 So welcome back everybody to the EconClave 2020. Here we have with us a very robust panel which will share their thoughts on COVID-19, its impact on media and entertainment industry in India. And I take this pleasure to welcome our speakers on this live, our session chair, Mr. Raman Kalra, Partner CMO Advisory Leader, PWC India. Mr. Kalra is an entrepreneur at heart with 24 years of experience in industry and consulting with a strong track record in conceptualizing, growing and managing businesses. A very warm welcome to you sir. In this panel we have with us Mr. Krishna Rao S. Badda, Senior Category Head Marketing Farley Products, Sister Neeraj Vyas, Senior EVP and Business Head Sony Pictures, Ms. Prasheem Mahapatra, CMO-FBB Future Group India, Mr. Suresh Balakrishnan, Chief Revenue Officer, the Hindu Group, Ms. Uma Talreja, Chief Marketing and Chief Customer Officer, Shopper Stop. So I would like Mr. Kalra to take over this conversation. So till then let me remind everybody that we are also live on Twitter. You can do live tweets right there. We're using our hashtag E4M webinar. Our tag is E4M tweets. All the speakers are here. If you have any questions put it in your Q&A box if you're on Zoom or in the comments on Facebook Live. So we would be really happy to take those questions on after the discussion is over. Just something to wait for Mr. Kalra to join in. And if I may take it on a lighter note with our speakers here, everybody is here. Can Ms. Uma tell me how has this quarantine been on a personal note? Like I know the professional journey will happen through Mr. Kalra. I think there have been a lot of learnings in a manner of speaking. Mostly of course that work from home is not as difficult in terms of coordination and managing things, though we don't have real work at present. But still it's much easier. But I think definitely you start missing small things and which are important for me. I think the most important thing is I can't go to the gym anymore. And I have to say before I thought of anything else that was the first thought that came to my mind saying that I can't go to the gym the next day. There's every possible way to think of how the rule does not apply to that. But of course that wasn't the case. And then trying to adjust certain things that you really like and how will you evolve them, whether it's catching up with friends. Luckily my parents live with me so that's a big comfort. Being able to talk to my sister more regularly. Being able to really talk to friends. Colleagues are always in touch with of course. It's been challenging but it's been alright. And in our building we do have a positive case. A couple of days. So certain areas of our building are under quarantine not all because it's pretty big complex. But it just makes you realise how important it is to be there for each other without really being there. Physically that you cannot be there. Yes, people will be happy to know what personally all of you are doing as well. So Mr. Krishnara, why don't you tell us how the quarantine has been. How are you settling in? Frankly speaking for us it's been actually significantly more than what it was pre-COVID-19. It's been extremely hectic. I would say actually in the last 15 days I would say there has been a little bit of relaxation. Otherwise the going has been really crazy. So we being a part of food and food being an essential. So we have been on actually. From the Jantak a few days. And multiple con calls, multiple meeting sessions, internal meetings. So it's been crazy actually. So you must have been busier than ever during this time? Absolutely. So we've had several internal discussions and continuously the work is on. So if someone would have asked me pre-COVID, so how about work from home, I would have said just not possible. So maybe it's all okay for IT guys but just not possible. But I think there's a completely new perspective. I think everything is possible. We can remotely work and far more efficiently I would say. Right, there is a great balance that people are creating between the home duties and the work duties right now from home. Absolutely. I would like to ask Mr. Vyas, how are you doing in this quarantine? How are you handling personally? I personally completely hate working from home. I have a completely different perspective. And it could be because of the line of work that we do. TV and live television is all about shoots and being there. And while we are doing our creative meetings and writing our episodes and we are doing our so-called casting and planning and everything for the new shows and all of that. I firmly believe that the energy that you physically bring into a creative meeting of writers or producers or could be visiting a set which I normally do once a week to all my shows and interacting with the actors and then reworking themes and all of that I think is a bit of a downer. When you work from home, it doesn't really let you do that. Personally, I'm a very hyper person. This downtime is not working very well. Yes, so one tends to feel a little handicap, a little less in control which is again something I don't like to be in. Frankly, hating every moment of it beyond the point. Doing everything that I have to but not really liking this to be honest. Absolutely. I think most of us who are used to being there physically to do what we do are facing a lot of trouble. We all as artists are missing the stage so much. Even if we can do this online but the whole energy and vibe of the stage. Exactly how I feel. Yes, absolutely sir. I do agree. May I ask Ms. Mahapatra, how are you dealing with this quarantine? How is work for you from home? Well, not very different from what Uma, Krishna and Neeraj put in. I absolutely don't like staying away from people or in fact for that matter not staying out in market is something that definitely makes me very scratchy. But on the other side, yes, I'm missing my dance classes. Yes, I'm missing my runs. That's something that most of us are definitely feeling the need to be there. On the other hand, yes, when I'm looking at things how it has been shaping up I'm pleasantly surprised to find new things about myself. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that things I never believed in like getting like 15, 20 people to come together, create something and put it out there and make it work. That's not something we had anticipated. In fact, as Krishna was mentioning Big Bazaar has been open and all of us are on our toes. Since the lockdown has happened, we have not have Sundays, Mondays. We just have days now as we put in. So yes, things have been moving but it's a surprising thing to see that how much plus plus we could bring on table despite such handicaps. But yes, most of us would like to go back to some part of our old life. I don't know what normal is anymore, but some part of our old life. Yeah, I think there is going to be a free COVID and post COVID world that we are going to talk about after this. So may I ask Mr. Suresh, how are you handling this quarantine time, this lockdown? Actually, for our business like Neeraj said, it's all about going out there meeting clients, meeting agencies, making business happen. So to that extent, yes, missing that. But having said that, to agree with what Krishna and Uma said, one really didn't think that our kind of business could be conducted, you know, of sitting at home and I think that's a real revelation. As far as the energy goes, yes, missing my badminton, which is something I missed desperately. But I'm putting all that energy into washing vessels, sweeping, swabbing, hanging out clothes. So I've become a fantastic case for Unilever. I can tell you the difference between Domax and Lysol. Wow. Liquid and Brill between aerial front loading and surfmatic front loading. So apart from Cisco WebEx and Microsoft Teams and Zoom, other areas I've also developed a lot of expertise in. Wow. So we can easily say that this lockdown and quarantine has made all of us very domesticated as well. We are so good with doing our domestic duties at home now. But because Mr. Kalra hasn't joined us yet, there's some technical difficulty still going on. So we are just trying to... Oh, brilliant. So Mr. Kalra is here. So I'm going to take your way. Thank you everybody. Mr. Kalra, I'd like you to take the lead now. Thanks for holding the fort for that. No problem. It's so funny. Krishna, I see you on the screen. I've been... All of us have been on video calls all day long. And it gets stuck right on this one. Am I audible now, by the way? Yeah, absolutely. Perfect. Super. I'm glad. I just changed my laptop. So absolutely great to be here with you guys. Suresh, good to see you. I see a lot of pictures on the wall behind you. A lot of memories, I'm sure. Yes. Hi, Prachi. Hi, Uma. Hi. Hi, Krishna. Hi. I think in the interest of time may be... I assume, Karthik did all the introductions already. So everybody in the group, all the people who are watching us live over here, thank you so much for taking your time to come to this conversation. We will straight away jump into it in the interest of time. As we all know, one word I heard some people started saying, now please avoid unprecedented word totally and completely. I heard, I think, someone was saying even yesterday also on one of these webinars only. So we all know the impact that has happened. So I wouldn't touch upon there at all. I think let's rather jump down to what matters for the audiences to come to listen to us. Health crisis, which became an economic crisis that we know about. Now, from a media industry perspective, I always say, media industry is not just about the vertical side of it, which is the publishers and everybody around there, and then there's a horizontal side of it, which is all the brands, people who spend money. And the industry gets defined by two people by and large, simplistically putting in. The one who cuts the check. So we have people on the discussion today who cuts the check. So we have Uma, we have Cratchity from that perspective, we have Krishna from Parle, and then people who watch the advertisements at the end of it. Like a consumer head. Everybody in the middle, everybody in between the consumer and the one who is cutting the check, is a value chain which keeps shifting every few years. Sometimes there is a tectonic shift that happens and what I feel will happen because of COVID-19 will be no less than a tectonic shift on the value chain, on the media and the impact on media industry. So there will be a few gainers, there will be a few losers, but before we jump to that, before there is a huge demand contraction that has happened because of COVID-19 and the demand contraction has led to a severity of funds coming to the marketing. The first budget, you go to any company and say that the first budget that takes a hit when things go down is a marketing budget. But does it mean that you stop marketing? Of course not, you got to still continue to keep the steam alive and who knows it better than people on the panel here. I think it was very heartwarming to see all the brands adopting the core theme of care, trust, empathy as a primary communication force keeping the larger purpose of the brand alive in these times. It was very heartwarming and of course it was the need of the art and the only sensible thing to do. Now moving forward, you can do that only up to a point. Like ask a CMO, ask a marketeer, ask a brand, you can keep on talking about the care while you will always keep talking about that but somewhere you have to strike a balance and have the other messages also go to the consumers that buy my product and giving a 30% discount, you need it. So that way. What we would want to do in the next 45 minutes as a free-going discussion is understand the impact before we go that I would request maybe we can start from, let's say, Prachi fashion and let's pick FPP as a brand. So Prachi and we'll do a very quick round and we'll talk about it. What has been the really the immediate short-term impact that you have seen and I will categorize that as a survival strategy. So what had been the short-term survival strategy and how you guys have really experienced that as a business that you run. Would you like to share that with me before we move on to the other things? Yeah. So I mean there are two ways to look about it and we're going to talk about the fashion side of our business as well as the essential side of our business as well which I look into actively. So when I talk about the fashion side of the business I'm sure Oma would also have her point of view on this from a shopper's perspective. We definitely have been locked down. Since the day we have been into a lockdown the fashion side of the business has definitely taken a hit rightfully so. As I keep on saying before marketers all of us are consumers and this is not going to be any different from people who consume our product. They're not going to make any purchase at this point of time which is not an essential for them as it has rightly been for us. All of us have been from the world go have been hoarding upon essentials and that's all everybody is doing. So definitely the fashion side of the business has seen a lockdown complete lockdown. The short term strategy as I would put it is as a value brand as you are seeing I wouldn't see a lot of uplift. We are anticipating an upswing primarily because of a lot of pent up demand which is there. If an example if I look for a kid's category a kid or an infant born think about an infant born during a lockdown. I'm sure there would have been a prep for him to be received or heard to be received but at the end of two months, three months they have new requirement. They have new motor skills. The requirement for a new toy, the requirement for a new apparel the requirement from a perspective of a child growing out of its or her sizes is manifold and that's not the only area we're talking about. We're talking about if I don't touch the food part of it I'm going to talk about something like I was reading today and we are experiencing from our own experience. There's a huge pent up environment for appellators. That's something that we can't avoid. All of us have been without a haircut without a normal salon services for five to long long time. That's going to be true for anyone of us. I got mine done for anyone of us. I got mine done for my daughter. Now we have new talent. That's something that we have noticed. Very exciting to hear specifically on your views on the pent up demand. You see a silver lining. You see upsurge happening as we move forward. Linking this thread and going to UMA since pretty much in the similar category at least from fashion perspective how would you see this whole thing shaping up and the journey so far for shopper stop? Both from a physical retail point of view and how you guys have really moved or seen the shift from physical retail to online so far. I would take a leaf from what Raji said. I think that the response from consumers might firstly vary by categories. I think there will be a redefinition of what is essential. Everybody is going to look at their own need state and their own situation, their own economic condition and I think that essential as a definition will change. What is essential for me going forward might be very different or let's say somebody else like you going forward and it might completely be different and I think that will influence a lot of category demand and whether it's pent up or not I think that's still not really as big as we expected to be is what I think. Some of the data that I've seen which is coming from across the world I don't think any of the countries which have opened up have seen a major bounce back. So for a year I think we'll have to really go after these very niche needs states and be able to segment our customers around whether it's geography, business, demographics, life stages and what is it that they're going to really really In this I think comfort, safety, security of course we all know is going to prevail and that's going to be very tricky and it will change I think the way people are living and what will it unlock in terms of innovation I think that is one of the things that is very very critical. The number of brands that have launched masks in this point in time all kinds of brands we've launched Vinvin's masks a few days back which have like Jaipuri ethnic prints Jaipuri ethnic prints that sold off the website yesterday launched kids masks with Marvel characters for example right which we never thought we would be doing in the past we as a department store would have never really thought of selling like a FMCG hand sanitizer but today we are actually sending hand sanitizers as well So I think this is just the beginning of that innovation but really how we use the next year where social distancing safety will be a way of life for us what can we do to actually innovate around product I think is going to be very very important for us to be not only serve the pent up demand which is what you could not have but what are you going to need in the future I think that is going to be very very important and how do we as retailers cater to that I think the second piece where you said which is online and all of us who have been in brick and mortar or even in primary online channel nobody really made a profit if this becomes the critical channel to serve customers to the future to prepare some amount of digging into what is the model going to be where are we going to optimize our costs how are we going to get better ROI and efficiencies I think that's the second piece which is going to be important a lot of us also have stores let's say in tier 2, tier 3 maybe they are not as severely affected in sentiment by covid or the penetration of covid how I think we might just end up running parallel streams what do we do online what are the stores which are badly affected what are the stores which are not as badly affected I think one has to really think this through in terms of how we can create multiple strategies keeping the consumer context in mind so what's really happening and about different strategies I think that's very important I would completely agree with you for every business and as you rightly said for every business I think wherever you might stand in terms of digital maturity there are a lot of enterprises and I am right now talking about brands cutting across industries so if somebody says that I have been really high on digital maturity they also need to sit down and think of new innovative ways of connecting with the consumers and being relevant in the market space and a lot of industries, a lot of companies have been caught off guard having not transformed digitally as much in the past and suddenly they are kind of grappling that we got to transform sooner otherwise you really lose out on the market I think that's a very valid point on digging into the new model as we go forward and building up some innovation I'll move on to Krishna Krishna is a very, very relevant FMCG brand let's say Parle you deal into confectionery bakery and snacks business of Parle now one can really it's a very thin line between non-essential but that will go on a few weeks on the line how have you seen the journey over the last 2 months on your business and how has the organization really responded to the supply chain and the sales side of Parle products we want to quickly share on that 2-3 minutes so quickly like I remember somewhere around the 15th of March is when we our office sort of asked to operate with 50% of our workforce and somewhere around the 17th also so the directors called us for a quick 5-minute notice of 5 minutes and asked us to form a key max and there after there is 22nd of March Janta curfew and followed by the lockdown on the declared on the 25th we have been on actually so we being considered as food which is an essential besides fresh fruits, vegetables etc so initially we struggled a lot right from convincing our own field force our own depots our own units we have about 130 contract manufacturers we have about 10 of our own mother mother units which are owned by Parle so to actually motivate them to open and start their business most importantly the final leg the distributors is the company lost why are they asking us to work in that but then I can tell you that over a period of time like 26-7 26-10 we sort of announced that we are going to give about our Parle G packet free to the government and to the health workers but actually this has been a regular ritual at Parle so be it Sathara floods Kerala floods, Bihar wherever any earthquake and all so we keep sending truckloads of biscuits and rusks but then here we sort of when it when it was declared in public it became much easier for us to say the entire channel so we sort of struggled to get manpower at our units and which we sort of managed we got the permission to operate with about 50% manpower and we struggled to get 20-25% manpower and with that we managed we started with 12-hour shifts try to up it to 16 hours and now as we speak we are in the process of just going to almost about 24-hour shifts at most of our locations almost about 100 plus locations are active up and running there are a lot of red zones where we are not getting we are finding it difficult but we were finding it extremely difficult like you mentioned about supply chains or our vendors our vendors were not really geared up we make biscuits you need wheat flour you need vanaspati and many other things sugar etc so we had to ensure that even wrapper for example so how is a police wallet constable going to know the ink that is going to print a wrapper is actually a part of an essential so those were the kind of challenges that we sort of faced and we managed to get our laminates we managed to get our products out and we started churning out so initially for the first few days it was easier wherein we had lot of inventory but then as we progressed into the mid of April and is when we sort of started feeling the heat because our depots are actually gone empty one can play cricket there now so we don't really have stock so and chains like yeah big bazaar and all of them actually all leading chains have been actually asking us they have been sending in the initial 10 days or so they were actually willing to send their own trucks to get stocks directly delivered to the store DSD so direct to store deliveries and we have done that but having said that so we have changed of about 60 brands so we had to sort of focus and we said okay we'll focus only on 12 brands and within those Parle G has got 10 SKOs we said we only focus only on about five of those critical ones so that actually gave us a living in terms of jacking up our production capacity so there was less change over as a result of which we are yields our outputs were much superior much better to say that actually so we've had a frankly speaking a very different unique experience but at the same time a terrific experience the demand is just going crazy so it's 300% the demand in the market for all our brands is more than 300% we are struggling to pop up and in April the whole of 1920 we struggled to get a 5% value growth only in April we managed to clock a 37% growth and we are I'll just intervene there I think it's an interesting comment that you made on the thing lying between proving being essential and non-essential the supply side of it and how how the whole lockdown and the physical movement has been impacting the business I'll come back to you Prachi and Oma and specifically on the marketing on the marketing strategies we plan to connect the consumers the shift from the way you had been marketing earlier your whole media mix modeling additional channels to digital and how the kind of shift you see because consumer behavior has shifted so I'll come back to you from a brand point of view before that I would want to quickly move on to Neeraj and Suresh there are segments which have gone down dramatically whether it is out of form, cinema event, theme park, exhibition a lot of these businesses are seeing and print so they have seen a big dramatic fall in their business model while there are certain businesses like OTT Esports or a news broadcast as a from a pay TV news industry perspective education online e-commerce I've seen a huge upsurge as part of this shift I would come to Suresh to you as chief revenue officer for Hindu group you look into the print circulation side of business also the online side of business Hindu did their journey on digital pretty well ahead of time as committed to a lot of other bigger players regional bigger players in the country how have you seen the impact on revenues because of the health and hygiene and the lockdown taking away the print circulation and the movement on digital side of it how has been the experience on that very quickly you can Suresh talk about it Suresh yeah it's been dramatic to say the least the experience for the last few weeks you're right circulation has been hit because in a lot of places they felt that having newspapers into complexes or into houses might actually be counterproductive although there is nothing newspapers actually are COVID carriers but that's another time the argument is another time the circulation was hit less so I think in the south where we circulate I think it was severely hit in Bombay because including the government took a stance that it shouldn't be delivered in Bombay and deliver badly hit in terms of circulation south less so but yes it was hit advertising revenues dried up completely almost April and May obviously no advertiser the consumer can't go out the advertiser is not advertising so those were the downside so revenues were really badly hit in these few eight weeks that we have been locked down now the positive side of course has been that our digital acceleration like you rightly said you know we we went Hindu group went on everything on e-paper on digital business line Hindu front line everything is paid and we went pay more than 8-9 months ago so don't ask me why 8-9 months ago but probably good that we did when we did so and as a result even though we went paid our digital unique users has gone up by 81% or post lockdown e-paper has gone up by 141% subscription has gone up by 91% on e-paper and subscription on digital has gone up by 110% over I'm talking about pre and post lockdown so yes there has been a downside in the circulation and the advertising revenue significant downside and but there's been a huge upside in digital and I'd also like to mention like Krishna said your product that has to come out every day so I had to talk to my editorial colleagues and my production colleagues in these trying times day in and day out there's not been one day when we have not produced the paper not one day across 19 editions of the Hindu across the south editors have been coming to work editorial staff has been out on the field production guys have been coming to the factory distributing it I think and we have learned new ways of doing it by taking all necessary precautions obviously safety of employees and security of employees was number one for us too and even in those conditions we have learned how to manoeuvre ourselves around those conditions and still produce the paper every day so while on one hand there has been a hit financial hit our future which is the digital has really ramped up for us and also how to bring the paper to the consumer in trying times has been a great lesson for us and both like I said editorial and production have been a fabulous job and circulation I mean the circulation boys every morning at 4.30 making sure papers are distributed I think it's been a great learning experience for us also and essential I mean we also fell under the essential tag so we didn't have anybody stopping except the consumer himself sometimes from entering his house otherwise everywhere it was a very good learning experience for us having said that is this digital acceleration here to say will it be at the cost of the newspaper which will be the classical rejoinder to something like this well your guess is as good as mine on this one because yes some amount of this digital acceleration I think will help us usually some of them will convert but people who have been used to reading a physical newspaper for 15 years 20 years 25 years when the lockdown comes will they suddenly say no I no longer need a newspaper what can I do with my paper well we will have to wait and watch our own research shows us and this research obviously we have access to our databases our own research shows us that more than 70% of the people said that when the newspaper comes back they would like to subscribe to it so that's what our research tells us out of the people who are not getting the paper people who are not getting the paper they would like to go back so I hear you out Suresh from you that upsurge in digital has happened for you guys and likewise for other guys and I think I would agree with you I have been into panels for the last about 7-8 years talking about pay walls and the news going on a paid on digital platforms people are willing to pay the whole debate between free news versus paid news but I think people have started to realize the value of good editorial content they will therefore subscribe they will pay for it you know and that is more and more I will park a very pertinent question for you and I will link it with before that I want to move on to Neeraj but I will come back to you you know you have you have Prachi, Uma and Krishna you know over there I would want to ask them that are you spending money on the digital platform for Hindu you know and that will be good enough for you to offset the revenue that you lose out on the print and I think I will come back to that I will give them my I will give them my contacts already my phone number I will come to that so before that Neeraj Neeraj you are into a very padding side of business film entertainment and of course there are different kind of impacts that has happened on the film you know the shooting on the shop floor has got halted there are so many hygiene and health issues which is going to impact the film but also into the pretty much in the mid to long term so ways and means of production would need to be re-looked at and likewise you know the theatrical release and the exhibition business like for the PVRs and you know cinepolis of the world you know that's a different business model but that would impact severely the one key monetization of film revenue for you people how do you see you know the impact hitting you know you in this space and a few quick thoughts around it so you can't break this up into two things since I handle a large portfolio of you know channels which I encourage in the content and also the movie channels which essentially are library channels which is the max channel all of them good news for us is that construction is not a problem like so many other categories maybe in the last I think it reached around 40% now this is you know and even now almost it reached 30% as of yesterday as for whatever market business consumption is not a problem and this is far higher than countries like the US or UK or France there is lots of disturbance in your audio there is lots of disturbance in your audio are you there? I am there but am I audible now? yeah it's better I seem to have lost all the screen but that's fine is it okay now? no there is a disturbance actually as you come closer maybe there is a disturbance okay is it okay now? yeah I think that's better okay so what I am saying is that from a consumption point of view we don't seem to be having any problem in fact people under lockdown are definitely watching TV and so that is actually a problem I think the larger issue for us is that we are not being able to generate original content and that at some point of time I think is going to catch up with us it's it's a repeat content essentially on the GCs which is playing out right now and everybody has done a lot of repeats as well so a lot of content what data we need online on the TV and now it's getting clear on the stars and covers so a lot of religious, devotional kind of content is playing out snacky, fun content lighthearted, dark meta about just my kind of content news, movies so these are the journals that are being viewed right now so I believe that viewership will definitely be a reality because whether it's any kind of conversation of the pressure or inflation or whatever consumers will need content and content will be consumed I think a larger challenge for us is going to be the presumption and as and when presumption happens I think you know issues of depression will be fairly complicated because a lot of hard work was caused is a last one not an article still bad yeah very bad actually you want to have a quick if you look at the audio at your end in the meantime I move to the discussion to let me try and reconnect I'll move the discussion to you know quickly to now back to Uma and Prachi so you know as we go forward now consumer habits have really changed dramatically you know nobody knows that what would be the shopping behavior between going forward from a consumer standpoint how much of physical retail shopping will come back in word form and shape how do you see your strategies changing now when you connect with the consumers you guys advertise a lot a lot and you have big spenders so do you see a big shift happening for digital marketing to internet advertising and any challenges do you see over there on engaging with the first Uma you want to go first Uma you think Prachi you want to give it a shot yes of course there is we have been big spenders we are not shying away from the fact that we have been big spenders on all the media and of course there is a change in behavior of consumer of course we have changed what we are focusing on and in fact as a group also we don't want customer running to our shops immediately as Uma earlier mentioned the fact that social distancing the fact that safety is going to be a prime concern for all of us we definitely are going to adhere to what the new customer behavioral changes are there of course there is a lot of focus on how safe your retail space is going to be but fear and greed is not something they are going to play front foot on as a mass brand in retail we have done very effectively in the past 20 years we have been forefront runners in the retail space in managing fear and greed but that's not something that we are going to do at this point in time and it's rightfully so the behavior of customer has changed how people are consuming product has completely changed so our focus is definitely going to shift from retail or break to click how effective it is going to be have we changed as you rightly mentioned at any company at any stage of digital maturity is going to move to digital space ahead from what it was already for us it is no different we have been able to create our online portal for ordering within a record 10 days for people to come back on to us and order online and get their essentials this is something that we are going to gear up and stabilize from here on we definitely want the traffic to move there we do not want people rushing back to our stores in a hurry and I don't know if there is any other way of addressing this at this point of time we don't want to open another channel of the pandemic spreading out anymore from then on do you see your shift in consumer behavior that happened and the same question would go to Umar also and also to Krishna all three of you in your quest to stay connected with the consumers in a very fast moving behavior which is happening all the brands are really figuring it out that we really know how fast the shift has happened and are we connected the right medium or not so your marketing as the marketeers you actually are at the forefront that the role of marketeers was always so important, so critical and it is going to be even more critical as we go forward because engaging the consumers is where the marketing excellence and marketing effectiveness will come into play do you feel that this shift as Prachi you were talking about mediums selling out a new business how effective your digital marketing strategies are and do you see any challenges over there from a whole engagement point of view from effectiveness of previous medium that you had or if I ask a very pointed question I don't know what is the trend on digital right now how do you see that moving how fast the needle will move for you guys from non-digital to digital mediums of advertising for us it's learning by the art not even by days anymore so the ecosystem is still not stabilized so for example day for yesterday we opened a store in Pannal yesterday it was closed so these are things we are taking as a thumbs before we start optimizing a campaign the campaign seems futile or the campaign just takes off so there will be definitely changes and we are moving as we are seeing the ecosystem change and that's for everybody to know that the ecosystem is not stabilized at any point of time and it's going to take some time to stabilize also so for us yes we are definitely increasing our digital footprints for doubt about it how far we have been successful a part of it definitely looks into comes into sale but at this point of time judging anything by the revenues that we are generating is it's not the right space to judge because I'm sure words like event shopping words like pent up demands will flow out and this is not a space that we can know that is a sustainable way of looking at a business so at this point of time we have meeting requirements we are meeting requirements from whatever is on the table we are meeting out from all the medium possible how far it is effective it's as anybody's yes it's something that I don't I love it when you say that strategy by art that's as agile as an organization can get into quick views from you on this and also if you might want to add when you speak how do you see the organization readiness to take as this shift for example shopper stop as an organization you see yourself being ready to address this shift or you see yourself going through a major transformation to you know meet the consumers I think firstly I think as an organization we feel a lot of responsibility towards the brand right because it's a brand which has created a new category so I think that is definitely top of our mind in terms of what is the brand going to mean to consumers in this point in time and as it as a situation evolves and I think it's a brand that has been built to customer relationships and we run a very strong which gives us which gives us relationship at the heart of our strategy that's the first thing the second thing is I think when we have to look at where will that effectiveness play out and in the last 40 days really we have actually started looking at our online channel of course much more carefully because it might really serve the customers differently and we were one of the first few retailers to invest in technology and strategy for being Omni channel and we have shift from store click and collect and many such services which we had integrated into our business model and what are we doing to really make sure that that is able to serve at this time probably in a different manner than it was earlier so from being maybe a convenient channel maybe it progresses into being a relationship channel for a large base of customers we have almost 7 million first citizens we actually make sure we get a bridge for them in terms of giving them that comfort and assurance from a brand which is highly trusted and that's very critical for us at this point in time as well I think the third piece is as stores open like I mentioned like Prachi mentioned something open something closes I think keeping my eye on that you know event in terms of what's going on on the ground and what our customers saying and I think that is really important to us we even did a survey with all our customers a large base like about 10,000 people that we survey during lockdown as to what they will expect in terms of both safety measures in terms of service as well as what they would be wanting to buy and what we will need and we have connected back now through prepaid orders so we have been running prepaid orders for a bit we are allowed to deliver essentials we have to then get essentials of course populated in our case we don't serve essentials as much but even our prepaid orders in the last 10 days actually we have started getting orders for delivery later which we just mined certain insights in terms of going back and talking to consumers and then putting that back into our promotions, marketing, homepage what is it that we really want to serve the customer what do they need I think that goes to the heart of really saying that this is what customers told us how do we really act on that that's important going straight forward to a media selection I think ROI is going to be more important that ever because the first things will be tight and I think that will determine what really will actually make those choices as we go along how our media is going to rise to that challenge what kind of support are we going to get from creativity point of view as well as measurement point of view because that's something that will be paramount and has to be justified in this process along with the partners and I think partners will have to rise to that and I think the stronger partnerships that we create between media as well as CMOs and brands I think that is really what is going to actually shape marketing because we know the challenges that consumers will face but really the media partners as well as us have to design solutions to go back and address the market need at that point that will require both creativity and agility I think in terms of what we are able to do and it will have to be like our strategies whether we learn and we are but how fast we execute I think both will be very very critical at this point in time I agree I think the speed and scale both will be important you touched upon a very relevant point which I was coming to next you know the analytics analytics and technologies around artificial intelligence will become more and more important and AI plays a significant role in fashion for example you know it can really you can do so much on AI powered technology platform it gives you complete look and feel of what you are wearing as a fashion and then you can buy it easily and I will come to Martek which you touched upon technology play and readiness before that there is a big question from Srinivasan AB and he asked that out of 10 shoppers who used to come to physical stores post COVID what will be the number let's say 1 in on the line just give a number no statement one number let's say I think I hope they all come back okay I don't think I don't hope they come back so fast I think about 5 of them I would be happy with them okay so Srinivasan you got your answer say out of 10 you will hit 5 near to mid time lines I will move on to Neeraj are you back with a good sound Neeraj you are on mute you are on mute yes Neeraj go ahead you got in a quick 2-3 minutes because we are running out of time but I do want you to finish but you are talking so the point I was quickly trying to make is that we don't have a consumption problem as of now consumption is gone up by 30-40% and so that's the good part and be it inflation be it COVID, be it depression, be it anything content is a reality and consumers will always need content I think the tricky part for us is to figure out how soon do we get back to our shoots and we have this routine of putting new content every day which I think is going to be the biggest challenge today for us which means following a completely new set of rules and discipline most of the studios are outside of Bombay and really in far up suburbs of Bombay like Meera, Rohan, Naiga and Winsor and all of that the studios are not in the best of conditions from a hygiene standpoint we have very large crews of more than 100 150 people across all shoots most of those people who are migrant workers and most of them have obviously gone away the rest come from all over the city and all of them use various forms of transportation buses or trains or all of this now a communication of so many people from all over is going to be a curriculum task for us to manage in Bombay this one reality is going to be just a lot of discipline in the way we work afterwards and banking there is a lot to get insured towards last week's shoots and issues and up into the episodes and a lot of madness that we dungeon at a really level is something that we want you to continue maybe neither we are losing you out no no it is again it is getting very bad we are losing out on you I will again jump to let me jump to Suresh quickly Suresh has a question from again Srinivasan says that and that was also on my agenda to ask about the print industry worldwide went down dramatically over the last few years India was one country which was defeating a trend and we were saying that even our PwC out of report we said that print will grow over next few years still in India do you think that this crisis will speed up the death of physical newspapers in India much sooner it will be a challenge for physical newspapers in India but the point is how do you describe yourself as a company if you are describing yourself as a newspaper company you are in big trouble in the coming few years but if you describe yourself as a content company then I think you are reasonably good space because at the end of the day Raman and this is a fact few days ago you must have a very leading news television channel it had a very high profile anchor who left and started his own channel recently but this particular channel came back and reported that Italy had found a vaccine breaking news for the next 3 hours the kind of hits that the Hindu site got on asking is it true they wanted verification from a newspaper because at the end of the day authenticity and trust still are the hallmarks of a newspaper and I think post this COVID one thing that's going to happen is the consumer and I think Uma touched up on this when she spoke about her 7 million first citizens is that consumers are going to gravitate towards trust towards credibility and authenticity they need to trust that's going to be highest on their agenda so I think if you are a content company that manufactures puts out information that is full that can be trusted I think you have a good runway ahead of you and then that medium can be physical newspaper for some time yes and will be digital for some time so it all depends on how you have invested and grown but I think if you describe yourself as a content company and that too from a newspaper house that is very different because then you are talking about owning credibility, authenticity and trust which is going to be I think the hallmark and as far as marketers it's the same thing what Uma was saying what Archie was saying is that you are not going to have too much money to experiment even when things open up etc budgets are going to be cut you are not going to have too much money to experiment you will go with tried and tested mediums that have delivered and deliver ROI for you where you have had good experiences and you will go with them so that's where I think again a good content company very quick rapid fire kind of thing getting across Krishna we didn't get time to get back to you partly it's a brand the space we are into FMCG it's always a heavy advertising different kind of promotions that you got to run insular promotions and a lot of outdoor advertising that happens how do you see the preparedness of the organization to traverse this digital maturity that has happened now how do you see Parle responding to the shift in consumer behavior yeah so frankly speaking so we've always we were one of the foremost companies to have been very very experimented we have two minutes each so for example when discovery came to India so we were the first advertisers actually in the country to onboard so having said that so digital we have been experimenting and having it for quite some time so we continue to do that but now the shift is for example largely we are not so much on to out of home or BTL or in store promotions is something very very critical for us so that we continue to do as of now there is a constraint as such at most of the modern retail stores but having said that as far as television is concerned print we have been always lying low but television so from a perspective where we are largely GEC focused now we are actually looking at being focused on news channels so that's I think that's the kind of a shift do you also see a quick shift a dramatic shift on your digital spend yes definitely that's already been on actually for a while so be it YouTube or Google or for that matter a lot of OTT we have been doing we have been partnering with a lot of OTT players for quite some time so that continues to remain and possibly as we move on we are looking at actually taking many more on to our fold and continue so there is definitely going to be a spike as far as digital is concerned yeah good Neeraj I want to come back to you once once more maybe a quick future outlook from your industry point of view cinema film how do you see it because the OTT is on the rise now it will keep on rising more and more with the consumer behaviour people will refrain from going to cinema halls do you see more movies being made for more and more now in future for direct to home releases OTT release or will the window of theatrical release be cut down you know from where it is now to maybe be a week or maybe even less than that sometimes so what kind of shift do you see happening in that space so clearly from a TV standpoint I don't see a problem because OTT content being made is for the discerning audience and that is meant to be viewed in privacy on a device of their choice at that time it's content which is but actually how can you do the TV kind of audience you know so that as far as that is concerned I don't see any great from a movie's point of view yes I see a huge shift I think at least 5 to 6 large releases will shift you will see that from June onwards or even May or May and onwards through OTT platforms they will skip the technical cycle and this is a reality I think at least for the next 6 to 8 months I think the first big release from a theatrical standpoint will only probably happen towards Diwali the screen owners are in a mess of their own you know it's going to be very heavily guarded in terms of how many people getting in and the screen owners are talking about you know probably just 30% kind of people being late into the movie walls and stuff like that so I think that business has gone for it also if you're a small movie, if you're budgeted between say 20 to 30 crores then digital and then satellite is probably the best interview in this one if you've made something in excess of 100 or 150 crores then you have no choice but to wait for the theatrical cycle to happen because nobody can make up for that kind of movie so this is maybe a do you see from a content production point of view you know because a constant supply is so important in this business for TV industry to succeed they have to have new shows coming up every day there should be constant clearly I think that definitely is a big issue and unfortunately like I said we like to restart a lot of our we look at a lot of our existing patterns we need to look at maybe moving away from the daily show kind of format maybe three days a week dividing the week between Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday Friday, Saturday so all of those populations are being looked at because it's very possible that we will not be able to physically get that kind of time to shoot and deliver daily episodes on a continuous basis given all the hygiene that's going to come in you know from all angles even if we get into situations of multi-cansured or two units or three units it's not going to get tight but I see this rolling out I think definitely by a month or month and a half time and you know if we are able to plan our writing and edit our post facilities a little better you know if we work on the story lines which is what I think everybody is doing and if we get a little more organized then I think this is you know the industry in the world I think we were far too indulgent in a lot of things that we were doing the whole pressure of putting up six, seven shows every day is something which in any case was not very smart and viable to really emerge in this new reality definitely I think a discipline in this is something that is to afford from an industry standpoint you know you will have to work in a fast not too late which is a concern hygiene levels across studios and all the facilities are not on the list so I think a lot of people will be happy here I think that is a very relevant point I personally do believe that I think technology will start playing you know the whole talk of digital studios interconnected digital studios physical studios will come into existence much faster now but good to have that perspective Suresh a very quick question a quick answer on that please you know you said digital is on the rise physical has gone down time will continue while the subscription revenue has gone but advertising revenue has not done so much on digital do you see the phenomenon to be like this which means then you are in then the news industry is in some kind of trouble you know whether you are only physical paper or a digital content company news content as a whole or do you see the advertising dollars coming back to digital news segment as much as you would have been earning on physical side of it you are growing as a business that is a very pertinent question on news industry right how would you see Hindu shipping it up Suresh okay I can tell you overall what is happening in the business as far as a shift is concerned one big shift that is happening in our business is that from the advertiser bearing the brunt for all the costs of running my business and my profit etc it is slowly shifting to the consumer the reader actually paying for content on both platforms what do I mean by that on digital it is not going to be advertising it is going to be subscription that is going to lead the way advertising is going to be limited on digital thanks to the hegemony of Google and Facebook and you got to live on the dole that they give you on the programmatic on the programmatic piece but even that is being questioned I don't know if you are I am sure you are aware in France there has been a ruling now that Google and Facebook has to pay for content right when they wanted that form so if that happens in India wow companies like me are going to gain big time if it happens in India point number two consumers are paying for the subscription revenue on digital is going to be the driver like the subscription revenue on physical newspapers as well the city that you live in Delhi Gurgaon Hindu is 10 rupees on a weekday and 15 rupees on a weekend the most expensive English newspaper in the country I think that is the way the rest of the newspapers are going to follow because you are going to get consumers to pay for for content and so the balance is going to be equal rather than all the load coming on to the advertiser I think it is going to be more evenly split with consumers actually paying for content both in a digital platform and in a physical cover price so I think that is going to balance out that is going to be normal for newspapers and digital newspapers so you don't want Prachi and Uma and Krishna to spend too much money on because the subscription revenue will make up a lot of that right now they are friends now they are friends okay yeah so Prachi and in fact all of you for that reason you know one big shift we are going to wrap up in next few minutes so I will base up the closure discussion accordingly you know because of the whole entire discussion that we did the shift that has happened that has happened it has become even more critical for all the businesses across value chain to get to know your consumer for example Suresh in the newspaper industry however because small you might be you don't even know who the readers are in a physical newspaper business your information ends at the hawker level likewise pretty much in every industry so I think the first party data as we call it the consumer direct data is becoming so so critical everybody is investing to garner more information and more strength around that on that piece because that is going to lay the foundation of your marketing strategies as you go forward that will be the foundation of your knowledge of first party data will determine what your marketing channels are going to be how your ROI is going to be and how deeply you can engage with the consumers so on that friend I want to ask each of you in a rapid fire one innovation that either you see yourself doing into your company or you see the industry doing let's say in large I know a quick piece of innovation on that side which is investing in investing in consumer information database and building marketing strategies around it so I want to start with Umar I think they will have to definitely be like we've all been talking in the past also about a seamless experience whether in terms of whether you know how you sell or how you market in terms of channels etc but I think that there will have to be some kind of innovation because contact less is going to be a very big trend or let's say work from home is going to be a very big trend I think for retailers there might be a little bit of a redefinition of this whole big day and weekend divide and how do we use technology and automation to really leverage that and capitalize on that where when people don't want to actually come to the store but still want that whole experience because shopping is still an indulgent experience in our case it's not just about click to see and you buy that works too but we really want to if you want to recreate that indulgent experience how do you bring that to home or how do you make that seamless I think that's definitely one area of innovation that fashion retailers will need to make so experiential immersive experience that is what you know you wouldn't want to do but a very very very very good point Prashe one piece of innovation that you see so I believe that a consumer has to be interacted on different mediums on different levels for example I have varied interest on varied platforms and I want to be spoken by a certain brand on a certain platform I don't want to get touched on other platform so maybe that innovation is yet to come into fall from us as brands and that's something that we're going to focus on so interacting with a certain customer on the right platform and not touching him or on the other where he does not want to be touched on and giving the right kind of content as well very valid you know which again will come by really getting to know your consumer on all the platform as the first party you know so again it will go back to that so Krishna how would you pick one piece of innovation on your side of this I think this has already happened I think it's before time we will sort of realize that this is really very big innovation I think the likes of we all know the model on which players like grovers and big basket and Flipkart and Amazon they operate so for as far as groceries guns and so guys like Spiggy and Zomato actually Zomato has launched a Zomato market wherein they have come up with a separate market so unlike a grovers which actually has a warehouse and delivers Zomato market is actually picking up from almost on the lines of restaurants so they are picking up stuff from my distributors probably say for example and delivering it to the consumer I think that's something that's going to be a very very big breakthrough in that segment as far as technology is also concerned very good and that's a great example because I do know we work with some of our clients and I do know that there are big big big plastic destruction that will happen in the whole supply chain side of this industry so very very valid point I'm sorry but another example is Dunzo Dunzo is also doing the same thing actually I'm sorry I agree with you Suresh one quick piece of innovation you see coming up something exciting the limitation for physical news has always been interactivity it's always been one way communication what the digital handle has done for us it's increased interactivity today out of my total base 27% of my customers I know by their email id or their phone number or both which is like a significant move about a year and a half ago I knew about 5% of my consumers today I know 27% of my readers which I think and that number is growing as we speak we just launched a campaign saying keep the habit yesterday where we are saying there are some wonderful habits in the COVID time that you must keep like calling up your maid and asking her is she okay etc it's very nice it's a nice emotional campaign developed by ONM for us and in one day the kind of responses we have got from our readers on the digital platform it has been released both on physical and digital but it's increased interactivity so it's helped us talk to the consumers and everything that we are doing now is being led by what the consumer is telling us just to give the Parachi and Uma some quick hope so we did what they want to do after the lockdown massive survey number 2 on their list was shopping number 1 was dining out number 2 was shopping and in shopping first was electronic second was the apparatus Suresh I received that report thanks Suresh for I agree with you on the interactivity piece of it and by the way I have been reading in the sometimes of 40 years and I can bet in the sometimes doesn't know that there is somebody called who has been reading for 40 years so they never came to me that I just stopped reading paper you know come on I did that so that's a big problem in the super industry you know the people I need a one piece of innovation that you see in this in the film supply chains kind of business hello hello go ahead clearly I think from the standpoint we have created content only with the bulk for reading reality in mind far too long and you know it was fine till the time we were going to be kind of business you know with NTO we are now a B2C business and I think it's trying to be very genuinely go out audiences segment them you know as because they're B2C's and demographics and you know markets and so many things some of those that we haven't done I think it's something that we really want to appreciate and I think it's going to be imperative because if we want to do it the division wants to do it in the new reality it's about the system people then we really really have to get an active so reading reality is one thing for the 40,000 years but the pain comes about we need to understand at a very deep level the content that he or she is doing I couldn't you know more on that I wish you know we had a better audio quality though from you but that's you know very unfortunate technology does all kind of things sometimes so I think we are running out of time we actually ran out of time and you know to some extent I had my tech glitches to start the call in the beginning on that note thank you so much thank you Neeraj, thank you Prachi thank you Uma, thank you Suresh and Krishna wonderful thank you all of you and I continue to believe that you know Indians have been the most you know adoptive species in the world we adopt to a situation much faster than anybody else so once you come back to a near normalcy or the new normal in the new normal ways of doing digital business I think we will still see demand picking up for all the kind of content but there will be a dramatic amount of digital acceleration that would need to happen across all business lot more innovations on that good note we would end the session here thank you so much all the audience we had a hundred people joining in we took some questions we couldn't take all but thank you for being there thank you thank you so much Mr. Talwar for sharing the session and to all our amazing speakers thank you very much for spending this time here with us on this session we had some great questions also coming in it was very very informative and such amazing innovations that we've heard about I think everybody is going to take note of that so thank you very much I think I will just thank all our audiences as well but firstly thank you to our speakers and Mr. Kalwar for sharing the session thank you very much thank you so much the pleasure being here thank you all those who are watching us this is where we end our E4M EconClave 2020 we've heard some great thoughts and information on what the post COVID media impact and entertainment industry is going to face we've also heard how much difference with the experiential industry face when it's about zero touch world or the world of virtual events so there is so much that is spoken about in this particular life you can watch it on our facebook, youtube and other platforms as well till then I am Khyatika your e-host for this EconClave signing off thank you very much and have a good day