 moving to our panel discussion very quickly, which will talk about content marketing, staying relevant, sensitive, and true in current times, how to create content without overdoing the COVID-19, purpose-driven content marketing, actually the need of the hour. So how do brands stay relevant in times of crisis? These are some of the questions that our panel will discuss, and Mr. Bhanja will be chairing the session, so I'd request you to please stay online, sir. While I introduce our panelists for the discussion, Mr. Sharad Somani, Head Marketing South India and Indochina Western Union, very warm welcome, sir. Our next panelist, Sudhanshu Nagpal, Head Biscuits Category, Mondalist India Private Limited, warm welcome to you too. Hi everyone. Hi. I'd like to welcome Neleswa Lukani, Hubhead Middle East India Southeast Asia, South African Tourism, warm welcome to you. Thank you, Mulwani. Namaste to all of us, to all of you. Namaste to you too. Krishna Rao, Senior Category Head, Party Products, welcome to you too, sir. Hi. Thank you so much. Hello everyone. Namaste. And last but not the least, Mr. Bhanja Mehta, Senior Vice President, Content Plus, and MindShare, I'm sorry. We have another panelist, which is Ms. Aditya Srivastava, Co-Founder, Pocket Aces. So a warm welcome to all of you. Hi everyone. Hello. Hi guys. Good to be here. Thank you. And all of you are here, and our viewers are waiting to hear this, a very important discussion that we have in store for everybody. So Mr. Bhanja, I'd like you to take the discussion forward. Sure. Lovely. Thank you very much. I think all of us are people who are interested and actively engaged in content marketing. And in these times, there is a natural tendency, as I was also sharing, to jump onto the brand again and do therefore something which is very, very actively overtly. This is COVID and this is how you should deal with this. How have each of you, to be wonderful to know from each of you, how have you tried to use the context without overplaying the context? And that's something that is therefore, keeping the background and not yet, making it just all about COVID. And we could start with it alphabetically or in whichever way you want. Aditi, in either way, you'd be the first panelist we'd go to and hear from you. Great. Thank you so much, Shantanu, and a really good presentation. Good to be here with everyone. So, you know, this is a really good question and I think going into the lockdown, you know, we were doing a lot of planning on the content front with our writers in terms of how do we change around the scripts, right? Of the content that we have planned for the time being. So not only was it, how do we change around to shoot differently? Because obviously that's a reality that we're all living in, in terms of production. But also, how do we change around to be more empathetic with what people are currently going through, right? So it was not only that we have to talk about the lockdown or talk about the precautions people are taking. We did that kind of stuff too. So with YouTube and with Facebook, we ran some campaigns on precautions that people have to take and protect themselves, et cetera. But the bigger emphasis was on if life for our audience members has changed and our content is always relatable, how can we relate to how they're operating and feeling at this time and what they're going through? So we would continue to tell the stories as it is. So if we were telling the stories of how people are working from home or studying at home or how people are dating, there would just, the lockdown would be more of a reality in terms of a background and a backdrop to the detailing of the stories. But at the end of the day, the stories are similar life, everyday life stories that we tell on our channels, the filter copy, dice media, our company, et cetera. That's great. Yes. Ajay, coming to you alphabetically in a way, tell us what your thoughts are. You've been working with multiple clients, I'm sure. Yeah. At this time, how do they pick it up? Yeah, so I quite agree with actually Aditi and what she said in terms of the production and the challenges we're facing currently in terms of shoots, et cetera. But what has also happened is that it's opened a whole new sort of opportunity for doing a lot of work through influencers. I mean, that's a huge sort of a spike we've seen in the last two months. And maybe Aditi also might agree to that because she's in a similar sort of a business line. But a lot of the work that's coming out is home produced, self-shot sort of videos, content that we don't have an option to go out there and shoot. But, and the good thing is the brands are understanding the problem. They get that the quality is gonna be not top notch. So that's more from a production, from an execution standpoint. But what we've also seen is that a lot of stories floating around on social. If you look at what people are saying, the opinions, you know, real life stories. I think a lot of content that brands can actually latch on to and create engaging sort of conversations with their audiences. And yeah, just to sum it up, we've seen a huge traction, especially on social. So while there's a lot of work that's happening on television as well, on news channels, but primarily all the work that we've done, it's mainly on the social space. Wonderful, wonderful. Tisharov, any thoughts on you to build on this? Yeah, so I quite agree actually. So in the times where creating content or production is a challenge, is where we were also contemplating as to what is to be done. And as we had a discussion with our creative partners, that is when we sort of came up with an idea of actually creating a mashup of all our previously shot high resolution advertisements. And we thought of weaving them all together and stitching them together to talk about the current situation. So where we talked about like, let's catch up with life. And I think that actually, honestly speaking, that was predominantly conceived and made for only digital. But as we really found it to be very, very good content is when we felt, why don't we put this on television as well? And I think we ensured that it was not really very, very overt yet to the point. And actually telling all our consumers that this is the time to actually catch up with your near and dear ones. This was a really good time. And yeah, so that's how we sort of ensured that it was not really out of context completely. Correct. Nelisua, how would you have used this time as a backdrop rather than as a core content itself? Anything you want to share? You're on mute, Nelisua. Thank you. This is quite trying times for us. So we're quite an emotive brand. Travel is very emotional. It's very people-driven. As the first case in South Africa landed, believe it or not, we had a group of Indian tour operators that I was hosting. We center our belief as a country, as a destination, on what we say, um tu, gum tu, gabam tu. In English, translated loosely, we are who we are because of others. So when this happened, it allowed us to literally stop, pause, reach to our innocence, and then say, what is the change that we are coming that's coming? We were in the middle of launching a campaign. We took our funding and we put firstly South Africans, not because Indians come second. We took our budgets and we gave it to the small, medium enterprises. All of it globally as a destination. Secondly, we realize the consumer is key. There is going to be agitation. There is going to be fear. There is going to be panic. And we regrouped together with our strategic partners and said, we need to understand the thought process fast. We need to be responsive. We need to be diligent. We need to stop with the selling. And we need to stop the opulence of saying, we are the. And say, who are we? What can we add to yours? How can we address your agitation, your fears, so that we understand the evolving expectation that's going to come out of it? So we then decided digital is the platform. No overkill in terms of advertising. We started talking to our consumer. We started talking to our partner. Once you talk to people and reach them on their core level, it's better. We removed the sales and beneficiation for humanity and mundo. Wonderful, wonderful. Coming to Sharad, yours is a slightly, let us move to a slightly different aspect of this. And it's very, very troubling times for many people. Many of them didn't know. People were stuck in different places. And Western Union has a lot about people sending money to the people they love elsewhere. And how important in this context did you think empathy was? And how do brands work with? And that will be a question wonderfully appropriate for Sudhanshi as well, a brand which is built completely on consumer empathy. Yeah, Shantanu, I guess it's a good segue and connect with the brand. I mean, so as a brand, I mean, we are a 170 year old brand. We are among the top first 10 brands which were ever listed on the New York Stock Exchange. So you're absolutely right. I mean, purpose has built into the DNA of our brand. And at the core of it, I mean, we exist because people move. And if you look at it from that perspective, I mean, this whole, I would say the pandemic actually had put into question mark the core purpose of the business itself. But at the same time, I mean, we are a service business. Like unlike product kind of brands, which sort of almost stopped operating. I mean, for a brand like us, it was even more important to be relevant to the customers at this point of time. And to ensure that we were still available to provide our services to them. But could we provide services to them in the same way that we were doing before? Probably not, because even our retail footprint was closed. So what we did, I mean, from consciously as a brand perspective, I mean, while from the CSR activity perspective, we had a lot of things around COVID. But when it came to brand related messaging, we stayed away from references to COVID. I would say directly, but we rather focused on what customer wants during this time, right? After a while, pandemic is there. But still, there is a need for the customer to send money. I mean, families survive on the money which is being sent to them during this time. So what we did, I mean, we essentially launched a lot of content which was around the services as well, which were specific during this time. So we saw a huge traction. For example, for our digital services, where people didn't have to move out of their home and they could just send money sitting from their home. So our content actually changed around that. I mean, while our visuals used to be around people moving, I mean, moving around with a mobile in their hand, or anywhere, I mean, our communication used to be wherever you are, you can still send money that changed to send money from the comfort of your home. Because that's what was relevant at this point of time, right? And then from the visual perspective, I mean, as a brand, given that we've been operating in so many countries, so we never, I mean, never had too much of live, I would say, for photography or visuals as part of our platform, we always have illustrations as part of our platform. So that helped us a lot in this time as well, because illustrations we could still work with during this trying times, trying times as well. And we launched a lot of services, like I said, I mean, in Sri Lanka, for example, we launched the home delivery service because there was a lockdown, customer could not get out of their home. So we said, no problem, we will reach out to you. We will ensure that money will reach you, although I mean, I mean, you would not be able to walk into our location. And in some of the markets, for example, in Thailand, we launched something we call as a digital location. So again, I mean, the whole concept there was that, I mean, you have to actually do a physical KYC every time you receive our money. But since even there was a lockdown in Thailand until let's say two weeks back, 17th was when it was relaxed there. So we said to them, but no worries, I mean, you call us, provide us, your KYC documents are digitally, right? And we will transfer money directly into their, your bank account, rather than I mean, you pick coming and picking it up in cash. So all in all, I mean, our content was more around the fact, what does the customer need at this point of time? Because we cannot shut down. We need to be open and we need to continue to provide our services to them. So we launched a lot of services and our entire content from the brand perspective was revolving around that. I mean, as a brand, I would say I would have worked in this two months, more than I would probably would have worked last two years given the space that we are in. Yeah, I think all of us can relate to that. And I think what you, one of the things we'll come back to which you mentioned is you adapted both the content and the products to the context. And you chose the right content and the product and the two have to work together. Sudhanshu, over to you. And the hugely emotive brand, which we all consumed a lot of to cider to sort of drown our sorrows in these times. I think I fully resonate with everyone what they have said so far. And especially what Shradd and the Lisba was talking about. I think it boils down to, the debate is an interesting one, whether brand should use COVID as a means to, you know, repurpose their messaging or not. I think it boils down to the fact, is there a unique point of view or is there a unique role which you can play to create a little bit more meaning and value in consumer life? I think if answer is yes, then you should. Because you know, at the end of the day, brands, you know, what we offer, what we say is in the service of meeting consumer needs. You know, we can't operate in silos. And if our messaging and our offer is not in sync with the changing reality, I think we will not succeed. It's important to ask yourself a question, you know, whether you, as a brand, we have some unique point of view or a unique offering, which we can provide, which can add value to consumers. So it boils down to go back to consumer and what's happening with their life. I think the second filter, which is also very critical, I believe, and the way we are thinking about for our brand, you know, whatever we do needs to be consistent with what your brand core DNA is, you know, what you stand for. So it's a kind of, you know, you need to find an overlap. You know, what your brand stands for, what's your core DNA? What's your consumer today needs? And is there a meaningful value you can create? I think that's how there are two filters to it, the way we are thinking about it. And if yes, the answer is yes, then we should definitely go ahead and participate. I mean, I'll give you some example, from Mondley's portfolio today. Three brands, you know, very different core purpose, very different way they are repurposing campaigns. So Cadbury Daily Milk, you know, it's a brand which is one of the most trusted brand in the country, stands for, I mean, generosity is the proposition which brand has been propagating for the last two years, you know, which is about celebrating the goodness within. Now in times of this crisis, the whole aspect about, you know, there are heroes around us who are fighting this battle. You know, there are heroes which are making sure that our day-to-day life are going on, you know. And that's a brand, you know, we came up with a campaign which is a thank you campaign where the brand has really changed the brand name instead of a Daily Milk we have put thank you on the brand packaging and that too in seven, eight different languages. I think it's in the pursuit of creating value. I mean, there is positivity required and people are seeking that and can brand be that change agent. And I mean, that's one example how it's manifesting. On the other hand, if you look at Five Star, you know, which is a little more cool, huge centric, more, a little irreverent and the whole proposition has been around do nothing. Now that's a very, you know, wacky proposition. Only youth can relate to people like us. What is it? I mean, they pivoted and came up with do nothing outside challenge. So very interestingly, they pivot their campaign and then what they stand for and in the spirit of creating meaning in the current context. And again, your brand curated a lot of, you know, light fun content with use of influencers and retain the whole persona which Five Star stands for. So I think there is an interesting balance to be struck right here. I mean, if brand doesn't have a unique point of view which can create value, then probably it's better to stay away from jumping into... Because I think it can also do damage to brands. If there's no... I think it's a very good point and it actually sort of allows us to segue back to Aditya and Ajay who interact with many brands. How do you tell some of your clients that, you know, if you were to do something, do it. If you have something different to say, something relatable and relevant now to say, much like Sudhanshu was saying, have something relevant, then you engage now or else no point. This is not the best of times to engage. How do you help them discover that unique situation? Either of you and then both of you. Aditya, you wanna go first? You can go first or I can either way is fine. You go first. Okay, cool. It was interesting, Shantanu and Ajay can add, in the beginning of the whole lockdown situation, we were seeing actually brands being extremely conservative and of course, taking a step back and just evaluating how this whole thing is unfolding and what's actually happening on the ground, how it will affect sales, their distribution, all sensible things. And so far, I think our role at that time as like their content kind of advisors and people who enable them to connect with the end audience was just telling them what the audience is thinking, feeling and telling us, right? So I mean, we reach about 50 million people on a weekly basis and we're talking to them, right? In comments, we're talking to them in the end. And so basically our role was more reflecting what their audiences are going through and what they're saying. And I think that they were very clear upfront that sales didn't have to happen at this time. I think everyone was very clear that we should not look at like, we should not look like Sharad and Sudhanshu rightly said, like we're taking advantage of the situation, right? At this time. And so for us, it was kind of walking them to the entire process about how could we get their messaging also sort of repurposed the messaging like Sudhanshu was talking about to Sudh this time, to the audiences. So that was basically, you know, how it was in the beginning. I think now a lot of brands have gotten very comfortable, you know, with, they also have their plans, what they want to do, they have their Q1, Q2 plans. And they've gotten very comfortable with what their stance is during the lockdown. I think a few of them have gotten bold as well. We also have brands who are saying rightly as Sudhanshu said that, you know, we can continue with our own messaging, our original messaging as long as it's being empathetic to the current scenario, but we are not changing the messaging. So I think this was, I think authenticity and empathy are the main things that the audience is really, really appreciating right now. And also like you talked about, you know, the whole craft campaign, UGC is a big thing right now because people have time there at home, right? So we also encourage a lot of brands to try the UGC route which otherwise would not have. And one of the big positives was that, you know, decision-making was actually much faster in this COVID period than it has ever been. Like even when we're working with brands, for example, we did a campaign with Bumble and actually Cadbury-Rerry-Miltsfield together and we created a whole series from start to end during the lockdown. It's called Firsts. We created a season two for it. And Bumble permissions, you know, go-aheads from the headquarters came in record time, right? It's just things are much faster. Brands are also a lot more open right now to tell us, okay, this is the monies we have to spend. So let's build up full plan together. These kind of things are not very common. They don't, you know, volunteer this kind of information in usual times, but I think one brand, one CMO said it really well in one of my meetings. He said, Abhi, CMO, brand manager, or agency, or creator ke beach, koi difference ting hai. We are all working so closely together to really encourage people and win this, right? So I think that was that. Fantastic point. And I'm sure we'll come back to it. A lot of brand decisions were taken on screens like this. Five, six brand managers, CMOs, agencies, creator, content creators coming together. And suddenly there is no hierarchy. You're all a box and you're all willing to share. You're all driven by one particular goal. And then you just make it happen. You think while you are stuck in that box, you are thinking out of the box and making things happen. I think it was, I think for many of us, really big experiences. Sorry, Ajay. Yeah. So no, I agree with what Sharad said and even Siddhanshu and in some parts, everyone is speaking about that. See, there's this whole language that we keep saying brand do versus brand speak, right? I mean, we hear it with Unilever when you work with them. It's time and again, you keep hearing that from a purpose lens. I think this is the right time for brands to actually get out there and drive their proposition and their space in a manner where they don't come across as opportunistic, right? Because there are some pieces of work that we've seen recently, which it should be like, wow, why would they do that? But the more and more I see and what Aditi has mentioned, in the first part of COVID, we did see brands saying, the whole sentiment of budget cuts, et cetera. I mean, that's a reality. But I come around and said that, let's engage with our audience in a manner that we should. So whether it's a brand like Brew talking about Dalgona coffee and writing that wave on social, or whether it's Live Boy latching on a TikTok and doing a hand wash sort of a challenge. So I think there are ways and means have opened up in terms of reaching out to the audience without seeming very, like I said, opportunistic. But yeah, I mean, lot of brands are coming forward now and saying that, let's get on to social, let's try and do something, let's try and reach out to them and be relevant in these times, without trying to be too pushy or seem like kind of sell something. For example, we also, we moved the needle from digital to a, like I think Sudhanshu Sharad mentioned about the whole on-ground piece. How do we reach out to the guy and actually deliver our products? In times like this, where migrant workers are actually heading back and there's a huge issue in the whole supply chain and distribution current scenario, we've actually given a solution where we've built and you would have heard ITC on wheels and even I think Cadbury is doing something and he keeps in there on Instagram. But we've done something where we're now managing to actually deliver products directly to the societies. So it's an RWA sort of a model. You have an app that's built in and we reach out to the secretary of the building. And even that's something that we built. So the branding is secondary. The primary motive is let's go out there and reach out to our consumers and at least let them know that we care in some form or the other. So I think all brands, if you look at it and trying to do that, some are getting it right. There are some examples which were quite, in that sense, I was quite appalled and seeing what they were doing. But yeah, there is opportunity in this sort of a scenario as well. Lovely. Krishnar Rao, anything you wanted to share about how the brand empathy piece is very relevant and you all also have done some good work at this time. So there's something that you'd like to share. Absolutely. So as far as the lockdown is concerned, so actually we were actually stuck for the first since the Janta curfew and 22nd, 23rd, 24th. And that is when we felt, okay, I think before we do anything, I think this is the time for us to give something to the society. And that is when we sort of made an announcement of giving three crore Parleji packets to the health workers, to the needy, to the hospitals, et cetera, to prove government channels. And I think that sort of really created a very, very positive environment. And actually that sort of also motivated the entire channel, I would say, within and outside. So right from our vendors to our factories, to our CNFs, to our wholesalers, distributors, to most importantly our own staff, actually. And there was no sort of going back from there on. Yeah, as far as, so one more instance, I would want to say sort of highlight here was when, yeah, so everyone's been saying that, okay, it should not be really seeming to be very, very opportunistic, but at the same time, it's not that we've been communicating this for the first time. Generally, we've been talking like, no, Parleji has been Hindustan Ki Thakur kind of a communication. And the moment there was this announcement by the prime minister talking about how do we promote the local brands is when actually it took barely for our teams actually to spring into action and in about barely half an hour, 8.30 the speech was over by about 8.45, nine o'clock we had already content ready, which talked about Swadeshi and which talked about, so made in India, for India, et cetera. And there was so many content pieces created and which were really, we have a brand called 2020. And even for that, 2020, 2020, 20 lakh crores. Again, there was a very, very good sync and I think it was seamless and it was very well accepted actually across mediums. Wonderful, wonderful. Nelishwa, if we moved on to ask you what was one biggest learning for you in this entire period of what is, I mean, it's a continuing phase for most of us. What is that biggest learning that you have taken out in the content marketing space that you'd like to share for all our listeners? So, travel, one of the things about travel compared to, if you compare it to Cadbury or any consumable brand, travel is about humans, it's about human touch. It's about human engagement. It's about bringing people together. We learned very quickly and very fast that there needs to be a balance between technology and the human touch. We had to learn to bring in technology within the human space. We also learned very quickly that silence is an amazing thing because you don't always have to talk. But most important as well was the key of bringing local content, localizing content and ethical marketing. Ethical marketing became the centerpiece because we talk about brand, we talk about marketing. The dictionary of marketing is now has to change. We talk about brand essence, we talk about brand health, we talk about the brand, we talk about sustainable marketing. I think one key that we're going to have to unpack is ethical marketing. But the greatest one for us is when we decided we have to trigger the response because in the beginning was anxiety, came boredom, came I need to continue with life, came with I don't have much, but I need to do and achieve the things that I dream of and we brought in virtual tourism. We then learned that the virtual tourism was, for us it was amazing, it was actually perplexing because we found people paying to go on a virtual safari just to fulfill the yearning of I am going to get there. Now you can imagine in this day and time a pup's and a mom's paying $45 to go on a safari through a television and packing the footprints of an elephant, watching an elephant give birth, watching a life kill and you're paying for it. So for me it says we people sitting on this platform need an awakening that in some, at some point where do we find the balance of I need to be there physically and I can do it without being there physically. And how do we become ethical to our brand and to resustain the consumer without having to be patronizing and optimistic? Fantastic words. I think that's a therefore a question that I can, we can move on to and taking inputs from all the other panelists and we can go to Sharad and take his thoughts on one biggest learning maybe through one initiative we've done or any other way or seeing other people, other brands what is that one single largest learning in the sphere of content marketing that you've taken out? Like I said while I was talking about the previous question like I mean first for us, the whole thought process during this time was that I mean if we connect with the consumer through their needs then rather through a COVID related communication I mean they would in turn would work with us and provide the content that we would require. I'll give one particular example to illustrate this. First off, as we all know, it's Labor Day in this COVID kind of environment probably we all have forgotten about it but I mean given that our core, I would say businesses around migrants and migrants sending money back home to India, Sri Lanka, wherever I mean so that becomes, I would say critical to our objectives so to say. And any which ways do I mean things around those periods but during this first off, first of May and this is a specific campaign that we did in Singapore and Singapore at this point of time most of the COVID cases are not coming from the mainstream audiences. Most of the cases are restricted to the dormitories where the migrant workers are staying at this point of time and first off Labor is about those migrant workers and all I mean so for us I mean there are very few brands like us who are actually open at this point of time who are providing service because they're an essential service. So even there, while most of the other businesses are closed, we are not allowed to operate if I can say so right? So what I mean for us the best way like I said was to connect with the consumer is to give them what they need at this point of time. We launched a campaign saying that for a one month period between first off May 2, 30th, 31st of May for every, I mean every time they do a transaction with us they don't have to pay any fee. We will do it free of cost for us. Whatever the channel might be whether they want to visit a location or want to do it directly with us. At the same time, we are also working together with our CSR team and seeing how can we help them with their basic necessities in terms of food packets and then things like that. But we typically do not promote that part of our activation ever but what we saw, I mean since both of this are parallel there is a brand campaign, there is a CSR campaign running in parallel at the same time when it's being promoted other which is being run just because that is not something that we would want to promote about it but like someone was saying Aditi I think this is the time when people are idle, right? So what we saw without we actually doing anything I mean there were videos after videos of people I mean putting it up on Facebook, on Insta, on TikToks that how Western Union is helping them during this time by providing them those food packets by providing them clothes and then things like that. So without we actually creating the content it became viral on so many platforms. I mean of course we kept it there we were completely away from it but it was the consumers themselves who were promoting us during those times so all in all I meant to summarize it was about I mean if you do what your consumers want they will come and stay behind you. Indeed, Sudhanshu, how would you like to add your learning and any specific example that you wanted to add further to what you said? So yeah, I think at an overarching level one very interesting piece, one of our leaders spoke about it, there are no holy cows anymore everything is up for change and this crisis has kind of opened up everything how we think about doing business building grants, distribution, everything. So I think that's the one overarching piece which we are keeping in mind we need to get more agile the whole change agility and how do you test, learn, adapt, we don't know how future gonna be. So overarching, that's one theme which we are trying to build, getting comfortable with. I think particularly to content marketing a few things which we did, which we believe for example, Ajay spoke about telling versus doing. For the first time, I think we are also realizing the old ways of brand building which is you create some message and put it out there and then invest behind it, it's not the future. So you need to build brands based on doing and how do you think about that differently is something which I think is one learning. Aditi spoke about user generated content. I think that's another piece which we are realizing is this the powerful space? This crisis, we launched what we are calling at home with Oreo campaign which was all about creating content which users can use to create playful moments in their home as they are spending more and more time. And one of the big pillar was recipes on that. And I must say the way that campaign has created results and one of the numbers I will just quote and we found that a couple of days back your top 20 YouTube videos on Oreo recipes have gathered close to 2.5 CR views in the last 45 days. I mean it's more than what we could have gathered by investing. So I think user generated, how do you trigger user generated content as a way of building brand by doing and not just telling. I think it's a big one. And one which is very exciting one with my agency partners are not very happy. I think in the way your content is getting generated remotely and good quality content at a much cheaper cost at a much faster pace. I think the benchmarks are being said, the new normal. So I think how we think about your production when it comes to content marketing. I think this crisis is throwing new ways of working which can be meaningful going forward. Fantastic. Aditya, are you smiling when you say that? Yes, I saw smiles all the way around. Creative agencies won't be happy because you'd ask for a film for 15 lakhs. But yeah, I guess. Absolutely. 15 lakhs, that's a lot. I can't believe you're smiling there. Yeah. 15 lakhs is a lot now. Consumers do it for us. No, but joking apart, there was a question that came up also in from some of the the same people who are attending. How do we see marketing being changed permanently forever? What are some of the residual impacts of our learnings in this field? And if anyone has a quick thought to share, Sudhanshu already started it off by saying this production costs, et cetera, will always bring a smile now because there is a very different benchmark. Ajay, Aditya, your answers with your smiles. Tell us a few. So yeah, I think they're gonna be, I mean, I don't know what's gonna be done in the future, but these conversations are opening up, right? I mean, they're hearing that, like he said, good quality production, decent production. Like, if you see, I saw Karan Johar video for God's sake that he's done like two days back or three days back, that's, he's done it pretty well. You know, I mean, he's dyed his hair and he's spoken about the product. And I mean, that's as good as a film. You know, you would actually get him in a studio and shoot him and spend like 50 lakhs plus to get him into a TV series of what he's done at home on his own, I'm assuming, is fantastic here. So it's, you know, the ideas can come from anywhere. I mean, today when you enter any client brainstorming sessions, we know for a fact that it can come from any agency. It could be a PR agency, creative agency, media agency, content agency, influencer agency. They're all sitting there in that room and they have all the options to choose from. But I think going forward, they will be pressure. They will be pressure to deliver in the kind of cost that we've been given because there are budgets dropping. Pressure on delivering in lower cost, higher production. That's going to be another big sort of a question which I think is going to be burdening for creative agencies for sure because the real pressure comes on to them to cut down their rates and margins and stuff. But see, you mentioned about learning, you know, so Shantun, I think everyone talked about that in some form or the other. I think I read an article this morning that people are thrashing the government, saying that, especially the Maharashtra government, saying that they're not enough for the migrant workers and people are falling ill, they're passing out, you know, on the way back. But I think the great thing is that, look at the number of brands that have come forward. You know, it's not because they've taken an opportunity to come and sell or promote themselves in this form. But like you said, you know, the distribution of the biscuits or, you know, just bringing a smile by sending a Cadbury chocolate to my house or any other form, if it's a truck at your doorstep, I think there are so many beautiful ways for the brand to engage and spread the joy in times like these. So that's been a big learning, you know. It's not only about just putting out a post or a video on social or TV. So then do something for the audience and for your consumers. Then, you know, this is like the memory structure. This will stay with me forever, you know. I mean, I'll, what will stay with me in these times will be for a very long time, you know. So yeah. Yep. How did you see something? Yeah, you know, I was smiling earlier because it's like I'm so glad to hear these kind of things coming from brands, right? So I think, you know, on digital, it's always been like, you know, economies of scale and super, super efficient production. You know, when you put out, you know, when you put content out on social, you know, and you wanted to spread organically, right? And this has been something we've been preaching for like five years, that you don't have to buy views. You know, it has to be super authentic so that people share it and you get huge amount of engagement that way. And that results in real ROI, right? Real conversions, whether it is to a website or app downloads or even, you know, kind of buying a physical product on the ground. So I think it's further efficiencies we have all learned to even do in large products, right? So for example, when we used to have web series sets with, you know, say 70 people, today we have a plan that as soon as lockdown opens with 30 people, I can go and shoot like a full web series, about 100 minutes of content, right? So I think 100% agree of driving efficiencies and actually better media value because there's organic, highly engaged views, right? I think another angle I would just like to add, agree with everything that has been said so far is that people are getting, brands are getting more experimental with different genres of content because some of those genres are actually easier to do now slash are getting a lot of eyeballs from the audience. So one good example is animation, right? So animation has been affected not at all, you know, during COVID. And so I think that is something, so we've started a new animation channel a few months ago and that is seeing a lot of traction, number one. Number two, gaming. So gaming and eSports is something that has, was already, you know, a big trend last year, it's YouTube's highest growing category. And in this last couple of months of lockdown, it's, you know, the growth rate has increased like crazy and we see more and more brands, you know, and we've done something with Oreo on our gaming app logo, more and more brands really opening up to these categories. Infotainment is another one which really hasn't taken off in a big way in India, as it has say in the US, but now it's actually people are seeing that how they can use infotainment to also jive in messaging. So I would say that the efficiencies of scale, the importance of organic performance and the openness to different formats of content, these are the positive changes, learnings that we have. So we are in the sort of last two, three minutes of this. Anything that you want to add, Neliswa, which is about an abiding learning, anything from you, Krishnagar, on this vocal for local, I think you all have done something around that. Couple of quick snatches, just a minute each would be useful. Anything, Sharad, you would want to add, very, very quickly. Krishnagar, anything that you would want to, I don't need to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, so like I said, so I think the learning, so I'm just trying to relate it, what you said earlier, how is it going to change? I think, so brand's perspective is definitely changing. So for example, last year, we sort of built a brand, a Rolla-Colla relaunch actually, only on digital and that has continued and that has rather gained momentum. So I think this gives a lot of confidence to brands actually that this is the way forward. So and this is all, all this has happened with changing times, I would say so 2016 onwards, 4G coming in, data becoming, getting cheaper, et cetera. So people having spending more time on their second screens, et cetera. So I think even post-COVID, I think, so because of the efficiencies, because of the brands have realized the pros of content creation at a lower cost and at a better, and possibly they'll learn as to how to improve further quality and take it short. Melissa, anything? So as I said, for me, one of the greatest learnings in this time, hope, good consumer in the center, everything about them, do not take them for granted. We have a saying in Tosa that says, in yawanam bumbluh, it says your foot does not have a nose, therefore you never know where you're going to end up. Therefore, be good to your consumer, be good to your distribution channel, collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. Take off the competitive hat sometimes and just bring in the human element, meaning if you win your consumer's heart, and when you instruct them or you advise them and you engage them and says, it doesn't have to be now. We can do it together later. And once you can win that conviction, give them that conviction, they will come back and they'll come back for more. Fantastic, I think we can't possibly end better than that message. The consumer is at the center, win the consumer heart, that's really all that matters. The business can come tomorrow, the little bit of sales piece can come later. I think that is at the center of content marketing and that's really all, all of us have learned that the most. I think couple of things additionally that we've all learned is speed, is responsiveness, it's about being authentic, it's about being relevant. This is really, I think from the discussion that we all had in the examples we shared, where really what brings together a great content marketing 101, if you were to do this at these times. Thank you all for fantastic sharing with a lot of learnings. Well, so we have to get those quotes from you later because those were fantastic words and we just need to know it in the authentic spelling and so on, we will request Michelle to get that back to us. Really lovely sharing from everyone and rich, rich, this thing, content that we discussed itself. Thank you all very much. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm just finished waiting on time. Yes, thank you all very much, bye bye. If the time permits to some of you at least, we have a lot of questions that have come out in our Q&A box and if some of you can answer a few of them before moving out. We had a sort of drop date time at 3.15 so we were making sure we were closing out to that. We do have another five minutes or so to take these questions so if time permits for the rest of the speakers. If it's okay for the panelists, we can, I'm sure, happily, would love to address some of those questions. I didn't get that message earlier. Sorry for that, yeah. Same here. I'm open. Yeah, but thanks very much, Sudhanshu and Ajay. See you. Later with you all soon. Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful to have you both, yeah. I'm open and it's two questions. I'm happy to have the questions. Lovely. One of the questions that was coming up, I saw a number of them around was about this vocal about local. Are there initiatives that we are seeing around content marketing around that? Is that something that anyone wants to speak about? Maybe more relevant for Aditi to give some examples if you have done something in this space. Yeah, Krishna, why don't you go ahead? Yeah, yeah. So like I mentioned, so we've created quite a bit of content actually. And so like I already mentioned examples of Parleji and this was, so the day, the night actually, the Prime Minister mentioned about going out or promoting being very vocal about local brands so we went all out actually and then only the subsequent day actually, there was a sort of a clarification because there's a very thin divide between what do you mean by vocal for local. So for everyone's benefit actually, so the intent was actually anything. So there are brands which are produced in India and which are very, very Indian. And there are brands which are not necessarily Indian yet they have manufacturing setups in India. So there are many such brands and so the government, the entire nation, because it all benefits effectively the nation. So the whole idea was to promote brands which are produced in India. And so the moment this was mentioned, we actually thought this was a fantastic opportunity to tell our consumers the sort of legacy, the sort of legacy, the Indian-ness of our brands. While that is important, a bit about, like say, for example, so vocal for local is very good I think it will definitely promote a lot of brands which are produced in India. But then at the same time, what happens is in certain categories, possibly, so because of there are not any significant brand, not being in that category becomes a challenging proposition. So for example, like cosmetics, for example, so where we do not really have a formidable player or say, handbags, women handbags. So we do not really have a formidable brand. So ultimately, even if you want to buy something Indian, it's not really available. And if you want to go for a luxury automobile, so upwards of 30, 40, 50 lakhs, you don't really have a choice. So that's where we go out to. Aditya, anything to add? So interestingly, Shantung, we have not seen a lot of brands, especially wanting to use or leverage this vocal for local, for in their brand market marketing during this time yet. We actually haven't seen much of that. So yeah, and I think a lot of the sense is that we are brand for who we are rather than just for being... Where we are made, exactly. Sort of a handicap that we need to use. It's almost, if I have a strong brand, that's what I want to relate to rather than just being Indian, is at least till now, that's what we have seen perhaps. Yeah, yeah. And I think the other question that was coming up and Aditya, you would be a great person to tell us. Between all of these engagements, what should be a benchmark for what it would be, be the paid versus what would be the natural... Organic. Authenticity driven, organic, this thing driven by authenticity. The benchmarks that you would say. Yeah, so I think Shantung, in this case, I mean, what I would say is that it's a ratio, right? So you have to see as a percentage of what is paid and what is organic. So I think one good way to actually when you see a piece of content to determine how organic it is to look at, depending on the platform you're using, say, I'll give an example of YouTube, you can look at the number of views versus like the comments, the like and dislike ratio and things like that. So for example, if it's a lot, if it's very organic, you should have a like to dislike ratio of over 20 and you should have like an engagement rate of at least over 2%, I would say. And then the way to calculate engagement rates simply would just be comments plus likes, minus dislikes divided by views, right? And if you see, if something is heavily paid, then you will see that those numbers will really fall. I think at a time like this, it's okay to seed, right? The CPMs are really low. So there's a very, it's very tempting to put money on something and it's okay to seed it as long as you are seeding a piece of content with a little bit of money in the right target audience. But once you have done the seeding, you need to let it grow organically. You need to design something in a way that those people are going to share or tag somebody or comment or spread it to their friends. And so in general, what we would recommend is it should be 80% organic to get high ROI out for your brand in terms of the call to action and in terms of the actual, you know. Residual impact. Residual impact. All of these are very useful metrics for any of us who are doing it and all the people who are listening. Melissa, I think your campaign, the South African tourism campaign of going in life caught people's imagination. And therefore I saw it in so many of my WhatsApp groups, for example, being shared by people. And that's really when you're trying to authentically make something available for people. That's really something that takes its own legs or gathers its own speed and wind there for behind the scenes. So that great example of that. And that reminds us, many of us are going to eye South Africa as a tourism spot as well. You really made it exciting for all of us even more today. And again, now, Kathy, hand it over back to you. Wonderful sharing from all the panelists. We had a really engaging time talking about something you all enjoy very much in an authentic manner. There is one specific question that has come up, which is for Nelliswa, which is about ethical marketing that you spoke about. They're saying it's not a small word and thanks for talking about it. If every brand re-thinks about ethical marketing, the consumer would feel better and the world possibly would be a nicer place. Their specific question is about what is the future of travel and tourism? Post-COVID, yes. You know, we are in such a, in a precarious situation as travelers. I said the other day to an interview that I was addressing that it's a combination of I am a traveler. I am now coming back home to India. What I pack in my suitcase that will not endanger just my journey to the airport. What do I pack in my suitcase? What do I unpack at home when I get back to Mumbai? And what do I discard that is going to be environmentally friendly? The future of Africa, the future for travel is going to be really dependent on what the consumer wants. Again, in labor, we have to listen to the consumer, understand the thought process. I think that, and I always make this example between India and South Africa, we are bound by so many commonalities that we are resilient. I think there will have to be changes but those changes are going to be consumer driven. They're going to be by distribution channel. They're going to be the hotels driven. We are going to see a bit of a shift from confined spaces. I think people are going to want wide. They're going to want natural environment. One of the things that picked up from COVID-19, if you think about it, not one animal space has been impounded by this disease. This has been human to human. Therefore, we need to re-engage with the natural environment, bigger spaces. I mean, water is going to become very important in terms of the ocean. So it's got the days where we are going to want to queue up to go up on a compound space. The way we consume food, do you want still somebody you don't know who has prepared your food? I think we're going to be very driven by trust. It's going to be very key. I would rather have my husband, my brother, my sister, who I'm traveling to prepare that food. A lot of diverse and different things that are going to come up. Is travel coming? Is it going to happen? I think more than ever. But we've got to be very vigilant and diligent in tailor making what consumer is. Gone are the days where I sell what I love. It's what the consumer needs and how do I respond and how do I deliver. Right. Absolutely. Fantastic. On that note, I think we will end our panel. There are lots of very, very engaging and good discussions. Thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you, Shantanu, for that was some lovely audio. Thank you, Shantanu. Thank you, Paditi. Thank you very much. Thank you, Krishna. Thank you. We'll connect up with all of you. Sure. Thank you. Bye-bye. Namaste. Thank you so much, everybody. We love this discussion. Thank you. Namaste. Namaste, instead of shake hands all the way now. Yes. Namaste. Namaste, please. So with that, all those who are watching us, I hope this has been a very engaging and interesting panel discussion. I could see in the comments and in the chat box that you guys have loved it. 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