 We serves fireside chat, which is going to talk about mobile marketing in 2018 the marketers wish list now for this fireside chat I'd like to call forward a gentleman who have after having launched multiple market-first initiatives for Yahoo India pioneered mobile internet portals for telecom operators co-founded mobile marketing and commerce platform Weself in the year 2010 in 2015 He co-founded V max with the aim of solving the unmet challenge of app Publishers ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome the co-founder and CEO we serve and V max mr. Deepak Kuran Now joining him for this conversation Is the gentleman who started his career with future group in the year? 2000 and was a part of the group's journey of becoming a 15,000 crore empire where he played a very pivotal role in building the big bizarre pantaloons e-zone hometown and of course the most fashionable FBB brand after retail ladies and gentlemen his next stint was in housing at Tata housing Where he pioneered the organization's first step towards? The use of the fastest growing digital platform as well as homes online By creating the first of its kind selling of homes through Google Facebook snap deal and therefore completely Revolutionizing the real estate industry in his current role at future group He has a similar mandate to bring in the digital revolution to the group Please help me welcome the group head digital future group mr. Pavan Sardar Okay Hi everyone You know the the couple of sessions in the morning before very interesting Especially the one from Neeraj. I left it left me on such a big high that the moment I stepped out I was searching for a paperboard drink. I could not find it. So Just to settle on that I ended up saying that no instead of coffee Let me have the most authentic India drink, which is the Indian chai. Yeah So interesting Okay pulling back You know this event, you know when you speak about tech munch The first initiative here. I've known the team at exchange for media for so many years and Their platform is something which always has been working towards celebrating digital India and We've been doing that for the last six seven years Very exciting time today in 2017 where The whole internet ecosystem is looking so massive Just in terms of sheer size The number of companies the number of people in the ecosystem who are so curious about it that it just gets all of us together out here To exchange notes. So when when the team approached us and we said that look guys Here is an opportunity where the industry is going to come together Do you want to probably really talk about something? You know at that point of time I said that look, you know, there is a lot happening in the ecosystem How do we really you know whilst we all work in silos we all understand, you know What is playing out? We have our own strategies, but but finally, you know, we are talking about here The marketer we are talking really about saying that look Digital is evolving rapidly Let us probably get into the minds, you know, of a leading marketer. Let us understand, you know What is he thinking about, you know in terms of where it is today and how it will unfold and and hence probably You know this theme out here of a fireside chat. So Pavan Welcome and Thank you so much Taking time out for this piece So let me start off, you know probably Pavan it would be helpful if you can, you know, just quickly tell, you know, what are you doing at Future Group? Okay Firstly, I think great crowd here to see everybody here and listening to us So I'll tell you what we are in the business of free tail one of the mandate which we see for the country is also to create consumption in the country and and for the ecosystem and therefore Create many reasons many occasions where I think people can buy consume and that's how we look at You know our business firstly therefore What becomes important in today's world is therefore digital Why does it become important because I believe that, you know, if you need to engage with young India This medium is important. I don't think we can ignore it and That's what we are doing. So therefore, you know, the mandate which Me and my team we carry is how do we create You know for all our formats and brands, how do we create Reasons to engage with our audience. How do we create, you know, consumptions from consumption from, you know This medium and also, you know, lastly create conversion is just not about conversation So one big mandate which we have taken as a team is conversion as well So the reason I'm stressing on this point is many a times I hear marketeers talking about, you know, let's do Engagement let's do various things But for us, I think ultimately if you put the tough task of saying, how do we create, you know, conversion? That's important and that's what we do. So, you know, I'm gonna come back to that word conversions very quickly You know when you know, when we look at Future group, you know, it is a Multi-format retail strategy so many brands in the food space and the fashion space in the home space, you know So for the externally for the digital ecosystem, you know who are creating various kinds of solutions We are quite curious to understand that how is it that you tackling digital marketing in this group Okay, so I think one important thing is it's not about digital marketing I think it's it's marketing in the digital world first. So You know, therefore, I think You know, at least I feel that there's no discussion about saying digital or no digital Like you are in this world and you better do something about it, right? so and and that's how we see things and therefore we We are a very consumer driven organization. We always put consumers forefront up front, right? Where are they? What are they doing? What's their need gap? What can we address it? Maybe as a product? You know, maybe as something else, but it's always consumer first in our organization, right? So when you put consumer first, therefore one of the medium which I think the consumers are consumers are Consuming is digital therefore it becomes important. The point is now. What do you do with it, right? You know, you can create your campaigns what you usually do and extend it there We don't do that for sure. We create campaigns here when I'm used loosely using the word campaigns It's also to say so you end up creating campaigns first for digital absolutely and absolutely absolutely and why do you do that? So I think this medium is unique It's it's a act and interact medium You know where one doesn't need to go and review after three months and say what's happening? Let's look at the campaign. I think this medium tells you in three hours. What did you start doing this? You're back two years back Actually, we became very serious In somewhere in mid of 2016 interest that's where we realized that this medium just cannot be ignored So you force the organization to go ahead. Can I say that? So, yeah, do you have to like put a lot of weight saying that look I am going to probably make digital campaigns first I don't want to say that we force the organization I think we brought the conviction up front and we said that I think this medium can deliver for us and One important thing is put your neck out and say listen if we do it I think it can deliver to the business and the point is create some of the case studies Right. It's very very important. You know ultimately I don't think any of the CEOs are going to agree to your point just because it's a sexy medium They are not going to agree to your point, you know, put your neck out and create it for them The moment if they start seeing conversion as I said, you know, they will do what you know You want to do you want to probably share some examples which you probably feel You know is something which went viral within the organization itself, which oh my god It's a multi-brand right you could have had early adopters and there could be some people on the fence saying that look no let the other brand try it So Let me give you one example Which we did and I think how I was so amazed about the the way Organization our organization kind of got excited and did various things I mean I can virtually, you know write a book on it But it was very interesting to very overwhelming more importantly. So We had a category shots which we believe that I think India's consuming and there's a lot more which can happen, right? So I think we started wearing denim just about 15 years back, you know She knows are just about we are wearing right now and they're replacing a lot of you know Formal pants and so on and so forth as India is getting younger I think shots is something if you go to a mall today, right? You'll see many people wearing it, right? If you go for a movie you'll see many people wearing it So we saw a huge opportunity out there and said how can we actually create another denim of shots basically, you know How can it be a such a big category? So while we spoke to the business team, you know, we realized that digital is a absolutely apt medium for it Right. Why would I go and do Times of India ads for shots, right? Who's my audience the audience is somebody who's young in his mind? Yeah, I don't want to bracket it and say from a age perspective But more from young in mind, right? So we said, okay, let's only do digital I don't have my agency here. They were just here with me a few minutes back But I think they came back with a fantastic campaign. They said let's call it world shots day, right? Interesting So I'm keeping an eye on the time and I want to make sure of it I'm going to jump quickly to the next point that okay great stuff to hear digital first 2016 is the first time your organization ended up doing that Okay, today when you look at it and you say 2018, right? What is the one thing which comes to your mind saying that listen? Can this ecosystem solve this problem instantly? See one of the way in which I look at this ecosystem especially the mobile marketing ecosystem So, you know in my head is always mobile. I don't even think anything great if you ask me Like I think that's how the audience is reacting and that's how they do things One, you know differentiator in which we look at the medium is I think There is a push medium when I see television and rest of them. I think this is a pull medium Okay, the point is as a marketer How am I being part of their journey when they are looking for me or they are trying to figure something out? So I think as long as we change the lens and try and be as part of the pull medium I think a lot of it can be answered and a lot of it can be resolved So that's how we look at it. We want to be part of the pull medium interesting. Yeah, okay Talk about what comes to your mind when you hear the word data. I Think it's everything. Yeah, I mean today's world if you look at in the kind of business which we are in right? We literally sell food to electronics to clothes to everything, right? So it's very important to be sharp with your audience. I think that's what the data is Do you think the ecosystem is coming to you with the richer data offerings today? Not really. I think You know, there's a lot of discussion which happens on data, but I think sometimes the kind of I think maybe a profile which you're looking at the kind of audience you which you're looking at Sometimes we don't get it as sharp as that. So we land up again going and spraying everywhere Are you are you saying that the local market is really data poor in that sense? India, you know, generally when it comes to mobile marketing, are we data poor or are we data rich? I I'm not too sure about being data poor or data rich. It's about reading the data I think that's where we're slightly poor at sure. So I think there's enough and more data I don't think that's a problem, but I think it's about reading the data, right? Sure. I think that's where a lot can be done. Yeah, interesting, you know data is such a important subject in the ecosystem that we as a company we've been working on it and Our our vision was that listen, let's bring telecom data, you know for digital marketing, right? You know, so we put together a DMP in carriers like Buddha phone and idea So imagine that you mentioned about e-zone, right, right? So what if you end up getting a data set like age of device where you actually know that these are in market smartphone buyers With something like that, you know end up moving the needle for you See absolutely like one of the things which a data can tell us some sort of predicting about the customer It'll be very interesting, right? Because we are in the process as I said as a company we believe in creating consumption if I know that he could be a possible Customer who could be the who could take part in less next level of his consumption idea I think it'll be far richer for us to you know be far more sharper from a marketing lens And yes, I mean we would love to kind of be part of that ecosystem for any any recent examples where you've used data Internally like for any any activity right now Yeah, so we do that so we ourself has a huge amount of data absolutely you have a lot of customer data Yes, so we are in the process of figuring it out in terms of segmenting the data right and so on and so forth But that's again from more from a retail lens I think we would always want to know a slightly broader lens from his Consumption cycle where we can constantly be part of his journey Sure, yeah, you know talk about the moment we talk about data and in many conversations when we have with leading marketers You know obviously marketers have X amount of data and partners could have another third-party data available, right? A key success do you see data collaboration as a key? You know driver to probably make mobile marketing more effective because I probably find that when you when you engage with a marketer And you ask them that listen you have to share some data You know the moment you talk about data sharing People kind of raise their eyebrows So my answer to that is as long as the customer said given his consent We don't have any problem in terms of sharing it, but it has to be the the consent has to come from the customer That's very important to us because we generally don't want to float his data You know just because of you know our needs and wants the thing is we are all customers, right? We nobody will like if somebody is trying to chase you right if the customers find with it We don't have a problem in terms of making our data, right and collaborating with anybody That's not a problem ever you end up leveraging because in the retail store you collect tons of data, right about users. Do you end up? re-targeting those customers digitally absolutely you do that absolutely, okay, so absolutely In fact, we create customer segment through the data there many a times You know there are some segment which becomes so tough for instance. We have a brand called all You know which is a plus-size brand. How do you figure that customer out? Sure? Where is that audience? It's it's very tough to figure that audience out. That's where we go back to our set We go back and try and look up. So we do those kind of combination. Sure. Yeah, sure great So what is the you know one or two things which you would probably end up? Telling, you know, there are various companies out here who basically want to Reach out to you sure and and give you solutions sure, you know So what could be those one of those two things which you would say that listen solve this problem for us? Forecasting is one thing which comes to my mind immediately Again, I'm not off of the consumer and I think that's where just not our data That's where the digital ecosystem is going to help right if he's interacting in the digital ecosystem I'm sure he's navigating and therefore there can be something which can be read out about the customer and said Possibly this is what he's going to do and that is exactly where open to collaboration, right? It needs to be meaningful for us and for the customer both as long as that's there, you know It's it's like we are most welcome about you know doing some of these things interesting I am going to you know probably pause here and open this for a couple of questions out here guys It's a fireside chat. Hopefully So if you have something to fire at Pavan go ahead and do that It's your opportunity if you're trying to sell him something you can go ahead and ask my god Hi, good morning Pavan. Hi. Good morning. My question to you. My name is Anil Meghani. I represent network solutions So as a marketer and as a head of the entire group, what is more vital for you? Is it acquisition and when I mean acquisition is not only new customers to your brand But it could be about the cross-selling within your group, which is there or the engagement with your existing brand existing customers So what is more important? How are your marketing spends currently diverse between these two? See, I it's tough to prioritize this but acquisition is something which will be very important to a market like India If I say that right because you know from a consumption level. I don't think you know compared to any other country Look at China. We are nowhere So acquiring a customer will always be the first priority But I think cross-selling is smart, right? If you acquire somebody if you are not able to cross sell then what's the point? What's the point of even having his data, right? So I think in my head there is no priority as such I think it all needs to be done parallely and keep learning out of it, right? So but as I said acquiring is must in a market like India Well, we've just be taking one last question Hi With the whole digital revolution coming up how important you think is the quality of digital market years and digital agency Important and how important do you think is training coming into picture to make sure that we have quality? I think that's a very interesting question which you've asked. I Don't know about quality or not quality. What I'll go for is intent, right? What is the intent you're carrying? So we work with various number of agencies across the digital ecosystem I have come across people who just come and want to replicate things, right? I don't think it's going to ever work in a market like India, right? I think what's your intent and what's the objective if you have partner which actually share this vision Please go ahead and work with them. That's what that's what we do, right? And if somebody's just trying to create case studies and I mean, you know trying to you know Impress you with case studies across the globe and trying to do it here. Trust me. It's not gonna work So I go back and actually look at the intent if the intent is right between two partners I think there can be magic which can be created and we've done that with our partners in last six months Yeah, is that the last one? Yeah Do you have an in-house Team and how often do you all train the team or is training playing an important role in that? Of course, you know, we have a large team a team of young guys some of them are here So of course bunch of energy with them and that's exactly where They bring in a lot of fresh ideas because they don't carry maybe a legacy like maybe I would carry, right? So, you know, of course their input is very very important in terms of you know What they do and what we drive within the organization that goes, you know without saying so, yeah Fantastic, I think that's all the time we have Thank you so much thank you so much for sharing your insights with us and people Thank you so much for facilitating this conversation Deepak, I'm going to request you to kindly present a memento to Pavan for talking to us this afternoon. Thank you so much everyone I think one take away from my side is Whenever we are having conversations with people like Pavan and we are saying that listen the market is moving towards People-based marketing. Yeah So the sooner you get there the better because We are at a point where organizations if they don't do people-based marketing or they don't have solutions around that They're probably going to be irrelevant at some point Yeah, so on that note, I want to say thanks to Pavan. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much