to build is one is definitely voice voice is actually catching up and is catching up with faster. Our second is visual will actually make a huge difference and variables will be something to really watch out for because variables like smart watch, you have something smart gadget if you have a call my can actually make a huge difference in the way you actually look for the search the ability to in the entire sphere to look for also I think just to dwell upon your last question in talking about there's a case study of Nike golf which is which is a very beautiful case study, which was presented in MIT, but in one of the cases, which talks about the usage of how search as a brand and search as a performance can actually link for it. I think that that gives a good impression to marketers to how move in that particular direction we can actually do a connotation effect of both performance as well as how brand can actually be looked for. Rubina you want to share your thoughts on specifically what is going on you know on the technological advancements that are taking place on search I think you know with the next hundred million users right you know coming online probably a lot of them are not comfortably typing when they search right so so what's your take on that and how do you think technology can play a really interesting part in kind of you know getting those hundred million users online and also kind of you know I love this topic and I think it's not just getting the next hundred million on but how search will evolve in the next couple of years it's almost like you know when I was a child and I was watching Star Trek and I thought nothing was possible. I sometimes imagine what search will shape up into you know like I'm with already said that search is becoming more experienced like you know earlier when search came in it was more like a text affair but today you know it is about what new forms of media which you import which are voice image video and lots of output experiences can be built which can be 360 degree images you know interactive ideas can be built on this AR that can be done. But I think like you also said that the role of connected devices will play a huge you know will change the search landscape and the role could be quite dramatic you know there. So for example think about it right I could say I could and I think search is going to become very conversational and voice lead that's my view as we go further. So for instance I could just say show me a you know a selection of pink dresses I can buy on my TV to my search engine and the search engine would respond sending you a selection of pink dresses on your TV. And you know I could start choosing in from there. I also think that you know currently with the research engines are transforming and adding layers of contextual understanding and personalization. You know they will move away from being just search engines to actually personal assistants and these assistants will be far more action based. And this is if you think about it it's already happening right so for instance today if I search for the result and say what is the time right and the search engine is already answering that result for me. However consider a situation where the search engine can solve an even more complex problem for example please you know I could tell her search engine please order me a brown head I had to match my usual color. Or please order me an Uber or please buy toys for my daughter and I think with the access to personal data calendar address books and previous shopping habits. All these things are going to be possible very soon. I also think search is also going to become preemptive so think about it that without searching solutions will start coming up to you. So and in a way again it's already happening right we get push notifications which give you information on your upcoming appointments travel etc. You know and it's easily possible with the access to calendars and emails this could be applied to more complex searches also like an example I gave you before. You know perhaps the search engine will tell me that your hair color is starting to fade should I order you another permanent dye in the same color that you like you know that could also really come along. And if all these potential innovations are going to spring together with the power of AI I think we'll reach a point where hopefully tomorrow brands will say give us the search engine will say I've written the marketing plan for next year for you. And for the product you must launch and I recommend you bring this to the market and here it is for your sign up just sign it off. So I think that's really what search is really going to be there it's going to run our lives. Thanks thanks for sharing I think really great insights I think you know quite with the kind of technological advancements happening and you know what we have right now I think it could be a altogether different world that we might step in right. Jai moving so specifically a question for you in terms of you know while we kind of you know talk about search and the technological advancements that are happening but I think there is a lot more happening right on search specifically you know and some of those things are customer match remarking right and I think for you know banking as an industry BF as an industry I think you know finally you know being able to drive performance from the users is also critical. So do you want to share any insights on you know how and you know how you have been using search or what's your take on these technological advancements coming in. Sure. So I think you know I think we that we kind of take pride in some factors the huge first party base that it takes a bank has been the largest private sector bank in India. We have the highest customer base and how do we get the maximum out of it that's always the quest. Okay, and beat any platform. The first question is can I leverage my first party audience over here. Okay, so that's also so now we always use custom match. Now how we use it is we have let's say a lot of pre approved offers that's analytically and scientifically done by a machine algorithm. Right. We have a pre approved base we have a pre approved offer so like let's say for you there'll be a lifetime free card because I know you are my customer and I can give you this card which I might not be able to give it to Rubina or maybe for Rubina have some separate example. Okay, now when you come and search for a card on Google, I'll have a separate communication to you with somebody else who is not my customer and searching for the card. Okay, this this communication differentiation by itself has given me a 25% uplift in my CTRs and obviously CTLs also. Okay, that's something that's significant for us. The other one that we have seen is how we are using the whole GCL ID measurement protocol, which helps us to on the fly optimize my conversion. My entire campaign basis in conversion and gone are the doors when people try to do conversion basis leads or basis appointment fixed, right, so it's it's pretty much GCL ID based and on the fly how we can put measurement protocol on top of my CRM and then get my conversion dynamically optimized. Third thing that yes, we love to use it as to a relevant to your second question or the earlier question is how we are using HDFC bank search as a brand. How can we increase brand from search now see the personal loans that credit cards are pretty much old products that dogmatic products people know about them they know HDFC bank is some of the best in the industry that's pretty much set. Okay, now for new age products like let's say loan against mutual fund. I'm sure not much of the not many of the panel members will know that they can get a loan against the mutual funds. Now think of the fact that your mutual funds you don't even have to exit your mutual fund, they continue to grow. You continue to leverage on the game that's the sensex is going through, and yet you get a loan against it. Okay, now if I can educate people on these new age products. Okay, when people see we were doing some research people have stopped asking their friends and families people are actually depending themselves by themselves when they do a lot of research on this online. So now when you're looking out for a loan or when you're typing keywords like how to redeem mutual funds. I come back come with an word. Why don't you see what is loan against mutual fund before redeeming your mutual fund, and I bring into content page. Then my remarketing starts, and then the other aspect of search which is called remarketing lids on on search and the remarketing list that you create. Okay, so this is how we integrate multiple nuances of search to ensure that we have a brand story laid also, but don't leave anyone till the time we convert him it might be a longer cycle, but no problem. We are aligned with it for new age products. Thanks. Thanks for sharing. I think some really great insights in terms of you know how you know brands and specifically you know, SDFC has been using the technological advancements in the search market. I think moving on to the next question. I think impact magazine right in its latest edition mentioned that they expect this year's festive season is going to be Q5 right so it is going to be all together a new quarter where you know, I think it is going to be a quarter where all the revival of the spends happen and everyone is going to make up for the last spend that has happened and brands are going to spend a lot more. So, specifically asking you know how do you expect this season to shape up and what are you hoping really for you know from your search campaigns this festive season. Bhavna, anything you want to share on that? Yeah, I think now that IPL is just upon us and the festive season timed along with it it is going to be a whole mayhem in the media market if I can call it because everybody is going on all out on advertising and you know actually trying to get hold of the elusive consumer and of course we are looking at finally the consumer wallets also opening more given that they have been closed for quite a few months right now. So there is a revival which is expected and even in terms of how the media properties are being put in right now. So all the media properties like a big boss or KBC are all coming back plus the IPL so it is actually going to see an influx of media money back into the market. At the same time, yes, there is a bit of a question which is still exists so it is literally like you know whatever you actually not spent in the earlier couple of quarters which is coming back in but I still feel that it is overall level the spends may not go back to the pre-COVID levels at an analyzed basis. Amit, you want to share thoughts on specifically you know things related to festive season that you are expecting from the users out there? So if you bifurcate into two parts, one is the user and one is the brand organizer look for this particular festival is online and digital festive and from a consumer standpoint consumer is really very hesitant to actually go into a physical purchase outside and there are most of the companies are innovating in different forms and format to actually try to form how do you can actually be and make it a digital more friendly and more easy for a consumer to actually reach out to. From an advertiser or a brand perspective, I don't think so there would be a huge increase in terms of these spends and specifically I am talking about the products to look for I am not talking about online gaming or something like that because that is a different ball game altogether and I think we should not swayed away by in terms of putting that somebody is advertising to a bit proper to your content pool that can actually be swayed across but definitely the pump of increase that will happen on an e-commerce platform, the amount of increase that will happen on most of the social platforms and other particular content creation specifically if online is a property, definitely happen. Will it go to what level? I think this is going to be a very big prediction and I don't think so any particular marketing or media pundit can talk about whether it go to the last level but the period is quite good because if you see from October November or Diwali is the mid of November you also get good amount of sales that you can actually try to drive in November. It will be more in terms of the push that will happen from all the big billion sales and all the other particular sales that will happen for platform that will be a good amount for consumer as well as for an advertiser because that can we can actually see a resultant effect what is actually trying to be seen in the festival period. Thanks, thanks so much for sharing. Jai, do you want to share any thoughts from the BFSI vertical specifically and any plans in terms of how do you expect the season will shape up? Yeah, I can talk about our brand. So I think there are multiple school of thoughts. I think we came from the school of thought that we will not go media dark. We changed our pillars of communication during COVID from our hardcore action oriented and business from business oriented. We changed ourselves to empathize and convenience safety. That's our whole pillar of communication was you saw our ARM and canton. We kind of put laid our grid on the streets for maintaining safe distance. So that was the stretch that we went to. Okay, now so we said but you did not go media dark. Okay, now I feel is a festive by itself and that stopped up with festivity. So now you can imagine the conundrum that will come over there. Okay, so the only thing that I can say is we are working almost like 20 hours a day now to ensure that we leverage it to the fullest. What's coming up. I think you'll see once it comes up. But yeah, we want to leverage it to the fullest. Yeah, I think eagerly waiting for you know what's in stock out there. Thanks for sharing. I think for retail and e-commerce as a vertical right I think the festive season is kind of a prime time and how are you expecting this season to shape up. So I think before the festive time for us at least I think Amit said it really well before us it's already started picking up right so we've already reached the 3x level of what we were pre COVID and obviously we're a growing company so that number will go further. We are expecting a very very big so almost two to three times more than last year than the festive for us right so for us it's definitely a growth momentum. The reason I'm saying that is we are on one hand we're seeing a consumer demand which means people want to stay home and buy things be it consumer purables be it clothing be it fashion. People want to do that at home and second thing is there are brands who suffered because they're not being able to open stores they've suffered in terms of their overall sales. So for us it's a dual combination that we will leverage to the fullest and as as Jai says right we are working 20 hours a day. It's insane going in and you'll definitely see something from click very very soon and we'll not wait for November we're starting October. Rubina you want to talk about something more specific in terms of what has been the overall vibe across different brands and specifically how are brands planning to use search this festive season? Yeah so I think a festive season is always the time for heightened shopping intent right and this year I think it's going to be still a case where people will avoid going out and buy and prefer to buy online over stores and that's exactly what the inflation So brands are gearing up for that. Typically we are seeing you know we see beauty and apparel start picking one month prior and search is going up one month prior and you know more like smartphones or televisions home improvements start about 15 to 20 days prior to the festivities. I think from a trending topics point of view it will be interesting there's going to be a lot of food recipes. So I'm going back to my cooking piece festive fashion of course a lot of devotional and folk music I think will also pick up and the other interesting thing is that those of you in Bombay knew that during Ganpati the Pandals weren't available you know open for people to for devotees to visit. So there were a lot of online videos which were available and which saw people were searching for them and viewing them quite a bit. So similarly for the Sharra or even for Navratri that could be the trend we could see getting in the festive season. Yeah I think this is going to be you know probably the festive season the new normal and I think you know we'll soon know how this kind of you know shapes up. So I think that brings me almost to the end almost to the end of this panel discussion but I think before we end up this discussion we will have kind of a quick round of rapid fire and I have like a couple of questions for you know all of you. If you could kind of you know try to describe or answer that in one word or one sentence then I think that'd be great. So I think if I were to ask you what's the one thing that you would want to change when it comes to search advertising what would that be Rubina. For me I get drowned trying to look at stuff when I'm searching so I wish search was more personalized. So it's less time in getting what I wanted to. Image extensions please bring them back. More market man the better the efficiency the better it's for me. Okay. Remove ad hocism. Ad hocism. Okay. That's that's that's something very insightful. I think from a market perspective I think the virality which is there on social media doesn't exist on search. So if there was some way we could actually leverage it and make it more social. Okay yeah I think that very kind of you know look as a mix of social I think. Yeah. Yeah. Okay okay coming to my next question if I were to ask what would be your ultimate measure of ROAS right which is a turn on ad spend. What would that be? I think the ultimate ROAS for everybody is sales sales sales. So you can keep on attributing and doing all those measures but eventually what is exactly discussed in the boardroom is the final sales. So for us any which is whatever you do everything is intermediary it's just sales at the end of it. Amit you want to go next? I think the overall ROAS should not be measured only on a search campaign or on a search as a piece per se. It has to be measured on a brand and what is the overall measure on a brand that can actually see an impact. I think that should be a long-term vision not a very small or a very short-sighted vision to look for. Yeah I think attribution does play a really important part because the users might be kind of searching on you know a search platform but kind of you know eventually maybe. It is a journey. It is not only one particular sporadic campaign and then you think that you have done something but that is how it is. Yeah, yeah. Divesh you want to go next? Sure. For me so for us we basically have two not star metrics while we confirm brand and performance. It's CAP which is customer acquisition cost and cost per order. Two metrics overall campaigns including brand performance that's the not star metric for performance. Sure. Gahit any thoughts on you know what's the true measure of ROAS for you? Yeah so if we are talking about increasing brand it's about cost, it's the amount of time spent or rather cost per session and cost of amount of time spent that the guy is engaging on my content led stories. The second is do we predominantly measure cost of end dispersal if I'm talking about end product but as Divesh was rightly highlighting we are trying to build up that matic which will help us to get the lifetime value of the acquired customer from search. Sure, sure. Rubina your final thoughts on you know how to kind of you know different categories and kind of brands you know look for ultimate measure of ROAS you know from an industry perspective and what do you think personally you know ideally would be a good way to measure our way. So we are trying to move the clients that we work with away from you know traditional metrics like ROAS and cost of sale and actually move them to more business intelligent metrics to work you know to just elaborate on what Bhavna was trying to indicate. So we are working with them on their you know business metrics for instance prioritizing for net margins or selling high stock inventory for them or optimizing for new conversions or increasing brand awareness. So we are actually working on business intelligent metrics for them rather than just cost of sale or ROAS to be honest. Sure, I think those are some really great insights. I think we have got to learn like a lot more good trends and insights you know on search advertising market and you know how our brands leveraging search for their customers. So I think that with that I would kind of like to end this panel discussion. I would like to thank you all for you know taking time for this really insightful session. We would like to now open up you know the panel for any questions from the audience so I think there are quite a few questions that I can see in on the back window itself. I think the question is Ravi from the Nielsen marketing effectiveness team. The question is for those who manage the digital marketing portfolio. How are you measuring efficiency for your search marketing? What kind of tools and processes you used to know the impact of search on other channels and vice versa. Jai, do you want to take that question? Yeah, I'm actually also going through the question. So I'll tell you we so there are two three ways of measuring the end impact that you're getting from search. Okay, while we believe that so there are so we identify what are the kind of keywords that we are targeting for right. It is high intent keywords which is be meant, which is hardcore meant for performance. We completely measure it for cost for end acquisition. However, if it is meant for mid funnel and top of the funnel campaigns, we do the entire assisted funnel journey by adobe analytics or Google analytics we have adobe analytics now. Okay, so that is where we understand the entire assisted funnel how to the entire journey and which I think Amit was also talking about it will be a combination it's a journey right like in many products. We are auto loan stepping after the 45th day. Okay, you first think of buying a car and then you start thinking of buying a auto take a car loan to buy the car. Okay, so that's how we measure the entire circle of the journey and we kind of assisted panel helps us to understand the impact of search. Sure. I think we have a question we get a recording of this yes you can need to know the specific change in brand strategy taken by any panelist. Which which is kind of leveraging the opportunity during during the pandemic I'll kind of you know open it up for everyone. Any any specific brand strategy that that you know you guys have taken as an opportunity during the pandemic. I can take that right if you have permission. So what we did is and search definitely played a major role in terms of changing that particular forming that strategies, because if you see most of the consumer businesses are basically a traditional businesses which are dealer and distributed and when the market is not opening people are not visiting shop people are not visiting MFRs which is large format detail as well as LFRs which is MFRs and multiple brand outlets are not visiting how would a consumer will actually be ready to go and buy how would a particular dealer will actually try to get this particular any particular product that you need to look for. What we did is we derive a new concept which is called O2O which is online to offline where we actually ask people to come to our shop.havels.com where we can actually select any product that they want to buy. And within the buy the first thing that we need to do is to go and put the zip code and the pin code that they're looking the product for. You will have three options to look for and the three options are from three dealers or the retailers which are present in those particular area and then you can select which of them you want to go for it and your order would be fulfilled in that. This is completely because when we saw that there is no particular lead that has been generated and there's no particular actually cost that has been trying to look for. This is a very effective model that we thought and is going very successfully because most of the people are preferred to get things at their place and we are trying to deliver from their particular nearby stores to deliver in their area. I think we have an interesting question here. Any recommendations for small businesses who are trying to promote their e-commerce website over marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, etc. And I think as small businesses, how do you compete with these marketplaces in popular FMCG categories using search? Rubina Bhavna, you want to take this one? Yeah, sure. So I think not just small businesses, even large businesses, large D2C businesses are right now struggling with that on how to kind of what should be their strategy with brand.com, right? Because there are marketplaces and one end and then there are their brand.coms and the other end. There is no straight answer. I like the, you know, it depends on what your business strategy is. And I'm going to just take a use case or an example of Nike and the way they do it is that while they're there on marketplaces, but, you know, all their premium products and launches, etc. They keep it only on their brand.com so that ensures that, you know, there is also, you know, significant pull for their brand.com and there's also for price sensitive customers, you know, there is also the marketplaces that where they go to. So it really depends on how you want to win it, but you've got to think through, you know, your business problem and how you want to approach it and then different strategies can be devised around it. Yeah. And just to add to what Rubina said, I think for small businesses, it's very important to be actually make sure that the spillover is the least even in terms of GOs or demo or whatever they're targeting. And in terms of trying to actually figure out what their USP is. So there are enough and more brands which have been built on the D2C platform in the recent past. And all of them do, they do have presence on the online marketplaces. They have been able to do a lot of work on D2C as well because I think you get the power of data and insights once you have your own D2C platform, which you'll never get from the marketplace. And that's what you need to leverage to actually tailor make your communication to the exact audience who you're trying to actually, you know, target. So it could be a, let's say even a soap or a shampoo or whatever you're looking for actually targeted very well because whatever insights you get from your own platforms, you'll never get it from the marketplaces. I think an extension to that, that question is, this is for a company with sales spices. And the question here is the cost of each pack is almost less than 30 rupees or so. And I think people are trying new products and, you know, ordering new products for taste. So will it fall under spur or intent? And how do we, you know, come to that answer or derive that answer? Anyone? So I think this is more with respect to, should it be intent based or should it be like an impulse buy or something? And how do we kind of, you know, arrive at that answer? I'll crack at it, right? So we run multiple products, which are, let's say less than 100, less than 200, sometimes, right? For those for us are something which a person doesn't think too much before buying. And anything which is priced less than 500, 300 is generally as per decision, even if it needs spices. If you are running a big brand company who has thousands of skews of such items, then you need to create a brand of your own. Obviously, there are multiple brands that we know of, we can talk of. That's an example when you're doing brands actually. But if you're an isolated player who's launching 30, 40 skews, it's more of a moment to see or witness something very, very different. So specifically, there is another question for you in terms of what are your views on offline retail post COVID? And do you see a lot of searches coming in from tier to tier three cities as well? And then how do those searches look different from those coming in from urban cities? Sure. So I'll answer the offline store part. So actually we're working with a lot of brands. There is a concept called as Unni channel, which means we've now started delivering from stores. So we used to do that from the last two and a half years, but that's just got momentum mode. So I think while we slowly come out of COVID, the stores will start having multiple meanings. It can be people to come browse. It can be fulfillment centers. I don't have a correct answer, but that's the direction that we're going. But that's for sure that we see a new avatar of offline stores coming really, really soon. On the second part, are we seeing a lot of searches from tier to tier three? The answer is yes, we are. But the best part is we target the similar set of audience both in tier one and tier two cities, which means upper middle class and slightly higher because we only keep brand products. And therefore for us, the searches remain constant. It's just the expansion of the domain. And as I said, we're being opportunistic to reach out to more people. But I think the trend of searches for us is the same across all of them. I think there are a couple of more questions. I'm not sure if everyone is fine extending for another couple of minutes or kind of, you know, should be later. Rohit, I'll have to drop off. I have to go and search for some more things. Okay, sure. I think it was great to have everyone, you know, on the panel. Thank you again for joining. It was a really insightful session. And I think I'm sure, you know, the attendees and the audiences have gotten some really good insights about, you know, search advertising and what you do for them. Thank you so much, Rohit. I think you have written quite well. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye. Thank you for having us, Rohit. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Rohit. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Bye.