 All right. Good morning, everybody Thank you for having me over exchange for media group. It's a pleasure to be here and It's even better to not you know have to ask the questions of am I audible or am I on mute or apologize for it and all of that It's great to be here in person and Deep respect mr. Tiak Rajan for the Phenomenal insights and the thought-provoking comments that you had on on brand building as a passionate brand builder myself. I Resonate with a lot of what you said on building brands versus driving tactical sales And we at Procter and Gamble are fully committed as you know to Building brands and we hope to share a few of those learnings as well today in our chat so Briefly about myself. My name is Girish. I've been with PNG for the last almost 16 years now As I tried to fix the slides Yeah, that's who I am So that's me I passed out of I am I'm the bad in 2007 and PNG is the only company I worked for That's my wife Divya who works with Netflix and that's our son Shreyas Who's about ten years old? and That little thing is a movie that I had a chance to co-produce it's on Amazon Prime And that's a YouTube channel that I run on the weekends which talks about cinema and passion for Cinema from the olden times as you can see I've had a chance To experience a variety of assignments in PNG within India as well as a few abroad I had an opportunity to work on our a diaper brand called Pampers at the time that we were launching it into India And I did that role also had a chance to work on our sanitary napkins brand whisper So did that for a few years as well a decade ago Then had a chance to work on a few more businesses across a pack and Middle East and Africa And I've been back in India leading Brand operations for the past couple of years Here in India Again honor and privilege to be part of the group of speakers here and to be with you all today, and I hope to share a Few thoughts on how we can enable technology work harder for brand-building as a brand-builder myself and and sort of also seek help on how we can make that do even better All right, so just to get started on a lighter note I'm here to reflect a little bit on change and all that's changed and And and focus on How technology has really changed the way we brand builders do our work That was me a few years ago when I was super proud of the blackberry phones that the office gave me And it was a really cool thing back then and sharing blackberry pins And if somebody gave you the blackberry pin that was a moment of pride, right? So I was that generation and and on the right is Is not far into the future right? I think this half of this is already a reality today We are we are probably watching ten times the amount of advertising that we used to watch a decade ago And that in itself is a question to ask when it and it comes to mr. Diagraja's point on building brands, you know We were subject to let's say X amount of ads a decade ago and today that number is probably a ten times Therefore as a brand-builder, what does it take to create quality advertising? What does it take as a brand-builder to cut through the clutter and reach the right consumer in the right manner? I think these are all thought-provoking questions to ponder for us in the industry a few numbers back it up, I think these slides may be a Couple of weeks old. So these numbers may already be outdated by the time that we are talking today But largely the point is that digital adoption is no longer the future, right? We are already here and it's already here and now And This is already this has been basically driven by a combination of factors, right? The fact that India has the lowest cost Smartphones in the in the world or close to that the fact that India by far has the lowest data costs in the world And the adoption that came with that and we all know co-covid pushed us forward I know many years as we skipped and Accelerated on the path of digital adoption I'm convinced that as as 5g, you know gets bigger and as it gets wider adoption This is only going to accelerate But the larger point is this is a trend that is that is here to stay and grow Unlike Dalgona coffee or whatever which came and went and we don't know what that is anymore What doesn't change though are some of the fundamentals of brand-building, right? We at PNG, you know keep saying this often And I think we should keep saying this often that what really sets us apart or what really matters, you know As a business leader is really deep understanding of consumers Right at we believe at PNG and we keep saying consumer is boss and we truly truly mean that What has changed in some ways? For the better is the ability to understand consumers even better than what it was a decade ago When I started the car in the company, you know a consumer would be defined as Male 30 years old lives in the top six metros in the country And that's kind of the basis for then media targeting and and how we went and served that consumer with the right advertising and Fast-forward to today. We're able to get a much deeper and much granular understanding of that consumer Looking at the person's shopping behaviors looking at the person's media consumption habits, you know durable ownership I know you know this person is You know a parent of a newborn kid owns a washing machine Has her own car? Reads ABC, you know articles online purchases these kind of products online So all these give her a much deeper and much more granular understanding of that consumer We should hopefully then lead to the right advertising going to the right consumer at the right receptive moments And that's a kind of a win-win for all parties involved in this so what I want to do in the next 10 minutes or so is to just share a few examples of How we try and bring that alive at PNG starting with the brand that's closest to my heart Which is Pampers, which I had the opportunity to work on for more than a decade It may seem pretty intuitive now It may seem like there is no rocket science in any of this and and there is no rocket science in any of this So that we are all on the same page, but We did operate very differently, you know, even as recently as as five six years ago, right? Now what was the way in which we advertised to our diaper brand to people who had babies a Five six years ago. We would say I want to reach, you know female 25 to 35, you know living in the top cities in India blah blah blah and reach her on television Right, that's how we define the job to be done And that's how all of our media dollars were invested, right? Now. It's no again. It's no, you know surprise that Nine out of ten people who are watching television probably don't have a baby in a diaperable, you know age group, right? So that's just millions and millions of media dollars that are reaching consumers who basically give us no Revenue or or or or any short-term? Returns whatsoever, right? So it took a smart brand manager and PNG to come and ask the question on you know Can we leverage technology to make this sharper and to make this better and today, you know Where we've moved to is a place where we say, you know, I want to reach parents, right? You know a few years ago. It used to be I want to reach moms I think now we've evolved to a much better place in society and we say I want to reach parents and we say I Want to go and understand leveraging technology and leveraging signals that I get from across my first-party data as well as our Technology partners, how do I go spend all of my media investments on a baby diaper brand? You know only with people who have kids in that age group, right? I think it's a it's a big shift for us to make and that's helped us Essentially do a lot more with a lot less investment, right? So it's not about cutting investments or it's not about pulling back money or saving on costs It's really about making investments work harder and and using common sense to arrive at some of these simple Things that now look intuitive, but five years ago. We didn't even think that this was possible for us to do it so that's one example of of what we feel very very proud of on Putting the consumer at the center and leveraging technology to essentially make Business outcomes better with the consumer in mind The other example I want to talk about is another brand that we have which is a very similar one Which you know, I've also had the opportunity to work on which is MVPR Room fresheners and car fresheners, right? It's a it's a smaller business, but it's a very very interesting and high-potential business Here again, right? I think we use the term all all digital Brand builders or digital marketers use the term, you know The era of spray and pray is no longer, you know is all behind us. We need to go target it and all of that I think this brand was truly a brand where you sprayed, you know all over the room or all around the car Again, it took us a very simple question of if we sell a car freshener Should we not know if the person receiving the piece of advertising owns a car or not, right? That's a very very basic question that we need to ask it sounds intuitive again today But again a few years ago we were saying oh We need to reach male consumers in top metros in the 25 to 40 age group or whatever it is Right, and again the data came back and told us that less than 30% of these people own the car Right, and that's a massive waste of media investment It's the wrong product to be talking to these consumers about therefore again now leveraging technology first-party data And our technology partners we're able to move that number from a 30% hit rate to about an 85 percent hit rate So I know that when I'm talking about a car freshener the consumer who's viewing that advertising Actually has a car and actually owns a car right that huge change in the way we operate brand building But again, I think a good example of making technology work with the business question at the center with the consumer at the center Now again, and I believe that this is a trend that you know We need to continue to be careful about on making sure that the decisions are made with consumers at the center and consumer questions and consumer logic at The center it's very very easy. I feel to get seduced by the technology possibilities out there that they could be a lot of nice to do and and kind of Fancy so-called things that we could be working on but it's important to keep the consumer at the center on this one The third one is a is a more recent example that I had a chance to visit a few villages, you know in upcountry Uttar Pradesh As recently as two weeks back and it's mind-blowing when you see it, you know with your own eyes How digital has really really transformed the way consumers live? In in rural India as we speak today Right the numbers are there for you to for you to for you to read But what I'm interested in is the is the pictures that you see on the right These are actually phones of consumers in rural India that I had a chance to just have a look at as I was talking to them about Their daily lives and their media consumption behaviors and so on a consumer spent anywhere between four to five hours per day on their phones It's crazy when you think about it, you know, this would this would be you know Nowhere near the reality, you know five six years ago and it's mind-blowing what that is done to digital right out of 15 consumers I met, you know, three of them had a television at home Right every single one that I met had a phone and and and these are the kind of apps that there you see on Consumers phones in rural India as we speak today, right? I mean even Netflix is there at my wife is thrilled, but you know, even the most expensive of apps is sitting there on phones In rural India and that therefore obviously has changed the way we approach brand-building with the rural consumer Earlier rural consumers were always Kind of treated as I design everything for for urban India I put it on the TV and TV spills over into rural India as well And then kind of I get a lot of reach and it's efficient and I reach the rural consumer I think this kind of is thought-provoking because it puts a lot of questions in our head on how do you start designing for the Rural consumer, how do you start, you know, reaching that rural consumer specifically? Via digital via mobile, which is where they're spending more time versus spending on TV and gives Rise to a new paradigm of brand-building that's possible now because technology allows us to do that Right what we've done is obviously, you know Working with all of these partners to try and reach the rural consumer with the right messaging Leveraging technology what we also try to do on a few of our brands is one other Extremely important stakeholder for the rural consumer, which is the shopkeeper in that village, right? So what we're trying to do and we're learning on this one and all of us learn along the way We're trying to basically try and drive conversations At the store between the consumer and the shopkeeper, you know That could eventually lead to conversion and trial for procter and gamble products across categories and we've seen some early encouraging science on What this has allowed us to do as well, right? And this is leveraging simple phones simple conversations, you know calls between the retailer and consumer and all of those But exciting possibilities as I said, which technology is made possible For us what I want to leave As I go forward on this one is a few Thought starters on how we see technology really helping us as we go forward on this journey a few things that we are Keen to learn more on and pilot and learn our way through would be one around hyperlocal, right now We keep saying Mumbai is a you know pot boiler of cultures and it's cosmopolitan and you know so many different People co-exist in the in the city and so on so it's obviously time to start asking questions on Does everybody in Mumbai? Receive the same advertising does you know the the consumer in Bandra Should they be looking at different advertising versus the consumer in and they reverse as the consumer in I don't know wherever So those are questions that I think are problems that I think are logical next steps on this journey of personalization You know one person one. Well, I do want to leave one pet pee on this one on on personalization, right? I'm a Tamil guy who grew up in Chennai and I can I can speak Hindi a little bit But I'm I'm comfortable in Tamil and English. I see Marathi advertising all the time on YouTube when I open YouTube here in Mumbai Right, and it's just mind-blowing that you know where we are and having having been through decades of learning and growing I still see you know advertising in a language that I don't really know and those are I think questions that all of us should sort of push for to say how can we essentially target and Reach consumers in in in a ways that they are more comfortable with right the other one on on personalization is really Also about reaching consumers again leveraging what we know about that consumer. So on a room freshener product There could be many different reasons why? Your house is not smelling great, right? Maybe You have a pet at home and you know the pets come with their The things that they do at home So do you have different communication for different cohorts of consumers all under a big brand idea to the point of brand building? One big idea, but essentially targeting different consumers in different ways Is another one that I think would be very very useful and important going forward for us as brand builders and the last one on on my asks is as Many technology partners or come to us and and offer solutions to us as PNG My ask would be to really look at the problems to be solved as business problems You know versus you know to put technology ahead of of the business problem to be solved, right? I look at at least in my simple mind I look at the option opportunities as either we try and reach more consumers or reach new consumers We try and drive significantly stronger effectiveness with consumers in terms of outcomes in terms of brand recall in terms of conversions Whatever be the measures or we try and get significantly more efficient in how we spend our money, right? It's one of these three that will really make a big difference in Brand building outcomes for us, right? So how can we start with that construct and then approach? Later on into how technology helps us solve for these problems, right? So that would be my ask to all technology partners out there on how you can make yourself Significantly faster and move faster in the PNG the world, and I'm not representing PNG I'm probably speaking for all brand building organizations as I say this I just want to leave With a couple of you know examples on how technology has helped us as PNG serve the communities that we live in as well At PNG we believe that it's our responsibility to be a force for good And we believe that as we drive more growth We are also able to translate that into driving more into doing more good for the communities that we live in and the two examples that I share here are You know both things that I've been a part of and I've had a privilege to work on and I'm really really proud of One is our program that we've been running for close to 20 years called PNG Shiksha which is about education for the underprivileged and the other program is a program on our sanitary napkins brand whisper Which again takes you know our mission of keeping girls in school You know to the forefront and these are examples of how we've leveraged technology over the past few years To make these programs even stronger and reach a wider base of consumers. So I'll just play you a couple of videos I'm not going to spend too much time talking this but over to the videos. I think we need audio on these Yeah, just to give you guys a quick snapshot of the work that we do on Shiksha, Shiksha is a program that we've been running for about 17 18 years here at PNG India We reach Sort of evolved the program over time, you know, we've built about 2,300 schools in the country Impacted more than 3.2 million Kids in the last 17 to 18 years that we've been doing this Recently, we've basically shifted a little bit of our focus to improving learning outcomes Because we realize that there may be a school but the quality of teaching the quality of infrastructure in the schools All of these are factors that going into making the learning outcomes optimal for students And therefore we've been moving and evolving this program over time and if the audio works Wonderful before we move to the second one just to close out on how technology helped us on this one right as we know You know, we had schools closing Far and wide during the pandemic and all of us were in some ways learning the ways of you know working from home in the Comforts of our home and getting used to you know shirts and shorts and all of that stuff There was obviously a large set of you know students in the country For whom nothing much changed. There was a lot a lot of students in the country Who did not have access to education and when schools closed, you know, they were really falling behind on learning outcomes What we were able to do is to take the school to their phones, you know partner with various institutions We're able to take schools to their phones and continue their education And now as we partner with more schools when kids are back to school. I think education continues Right, so that was the example on chiksha. I want to share with you a similar example on on on whisper If you can play the video please Hey Keep girls in school india dot org here again just to give a snapshot on this program I'm sure many of the women in the room would probably have gone through a whisper program back in your school you know when you were when you were young we've been doing this for over 20 25 years in the country and you it's always been extremely humbling and rewarding for us as we expanded this program we now reach millions and millions of girls in the country again during the pandemic when you know schools shut and schools went online we were able to quickly move this program online as well so that menstrual education was continued to be given to girls all across the country and you know we've received only the best feedback from the school authorities from parents from the kids on how this has been useful for them as they kind of also waited through the pandemic so these are a couple of examples where I am deeply grateful and thankful to all our technology partners who are able to help us you know keep and raise the bar on on brand building raise the bar on serving back serving the communities that we live in as well so big thank you to all our all our technology partners on that I just close with my last slide this is something that you know we love you know saying over and over again at PNG but we do believe in this truly that the consumer is our boss and you know every decision made with the consumer in the center helps us make better decisions on the business and helps us win as we go so thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to be here today to the entire exchange for media team and also thank you to everybody who's listening in it's been a great pleasure