 I quickly want to remind you that after the pitch CMO Summit there is the happiness flowing your way with the pitch CMO Awards 2021 which gets bigger as well so be with us because the happiness will prolong and celebration will only take place with that but now it's now time to move on and join in in the fireside chat and first I want to welcome the first person well somebody who holds the key of super amazing thought and that is bringing wellness towards a greater heights where is the man who's driven this towards a great perfection an honor to welcome him here at the pitch CMO Summit ladies and gentlemen please welcome director Imami Limited Harsh Agarwal with us right now and joining him yet another amazing personality who is a leader who is thought person and always delivers the best investment comes to the knowledge and being creative and objectified please welcome our head for network sales Viacom 18 Mr. Mahesh Shetty and joining the two in the fireside chat our very own superhero chairman and editor in chief BW business world and exchange for media of AGRS Dr. Anurag Bhattra over to you. Thank you so much Mithin thank you Mr. Agarwal for joining us and you know again Imami really doesn't really need an introduction but I will introduce what you do and at least bring your branch to the floor welcome Mr. Mahesh Shetty for joining us and clearly again what you do is well known. Imami is a powerhouse of brands and today's whole day has been about brand purpose. I mean Imami has Boroplus, Case King, Mentho Plus Bomb, Imami Golden Duty, Imami Naturally Fair, Imami Emum Soul, Cream 21 and I can go on. These are brands that are built on the brand purpose of bringing well-being to consumers. Now Mr. Agarwal Imami is a very very venerable brand in business and it was set up many many years back. How do you make sure that you live the brand purpose on a day to day basis and especially in the last 12 months the brand purpose must have been tested. Give us a sense of how you make sure that you nurture the brands using the brand purpose. Thank you Mr. Dr. Anurag Bhattwa for having me here and also for introducing our company. I think see honestly brand purpose is something you know which can really make a very very big difference in the overall performance, the growth of the brand and the company. But my belief is you know not too many brands or not too many companies have very clear brand purpose or neither do they follow. In our company you know for the company we have a very clear mission and I will say the philosophy and you might also call it the purpose is making people beautiful and healthy naturally. So basically the word naturally you know is what is very very core to us. How do we make people beautiful and healthy but with the help of nature and in fact every day whatever we do the products we launch the brands we launch it's all around the brands and the products bringing in nature to them. How do we bring the best of the nature to the consumers be it the beauty products the personal care products of the health products. So from that perspective yes we are always in look out for the best of the ingredients because there are so many unknown herbs etc which are there which are used in different parts of the countries and they might have very very different benefits but people are not aware of it. There are herbs which are very very efficacious but still which are not unknown to the people. So we spend a lot around R&D as to how do we explore them how do we find out about them and how do we bring them to the consumers. Then is the quality of the product because ultimately if you have to give the consumers the best of the health. So how do you remain true to it how do you give the consumers the best of the products with the help of the nature but with really quality products. So that is something we are very very particular about. Sir Agarwal clearly when we talk of health we this talk of Ayurveda we talk of you talk to natural health. There is a huge movement towards Ayurveda there are huge movements to it natural ingredients in health products in beauty products. So clearly you know I would like to know from you how is Imami kind of leveraging this movement to be able to bring out new brands and new products that enhance the quality of life. And in the last 12 months one of the biggest things from a health standpoint is immunity. Health was always very important but COVID has made sure that our focus on health as individuals and as a society has gone up and we are looking after health even more than we ever did. So tell us how are you making sure that the increasing awareness about the source of ingredients what is being used in the product is going up you know people can search and find out people look at the product before they buy. So what are you doing to be able to leverage this trend of one of you know organic products of Ayurveda of natural ingredients and second is last 12 months the focus on health in every product. If you see the average communication of any product category which is utilized inside the body or on the body you know the health benefits are being doubted you know upfront much more than they were 12 months back. So give us a sense of how is Imami building on the brand promise of providing you know natural ingredients in its products. So yes immunity has been something which is which the consumers are looking for and yes COVID has something really increased the need of that. So in the last 12 months since COVID you know I would say in fact in the first three to four months we launched more than 15 products around immunity. So we were very agile and with speed we could launch more than 15 products around that. In totality in six months you know we could launch more than 30 products in our company and all products which were relevant to the COVID needs. So be it health be it hygiene so we launched a whole range of hygiene products under our brand Boroplus which included you know sanitizer hand was the soaps etc because we believe you know the brand Boroplus had the right to win in that segment and certainly you know COVID made us believe that more. Secondly in the health you know Jhandu which is therefore Ayurveda consumers are looking for more solutions which are natural which are Ayurvedic the trust around Ayurveda has increased and people were looking for the solutions. So yes and third we also launched a range of home range of products which was around the area of hygiene again you know but not personal hygiene but home care be it surface cleaning kitchen etc everything. So yes as a company we were very agile and with speed we could launch so many products and yes all of them based on nature of course because that is what we stand for and we believe you know we have given the consumers products which they needed in fact I would give you one example of you know we have launched a Chavanprash which is made of jaggery you know because all other Chavanprash are made of sugar you know they have very high content of sugar in it. So for the first time in the market we launched a Chavanprash which is made of jaggery to make it more healthier. So our continuous endeavor is how do we make products which are healthier and which consumers can consume without any why. Innovation the small innovation of using jaggery sugar can have huge impact on the health. Now Jandu was an acquisition that you did in 2008 right the company has grown through many acquisition of companies and brands as we move into 2021 and ahead for 2021 do we see Imami doing more acquisitions are new brands becoming part of your portfolio on the horizon. Yes of course I think you know acquisitions have been a part of our strategy and it will always remain to be. We have done some very successful and very large acquisitions in the past and we have been one of the most aggressive company in this area in the country right from Jandu then we acquired Kesh Kink and right now what we are also doing yes we are open for more acquisitions to answer you directly to that. If we get the right opportunity the right brand at a right value yes we are open to more acquisitions be it small or big we don't mind even if it is original brands if it is national brands we are open for it and at the same time not only the acquisitions because we believe the times have changed we are also looking for more partnerships you know partnerships with the digital first brands because that's a new ecosystem which is which has opened up so how is company you know we can partner with such entrepreneurs with such companies where one and one you know where we come together and instead of becoming three how do we make it 11 because everybody has its strength and we believe you know as a company we can't do everything right so it's very important that we partner with the right kind of people the right kind of company so that it gives us an entry in the categories or areas where we are not present so yes acquisition and partnership will be two areas of future strategy as well. Thank you so much Mr. Gowal my last question before I bring Mr. Manish Shetty into the conversation and make it a three-way conversation you know the last 12 months to build on what you said have what I call a 3c economy collaborative you talk about the partnerships compassionate because whether it's our channel partners or its employees we need to be more compassionate and the environment has made us more compassionate and third is contactless you know everything has become contactless we're doing this event virtually there is a rise of D2C brands digital to consumer direct to consumer now I know that you mommy is one of those FMCC companies who got into selling their products online really ahead of time almost all your products are available online and I want to ask in the last 12 months how much of your sales have gone online and are you looking to build some D2C products some new brands but are true to the purpose that you mommy stands for yeah of course Dr. Anurag you know I think direct to consumers brands products are only going to grow we very strongly believe in that yes in the last one year our sales have also multiplied right now will be somewhere around the range of 3% but we have aspirations that in the next two years how can we take this to around 8 to 10% of the overall sales and this will be happening not only by growing the sales of the existing products but at the same time we have already launched and we are in the process of launching many new products under the existing brands which are targeted towards the consumers or which will be only selling through the e-commerce route secondly yes we are also working on many D2C brands itself you know which we believe has potential and which we want to launch again you know in the e-commerce platform and maybe you know in the modern trade but yes more targeting this niche segment and the audience so going forward I certainly believe you know there is a lot of future in fact in Jhendu we launched we very quickly after covid so by july in just three to four months we launched a platform of Jhendu you know where we were selling all our Jhendu products to the consumers directly so apart from the 3p platform we have also created our own platform where we sell products then digitally we are also the consumers can come and take or consult with doctors Ayurvedic doctors again because lot many people at that point of time didn't want to go to doctors etc so even we launched those services there for the people where they can call and share their problems and consult the Ayurvedic doctors as well so yes I think this is again going to rapidly only increase and as a company we want to very strongly be part of this trend. Thank you so much Mr. Agarwal let me bring in Mr. Mahesh Shetty into the conversation. Mr. Shetty you heard Mr. Agarwal I heard Mr. Jhendu Kalroh was the MD of TTK Prestige just before that and clearly one of the things that have come across that for companies like Yamami companies like TTK Prestige that last 12 months have been actually very good they've been able to live up their brand promise and through what they've done they've been able to grow their numbers you know in a very tough year for most categories so as a media brand as a media platform that partners these brands in growth what are the top three changes you have seen in the brands approach when they do conversation with you Mr. Shetty? You know if I just look at the overall 12 months you know it's not one story actually if you look at Q1 I think Harshji would also agree with me actually none of us were sure how things will pan out and in part of one of this financial year most brands actually cut down on these pens and I think there was uncertainty and that led to that kind of a decision also in terms of communicating to consumers and generating you know brand pull when the consumer cannot go to the store to buy okay and when there was a situation of lockdown actually did not make sense and so if you see in terms of brands and their spins Q1 was a very different phase where brands held back their spins around Q2 which is around June is when you know the market started opening up lockdown kind of you know came down across the country and stores open supply chains kind of streamlined that's when brands got back to advertising and I think the kind of response that some of the categories got and I would say FMCG being the flag bearer of this entire I would say the consumer momentum and companies like Imami, Prestige and HUL, Reket and I think they really drove the entire category and I would say you know the momentum on any media company putting us and Q2 saw their businesses coming back okay and you know showing strong growths and that impacted their entire outlook towards media and I say you know media is a reflection of how the economy does and how key categories perform overall I would say television and I would say that about television because you know the bread and butter of television advertising is FMCG and since FMCG is a category kind of pulled back and H2 which is the second half of the year saw very good traction from brands across categories while you know there were challenges for most media companies where you know there was an anti-China sentiment and because of which certain categories stayed off certain brands stayed off actually which was in the mobile category or in you know I would say gaming certain categories within FMCG also faced you know headwinds and in some of our regional market some of the local retail channel you know clients also faced a lot of headwinds because of the lockdown and people not moving out however you know that got kind of covered up by some of the new categories that came up so edutech was you know saw the entire category saw a huge boom last year I mean I would say when I say last year this current financial year and gaming saw a huge boost also D2C company saw a huge boost and one of your speakers today Varun Alag his brand came on board for the first time I think it was their biggest marketing bet they came on Big Boss as one of the sponsors and I would say it was a very bold move from his side he was personally involved in that decision making and so I think overall there is a you know entire sense of optimism and that's also because consumers are going out and you know opening up their wallet and spending money in specific categories so and that has also led to brands also going back and you know going back to communicating their brand purpose their entire marketing campaigns yeah so overall I think when we started off which was Q1 sense of uncertainty and we are ending the year of financial year with a you know sense of optimism going you know as we go across the coming financial year okay thank you so much for sharing those inputs and clearly yes the first two three months of the lockdown saw a supply side issue and saw demand side issue retail was closed physical retail but what it did subsequently was that it brought in the whole omnichannel experience and during the festive season really the omnichannel experience led to record sales from certain product category and you're right a lot of FMCG brands have utilized the second quarter to up the end in terms of spends on television because an increase in share of voice would auger well for growing the market share in the immediate short term and clearly partnership became the order of today if you had to going forward Mahesh three trends that you see becoming bigger these trends may have been trends that you saw in the last 12 months and some of them germinated during the host covid phase but are possibly likely to stay what are those two or three trends that you see becoming bigger and likely to say from media brands partnering large FMCG companies like Imam I think I will go beyond FMCG I think one of the key trends is that I would say last 12 months has fundamentally changed consumer behavior and there are new categories which have become very interesting part of the consumers life edutek has become an interesting part of consumers life today last 12 months my kids have just been doing online education and that's happening across a country across every from small town to big town to you know all across and edutek is a category okay is booming and in that brands are looking at building their own equity and loyalty with their own consumers I think so brands which have been you know have become part of consumers life okay because of the behavior change the last 12 months are here to stay because now they're intrinsic part of the consumers I would say buying basket it could be edutek is just one example but also there is gaming because you know young youngsters were not stepping out so online gaming there was a huge boost and so what was growing at X space has gone at 10 X space and again because as those brands are becoming part of consumers you know life so there are brands within that space there are more brands coming into that entire space and there are more brands wanting to spend money to build their own equity so these categories will actually be very important as we go ahead as far as advertising go secondly I think consumers have become very comfortable dealing directly with the brands so you know adoption of online has again moved up 10 X okay in the last 12 months and consume so if you see across markets if you just go on Facebook or Instagram you will be flooded with new brands who are trying to engage with you as we speak in Bombay I keep getting notifications from a trouser brand called Bombay Trooper or ice cream brand called Noto these brands do not exist okay and they are also you know forming their own niche and with time they're also growing now as they go beyond the particular level they will have to move on to mass media okay to get to their own you know the ambitions that they would have they would plan for themselves going from one city operation to a pan India and I think these brands which are direct to consumer will also be more a period of time in the coming years be important part of the overall you know advertising your bouquet of clients thirdly I would look at FMCG I think FMCG like I say is the flag bearer of you know I would say television advertising or overall mass media I think they understand consumers the best and they understand the fact that consumer loyalty is very important and investing in brands is very important and that's why you know when the unlock process started okay I think the FMCG brands and I would compliment her you know her G also you know while we have with his we keep having you know a lot of negotiation discussions but what I really appreciate is the you know the the fact that they went out and invested in you know building the brands or you know communicating the brands and and this is across board and I think FMCG brands know it very well they understand that being in the consumers consideration set is very important and hence communicating actively is very important so I think this is something that will continue so broadly speaking new categories which is which have emerged in the last 12 months okay will become big brands in the coming days newer ways of engagement which is direct to consumer brands which are very small will I think grow and FMCG will continue to drive the you know to be strong and continue to drive their spends on advertising to hold on to their consumers so yeah that's what I think would be the three trends thank you so much Mahesh let me ask Mr Agarwal the last question before I hand it over to Mithin and the last question to you Mr Agarwal you know brand purpose has become more important in the last 12 months a lot of things that we talked about they would put in company brochures or in the boardrooms have actually come into play profits have always been important but purpose people planet have become very important sustainability and ESG has become very important and I want to know when it comes to the planet when it comes to sustainability what is the army doing to be able to kind of stay ahead of the game and contribute to mother earth Dr Bhatt, you know let me answer it in a different way because what I believe sustainability because all these are always taken as purpose for the corporates my belief is you know they cannot be the purpose of the company because if you see you know very simply if I say what is the purpose of the company you know it can be very simply defined as why how and what right so all the company knows you know what they do what kind of products they sell right they know how they are doing it you know what are the unique selling proposition etc but why they do it I think most of the brands companies are not at all clear why they do it in fact for me you know this thing of sustainability good to the society etc has been you know because there has been a lot of talk about purpose mission etc and so on and I think you know they are just good to have kind of a purpose but from the perspective of the growth of the company it has to be more strategic towards what you do and why you do rather than so this the thing of sustainability etc is more very peripheral to the overall company's purpose they cannot be the core purpose of the company right but yes for every company's agenda you know yes sustainability is always a part of it so yes for us also now whatever plastics that we consume now how do we ensure that you know the same is what is being recollected by the vendors is what we ensure so from that perspective you know to ensure that you know whatever is being used by the consumers is recollected and recycled and so we there are vendors you know with whom we have come into some kind of contract where they buy that much kg of plastic you know what we consume and recollect and recycle it apart from that yes we do a lot of csr activities where planting trees etc are part of that right but I wouldn't say that sustainability again is the purpose of our organization fantastic so you're saying that you know you know the why is equally important that's how you do it so clearly the organization leaders that can bring this common thread across their organization of why and build it in their brand purpose in the way they build their brand they build their businesses sustainability will automatically be a part of it it may be a part of the strategy of the organization thank you for talking to us and I know you may not want to answer this question but we are very close to the Bengal elections love to know who would win I think anybody's guess you know in fact I would love to hear your view on that see I live in Delhi I talk to my friends I do look at the sector market for trends because they are mostly accurate I've looked at all the polls and right now the polls as of yesterday were giving TMC an edge over BJP but it's a close contest today the Prime Minister did his rallies and obviously that has its own impact and BJP leaders including Mr Shah have been saying that they'll win more than 200 seats in Bengal but on the ground it seems like you know it's a close contest with TMC being little ahead that's how it is on the ground TMC is given between 60 to 65 seats by almost all both between 156 to 165 BJP is being given between 90 to 108 seats 25 to CPI and CPM and another five to others so really as of now that's including the group that Mr Shetty is part of these are broad numbers that the group has talked of but really elections are fought in the last two three days too and the Prime Minister's rallies in the interiors of Bengal would also bring some traction so really it is a close fight and we'll wait and watch so good to know good to hear from you these numbers but yes what we believe you know whosoever comes should be good for the business because ultimately that is what is going to bring in employment and the overall good for the overall state so that is what we hope for absolutely thank you so much and we wish you luck Mr Agarwal and we look forward to having a conversation in the old world physical way before I let you go and get Mr Shetty go I want to ask my last question to Mr Shetty Mr Shetty what is that one change in the consciousness of media companies that has come in the last 12 months has cost become a very important factor is innovation driving programming and product offering or clearly it is only about survival difficult question and I would say all actually you know when COVID hit us and like I said in the phase of uncertainty cost became a very important part of everything we did because frankly it was about survival and then growing so hence re-looking at costs and every cost line became very important and in a way you know it also opened our eyes to many places or spaces where we thought you know realize that we could you know reduce cost or optimize cost and in a way it was good I would say however cost cutting cannot help you grow an organization and that is just a short-term thing it is a quick fix it just helps you and I think if there is one thing that can help an organization grow and I would say even for every media company it is innovation and if you look at it today you know I think we are lucky that you know television still continues to be very strong and continues to have strong royalty across the country and having said that if we take that for granted I think that will you know I would say cause our doom okay and this is not like a immediate doom or something like that because consumers today I mean it is not a single screen audience that we're talking about it is a multi-screen audience the consumer is consuming television is consuming content on his mobile phone his YouTube so he's exposed to a lot of content and hence you know understanding consumer needs and ensuring that we and I would say that about all of us actually that we are right here in terms of understanding consumer needs and you know generating and creating content which kind of engages him I think that will be very important part so yes costs and all are important in their core for survival but I think it's innovation which is the most important thing and that's something that you will see you'll see a lot of stuff from the vibe on your team's table also in terms of new shows and new content and I'm sure it'll be across industry thank you so much thank you Mr. Agarwal thank you Mr. Shetty we're moving into our segment of the pitch CMO awards so thank you Mr. Agarwal you are our headline speaker you are we had a very good lineup during the day and I watched couple of presentations they were high quality and with the conviction you shared your brand philosophy and the why clearly it would inspire other young brands who want to make an impact and we wish you luck in your endeavor for your money and its brands to provide health and beauty in a natural way to its consumers so I'm sure there'll be many more opportunities to have a conversation we'll of course talk to you after the all the lectures to see what happens there and thank you Mahesh continuing to know it and partner with brands in a meaningful manner back to you Mithin thank you thank you Dr. Raghbatra thank you Mr. Mahesh Shetty and of course Mr. Harsh