 Mr. Benjamin Sobey, managing director, Jepak Tocq Walker on how can brands beat COVID in contactless world? I'm sure a lot of questions erupting and wanting to know how can brands beat COVID in contactless world? So please tune in and send in your questions as well. Don't forget to use our hashtag which is India Brand Conclave while I invite Benjamin on the screen. A very warm welcome to you. Hello, everyone, and thank you, Cathy. All right, so good afternoon, everyone. I'm very happy to be with you today. So my name is Ben, and I lead the Tocq Walker Asia Pacific and Japan team. I'm really excited to be with you. I've heard already some great content and some great speakers. So I'll be speaking to you for the next 20 minutes or so on a very current, very relevant topic. It's how can brands beat the current contactless world that we're living in, right? So first, I'll give you a quick introduction into Tocq Walker, who we are, what we do, and then we'll look at the COVID situation in the last 30 days. That way, we look at recent relevant information. We'll interrupt you here, Benjamin. We can't see your screen yet. So if you can put your PPT in the full screen mode. So yeah, so as I was saying, you'll first give a quick intro about Tocq Walker. We'll look at the COVID situation over the last 30 days in India. That way, it stays relevant. And then we'll look at very nice example of brands and what they've done right over the last couple of weeks and couple of months to then look at some industry insights before leaving you with some key takeaways. So a little bit about myself first. So I'm in Singapore, ends the mask, right? I'm in the office and this is compulsory. This is our regional headquarter. This is where I'm talking to you from today. I've been in the region for two years now. And I came here after living in different countries in Europe and also a short stint in the US. So even prior to Tocq Walker in companies such as TBWA, Gartner, I've always been a believer of research, a believer of data, but particularly how powerful data insights can fuel growth of businesses, right? How can it drive innovation and bottom line customer excellence which we're all looking for? And this is especially true in the current situation. So for those of you who haven't heard about Tocq Walker before, we're a listening and analytics company. And what we do is that we empower leading brands and agencies to optimize the impact of the marketing, their communication and their consumer insight strategies. So we have seven offices worldwide now, Singapore in Tokyo for the region, two in America and three in Europe. We're close to 400 people now globally with a third of them being engineers and data scientists. And we've also been very recently named a leader in our field. And so our conversational intelligence platforms, what does it do? So it provides solutions that help to protect, that help to measure and promote brands worldwide and doing so by leveraging AI across media, across customer, across consumer and also market data. So without further ado, we can jump right into it. This is what, again, what we'll cover today. So first of all, yeah, 2020 in actual, I think I represented quite well. It has been completely different from everybody from whatever they expected, completely surreal. We've been living with this virus for here at least almost a year now. The world has come to a standstill. People no longer greet each other the same way. We don't hug each other. And there's generally kind of a reservation when people meet. But amidst all of this chaos, brands are trying their best, I think, to really make the most of the situation. Some get it right, some a bit less. But the key thing here is really to remember that people are a bit scared, are a bit concerned. And we'll see later how brands that are addressing this fear are taking steps in the right direction, right? Some good news lately, right? We saw recently there's indeed light at the end of the tunnel. Both Pfizer, Moderna and also AstraZeneca have come up with potential contenders for the vaccine, right? So that can really turn things around for a lot of us worldwide. So 2020 should be a good year. And we've also seen, I think yesterday, that Pfizer was actually approved in the UK, I think yesterday, yesterday, all right? But before we do get to the vaccine, right? Let's take a look at what people have been talking about. And this is data that's coming from India only, right? When it comes to the coronavirus. So what do we see here? We see that the current conversations around COVID have risen again and drastically 800% more versus the previous 30 days, so there's 30 days before, right? And so here you see some peak, right? Well, the peak at the beginning, so on the left of your screen, comes from the promise of free vaccination. That was discussed at a state-level election, right? Then we also see a lot of chatter about the COVID situation in Delhi and various promises from the government to work with the Joe Biden administration on controlling the virus globally, right? Does all of ever lately been a drop in mention, a drop in engagement in the last weeks? Well, clearly India and all of you were busy over the last week with festivals and of course, the value. However, the interest in COVID related conversation remains much higher as compared to the some. But who's doing the talk, right? So here, very briefly, this is a bit of insight about the demographic who's behind all those conversations in India. So we see that it comes mainly from Delhi states and union state territories, right? So, well, Delhi has the lion's share. This is not really surprising. The PMO is located there and most announcements as well as health and safety measures are also coming from there. Demographic also show that millennials are leading the chatter following by Genzi. And so, with all those conversations, where do brands fit in, okay? Again, data from the last 30 days only. So this is a word cloud, right? Which discusses, highlights the main brands that are being spoken about in conjunction with the coronavirus lately. So we can prominently say, see Pfizer, we see AstraZeneca and even Sputnik because I believe there's a 12 of that one in India running at the moment. This comes in no surprise, of course, to see those brands or those names, given all the potential exciting news that we've seen in the last days, right? We also see a lot of social. So we see Twitter, we see WhatsApp, we see Facebook. Well, why? Well, this is mainly because they serve as channels of distribution and communication, right? We also see Amazon too, e-commerce and deliveries. Of course, I've been part in all our lives now much more than they ever were and maybe that we expected them to be that fast, right? We also see organizations such as WHO, the IMF and so on are also part of that chapter. But so what are some brands in those team clouds above doing differently? Why are they more mentioned than others? We already highlighted some reasons for a few of them. And how more importantly, how should brands, how should all of us proceed from here? So let's dig into some examples. So here, going contactless, one of the major innovation that brands, especially those in the usually popular food and beverage industry, right, are moving towards, they didn't have the choice. It was a fight for survival for most of the F&D organizations across the world, right? So going contactless is not a new concept, right? But the coronavirus was really the catalyst for it to become mainstream. And one of the brand that does it right and got it right is Zomato. So how does it work? Well, contactless menu. So that's of course quite stripped forward. You simply need to scan a QR code when you enter a restaurant to explore domain. Then you also order contactlessly. You order through the app. You don't need to talk to the wasting staff to place an order, but also to modify that order. And then contactless payments. You may only need to make a payment after you mail on the Zomato app. So simple innovation, but still that took a lot of effort in the backend to make it work well and in a timely fashion, but it has greatly reduced contact between patrons, between staff at restaurants, right? Zomato introduced this, not only in India actually, but in several other countries. Additionally, some competitors like Dino, Swiggy, among others have been more, have been also moving towards this steadily. And we expect more. But so what are they doing right? Well, it's pretty straightforward. They're focusing on safety. They're focusing on reassurance of all of us and also of the government agencies. Both of these are absolutely key at the moment. Everyone is a bit skeptical about stepping out, going out, meeting people, but going contactless actually counters the risk of all this. And so not only are brands like Dino or Zomato talking about safety measures and spreading awareness, they also demonstrating their commitment towards this by actively innovating and having clear plans ahead to continue this innovation path. Another example was very popular lately of brands adapting to this new normal is the IPA, right? And how it was run this year. I think we've seen great example of sport organization, different leagues across the world that completely shifted. We have the NBA, for example, in their bubble in Florida. But the IPA is another great example, right? So it was played in empty stadiums in UAE, okay? We can be all disappointed not being able to see, but at least we can watch games and see the season to a closure. And so no crowds, of course, for safety reasons. But so what does it mean for sponsors? If you're a sponsor, one of the team, if you're sponsoring one of the stadium, what does it mean for you? And so the sponsors really needed to innovate. They really needed to make a difference in order to make a mark this year. The key then being sponsoring smart, right? What could they do? What could they change in order to generate ROI for the marketing dollars within a very much more restricted environment? And so I personally liked how deli capitals ended it, right? So they were sponsored by JSW, which is a B2B company. However, when we ran a quick search that you can see here within the tool, I noticed that the sponsorship chatter for them was among the highest. And that's even though they didn't win the championship, right? And this is simply because the team was smart. And what did they do? Well, they focused on increasing engagement and innovation this year, and less on the glitz, less on the glamour, right? They also had an initiative supporting local, small businesses called Vocal for Local, extremely popular across the population. They also had also an official IGN partner on field, LivingGuard, really doing their share in order to raise awareness about COVID. And I also recall reading an article recently about them, about the deli capitals, where it was mentioned that they managed not to only match, but also exceed their revenue from 2019 to this year. I think that's quite commendable given the circumstances. Another example of smart sponsorship, this time comes from RCB, right? So looking at pure mention of teams, we notice here that RCB is right on top. Okay, the difference between them and Mumbai Indians is very small. There's no mean feat, considering that Mumbai Indians were the champion this time around. That said, RCB still remained the team that is the most mentioned. And so why is that? Well, by looking more into the data, we notice that the main reason for that is that the skipper for this team is none other than Captain Colt. But also a very important initiative. Initiatives like the Go Green program for the team has kept things interesting. So let's have a look at what they've done. So you'll see, this video is a pretty simple one where you can see the different players wearing their green jersey. But it shows them supporting their going green initiatives. It's pretty simple in principle, but managed to be a big hit clear. All right, so you see, I think it was great relating also to personal experiences, what's happening in South Africa, connecting it to issues also here, hugely popular, and I think we can all see why. Now, another really great ad, we won't look at this one, but I still wanted to mention it. It comes from a campaign around devalue, right? And how a brand really adapted based on the festive season in India. So this is normally traditionally the time, right? Where they have the highest ad spends and the biggest budget. Of course, it was very different this year. Economy crisis, social distance, precautions, have completely changed how we look at festival this years. And so they adapted. And so there's one in particular that managed to make a mark, so it's ferns and petals. And here in the picture, it depicts devalue at home and the various advantages that it brings, including also your pets having a quiet and more peaceful time. So it also talk about the importance of following the norm and even while sending devalue gifts. So I really recommend all of you to watch it again if you haven't seen it. Another great one, this one we'll be watching comes from Cadbury, right? So they really talk about the importance of supporting small, of supporting local businesses while picking devalue presents, right? So let's take a look at this devalue ad creative. All right, so very simple message, but extremely sweet, you know, extremely well filmed, great music and message, right? So what did those two brands, what did they do right? So they really highlight the importance of not giving up on social distancing and following the rule, right? Extremely important, but they also highlight the importance of supporting local businesses during their time of need. And so before, for the end of my session, I'll just focus on some industry insights and how things are at a global level. So one industry that has really flourished during COVID is the education tech industry, right? Schools and colleges have closed down because they're major hotspots for the spread of COVID, but the show must go on for all of them. And so e-learning has become mainstream, right? So looking at this cluster, which basically puts content according to the semantic similarity together and clusters them, which is what you see here, we can see what people are interested in when it comes to webinars in general. So people are looking at health information as well as webinars where doctors discuss best practices on safety. We also see that people are looking at climate change, public policy and more around this. And online classes on e-learning in general, as mentioned before, are also extremely prominent. So if you're in digital marketing, the ethic field now is clearly one where you can reach new audiences at the moment. If you look at e-commerce now, of course, extremely grounded, here we'll look very just briefly before COVID, so pre-COVID. And so here, it's a look about what the conversation was around e-commerce before COVID. And what we see, it's mainly about what people were buying, the prices, offers, the different platform, online shopping or mention about some ads. So quite typical content that is highlighted here. Now afterwards, if we see during COVID, so we're looking at February to June, so really in the middle of one of the worst moments, we're looking at what people and how the needs and their conversation change. And it's really about their everyday essentials. So we're talking about purchasing essential goods, getting supply, getting demand over COVID, but as well as different payment options and how maybe to get the supply that we all needed in the best possible way and in the safest possible. On the flip side, we also see that people started talking about delayed delivery. And now finally, just e-commerce after, so this is post June. And so what do we see here? Well, it talks about ads a lot. It talks about a lot of customer service. Make in India, you see product from India or make in India extremely relevant, extremely important now. We felt that sentiment of really buying something that comes from next door, that comes from a local or maybe our country, right? And this is extremely prominent, but also yes, supporting small businesses. And you see how the conversation evolved in six to seven months and what it is now about, right? And so with that, it's the end of my talk, but just before I let you go, I've put together some main key points, some main key takeaways that brands can use. So it's really about trust, it's about reassurance and this is clearly key and we've seen how. So that needs to be the central principle behind every communication strategy. The more people trust you, the more the brand love you're creating. And when things go back to normal, your brand will be potentially the first brand they think of, right? Then the world is a polarized place at the moment, right? Potentially even more than it was 10 to 15 months ago. It's been month and months of living with COVID, social distancing, tense political climates and stressful economic times have brought down people's threshold level, right? And so it's extremely important not to think once, not to think twice, but multiple times before creating an ad film so that it sends across the right message to the audience. And then don't add to the noise unless you have something extremely valuable to say, well, just don't say it, right? Being sensitive at the moment is extremely key and mostly people aren't that interested in talking about new product releases or blog posts unless it helps with the current situation. It's also important to remember the current context and make that a part of your messaging wherever possible. And we've seen that great example coming from the daily capitals, right? Who had an hygiene and safety partner on the field, right? It was simple yet extremely effective. And lastly, optimism is a great theme. Everyone needs a little bit of it right now and in the coming weeks and months. And with that, thank you very much for attending my sessions and I'll be happy to take some questions. Thank you. Thank you so much, Benjamin. That was brilliant in the session and the last slide kind of summed it up completely for us. Unfortunately, we are running short on time so we can't take all the questions right now but we would definitely like to thank you for your time and spending this key insights with us. Thank you so much, Benjamin. Thank you very much, Gatti. Have a good day.