The 10 Most Effective Integrated Marketing Solution Providers 2018

EFFECTIVE
MARKETING
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
INTEGRATED
THE
MostMostMost
2 0 1 8
October 2018
www.insightssuccess.in
Creating Multidimensional Brands with
the Perfect Blend of an Array of Marketing Services
AKKADO
Abhishek Sharma
Chairman

igital technology is gradually affecting the way
Dhow brands and ad agencies are approaching their
campaigns in India. Data state that this
technology has deﬁnitely had a major impact on how the
advertisement expenditure has been distributed. Also, it is
expected that expenditures on digital technology will reach
to around Rs 19000 crore in the years to come, which is the
same size of the current print ad industry.
The new tech-savvy generation brings an easygoing
relationship with technology and latest terminology along
with them. On the other hand, veterans are inspired and
well aware about the amount of technology available, but
are slow at adopting them. Moreover, cutting-edge
technologies like AI are increasingly making their way into
the marketing vertical. Even though AI is still in its nascent
stages, we can expect a future involving AI in marketing
activities.
Moreover, the audience these days is very watchful about
the content being introduced, and how they are marketed.
They are very vocal and don’t shy away from expressing
their views on certain stereotypical social portrayals like
gender biasness and identity. Also, not only major players
and investors, but also local digital media content creators
are teaming up with big brands to participate in digital
marketing. Social media advertising has also picked up the
pace and has increasingly become accessible and
affordable. With technology gradually evolving, and latest
procedures being introduced in businesses each passing
day, we may witness digital technology introducing a new
wave of marketing in India in the times to come.
Editorial
Digital Technology
Changing the Face
of Marketing in India

Database Management Prashant Chevale
Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil
Circulation Manager Vivek Bangade
Research Analyst David
Business Development Executives
Divya Shah, Vaishnavi Salunke, Sarika Kawade
Contributor
Mayur KoliArt Editor
Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal
Visualiser Asha Bange
Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte
Picture Editor Alex Noel
Art & Design Director Amol Kamble
Co-designer Poonam Mahajan
Anmol Preet Singh
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October, 2018
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Cover Price : RS. 150/-
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal
Shraddha DeshpandeSenior Editor
Managing Editor Rajarshi Chatterjee
Executive Editor Ananda Kamal Das

COVERSTORY
INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS
The Tribal Box
A Haven for Innovation,
Creation, and Collaboration
CXO STANDPOINT
Expert’s Viewpoint
36
30
20
AkkadoCreating Multidimensional Brands
with the Perfect Blend of an Array
of Marketing Services
08
sunSTRATEGIC
Changing the way
a Company Innovates
Role of Content in
Social Media Marketing
Veteran’s Insights
The Upswing of Social Selling
& How Content is Responsible
for its Ascension
16

AI and Machine Learning
Harbingers of Revolutionary
Changes in Marketing
ARTICLES
Virtual Reality:
A Game Changer in
Marketing Solutions
28
eConcero
Empowering Brands to Respond
to the Rapidly Changing Market Needs
40 24
CONTENTSCONTENTSCONTENTS
NeoNiche
Promises Better Business through
Innovative Marketing Services
UCID
Creating Ideas that
Cultivate Brands
Zensciences
34
44 46
Automation Portfolio Tech-Talk
In Just 3 Years, This Digital Marketing
Boutique Is Already
Crafting Better Stories For Fortune
Companies And Startups

he Indian marketing industry is embracing technological innovations with the objective
Tof providing exceptional customer service and to stand tall among its competitors in the
market. The leading marketing solution providers of the country are employing
innovative methods and research oriented procedures to make a mark in this highly competitive
industry. These companies are providing out-of-the-box marketing solutions to their clients and
aim at total customer satisfaction. They are adopting modern technologies like AI, VR, IoT, and
more coupled with advanced maneuvers to provide a lasting customer experience.
“The 10 Most Effective Integrated Marketing Solution Providers 2018” highlights the
paramount marketing solution providers in the industry. The magazine comes up with some of
the prominent service providers who have made a mark in the industry with their outstanding
services.
In the Cover, we have Akkado which provides one-stop solution for all marketing needs. This
issue also includes eConcero Consulting, which provides full-range of integrated market
research, and digital marketing solutions. Neo Niche provides tailor-made experimental
marketing solution for clients with complete range of marketing services. UCID is a through the
line advertising agency, marketing consultant, and strategic content provider that offers creative
communication solutions for every need. Zensciences is a boutique marketing consulting ﬁrm
providing services and solutions at the intersection of strategy, design, storytelling, and digital.
It also includes enlightening articles by Ashish Dalia, Owner and CEO of I Knowledge
Factory Pvt. Ltd., and Nikhil Agarwal, Co-founder of Brandwitty. We have also added
scintillating interviews with Ms. Sanghamitra Khatu, Director of Tribal Box Media Pvt. Ltd.,
and with Sherina Kapany, Founder of sunSTRATEGIC. So, ﬂip through the pages for more
information on these leading organizations!
The Principal Marketing Solution
Providers in India
T
H
E
1 MARKETING SOLUTION
MOST EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATED
PROVIDERS 2018

Abhishek Sharma
Chairman
Akkado

Creating Multidimensional Brands with the Perfect
Blend of an Array of Marketing Services
AKKADO
The Indian marketing industry is constantly evolving
with time. The leading companies of this industry are
adopting innovative means and cutting-edge
strategies to stay ahead of its competition. These companies
are following client-friendly policies and consider client
satisfaction as one of their prime objectives. One such
trailblazer of the marketing industry is Akkado, which
specializes in the tactical generation and delivery of
integrated marketing strategies in order to driving consumer
behavior in a favorable direction.
The Inception of Akkado
Akkado’s Chairman, Abhishek Sharma was fascinated
about story books when he was young. He was inﬂuenced by
how each and every chapter would connect all instances and
stitch them together perfectly to bring the essence and
emotions of the story.
“When I planned to start my own company, I wanted to apply
the same concept; Many experiential instances and aspects
coming together to bring alive the story of the brand”, says
Abhishek.
Abhishek feels that a team should be a combination of the
““We use an
integrated
approach to
arrive at a
holistic result
COVER
STORY

youthful extravagance and the
experience of the veterans. This
perfect blend gives multi perspective
insights about the industry and helps
in planning entire strategy and
concept. “If we keep our employees
motivated, then the industry will grow
automatically. This is the best mantra
I follow”, he says.
He adds that as one enters the industry,
they get exposed to numerous
ideologies and patterns that would
inﬂuence to follow them. But if they
need to create their own identity and
leave a mark they need to become a
trend setter and make their own rules.
“The simple and basic rule is to
connect the client’s ideology with the
aspirations and interest of the
consumers. With the panoramic view
we need to become the bridge between
the two by devising strategies and
experiences in 360 degree manner”
says Abhishek.
About the Leader
Abhishek wasn’t born with a silver
spoon. His life journey is nothing
short of hard work & dedication. The
core values and morals he has grown
up with are the motivating factors that
keep him going. He is a man with a
mission to make it large in life and
create an ecosystem that changes the
perspective of the world.
Abhishek’s journey started with
working at the age of 18 in an export
house 14 hours a day to working with
his father after that. Churning out
work every day in a small constrained
room did not make him lose focus but
only motivated him give his best in all
aspects. An all-rounder with the
magnitude of his dreams reaching for
the sky inspired him to break the
shackles and take his leap. The onus
was on him to make it big in life and
fulﬁl all his dreams. An eye to pick up
the right talent for the job is one of his
key strengths.
With no prior work experience, he
entered an industry and started
creating unforgettable experiences for
his clients and consumers all around
the world. It was like a phoenix rising
from the ashes to reach for the heights.
He wanted to explore many aspects
that help the brand & the client to
grow. He aimed at providing a 360
degree solution for the clients that
gives them a panoramic view of their
brand. Along with focusing on
merchandising, events & activations,
he introduced loyalty & engagement
department that widened the horizon
and gave a perspective to the client to
ring fence its customers. Having an
in-house travel company to manage
We drive
consumer
behavior
towards a
favorable
direction
“

T
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E
MOST EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATED
PROVIDERS 2018

the travel logistics is like having
speciality that would made Akkado
stand out from the rest. His way of
thinking after understanding the new
trends and social swag bags of the
industry inspired him to introduce
audio & visual segment that would
help in translating the idea into a
visual spectacle. While there have
been more successes but there have
been failures too that he has tasted
which have made him what he is
today. Far sightedness, the strength to
let go off failures by learning a lesson
from them and a strong hold over his
work have made Abhishek what he is
today.
He remembers and follows his values
and morals imbibed in his childhood,
those have laid the perfect foundation
on which Akkado stands strong today
and plans to expand. Every employee
in the company is personally and
professionally taken care by Abhishek
himself. He believes that the
employees who are working in
Akkado has banked on him for their
career growth. It’s a big responsibility
which makes him happy and helps
him in creating an ambience for the
employees to grow. His vision is to
introduce best HR initiatives, financial
solutions helping the employees grow
personally & professionally. He now
handles an ever growing team of
experts that includes some of the best
names of the industry who are happy
to be a part of a larger dream.
Providing a Lasting Customer
Experience
Akkado is a perfect blend of
numerous features that come together
to perfectly narrate the story of the
brand (client) that reaches the desired
customers. Using their tools, the
company creates an experiential
journey for the client that benefits him
and the brand.
The company implements a variety of
tools including:
Ÿ Events, Activations & Exhibitions
Ÿ Loyalty & CRM
Ÿ Merchandising & Gifts
Ÿ Audio Visual & Creative Solutions
Ÿ MICE
Ÿ Technology & Online solutions
With multiple office India and abroad,
the company has over 50 active
clients, all blue chip/fortune 500
companies. They have built a strong
relationship with their clients and have
created mesmerizing experiences for
them. Few of their clients include
ICICI Lombard General Insurance,
Bharti Airtel, Honda, NSDC Skill
India, Mercedes Benz India, Pepsi Co,
Our
objective is
to fuel
favorable
engagement
Vodafone, IFFCO TOKIO, SleepWell,
Oreedoo Myanmar, TATA Sky among
others.
Customer is the king and
Employees are beyond that
Akkado firmly believes that the
customer is the king and that if an
organization believes in this ideology
then there will never be a challenge in
any aspect of business. They believe
in keeping the customers and the
employees close to the heart.
Akkado’s vision is to make pin to
plane and create a marketplace for
talent professionals to pursue their
dreams.
Staying Ahead of the Competition
Akkado believes in evolving with the
constantly changing Indian marketing
industry. They aim at utilizing social
media as an integral tool to achieve a
competitive advantage over their
competitors. They believe that
smartphones can play a crucial role in
marketing strategies and feel that
companies and event organizers
should start embracing this
technology.
The company feels that the future will
be all about technological
advancements. New ways in which
the technology can make a brand
grow, reach masses and create high
impactful experiences. Akkado has an
in house expertise in technology
understanding & development. The
team is completely updated on new
technologies that have surfaced
nationally and internationally.
Awards and Certifications
Akkado has achieved numerous
awards and accolades throughout its
illustrious journey. It is an ISO
certified company (ISO Certification:

9001:2008). It is also a prestigious
platinum member of EEMA. (Event
and Entertainment Management
Association)
The company has also won BAM
Awards 2018 ‘GOLD’ for
· Conceptualization and
Execution of Airtel
Leadership Conclave
· Excellence in Event
Management Service –
NIZAMS, ICICI Lombard
A Client-Centric Service Provider
The company aims to deliver the best
of experiences to the clients which
help them further reach out to their
target audience. Being an integrated
marketing agency, they offer a host of
services to their clients and curate
larger than experiences for their
customers.
Through events & activations, they
study and generate ideas and concepts
that instantly catch the eye of their
clients’ audience. With their
merchandize department at work,
Akkado offers their clients with
customizable and personalized gift
options that help them allure more and
more audience and also keep the
existing ones loyal. The In house
creative team has unadulterated mind
set helping in creating visually
spectacle designs that mesmerizes the
client.
The loyalty team strategizes, plans,
and delivers the best of loyalty and
CRM concepts to their clients and
helps reach out to the masses as well
as the existing customers. They also
provide their clients with exciting
opportunities to get the maximum
business by enrolling in the maximum
number of customers/audience.
The company’s travel and audio visual
expertise go hand in hand as they
provide their clients with everlasting
memories from their tour & travel
experiences that the company stitches
personally for them. The audio visual
department also curates the best short
ﬁlms ideas and produces state of the
art short ﬁlms.
Future Plans
Akkado plans to create their own
intellectual property that would
showcase their work to the masses. A
property that would help penetrate the
client with ease as their reputation
would have preceded them. The
company says “The work has already
begun. The respective teams are on it
doing the R&D”.
We
identify
pain points
and offer
and
execute
productive
solutions
“

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th
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ManagementCompany Name
Akkado
akkado.in
Abhishek Sharma
Chairman
Akkado provides one-stop solution for all marketing needs.
Boring Brands Pvt. Ltd
boringbrands.com
Anshul Sushil
Founder & CEO
Boring Brands provides digital advertising, social media, brand
design & identity, public relations to brands who are looking for
new age communication ideas for growth.
Dentsu Aegis Network
dentsuaegisnetwork.in
Ashish Bhasin
Chairman & CEO
eConcero Consulting
econcero.com
Nandita Kanwar
Founder and Director
eConcero helps in customer strategy, offering
full-range of integrated market research, and digital
marketing solutions to power brands.
InnoServ Digital
innoservdigital.com
Nimil Tiwari
Co-founder & Director
InnoServ Digital expertises in formulating digital strategies for
B2B and B2C market exclusively.
Mind & Matter
mindandmatter.in Surojit Nath
Founder & Director
Mind & Matter is a full serviced advertising and
marketing agency providing traditional advertising and
digital marketing solutions.
NeoNiche Integrated
Solutions Pvt Ltd.
neoniche.com
Prateek Kumar
MD and CEO
NeoNiche design and deliver tailor-made experimental
marketing solution for clients with complete range of
marketing services.
UCID
ucid.co.in
Nilesh Talreja
Founding Partner
Nimisha Bhavsar
Founding Partner
Lavina Amarnani
Working Partner
Zensciences
zensciences.com
Supriya Jain
Co-founder and Chief Storyteller
Rahul Koul
Co-founder and Chief Strategist
Rohit Kumar
Co-founder and Chief Brandsmith
Zensciences is a boutique marketing consulting ﬁrm
providing services and solutions at the intersection of
strategy, design, storytelling and digital.
Dentsu Aegis Network provides innovative branding solutions
through its best-in-class expertise and capabilities in media,
digital, and creative communications services.
UCID is a through the line advertising agency, marketing
consultants, and strategic content providers based in
Mumbai that offers creative communication solutions for
every need.
FrogIdeas
frogideas.com
Jatin Modi
CEO
FrogIdeas is a digital marketing agency that provides social
media marketing, online reputation management, website
design, and development services.
Brief
T
H
E
MOST EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATED
PROVIDERS 2018

The
Tribal
BoxA Haven for Innovation,
Creation, and Collaboration
The Tribal Box, founded in 2018, is a Digital Media company that brings to the audience a panorama
of stories from all across the country. It is a treasure chest of stories that inspire, connect, and motivate
the audience in the journey towards building a better, vibrant world. Headquartered in Bangalore, and
other office in Mumbai, they create, distribute, and manage various media content for digital and social
media platforms.
In an interview with Insights Success, , of Tribal Box Media Pvt.Ms. Sanghamitra Khatu Director
Ltd., provided some enlightening and perceptive answers about the company, its journey, and its future
plans and other endeavors.
· Please tell us about your Company. What are the different types of Marketing
solutions/services/products that your company offers?
The Tribal Box Media Pvt Ltd. is a platform for the younger generation to showcase their unique
journey and share their story and aspirations with people. The idea is to bring to focus the positive,
inspiring efforts of the individual.
At The Tribal Box, we don’t stop at just telling a story; we help and support our protagonists in their
journey of life. The idea stems from the fact that we value every person and believe that every dream is
important. There are a lot of dreamers in our society but there are very few people who believe in these
dreams and support people to achieve their dreams. We help ‘switch on’ the dream button in your life
by telling inspiring stories that connect and resonate with the audience. We also provide support in
terms of publicity, mentorship and money to help people make and stick to their life changing
decisions.
We are also launching our crowd funding platform to enable our consumers to play an active role in the
lives of our protagonists who need support in realizing their dreams.
Apart from this, we are talking to Marketing heads of companies and pitching our stories as a
marketing tool for helping brands resonate better with their target audience. Take note that we have the
most active network of influencers with substance (musicians, designers, travelers, and sports
personnel). These are real people who can influence the audiences to buy or use the product. The
brand’s message can be demonstrated by a story telling format through the life of the protagonists.
Also, this way the brand plays an important role in changing society and impacting young minds.
Some of our services/solutions are:
1. Brand Integration and the protagonists being the face of the brand
InterviewWithInsightssuccess
16 OCTOBER 2018

2. Ground connect events along with our protagonists
3. Idea sharing and co-creation platform to collaborate to
create something- be it music, product, etc
4. Any other crowd sourcing requirement that a company
may have. For example, product ideas, consumer
feedback etc
· Please enlighten us about yourself and how you are
dealing with current problems related to the
Marketing industry.
The Tribal Box took seed when I met young incredible
people with beautiful stories to tell. I realized there is more
to the younger generation of our country than meets the eye
and unfortunately their timelines didn’t do justice to it. The
core thought was to be a game changer in the society. So we
started telling stories of incredible people around the block,
and the rest is history.
The marketing industry today is struggling to create
engaging content to connect with the consumers. The
attention span of the consumer is short but having said that
only short form content works is also a myth. Netﬂix’s long
form content success story is a prime example to break that
myth. When there is good content it always resonates but
only a brand or a product spiel is not working in today’s
Ms. Sanghamitra Khatu
Director
OCTOBER 2018 17
Interview With Insights Success

world and hence brands are
experimenting with various types of
content to garner reach and impact for
their brands.
We provide content creation solutions
to companies to help connect with the
consumers. Large reach numbers are
easily achievable and is directly
proportionate to the money spent. But
engagement is the key factor; overall
reach figures have no meaning unless
there is real engagement and that will
only happen when brands start playing
an important role in the lives of the
consumers. For example, today the
fashion industry is being more
inclusive of people. Body positive and
going makeup less is being talked
about and practiced. LFW too has
changed its positioning over the years.
· What is your take on the current
scenario of ‘Marketing
Industry’? What steps are you
taking to make it better?
The Marketing industry is exciting
today and digital is the way forward
and companies are slowly changing
strategies to attract consumers to their
platform and transact with them
regularly.
Today even the IT industry is using
video content as a tool to create impact
in their big pitch presentations.
Bangalore IT companies are actually
creating fiction content to explain their
products and its features to its
corporate clients.
CSR, which is the focus of every
organization today and in some
companies it has become the
companies’ main marketing spiel, is
also spending money to create
impactful videos to demonstrate the
change they have created in the society.
OOT platforms are all means to an end
and you can’t live without them. We
simply keep upgrading technology; there
is no choice about that.
· Where is your company heading?
What competitive advantages is
your company providing to your
clients in this contentious world?
We are heading to create the largest
network of substantial people in India
and that is our competitive advantage.
Influential Marketing will be the
highlight in the near future.
· What were the problems you faced
at an initial stage and how did you
overcome them?
As any startup, we did face all the issue
that everyone else faces - resources,
money, infrastructure - all of it. We have
worked hard, put our soul in it, slept
less, worked on shoe string budgets, etc.
· Kindly share your views on the
future of ‘Marketing Industry’.
Tell us something about your
upcoming products/services/plans.
The future of marketing is in creating
unique brand propositions and using real
people to demonstrate this. The Tribal
Box can be the enabler to help connect
brands/products with the consumers.
· What is your advice to the young
entrepreneurs in the Marketing
industry?
Create affordable products and services
that can resolve a social issue and you
will see a massive market opportunity.
Dream big and it’s possible to achieve
anything you wish to irrespective of our
past and present. Only you decide your
future and in turn the future of the
society and our country.
Every company is trying to do its best
to grab the consumer’s attention and is
doing something to change their lives
for the better. Isn’t that just amazing?
We are increasing our reach across
India, scouting more stories and
sharing them with our client
companies, and helping them reach out
to the consumers easily and quickly.
We are in the digital space, story
telling is our forte and so, we are
assisting our clients to create impact
and reach out to consumers easily and
quickly. We are an end-to-end solution
provider.
· What traits or qualities does an
organization need to have to
excel in this highly competitive
world?
A company just needs to be true to its
core values and our entire being itself
is about reaching out to people and
helping them follow their dreams.
· Which strategies do you follow
to remain competitive with
continuously evolving
technologies and trends? How
are you preparing yourself to
become unique?
We are unique because we tell stories
of inspiring people and engage with
them regularly. You need to watch a
few of our stories to understand this.
On the backend we are working on
creating mentors for a few of our
protagonists, creating partnerships to
help them with financial assistance,
creating work opportunities and
platforms for them to share their
talent/story. Like they say, there is a lot
happening behind the scenes.
Technology is a given in our industry.
The best equipments, best editing soft
wares, servers and great machines,
18 OCTOBER 2018

stablished in 2014, and
Eheadquartered in Mumbai,
sunSTRATEGIC brings rich
content that is thought-provoking.
With constantly researching and
abreast with knowledgeable about
trends, the company is supporting
their clients.
In an interview with Insights Success,
Sherina Kapany, Founder of
sunSTRATEGIC, provided some
enlightening and perceptive answers
about the company, its journey, and
its future plans and other endeavors.
Changing the way
a Company Innovates
INTERVIEWWITHINSIGHTSSUCCESS
sunSTRATEGIC
20 OCTOBER 2018

Sherina Kapany
Founder
OCTOBER 2018 21

l Please tell us about your Company. What are the
different types of Marketing solutions/services/products
that your company offers?
With the desire to merge technology, marketing and
creativity, sunSTRATEGIC was conceived in 2014.
Serving Fortune 500 and blue-chip companies, we are one
of the few digital marketing agencies in India with a focus
on Content Marketing Strategy and Design Thinking - a
model still new to Indian agencies.
At sunSTRATEGIC, we aim to enhance and strengthen
your brand - no amateur feat! We provide our clients with
Trending Content for Websites and Storytelling Devices,
Traffic Building through Blogs and News Articles, PR,
Social Media Marketing, Social Listening, Community
Management, BTL, Gaming App Development, User
Experience Design, and much more, while testing the
waters in virtual reality norms.
l Please enlighten us about yourself and how you are
dealing with current problems related to the Marketing
industry.
I left India when I was 17. I studied and worked in USA for
13 years in technology and marketing. I worked with A
grade corporates in the US, Australia and Europe. I decided
to come back to India because I did not believe that getting
a green card and settling in a high paying job really was the
end goal of my existence. So a new country, a new venture
and an adventure was what I sought. I dealt with problems
by focusing only on qualitative content, not being
gimmicky and welcoming negative feedback in my stride.
l What is your take on the current scenario of ‘Digital
Marketing Industry’? What steps are you taking to
make it better?
The industry now has a firm grip on the market and is
growing rapidly. The need for creating a strong online
presence has given rise to competition which makes work
fun. To increase the pace of the digital marketing wagon, I
consider and give a suitable platform to the young and
upcoming talents.
l What traits or qualities does an organization need to
have to excel in this highly competitive world?
Organizations must focus on developing an identity and
exhibiting flexibility. Also, I cannot preach enough on the
value of good staff and training your staff.
l Which strategies do you follow to remain competitive
with continuously evolving technologies and trends?
How are you preparing yourself to become unique?
Following trend reports, industry news, tracking consumer
behavior, using tools, are essential. Our original content is
our USP. I try to disconnect content from the product I am
branding. I can literally put a picture of a chicken and pink
candy-floss together to sell a piece of real estate. Can you
imagine the correlation? But when you see it, it adds up
brilliantly. I think shameless push of a product is a huge
turn off. Your audience is smarter than you think.
l Where is your company heading? Tell us something
about your upcoming products/services/plans.
We have ambitious plans. Besides increasing staff
strength, we are looking to expand our services in Digital
PR, and tapping into new content marketing platforms.
We are looking to create content for hospitality markets
for Pay per View Model, while we have already worked in
Fashion, BFSI, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, real estate
and others.
We look to become a studio producing original content in
India in multiple languages for multiple intents through
our capabilities.
We are expecting to expand into AR/VR, gaming and in-
film branding. We have also developed the
first-of-its-kind content and lead generation app and we
have opened talks with potential investors.
l What competitive advantages is your company
providing to your clients in this contentious world?
Since the digital revolution, PR has been forced to adapt to
the boundless scope of digital media. The need for unique
content engenders gravity to strategy-focused digital PR,
and towards marketing partners such as sunSTRATEGIC,
which specialize in combining traditional PR with Content
Marketing, Digital Outreach, Social Media and Search.
l What were the problems you faced at an initial stage
and how did you overcome them?
The biggest hurdle we faced was giving out strategies for
free because clients wanted that but we decided to stop
doing it early on. Clients who didn t pay us on time, we let’
22 OCTOBER 2018

go off. And resources which were
not reliable, we fired.
When I started, my time was split
between sales, execution, HR
issues, and payment collection. It
was a huge learning curve
especially since I had never
worked in India. It made me work
harder to get good and“
meaningful business and taught”
me to deep-define our company
values.
l Kindly share your views on the
future of ‘Digital Marketing
Industry’.
The industry is poised to be even
bigger than what it is today,
growing at a staggering pace.
Mobile devices, personalization
technologies, and the Internet of
Things are going to be the biggest
trends impacting marketing
organizations by 2020, besides Big
Data and Augmented Reality.
More and more companies/brands
are shifting their preferences and
budgets towards digital marketing
over offline marketing avenues.
Besides a huge demand for video
content, there is bound to be much
greater focus on long-form content
for better engagement metrics.
l What is your advice to the
young entrepreneurs in the
Digital Marketing industry?
Always keep your emotions at
home! You are here for business,
it’s not personal.
OCTOBER 2018 23

A Game Changer in Marketing Solutions
Virtual Real y
24 OCTOBER 2018

With the advent of cutting-edge innovations like virtual reality (VR), the marketing industry is thriving by leaps
and bounds. A company can capture the interest of younger consumers and move ahead of competitors by
being an early adopter of VR in their marketing. Also, they don’t have to spend a lot of money doing it.
Our everyday life has been greatly impacted by technology; in fact, for many of us it is hard to imagine what it was like
with no technology at all. With each passing day, more innovations are making their way into our everyday lives. So far,
they have dramatically changed
our ways of doing things. They
have made our lives easier, our
daily routines more convenient
and less time consuming, and
education and entertainment
accessible 24/7 with engaging and
astonishing content.
VR as an Essential Ingredient
Technologies such as AR and VR
have already made their presence
felt, but have been used mostly for
gaming and entertainment.
However, they deﬁnitely have
much more to offer and can play a
very important part in the
marketing industry. Currently,
around 90 million people use VR
in the world, and the number is
gradually increasing. This
suggests that in the days to come,
it will almost double, while the
number of AR users may reach 1
billion by 2020.
Although VR may turn out to be
an expensive technology for tech
enthusiasts and average persons,
its demand is still growing in the
market. Nowadays, one doesn't
have to purchase expensive VR
equipment to experience it for
them. Leading tech giants are
trying to outrun their competitors
and are providing enhanced VR
experience to anyone who owns a
smartphone.
Tech-Talk
OCTOBER 2018 25

In fact, smartphone users today can experience what VR is
all about by going through 360-degree videos on social
networking websites. Hence, these days it doesn’t cost a
fortune to obtain a VR experience.
Importance of VR for Companies
In this modern era, the tastes and needs of the consumers
are increasingly becoming more and more sophisticated.
The youth of today have very short attention spans. They
are tech-savvy and are always engaged in their phones and
gadgets. It is very difﬁcult to please and to keep engaged. It
is very important for brands and companies to focus on the
youth market. They must work hard to hold the attention of
the millennials and should be extra cautious about grabbing
the attention of the customers. A product should be
marketed uniquely to the millenials with the objective of
making an unforgettable excitement and impression on
them.
Although VR is relatively a new technology, it has still been
able to create an innovative experience and impress
majority of the customers. Major brands are increasingly
adopting VR technologies to their advantage and are also
performing very well. Some of the renowned brands like
McDonald’s, Volvo, Marriott and others have already
started implementing VR to attract and interact with the
audience.
VR Enhancing Marketing Procedures
Organizations can enhance their marketing techniques and
procedures by implementing VR. They can implement a
variety of strategies including:
Creation of 360-degree Videos
It is a known fact that the easiest way for a business to
implement VR technology is to incorporate it in videos.
With the use of computers, tablets, and mobile phones,
companies can provide in-depth experiences with
interactive and impactful videos. VR can assist in creating
interactive content which can be used for educational
purposes, virtual trips, and product demonstration.
VR Application Development
With the help of a VR app, a company can produce branded
content which can help them to perform innovatively and
stand out among the competitors. Various industries
including automotive, fashion, healthcare, and so on are
using VR to assist clients with better decision making along
with providing them a fun and interactive experience.
Efﬁcient Utilization of VR Headsets
Many leading food chains and restaurants are creating their
customized DIY headsets to provide ultimate satisfaction to
their customers. Companies can provide their customers
headsets with branded VR content on a regular basis, which
can help them in increasing customer loyalty and keep them
coming back for more.
Engaging VR Games
Companies can use VR technology in developing games
which will allow the users to earn bonuses like coupons,
discounts, points, and more. VR apps appropriate for a
brand can contribute a lot to create brand awareness and
engagement.
Creating Real-Life Teleportation Experience
Many companies have taken it to the next level by
combining VR and 4D technologies. Using VR
technologies customers can be provided real-life
experiences like wind, aroma, vibrations, and many other
sensations which would help in putting them in a buying
mindset. This technology helps creating such an ambience
that the customer feels that he has been transported to
another place altogether.
With an early adoption of VR technology, organizations can
hit the jackpot and make their mark with an impressive
promotional campaign. VR is capable enough to become a
major component of many businesses. Combining
marketing with VR can work wonders; it can be a powerful
force when combined. Customers can experience
destinations, products, and services like never before thanks
to the incorporation of VR in marketing. With these
technologies available, the marketing industry can proceed
steadily towards a future of endless possibilities.
26 OCTOBER 2018

Empowering Brands to Respond to the Rapidly Changing Market Needs
Digital marketing is growing
rapidly and is expected to
grow 40% annually. Studies
indicate that the number of consumers
who shop online in India has crossed
100 million by mid-2018. Major
marketing giants are implementing
modern technologies and driving
innovations to provide exceptional
service to their clients and excel among
competitors.
One such emerging, upbeat market
research and internet marketing agency
is eConcero. They focus on using deep
dive market research and online
marketing expertise to optimize a
brand’s growth.
To achieve sustainable growth in
today’s dynamic marketplace, with the
inception of digital invasion and
internet penetration, customers are
exposed to infinite choices. The
company believes to maximize results
of a brand growth leveraging their 5 C
customer centric model/solutions –
Customer Discovery, Customer
Acquisition, Customer Engagement,
Customer Retention and Customer
Experience. eConcero works with B2B
and B2C clients and are industry
agonistic. While they have clientele
across Geographies, the nexus of their
focus remain: PAN India, North
America, and Africa.
Staying Ahead of the Competition
The company’s core foundation is
research, insights, data and analytics.
Their marketing solutions are built on
this strong foundation, which helps
brands maximize their ROI. They are a
data driven marketing agency and thus
integrated solution provider.
The agency is industry agonistic. They
deliver ROI driven campaigns to
clientele ranging from Consumer,
retail, Fashion through Political, Web
series & movies. That’s a perfect
example of being agonistic data
insights & digital marketing offering is
very unique and niche and the agency
is able to retain, add and keep their
clientele happy with the objective
results.
eConcero has been able to work along
predictability analytics and use its
findings to predict sales . This will lead
to an ongoing AI integration over a
period of time, which will enhance the
marketing team to focus on generating
high quality leads. And what's more the
team is also incorporating AR&VR to
one of their national jewellery client,
which will be a significant
breakthrough for both the client and
them.
On Digital Marketing front, the agency
is able to achieve high impact results
dealing with turnkey solutions which
involve, marketing automation,
retargeting, and managing paid media
for complex high end campaigns.
The integrated services are leveraged in
varied space including political, movies
& web serieses apart from Consumer,
retail domains.
eConcero’s strategies have always been
focused on ROI, they are confident to
set campaigns and deliver outcomes
favoring lead generation, conversions,
sales and lesser CPA.
About the Founder
The Founder and Director of
eConcero is Nandita Kanwar. She has
worked over a decade with TNS,
Kantar which is one of the world’s
leading research & Insights group. She
has also worked in financial and health
care domains with Citibank and CDR
group of hospitals in a marketing role.
Passionate about her vision to build an
agency which empowers brands and
help them stay ahead, evolve and grow,
Her goal is to service 100
companies/SMEs /start-ups until 2020
yielding a minimum 2x growth via the
market validation and digital marketing
scope. She is always known to be a
task master with a people first attitude!
Motivated and Expert Workforce
eConcero consists of a great blend of
thinkers, doers, and innovators. Their
core team has been working diligently
to align their vision. Param leads India
operations seamlessly. A versatile
player and brings in best from IT,
recruitment and ITES operations on
board. The company recently recruited
Shiv Akumala in capacity of Global
marketing director, from North
28 OCTOBER 2018

We represent
modern India globally
“
“
America who will bring in a global
perspective operating from the US
office. Ganga Boddu from UK leads
technology infrastructure and is a
solutions architect, closely working
with the team on technology. Senior
consultants like Sandhya, Rajender and
Ravi have always been the SMEs for
research & analytics. Sailesh Patnaik
leads in capacity of Digital marketing
head. Kiran MVS, mentor to the
founder and Krishna Gandhi in
advisory for agency have always
contributed in shaping the foundation
of the agency. With a versatile,
intellectual, and highly energized team,
the company is confident about making
a high impact in the digital world. The
team resonates with the vision to
empower brands.
Embracing Innovations
The company states that digital
advertising continues to disrupt in spite
of challenges of data security,
protection, bots, and Ad frauds. They
also assert that voice search, and
Internet of Things (IoT) devices are
providing new ways to distribute
content and reach consumers.
Facebook and Google, which now
account for around 70% of the total
digital ad market today (per MAGNA),
rolled out better technologies to enable
marketers to personalize their ads. The
team constantly updates, implements
and aligns to dynamic changes which
have impact on the digital world.
Their upcoming launches and
collaborations will take the agency to a
new level of competency as they will
be embracing faster & cost efficient
ways of managing data and campaigns.
The company is gearing up to adapt to
the future in all key areas.
The agency will soon be incorporating
Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and
Artificial Intelligence in the marketing
world for mid-sized brands.
Providing Competitive Services
The company helps businesses
discover, identify, understand, acquire,
and retain right customers. They are a
data driven marketing and research
agency. eConcero helps brands make
smart and reliable decisions based on
facts, insights, and data.
Some of their solutions include KYC,
(Know Your Competition), bootstrap
361 (market validation services),
e-commerce solutions (digital
marketing), BrandUp (Branding
Campaigns), Express Downloads
(mobile apps campaigns). The core to
all these services is strong data science
and analytics capabilities. eConcero
strongly believes that marketing
without data is like driving with one’s
eyes closed. Hence their research,
insights, and digital marketing
solutions are integrated. The ultimate
goal for us as marketers is to put data
to use in shaping the customer journey.
Our endeavor is to empower brands to
deliver a relevant offer to the right
customer at the perfect moment, while
also reducing the cost of each sale due
to this highly-targeted efficiency.
Future Endeavors
The company states, “Digital
marketing is the future, and we are
future ready.” eConcero is aligning to
meet the global needs of online
marketing. eConcero believes in
reducing cost of acquisition for their
clients over a period of time, be able to
make accurate forecasting of leads and
generate Sales. Their unique data
driven marketing approach speaks
objectively for their results. They are
looking forward to the launch of their
(IP) advertising and engagement
platform in India this November. The
company will be opening their US
office by October-end of this year.
“
Nandita Kanwar
Founder and Director
OCTOBER 2018 29
T
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MOST EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATED
PROVIDERS 2018

n the present scenario, there is no doubt about the fact
Ithat “Content is king” of marketing. Be it in digital or
real life, content has the ability to sell any product or
service efﬁciently online as well as ofﬂine.
Today, typically every person’s action is based on the
content, which he/she has previously consumed. Thus, be it
a brand or an individual, everyone recognizes you based on
the stories that you have created over the period of time.
Gone are the days when people used to visit cinema halls to
consume content and then discussed about it in their social
circles. Now in the digital era, watching web series and
talking about them on social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp etc.,
has become a trend since everyone is digitally connected. In
fact, social media is seen very trustworthy today and this
makes it an authentic platform to market one's product or
services. This is true to the extent that if a user sees an ad
on social media, he/she tends to consider the brand very
seriously.
In this digital era, users need multiple touch points to
become your customers. For example, if someone is
looking to buy shoes online, he/she will do a Google search
and visit various websites. And as soon as one leaves the
websites, the ad starts following him/her on different sites
that they browse or on social media channels that ultimately
increase the brand recall value. This leads into users
becoming customers. Here the ads that follow you generally
project different reasons as to why you should buy any
product.
Role of
Content in
Social Media
Marketing
About the Author
Nikhil Agarwal is the
Co-founder of Brandwitty. He
started his entrepreneurial
journey by Co-founding
Brandwitty, which is Mumbai's
fastest growing Digital
Marketing Agency with diverse
portfolio. Known for his sharp
business acumen and an eye
for detail, Nikhil has led
Brandwitty from one milestone
to another and today the
organization is recognized as
one of the most respected and
trusted Digital Marketing
agencies in the India. Besides
his operational roles, Nikhil is
passionate about
entrepreneurship & innovation
and is well regarded for his
understanding and views of the
same.
Nikhil Agarwal
Co-founder
30 OCTOBER 2018

This brings us to the point that social media marketing is all
about convincing users through engagement, relatable and
emotional content. On social media, as a marketer you
should always have that content which makes the users
react on it.
It is seen that content plays a crucial role in achieving
business and social media objectives such as brand
recognition, thought leadership, audience engagement and
lead generation. Further, effective content always helps you
to build long-term relationship with your audience and
ultimately helps in increasing the revenue for your
organization. Further, it also helps in creating brand
awareness.
Here, one thing is to be remembered that you should always
position your brand in a neutral way on social media.
Given that, the products or services can be promoted using
different content style on social media. Currently, video is
the highest consumed content format in digital media.
Hence, present-day marketers should focus on creating
video content, which is relatable to the target audience as
well as reflects the unique perspective of your brand and is
in line with the needs of your organization.
Relevant content for the target audience on social media
is crucial
Businesses generally create content for promotions and
selling their products and through this, they attempt to get
their message across the people who sometimes might not
be interested in buying the product. This could turn out to
be dangerous as you are showing content to non-relevant
audience who may become negative about your product or
services and post negative comments on the social media
platform. Thus, the businesses should ensure that their
content is impressive and is relevant to their audience’s
interest, goals and pain points. Not only a well-planned
content is able to build trust and relationship with the user
but it also helps you to support your business growth. Thus,
the key to achieve your social marketing goal is strong
content strategy, which helps in achieving your
organizational goals.
The need for online reputation and content management
In addition to strong content strategy, companies also need
to invest in maintaining online reputation as people get
easily influenced after reading a review from a friend or
family. For example, these days, people definitely read
reviews of movies, restaurants, product or services before
deciding to opt for it. Thus, content on social media
influences people’s decisions to a very great extent. In such
a scenario, responding to positive feedback as well as
complaints is very important for the marketers as people
feel acknowledged and this helps to create goodwill for
your business. Thus, all said and done, delivering right
content to right target audience can only give you success.
What more? Only good content can help you to create a
good position for your brand in the social media domain.
OCTOBER 2018 31
Expert's Viewpoint

Promises Better Business through
Innovative Marketing Services
An effective experimental
marketing campaign is a
careful blend of creativity,
technology, and people. By bringing a
diverse range of services under one
umbrella, NeoNiche Integrated
Solutions Pvt Ltd crafts seamless and
flawless experiences for the clients.
The company was started with the sole
purpose of bridging the gap between
traditional ad agencies and event
management companies, and act as a
one-stop shop that serves every single
need of a marketer.
NeoNiche is dedicated to strengthen
the relationship between brands and the
people. It offers a complete range of
marketing services that deliver client
clutter-busting experiences. With over
decades of domain expertise and
strategic global alliances, the company
is offering marketing services across
various platforms through digital
initiatives, contact programs,
activation plans, events, and
exhibition.
An Enthusiastic and Passionate
Entrepreneur
Driven by passion, versatility,
adaptability, Prateek Kumar is the
Managing Director and CEO of
NeoNiche. He started his
entrepreneurial journey by founding
NeoNiche in the year 2011. Since
childhood days, he has been passionate
about entrepreneurship. With his sharp
business acumen, Prateek has led
NeoNiche from one milestone to
another and today the organization is
recognized as one of the most
innovative enterprises in the country.
Besides his operational roles, Prateek is
passionate about entrepreneurship &
innovation. After starting his career in
hospitality and hotel management, he
actively participated in the growth
stories of several start-up event
agencies. This gave him tremendous
on-ground exposure and hands-on
learning.
His greatest strength is the ability to
pick the right person for the right job
and create self-sustaining and
profitable ventures and then stepping
aside to let the new leaders take the
baton. He is also recognized as a
domain expert who has a flair for
business media and writes on subjects
like brands, marketing, technology, and
start-ups From a cocoon to a butterfly
ready to spread the cheer, both Prateek
and NeoNiche continue to spread their
wings and make the experiential
marketing world “little more vivid, a
little more vibrant”
Idea, Innovation, and Insights: The
Pillars of Services
With the objective to create remarkable
customer experience, the company
designs and delivers tailor-made
experimental marketing solution for
their clients with the complete range of
marketing services. The company
caters to more than five hundred clients
and has over eight thousand success
stories since its inception. It has
emerged as the premier marketing
partner and the first business of its kind
across the country. Idea-driven,
innovation-focused, and insightful are
the core qualities of the company and
have become the DNA and driving
force of the organization. NeoNiche
promotes brands through events,
integrated marketing services, road
shows, exhibitions, conferences, digital
marketing, customer contact programs,
and social media. It is the only
marketing partner/extension which
offers the single window to the clients.
Professional Team Ensuring Lasting
Experiences
NeoNiche introduced a very extensive
management trainee program. It brings
seasoned talent from the trenches and
that resulted in a beautiful integration
of strategy backed by execution. From
34 OCTOBER 2018

We are creating an environment
of trust, harmony, and excellence
which will lead to constant
innovation for our clients
“
“
the very beginning, the company has
focused on performance management
systems as part of the business. This
has helped the organization to track
progress, reward employees, introduce
timely corrective measures, and
inculcate a good brand image. The
company leads the change from the
front by being among the first ones in
the industry to develop a system that
paid all its stakeholders on a time.
Surveys, polls, regular feedback, team-
building exercises, action-planning
sessions have helped NeoNiche deliver
value to clients.
NeoNiche focuses on technology to
amplify brand experiences. It is aims at
artificial intelligence, machine
learning, and virtual reality for better
customer experiences. The company’s
strategic tie-ups in tier 2, 3 cities,
villages, and at the global level have
enabled them to widen their reach and
offer better services to clients. The
company rolled out a very robust
performance management system
which is first of its kind in the industry
to manage performance at all levels.
The company’s professional team
delivers world class marketing services
to clients.
Value-Based Organization
NeoNiche is based on the foundation
of customer excellence and people
practices. The company brings the
culture of “respect” and “trust” with
value-based policies for their people
like “Recharge Breaks” and “Peer to
Peer Spot Recognition Program”. The
company has inducted initiatives like
B2B Loyalty programs, Quarterly
Customer Confidence survey, and
introducing the element of
“Technology” like AR/VR in creating
experiences for their clients.
A Look into Future
The Indian marketing scenario is
undergoing a phenomenal change over
the last few years. It will continue to
affect the economy of the country
which will led to high standard of
living, high per capita income with
economic development.
Progressing forward with a positive
outlook for the future, the company is
dedicated to design Innovative
marketing services. The company’s
vision is to cross the 100 crores
revenue in coming years. With
expertise in this sector, it will continue
to deliver challenging services.
Moving forward with a three year plan
under vision 2020 cascade, the
organization has carved annual goals
and imperatives to become the most
respected experiential marketing
company in terms of people practices,
customer excellence, and revenues in
India.
“
Prateek Kumar
MD and CEO
OCTOBER 2018 35
T
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MOST EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATED
PROVIDERS 2018

Ashish Dalia
CEO and Chief Business Strategist
I Knowledge Factory Pvt. Ltd.
36 OCTOBER 2018

The Upswing of
Social Selling &
How Content
is Responsible for
its Ascension
As someone who has seen the inception of the then neoteric phenomenon
called ‘social media’ and seen it branch out into spheres other than just
informal schmoozing, I often ﬁnd myself asking “is there anything that
I’m missing?” It’s interesting to have witnessed the evolution of social media up
close, use it, understand it, embrace it, and most importantly, wield it to help our
clients achieve their branding and marketing goals.
While the elephantine potentiality of social media was realized by marketers
long time ago, it has, however, always been eulogized in terms of the
proﬁtability and empowerment it offers to the buyers but the spotlight hasn’t
quite been trained on how it has changed the rules (for good) for people who are
the important cogs of the business machine - the salespeople.
Enter social selling - a buzzword that you might have caught in a blog post, or
heard someone toss it in one of those social media strategy sessions. To put it
simply, social selling is using the power of social media to conquer hearts and
sales by means of thoughtful content unlike social media marketing, which is
primarily concerned with pushing out content to targeted audiences.
As remarked by marketing guru Andrew Davis, “Content builds relationships.
Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue”; the whole idea of social
selling is nothing but this. Whether you are selling online or in person, you
know that no matter how well put together your sales pitch is - if your approach
is just to target the wallet of your customer, you have nipped your buyer’s
interest in the bud even before he could begin the journey!
Social selling is about devising and executing content that is rooted in
authenticity and motivated by the desire to answer the questions of prospects as
opposed to doling out pushy and invasive messages. It also involves
participating in conversations that prospects are prone to engage in order to
OCTOBER 2018 37
Veteran's Insights

forge a bond built on interest.
Here are some statistics worth poring
over -
1. About 65 % of buyers say that
they based their purchasing
decision on the vendor’s content.
-B2B Buyer Landscape, Demand
Gen
2. Nearly 82% of buyers viewed
between 5-8 pieces of content
from a winning vendor. - HubSpot
3. Nearly 97% of buyers prefer
prescriptive content. - Content
Preferences Survey Report,
Demand Gen
What these insightful nuggets tell us
that content is supremely consequential
to social selling strategies. The efﬁcacy
of the strategy solely depends upon the
content’s relevance, value, and tone.
Buyers are most likely to engage with
content that provides them with the
requisite information pertaining to their
business needs as well as shepherds
them through one stage of the buyer’s
journey to the next.
So how is content actually helping
social selling? What are the formats
that the sales reps are using to converse
with prospects? Before I plumb the
depths of these questions, let me tell
you how social selling above
everything else favors a personal touch
and how the strategies almost always
begin with the sales reps actively
joining the conversational currents
within their industries.
It goes without saying that the content
you create must spark the interest of
your prospect through valuable
information without the obvious sales
overtones. For over a decade now, IKF
has been helping clients identify and
nurture leads by utilization of social
media and although social selling has
only now emerged on the horizon, we
have been doing it, unbeknownst to us,
from quite some time. So, if there’s
one particular platform I was to point
out that lends itself as a legitimate
playing ﬁeld for social selling, it has to
be LinkedIn.
Thanks to the many bells and whistles
the professional networking giant
keeps adding, it now possesses all
those attributes that are conducive to
fruitful social selling activities. And
when it comes to content formats,
there’s more than you can shake a stick
at. If you just want to start a
conversation with your connections or
public, you have ‘share an update’ or
if you want to talk to detail about your
product/services, you go for ‘article’
which are indexed by search engines so
that you become discoverable to your
prospects through the content.
In addition to this, formats like blogs
cleverly leavened with answers that
your prospects might seek about your
product/service, webinars, E-books,
how-to guides, and explainer videos
also hugely help with social selling.
Before concluding, I’d like to stress the
importance of how supplementing
content creation with content curation
helps keep things fresh, grow sales
pipeline, and establish thought
leadership. It’s for these reasons that
content has been long touted as the
king of the world wide web.
About the Author
Ashish Dalia is the
CEO and Chief
Business Strategist of
I Knowledge Factory
Pvt. Ltd. (IKF). He has
passionately nurtured
the company to
become a leading
name in Digital
Marketing Services in
Pune City & beyond.
Digital Branding,
Social Media
Marketing, Website
Design and
Development – this is
what Ashish has been
living and breathing
for the past 18 years.
He has served over
850+ clients locally &
globally, across
various verticals such
as healthcare,
manufacturing,
education, real estate,
retail, FMCG, as well
as government
organizations.
38 OCTOBER 2018

AIAIAI Machine
LearningHarbingers of Revolutionary Changes in Marketing
&&&
The modern business industry
is data driven. The entire
world is dependent on digital
technology for information,
education, entertainment, and even
conducting major business activities.
In fact, the marketing industry has
also been greatly impacted by this
happening technology. For any
organization acquiring new clients
and maintaining the existing ones is
of top priority. To stay ahead of the
competition, brands have to
continuously research and come up
with innovative procedures. At times,
it is very difﬁcult for companies to
predict what type of content can grab
the attention of the customer.
Many companies try to draw attention
of the customers via mass emails
which provide their own convenient
communication services. But, creating
and delivering customized content can
have a strong impact on customers.
Personalized emails can also attract
more customers for companies and in
turn increase sales. But, unfortunately,
majority of marketers don’t use this
approach. If thought carefully, many
businesses are losing a considerable
number of potential customers
because of not personalizing their
content.
AI emerging as a Major Part of our
Daily Lives
Machine learning and AI can be
combined to produce data which is
powerful. In our daily lives, we are
coming across this technology in
many different ways. When we tag a
friend on popular social networking
websites, the platform gives us
suggestions about the tag in our future
posts. Similarly, when we watch
programs on online video streaming
websites, they offer us suggestions
based on our viewing preferences.
Also, when we are shopping online,
many ads pop-up on the side screen
which are based on our past buying
behavior. All the aforementioned
activities take place thanks to AI.
Machine Learning – An Efﬁcient
Marketing Tool
Machine learning can not only
40 OCTOBER 2018

enhance our daily life experiences,
but it can also assist marketers to
understand the customers using the
vast amount of data available.
Companies can use more amount of
data and advanced analytics to
understand what every single person
is searching, reading, or writing
about. Also, the huge amount of
public data can be aggregated and
converted into context so that they
can understand the buyers and initiate
meaningful and productive
conversations.
Machine learning algorithms are
taking marketing to the next level.
They are opening new windows for
companies to gain various insights
about customer behaviors and the
various courses of action that they
may take. This technology is making
content marketing even more
sophisticated and raising the bar in
terms of delivering the right content at
the right time.
Creating Virtual Clones of the Best
Salesperson
Traditionally, salespersons took years
to discover their target audience; but,
now due to AI this can be done in a
jiffy. Now marketers can hyper-
personalize their content so that the
audience gets more engaged, more
prospective buyers turn into actual
buyers, and there is more sales
conversions.
People acting on this information can
gain an edge over their competitors.
Artificial intelligence can assist
marketers to transition from general
conversations to individualized ones.
Companies can utilize prospect data
to understand how customers can be
appealed on a more personal level.
They should implement innovative
strategies and learn how to effectively
utilize the information available at
hand. Companies can create stronger
relationships with existing and
prospective clients by creating
strategies about how to properly
communicate with audience in
customized ways. Communicating
with the client at the right time and
with the right content can act as a
game changer.
It is known fact that customer
expectations will keep growing with
time, and this will pose a challenge
and great opportunity to companies.
AI and machine learning can bring in
relevance at scale when it comes to
advertising. They can assist in fully
realizing client personalization. These
technologies are reinventing the
existing products and are providing
new and lasting user experiences.
With time, customer expectations
have grown; as a result, companies
have the opportunity to amp up and
provide more personalized marketing
experiences to the customers.
Moreover, integrating these
technologies in the marketing
procedure leads to new customer
interactions and makes them simpler
and instantaneous.
Efficient Marketing Strategies
using AI
Using AI, companies can make more
relevant campaigns and customer
interactions. They can make relevant
end-to-end conversations and create
impressive promotional content to
grab the targeted audience’s attention.
These technologies can assist
companies to maintain a record of all
the signals that they have at the
customer level. It will assist them in
assessing various things like the
consumer’s color and tone
preferences, their purchase history
and contextual relevance.
Towards an Exciting Future of
Endless Possibilities
Companies can utilize machine
learning for various opportunities
even beyond media targeting. Leading
brands are using well-known open-
source machine learning platforms to
predict when and how shoppers select
products at a shop. Many leading
brands are also using these
technologies to reinvent consumer
engagement with their products using
smartphones and tablets. These
companies are making practical
applications of AI and machine
learning to introduce innovative
marketing procedures and services.
These technologies are already
solving many marketing-related
problems that companies face. In the
days to come, we can expect many
innovative and out-of-the-box
solutions in the field of marketing. We
can hope for many marketing and
advertising solutions which we
haven’t thought of yet.
Automation Portfolio
OCTOBER 2018 41

Creating Ideas that Cultivate Brands
Marketing is making the shift
from push to a pull
strategy, to a point where
Push advertising has becoming
repelling. Consumers today want to be
more in control of the information
they receive and when they receive it,
are more willing to consume paid
branded content rather than being
interrupted between their favorite
shows, sporting events, and other
programs. Today, buyers have access
to a broad array of online resources
and can conduct their own research
about products and services.
Empowering them to make the right
decisions is the marketer’s challenge
and an agency’s skill.
One such company providing
integrated and path-breaking
marketing solutions is UCID. It is
ever-hungry, ever-restless, and
constantly keeps on challenging
themselves and those around. The
company’s craft is to do whatever it
takes with whatever their clients have,
to turn their challenges into
opportunities.
The company’s journey, since their
inception, has been 8 years of
challenges and rising through the
ranks. They have provided successful
communication and branding solutions
to more than 100 clients and engaged
tens of thousands of customers with
their brands. Unconventional Ideas is
their guarantee – UCID is all about the
ideas. The big ones, the smart ones,
the ones that ﬁt the bill and the ones
that provoke and soar!
Insightful Leadership
UCID was started by two minds with
diverse expertise one with a mastery
on brand planning and strategy and
other with a passion for creativity and
art. Nilesh Talreja plays varied roles
of a brand consultant, communication
architect, and creativity engineer. He
believes in learning and staying ahead
of the curve to be able to give the
clients new age relevant marketing
solutions that work in today’s day and
age. Happiness is his fuel and it
reﬂects in the Agencies work.
Nimisha Bhavsar is a people’s
person. Designing is something the
really excites her. Graphic designer by
profession, traveler by soul, and hippie
by nature, fun and creativity is her true
calling. On the way Lavina
Amarnani joined hands to form the
third strong pillar of UCID. Been a
game-changer with several retail
chains, Lavina is a bundle of happy
creative vibes with ace executable
brand boost ideas up her sleeves.
Dedicated and Expert Workforce
UCID’s true strength is their team of
sharp minds with a spirit to serve the
clients with a smile. Responsiveness is
what differentiates them from other
agencies. Having started small and
nimble the company promises their
clients creative solutions with quick
turnaround time. “We have a culture of
knowledge sharing, where topics of
interest are divided among the team
and individuals share their learning
with the team for everyone’s growth”
they say. Team UCID has also been
blessed with a network of highly
inspiring and knowledgeable
individuals who join them for a
Saturday session of knowledge
sharing and dining. Mastering UI UX
and setting matrices for online
campaigns- are their current topics of
interest.
Providing Effective Marketing
Solutions
The company asserts, “Holistic
thinking is the key”. They feel that an
integrated marketing solution, in its
true sense, is about creating path-
breaking solutions that have the
potential to take a brand to the next
level! Right from identifying the
problem to devising creative solutions,
UCID takes care of various branding
needs with utmost enthusiasm. UCID
has this knack of getting their clients
an unfair share of attention. The
company believes in being partners in
growth. Also, they are true to their
values.
44 OCTOBER 2018

We exist to create
communication that appeals,
is unique, and quirky
“
“
UCID is all about providing what the
brand needs against the usual- what
they can offer. They don’t suggest
their clients a hoarding when they
need a hashtag. They won’t suggest
the client a print ad when they need a
web game. Most importantly, they
don’t speak in jargons. In order for the
client to be heard, they give them the
loudest and the clearest voice in the
market.
Partnering their clients’ Growth –
The Prime Motive of UCID
After delivering thousands of
campaigns for 100+ clients and having
reinforced brands with strategic
solutions, UCID continues to offer
end-to-end solutions for their clients,
cutting across mediums. Right from
branding, packaging design, to highly
focused online campaigns, the
company continues to serve their
clients’ present and latent needs with
utmost care and commitment. They
have tied up with capable partners to
offer the clients solutions like
engagement automation tools-
webengage, testing the response to
websites, and creatives with tools like
eyequant.
Opinions about the Future
The company feels that the future of marketing is taking brands closer to its
customers. “Be it the causes that they undertake to create communication that is
educative, inspiring, and entertaining for its audience, the need is to connect on
a more personal context,” is what they believe in.
“Nilesh Talreja,Founding Partner
Nimisha Bhavsar, Founding Partner
Lavina Amarnani,Working Partner
OCTOBER 2018 45
T
H
E
MOST EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATED
PROVIDERS 2018

IN JUST 3 YEARS, THIS DIGITAL MARKETING BOUTIQUE IS ALREADY
CRAFTING BETTER STORIES FOR FORTUNE COMPANIES AND STARTUPS
usinesses are marching ahead
Bat a fast pace these days. And
companies are employing
innovative actions and are embracing
cutting-edge technologies to make their
presence felt. They aim at staying
ahead of the competition and making
their mark in this highly competitive
world. Also, these companies are
implementing client-friendly
procedures for overall satisfaction of
the customers.
Zensciences is a leading boutique
digital marketing consulting firm
helping organizations answer one of
the most basic and relevant questions
–how to tell their story more
effectively and how to engage & grow?
Based out of Bangalore, they are
working with B2C & B2B Fortune 100
companies and startup’s spread across
APAC, Middle East, Europe, and North
American region to build their brand,
influence, and revenue.
Shaping the digital marketing
opportunity
Zensciences was started in 2015 by 3
friends and colleagues (Supriya Jain,
Rahul Koul and Rohit Kumar MS)– at
that time working for the technology
behemoth Wipro Limited. They saw a
gap in the traditional agency and
consulting models prevalent, wherein
the traditional partners look at
engagements in silos. Coupled with the
fact that most of the traditional
agencies were not comfortable with
technology and digital- made this
segment ripe for innovation and
change.
Zensciences combines the creative best
(of traditional agencies) with a deep
appreciation of business issues
(consulting) to deliver new age digital
marketing solutions. This intersection
of services helps Zen, to focus on
providing solutions which are aligned
to business outcomes.
Opinions about the Current Business
Scenario
The company feels that the speed of
business today and the pace at which
marketing must evolve to stay ahead of
the time is unprecedented. They came
face to face with this fact very early on
in their journey. Working with one of
their first clients, Zensciences had to
scale and optimize marketing strategy
for that client, to grow from 4 to 2000+
employees in just a matter of 6 months.
“Today, everyone is talking about
speed, but very few understand what it
really means. And once you add the
power of one into the mix, the odds of
success drastically shift along the
lower end of the scale. Understanding
this reality is our secret sauce,” the
company asserts. The company creates
to adapt and scale, taking ‘one to
millions’. And yet, treat every
customer as ‘one’. At the intersection
of technology, creativity, and business,
the company creates the inflection
point for marketing to deliver
exceptional experiences and valuable
outcomes.
Major Services Provided
Zensciences provides a wide range of
services to the clients. Some of their
key offerings include:
· Strategy & Consulting (business
and marketing goal alignment,
market research and analysis,
got-to-market strategy roadmaps,
pricing, service design)
· Digital Marketing (digital
strategy, analytics, search, social
media strategy and management,
product/service launch)
· Content & Storytelling (brand
story conceptualization, content
marketing strategy and
execution, thought leadership
marketing, leadership branding)
· Brand Building (brand
positioning, brand architecture
and naming, visual systems,
video creation)
Facing Competition with Innovative
Strategies
The company asserts, “Strategies that
46 OCTOBER 2018

We help businesses
grow their business
“
“
define and shape all our engagements
are crafted to deliver predictable and
measurable results”. By finding the
right balance between short-term
growth and long-term objectives,
Zensciences helps their clients align,
streamline, and execute marketing
strategy to drive business.
Finding the right cultural fit has been
their priority ever since the day they
started. They add, “And when you are
working with a small team, cultural fit
is as important as talent”.
Expert Workforce
The company takes pride in the teams
they have. People play a key role in
building any business. And they are in
the business of building businesses.
For them, their people are even more
important. Be it design, content,
analytics, or consulting, the quality of
hire and retention are critical elements
that define Zensciences.
Noteworthy Accomplishments
Zensciences has accomplished many
landmarks on their glorious journey.
They have assisted in brand story
conceptualization and have helped 60+
clients across industries build unique
and memorable stories that appeal to
and stick with their target audience and
resonate across channels.
In terms of noteworthy achievements
· Helped a $500 Million,
Engineering & Technology leader
through the process of its IPO
listing. This included building a
differentiated positioning for the
brand and executing the same
across communication channels
like the website and digital media.
· For a Fortune 25 retail giant, Zen
runs all digital engagement and is
helping build the employer brand
proposition.
· Helped a Fortune 500, hospitality
chain to build its B2B digital
presence across APAC.
· Helped a leading HR SaaS
platform reposition itself in the
market, Zen reworked its
positioning, identity, digital
presence, website and the platform
UX/UI to help the client
differentiate.
· Helped a leading Fintech startup
reduce its cost of digital
acquisition by ~50%. This was
achieved through focus on
storytelling and optimizing digital
campaigns.
· For a leading Fintech startup,
helped in positioning them for a
crowdfunding Indiegogo
campaign. Worked on the UX/UI,
positioning and branding of the
product and associated
technologies.
Towards an Exciting and Bright
Future
The company continues to build on the
success of last 3 years with a singular
focus to make their clients successful.
They understand that they need to
evolve in order to help the clients
evolve. Redefining marketing for the
customer-centric world is one of
Zensciences’ top priorities.
The company is currently investing in
augmented and virtual reality solutions
to help their clients enable high-touch,
convergent experiences that are human
and insightful. Plans for developing
marketing technology are also in the
pipeline. Moreover, the company has
already developed some algorithms to
better contextualize their social media
and search strategies. “Interesting
times are ahead of us and we are
excited to explore new territories,”
they add.
“A UX BRAINSTORMING SESSION
IN PROGRESS AT THE ZEN STUDIO
OCTOBER 2018 47
T
H
E
MOST EFFECTIVE
INTEGRATED
PROVIDERS 2018

The 10 Most Effective Integrated Marketing Solution Providers 2018

The 10 Most Effective Integrated Marketing Solution Providers 2018

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