Category: Storyboard18

Storyboard18 | Neo Bharat Latex paint comes in as a big innovation in technology, says Asian Paints

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Asian Paints, India’s foremost paint and decor company, earlier this week, launched its Neo Bharat Latex Paint business. The company is venturing into a new category of paint as robust growth in the sector driven by increasing urbanisation, rising disposable incomes has encouraged existing players to tap into the booming demand and lap in more market share.

The Neo Bharat Latex Paint boasts a special polymer technology that delivers unmatched finish, increased coverage, and enhanced washability.

Branded as “Colours of Progress,” Neo Bharat Latex Paint is poised to revolutionise the category, embodying Asian Paints’ dedication to innovation and excellence. It aims to broaden its presence in the ever-evolving industry and make it more accessible to all.

The company has also onboarded cricketer Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador for the new launch. This will be the company’s mass market offering with an aim of penetrating into the unorganised segment with a branded solution.

Storyboard18’s Shibani Gharat spoke with Asian Paints’ Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Amit Syngle about going beyond four walls and learnings from entering the home décor space.

“Virat Kohli is someone who has got a lot of accomplishments and a trust. That connect is something which we wanted to use in terms of looking at Neo Bharat coming and people appropriating this brand with Virat and progressive India,” he said.

For more, watch the accompanying video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Embracing change for transformation | Jean Lin, Global Practices, Dentsu

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Towards the end of October 2023, Dentsu Group reshuffled its leadership and unveiled a ‘global practices’ structure to centralise its teams and change the face of integrated growth delivery for clients.

This new entity is led by Group President of Global Practices, Jean Lin.

The launch underpinned Dentsu’s ambition to build an integrated, end-to-end solutions to drive client growth, while emphasising its commitment to the global leadership brands including Carat, iProspect, Dentsu X, Dentsu Creative, Merkle and Tag.

On the other hand, Peter Huijboom, the captain of the ship after Dentsu’s restructuring in 2022 that saw a series of top management exits from the organisation, stepped down from his role as CEO, media and international markets.

Rob Gilby, CEO of APAC and other regional CEOs now work with Global Practices.

We caught up with Lin to discuss more about the Global Practices team, challenges facing the business today and her view on the next leg of Dentsu’s journey.

Lin is a Dentsu veteran having joined Isobar in 2004 following the acquisition of Wwwins Consulting, a digital consulting firm she founded in Greater China, eventually becoming Global CEO of Isobar in 2014.

Since 2019, Lin has held several senior executive positions at Dentsu international including Global CEO CX and commerce, and Global CEO Creative.

She became an Executive Officer of Dentsu Group Inc. in 2021 to develop the group’s business solution and accelerator for sustainability, Dentsu Good.

Lin most recently served a member of Dentsu Group executive management team and as Chief Culture Officer at the group before taking on the role as Group President – Global Practices.

Read excerpts of the interview below:

Q: You set up Global Practices under Dentsu Group in October. Tell us more about Dentsu’s strategy’s in setting up Global Practises and what does it do?

A: This is part of a very important action for Dentsu Group to move into an even more client centric organization, to help our client really to deliver their growth. In our new operating model, we have a few key components in in the model- we have a very, focused management organization and committee to ensure that we always lead with client at heart, while proactively thinking of how can we help clients to solve the problem. We also have this global practices where we bring in all the unique and fabulous capabilities at the end together to ensure that we create a learning organization and also ensure that all the best practices are brought to the client proactively, in a distinctive and connected way to help clients to drive, drive growth and deliver integrated growth solutions. We have a component called data and tech because we have a lot of data and technology products, this is a key focus area to help our clients deliver next level of growth in enabling them to deliver a solution. We have a clear data and tech strategy to enable the organisation to grow horizontally. We have global delivery unit. Many of our clients are looking at how they can enhance efficiency but also proactively thinking of how can they, drive the strategy and growth through our talent. And this global delivery unit is what is really enabling our global growth.

Also Read | Brands focusing on individual and societal needs deliver reputational growth: W Conran Design

Q: So how do your regional CEOs-AMEA, APAC CEOs, Japan CEO work with Global Practises?

A: So we’re basically one management team. This is one Dentsu model to have one strategy, one process and one management team. All the regional CEOs are partner for me in the Global Practice on how we define the ‘go-to-market, and other solutions. And we work with the regional CEOs on how they implement it proactively and in a relevant way to the local markets. Because not one market is the same. What we want to do is to help our clients assess our capability much easier and more consistent way. But we don’t want to create a top down model, because sometimes that doesn’t work in helping to deliver to our client with agility.

Q: How is it implemented in India?

A: Yeah, India is one of the most interesting players and they are really ahead of the time because they have been thinking about this with client centricity over the past few years. So, the global practice is really going well over. The creative, media and CXM and how they work together. I just had a meeting with them just to watch them and how they proactively connect with each other to solve the client’s problem.

We are not really bogged down in in terms of what’s the organizational structure. We have a mind-set of how can we create this value for our client that are ideas led, AI powered and value driven regardless of where you sit in the Dentsu organisation.

Also Read | Brand Breakthroughs: Can gen AI make all marketers creative?

Q: What are the top challenges facing your business today?

A: I think the overall advertising market has, huge opportunity and challenges because of a few things. Technology has now democratized many of the functionality. AI is coming into play that can actually push us in thinking on how we deliver content advertising and solution in an entirely different way. The clients want something that is less complex and they want something that is more integrated. This really gives us an opportunity to think of how we organize ourselves, how we deliver solutions, how we come up with innovation to really drive impact for our clients’ businesses in an entirely different way.

Q: You have been with Dentsu for decades, the group has had a complete overhaul for the past few years to have a new structure. How do look at the journey of this transformation that has happened?

A: One thing, I want to say first is that Dentsu is a company was 123 years of history. We were joking about it the other day. A lot of the things that we have been through from this historical lens of 123 years is like a blink, right? We need to change. We need to transform ourselves. We need to perform better.

And we want to innovate. We want to create impact. For this to happen, we do need to take the suffering as well to ensure that we transform and really embrace change. I think that is what’s happening in the past few years. There is a journey that we all are on boarding and we are taking our team with us. There are some colleagues that we really love that are doing different things right now that they never intended to, but we are always and forever grateful for the fact that we actually enjoy the moment with them and create something meaningful while they are here.

I think now we are on a new page. We have a new strategy. We have a new operating model. A lot of our clients are actually telling us how happy they are when we go through the simplification. We have done a lot of hard work in the past few years, and this is a moment we can truly create value for them.

For more, watch the accompanying video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Brand Breakthroughs: Can gen AI make all marketers creative?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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They say, good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart. Clearly, that takes intelligence and imagination. In other words – marketing is really all about creativity that breaks through the clutter and reaches the customer in unique ways that make an impression.

Now, what if we were suddenly endowed with a superpower that makes it possible to come up with creative means to engage with our target audience more easily and faster than ever before? Is AI indeed that new creative superpower that can put human imagination on steroids?

When it comes to amplifying human potential for creativity, AI, especially generative AI, can contribute significantly. Making written and visual communicating easier. Idea generation, thought-starters, personalised content development, image and video generation, even press release generation are all areas that gen AI can impact.

Several brands, including Infosys, now routinely use gen AI to develop copy, design and video output. Brands like Unilever, in fact, have created their own gen AI tools suite, Homer, to develop promotional copy. In fact, entire campaigns can now hinge on artificial intelligence-powered execution. Remember how Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk used gen AI, and working along with filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, helped couples create beautiful memoirs on Valentine’s Day as part of their campaign?

Hyper-personalising outreach. Gen AI can also help make granular analyses of consumer behavior and then generate creative content based on this deep understanding of how customer segments engage with various messages. For example, Instacart, the American grocery delivery service, figured that questions around meal planning are common for people to ask ChatGPT. They created a plugin for ChatGPT with OpenAI.

The plugin lets customers ask recipe-related questions like, ‘I have carrots and rice. What’s a diabetic-friendly meal I can make, and what other ingredients should I buy?’ or ‘Give me vegan meal ideas for my picky toddler?’ A few clicks and the add-on ingredients can be added to the shopping cart. The promise of hyper-personalisation that has eluded marketers for years can finally be a reality.

Rapid ideation and experimentation: Gen AI is a great resource for marketers to stay abreast of emerging and changing consumer sentiments, and to test new opportunities to be creative. It is also accelerating idea generation, quickly improving ideas and helping brands speed up time to market. For example, Mattel, for their Hot Wheels product line development used Dall-e to generate four times as many product concept images as before, as also to inspire some of their coolest new features and designs.

Making cocreation easier: Every marketer dreams of bringing in their community of buyers and potential buyers to be part of the brand promotion process and participate in advocating for and cheering the brand. Gen AI is a making this consumer-community flywheel truly work harder and smarter for brands.

For example, we launched #RAFAFOREVER, an AI-first experience to give a billion tennis fans an opportunity to celebrate the greatness of Rafael Nadal, Infosys brand ambassador with a personalised artwork, powered by AI. The creativity it unleashed got thousands of tennis fans to join in the celebration and in the process shone light on the Infosys brand too. And yet, AI is only as good as the humans collaborating with it.

Seasoned marketers have heard this said before, ‘A well-defined brief, is a campaign already half-complete’. Tight problem-framing is half of all creativity, and problem-framing – along with asking difficult questions and factoring in the sensitivities of context – is still firmly in the human domain. That said, gen AI is that wonderful amplifier that allows more and more marketers, to participate in the creative process more easily, in a more mature way.

That’s why it is revolutionising creativity in marketing and must be added to the power-tools in every marketer’s kit. However, what we know as true creativity – the ability to conceive a unique marketing solution to fit a unique context, something that has never been done before – is no commodity. And not something that gen AI is likely to democratise anytime soon.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Why should laundry only be the woman’s responsibility asks Mukta Maheshwari, CMO, P&G India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Storyboard18 | French hospitality chain Accor’s CEO says missing the India opputunity would be a ‘stupid mistake’

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Accor is bullish on India and plans to open many more hotels in the country over the next few years, Sebastien Bazin, Group Chairman and CEO of the French multinational hospitality chain and hotel chain said.

Storyboard18’s Shibani Gharat caught up with him and discussed about the reason behind the company’s excitement about the Indian middle class traveller, its plans around Paris Olympics, efforts towards sustainability and more.

“I am a huge India fan for a lot of good reasons. I hate to be a spectator of India, I want to be an actor in India. India for us is small, 2% of Accor worldwide,” he said.

Also Read | Storyboard18 Global News Break Confirmed: Publicis Media gets Spotify’s global media account

He highlighted that Accor India grew fastest in the last five years and is likely to grow even faster over the next five years. “So for me to miss India would be a stupid mistake.”

Also Read | Storyboard18: Lay’s unveils heart-shaped potato pallets under new sub-brand Lay’s Shapez

Talking about Accor b eing Paris Olympics’ major sponsor, Bazin said, “We cannot fail. We are going to be in the eyes of the entire world and we just have to welcome the people and make sure they remember what they see in Paris and give them the chance to come back.”

Also Read | Storyboard18: MakeMyTrip CMO discusses emerging travel trends and AI

Separately, PNB MetLife has launched its new campaign featuring cricketer Smriti Mandhana as the ambassador.

Storyboard18 spoke to Sourabh Lohtia, Head of Marketing, PNB MetLife about the campaign that speaks about the role of trust while choosing a life insurance policy. “We looked at the research and we looked at what consumers are saying. It came out very clearly – 47% of respondents named trust as the number one factor for life insurance company.”

For more, watch the accompanying video

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

From fads and trends blah-blah to hard working marketing

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Purpose: The cornerstone of timeless brands

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Attraction. That’s the trigger for most relationships. But that first pull alone is rarely enough to sustain a relationship; a deeper connection needs to be nurtured for relationships to survive. It’s no different with brands. Would you buy, when prompted by an Instagram ad, from a brand you’d never heard of before?

Possibly. Would you seek out that same brand actively after, and make another purchase? Unlikely, unless the experience was overwhelmingly positive, else you’d likely fall back on your established favorites. Right there lies the reason why brands need to build relationships with their customers. They need tribes that feel emotionally invested in the brand to come back to make repeat purchases.

Building that kind of deep emotional connection, we know, is done by being authentic, practicing empathy, identifying what drives the other, and showing one’s caring side. To do this, brands that stand the test of time, embrace a constant purpose striving to achieve more than just profits and shareholder returns. They ask themselves what the world would lose if their brand were to disappear – the why of their existence. They then ponder how they can deliver something of a higher order benefit inspired by their why – that can win customers’ hearts.

Several brands have been getting this right for decades. Here are two examples. Patagonia, the outdoor recreation clothing brand, is committed to “saving our home planet”. They see their reason grow more relevant as the climate crisis deepens. They donate time, services and at least 1 percent of sales to help hundreds of grassroots organisations remain vigilant, appreciate and protect natural life and resources that face the threat of extinction.

By authentically connecting with people that share their values, they have run a thriving business for five decades and have #1 market share in the outdoor apparel market. Tony’s Chocolonely, on the other hand, has a stated mission to make all chocolate 100 percent slave-free. They deliberately choose to work in Ghana and Ivory Coast, to source cocoa, where millions of children work in illegal circumstances and are victims of slavery. The brand believes that working in these countries, gives them the opportunity to make a positive impact where the worst problems are.

Recent times have brought in questions. With ESG-backlash making headlines in 2023, there have been ongoing purpose vs profit debates. That if a business’ core focus is to do good, then that is focus diverted from making money for shareholders. A counternarrative is that if the brand has a do-good agenda at its core, there’s no conflict then with making money.

The more the business sells its service or product, the more impact it creates, as well as more profit. By making place for purpose at the core of its business, companies can actually make profits and change the world for the better. At Infosys, for example, we provide digital training to employees worldwide, with a goal of teaching 10 million people by 2025.

Since inception, we’ve honed our foundational core to make learning at this scale a reality because that’s what we’ve been doing with our hundreds of thousands of employees over the decades. It moves the business forward, empowers our people, and they in turn enable others. It’s fully aligned to our purpose of creating the next opportunity for all.

If purpose is core to the business and not embraced to just drive a marketing narrative, finding the right balance between profit and purpose shouldn’t be a struggle. This ties back to the perils of purpose-washing; building trust in a brand takes time and effort, and using empty slogans and vague promises to appear purpose-driven can severely damage a brand’s credibility.

The moment a brand is born, the pressure for it to stay relevant is also born. Timeless brands never stop changing with changing times, and yet remain unchangingly recognisable and comfortingly familiar at the same time. Their purpose is often that unchanging core of the brand, the same one that first won them a place in their customers’ minds.

Sumit Virmani is the global chief marketing officer of Infosys.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow