 My ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you our first speaker of the day, Mr. Shivam Puri, CEO of SIPLA Health, who will address the topic. Well, Shivam Puri brings the edge and discipline of 17 years of sales and marketing experience in the diverse Indian FMCG sector to the world of healthcare. An alumnus of IIT, BHU and IIM Lucknow, he has had successful stints across leading companies like Jubilant Food Works Limited, HUL and ITC Limited. Under his able leadership as the chief executive officer, SIPLA Health Limited looks to rapidly scale up and transform healthcare in India by pushing the boundaries to consistently innovate and offer world-class wellness products to make a difference to the lives of consumers every day. Well, in his spare time, Shivam runs marathons and plays the drums and as a dotting dad, he's loved spending time with his two boys. Thank you so much, Mr. Puri, for joining us today live at our wonderful event. It's an honour to have you over to yourself. Thank you, Bhavna. Thank you for that wonderful introduction. Ken, someone put up the presentation, please. Sure, Mr. Puri. We'll get that done. We have Mr. Puri's presentation. Yes, sir. Yeah, thank you. So, Bhavna, as I was beginning to talk, as I was logging in, I realised that we had a similar event almost a year back and it's so surreal on how things have changed in a short span of 12 to 15 months because the topics that we have picked up at that point in time are very different than what we are talking about here. But yeah, because of positive of time, let me straight away jump into the topic, marketing and brand empathy in the time of pandemic. Next slide, please. Yeah. So, you know, what I've done is, and I have some 15, 20 minutes to talk about this. So what I've done is I've put together a few common themes around the consumers that we see today. One big disclaimer, these are bases the experience of last 12 to 15 months. And as we have seen these experiences change and can actually undergo quite a significant shift, even in period of a few quarters, forget years, you know, and the shift we have all seen, wave one began with shock and awe. That was a time when we actually had our last marketing, you know, a similar programme by E4M around healthcare. There was a shock and awe around what was happening around us as wave one descended on us. And as the cases started coming down, there was almost a euphoria, almost a feeling of saying probably India has beaten COVID and probably we are different, which is when wave two quietly crept in. And then there was massive misery and despair. All of us have experienced it personally to our near and dear ones and to our extended families as well. And today, as we sit on wave two receding, there are talks of a possible wave three, wave four and possibly a wave in. No one actually knows, maybe there's no more wave coming our way. So the point that I'm trying to make here is that, you know, post today, you know, a lot in terms of how consumers behave and think through the brand communication will change basis, the external environment. But as things stand today, there's a lot of fatigue and despair. All of us personally feel that there is a trust deficit, right? Many consumers I have spoken to actually are not sure if, you know, if they actually should go and get vaccinated, something so basic and so critical to, you know, take care of the COVID challenge. But what that, you know, translates into a larger trust deficit that the consumers are seeing today, there is of course postponement and down trading as any down wave, you know, any challenging wave has shown in the past. But interestingly, there's also, you know, some, there are some elements of revenge buying, which we saw during the unlock of wave one. And actually, you continue to see revenge buying among the upper middle class and high net worth individuals even today. There is indulgence. Yes, there is indulgence, much little, you know, a very different aspect of indulgence than what we used to see pre-pandemic, when there was a lot of flaunting around indulgence. Today, the indulgence that we see is more about emotional gratification. It's more about, you know, life is short. It's more about saying, you know, I don't know what to expect tomorrow. So let me live the day to the fullest. So these are some of the emotions that the consumers are seeing, you know, have seen in the last 12 to 15 months. And this is what we can expect to see if the same scenario continues in future as well. Next slide, please. Next, what I've done is, you know, I've translated this into the communication themes that many brands have adopted. And to make it a little interesting, what I would also do is I'll play a few commercials where I feel that, you know, many of these themes actually have been leveraged to the fullest by the brands. Healing empathy is, of course, a big, big theme. All of us can relate to it. You know, when you're broken and when you're down, nothing works as well as, you know, a healing tonality and empathetic outlook of a brand. Second, there is a big feeling of loss of control. So a brand trying to help you regain control over your life again is a big theme that's working really well today. The feeling of gratitude, right? The feeling of little mercies of life and the feeling of the fact that, you know, of course, we had experienced these feelings of gratitude even before pandemic and lots of marketers had started to talk about it. But I think the importance of this has grown exponentially. And we'll see a few examples of this in the coming slides. Nimble and Adaptive, again, is a big, big, you know, characteristic of a successful brand in times like these. Things are changing very, very fast, very quickly. So a brand which is actually very, very adaptive to how their consumers are feeling around them, because the moment you're out of tune with what your consumers are feeling, not only do you risk alienating lots of consumers, but you actually risk alienating your core franchise as well. So a brand needs to be super nimble and super adaptive. And we'll see some examples of that in the coming slides. And last but not the least, making a real difference. You know, this again was always true, even pre-pandemic. But again, the importance has gone up many fold in times like these. Consumers see through who is making a real difference and who is just faking it. And hence, it's very important for brands to be very sure and only when they feel that they have really made a difference to their consumers, should they go out and talk about it. Yeah, so these are some of the, you know, quick themes that I could pull out, you know, that I wanted to share with all of you. Next slide, please. So what I'll do now is I'll talk about a few examples of where we have seen these come alive. You know, a great example is eBay, which launched this accelerator program for small businesses, the moment pandemic struck. And of course, small businesses, you know, were struggling to connect with their consumers and customers. And here came eBay, a free offer for all the small businesses for three months, a free sign-in, lots of help, lots of help around free marketing and support. A fantastic example of helping consumers regain control and consumers here, for example, for them would be their customers. They're the e-com customer base. They helped them regain control of their businesses of their life and made a real difference. And look at the fantastic adaptability of the business. They actually went live with this program very early into the game, which is when lots of other corporates were thinking about, you know, what to do in a time like this. Next slide, please. So from eBay, this is the other example. You know, if an employer were a brand and if an employee, you know, a customer, three great examples or three very different examples that I could pull out, the one of Twitter in news very recently for announcing permanent work from home, the one of Apple trying to get some of their employees back in office and some bit of backlash beginning to, you know, they're beginning to, they've begun to face. And the example of Tata Steel or rather the whole Tata Group, absolutely fantastic, you know, the communication that they put out to all their employees and even externally where they actually said that, you know, if an employee loses his life during this pandemic, they will actually build salary or provide salary to their near and dear ones till the employee would have attained the age of 60. And some real differentiated benefits, you know, in terms of housing and medical for the families. Now, you know, look at this. So many employees do many policies and they become, of course, very popular externally, but in a time of pandemic, these minor things get heightened and an employee and even a regular, you know, employee looking at these corporates forms a perfect image of what these corporates stand for in a time like this. So this is again a great example of empathy and making a real difference. People see through the real difference being made to their lives and the lens to which these corporates have gone to take care of their employees. Next slide, please. So that was on employee branding. Next, I've just put out an example of Verizon and there are many other corporates who have done similar stuff. You know, they've just opened their hearts and their, you know, their resources to their customers, core customers. And this is an example of free resources for kids of all ages, free digital access, no questions asked. And, you know, we have a long list of companies which have done this in India as well. I can assure you that customer of these corporates who has used and leveraged these resources will always have a special place in their heart for these corporates. No amount of branding, no amount of communication can cover up for the real difference that they make through these actions. You know, an absolutely fantastic thing to do in a time like this. Yeah. Next slide, please. You know, okay, so this is an example of World Handwashing Day. You know, I've spent bulk of my life in Unilever and I remember, you know, how critical it used to be for us to figure out a way to make a change in terms of hand washing habit for consumers. And the discussion used to be around cutting edge creatives, some clutter breaking communication, something quirky, something cool just to try and convince the consumer to change their habit. The tonality has completely changed and the brand is different. This is Savlon this time. The tonality around global hand washing day completely changed. Many of us would have seen this video which went viral. I'll request you to play this video for all of us, but you know, brilliant example of empathy to actually make a change, a habit change, unlike pre-pandemic times. My morning also starts by shouting Alarm Clock. As soon as I wake up, I go back to sleep for a while. I don't even start my day without tea. I talk to friends. It takes some time for me to get ready. I've got the habit of staying online as well. And I can't ever say no to a 19-year-old like you. Yes, but there is one thing that many of you don't do. But I always do. I don't forget to use hand wash. By using hand wash for 20 seconds, you stay protected from germs and diseases. Even from a virus like coronavirus. And it's so easy to use hand wash for me. Then why don't you use hand wash? You know, what a fantastic way to build a habit or change a habit using empathy as an emotion. Thank you. The next one is Lifeboy. Again, I picked this campaign up for not only the real difference that these campaigns, the string of campaigns have made, but also because of sheer adaptability of the campaigns. Lock 1, Unlock 1, Lock 2, Unlock 2, they actually were running different creatives and commercials. Completely staying in sync with the mode of the nation. And because of which the acceptance of the communication was amazing. Second thing to note, the brand has gone to the background. It's more about public health messaging and communication, and which makes the brand so endearing to consumers. Can you play this commercial, please? Take a vaccine. Keep a distance of two drops. And use a lifeboy or any soap or alcohol-based hand sanitizer. The protection of India from the coronavirus is now in your hands. Yeah, and you know, for those of you who are interested, you should pull out the earlier three or four commercials that Lifeboy came up with. And this is Unlock Wave 2 commercial. It doesn't look like a commercial. It's a perfect public health message. And any consumer watching it understands that this brand is trying to make a real difference to my life. Yes, they are trying to sell their products towards the end, but they are trying to make a real difference to me. Yeah, so I picked this up as a part of that. Next one, please. Yeah, so next, I have two commercials of Kia and Burger King. Very interesting because there are brands, and this is an example of a brand which has a funky, cool, quirky tonality. Of course, all of us know Kia used to talk about being the baddest in town. Now, for a brand which has such a funky communication that they've been working on, they suddenly can't become an endearing brand which has a lot of empathy, right? Because consumers will see through it, and they will, of course, find it inauthentic. So this is a brilliant example of a naughty brand like Kia and what they have done to stay in sync with the mood of their consumers externally. Can you play the video, please? Yeah, so this is called being nimble and being adaptive. Kia could have said, oh, what can I do? My communication would not work in a scenario like this, so let me just stay quiet. They said, let me continue to keep my brand salient, but do it in a manner which adheres to the mood of my consumers. The next one is another brilliant one from Burger King. Again, a funky, cool, quirky brand known for its out-of-box commercials. I'm sure many of us would have seen the commercials and we understand the tonality. This is an amazing take on what they did to their tonality to, again, bring it in sync to the mood of their consumers. Can you play this one, please? Your country needs you to stay on your couch and order in. Do your part and we'll do ours. Order through the Burger King app and the delivery fees are on us. So staying home doesn't just make us all safer, it makes you a couch patatriant. And to help healthcare heroes, we are donating Whopper sandwiches to nurses and we are also proudly supporting the American Nurses Foundation. Stay home of the Whopper. So this commercial not only talks to their core consumer base, it talks to a much wider base around and the respect for the brand goes up multiple notches as they continue to talk about their brand. So a brilliant communication. Next one, please. Okay. Yeah. So next one is, again, a very interesting example. You would seldom see a brand asking consumers to not use them and request them to not use their brand and become endearing to their consumers in the process. And the example here is of Uber. Of course, as the lockdown happened across the world, the brand just completely went out of business and they could have fretted and thought about what to do in this context. They said, let's put out a public message, leveraging a brand, requesting consumers to stay at home and not use an Uber. Just imagine when time becomes, when we come back to normal times, which hopefully we should, we already are moving in that direction. A brand like this continues to stay salient throughout a time when their services are not being used by any consumer. So can we play the commercial, please? This is Uber. You know, a great example of empathy, of making a real difference to consumers, of being in sync with the times. So, you know, that's it from my side. The idea of sharing these live examples with all of you was to hopefully trigger some thoughts. And I know not all these examples were from healthcare brands. You know, I took the liberty of going outside of healthcare. But these have equal relevance, even when we talk about communicating healthcare. So I hope these have triggered, these examples have triggered a few thoughts in your minds in terms of how you could communicate in the times of pandemic. You know, I wish all of you a very healthy life. And I hope all of you stay safe and your near and dear ones stay safe. Thank you. That's it from my side. Thank you, Bhavna. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Kauri, for joining us and kickstarting our wonderful event today. We really absolutely value all your insights you've shared today. Thank you, Mr. Kauri. Thank you. Thank you.