Bhubaneswar: Illuminatix, the Media and PR Cell of XIMB organized their annual media conclave ‘Communique’ on 1st September 2019. The theme of the discussion was “Evolution of Media- The Nexus of Brand Transformation.”
Mr. Yuvraj Mehta, Head- Corporate Brand Management and Communications, Larsen and Toubro, Mr. Digvijay Shekhawat, Senior Vice President, Ogilvy, Mr. Manish Jhaveri, Senior Creative Consultant- IBD and Da Cunhas, and Mr. Bibhu Ranjan Mishra, Associate Editor, Business Standard were the esteemed speakers of the occasion. Professor Sandip Anand, Professor of Marketing, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, served as the moderator for the discussion.
The dignitaries inaugurated the event by lighting the ceremonial lamp. Professor Sandip Anand started the session by briefly elucidating on the topic and explained the concepts of Macromedia and Metamedia.
The first speaker, Mr. Yuvraj Mehta talked about how social media has revolutionized communication. He cited the example of the ‘MeToo movement’ and how a single tweet through digital media spread like wild fire. Within a fortnight, there were 2.3 million tweets, 24 million facebook posts that spread across 85 countries. He emphasized the fact that had it not been the spread through social media, the movement would have been limited to a particular region only. Further he talked about how brands are increasingly moving towards online marketing as it not only provides better engagement with the customers but also better return on investment. Adidas had a 40% growth in online sales for the first quarter of 2019. The company largely attributed it to the advertising it does on Instagram. Mr. Yuvraj also touched upon how marketing is done through personalized communication to maintain customer loyalty.
“For me, the change in media is not evolution but a revolution, where every debater, blogger, influencer now has an opinion.”
The second speaker, Mr. Digvijay Shekhawat started by explaining the concepts of Strategic Marketing and Data Driven Marketing as these are the tools being increasingly used by brands nowadays. Using data, brands are moving towards customizing their communications as they realize that the notion of ‘One message fits all’ doesn’t apply anymore. Customization is mandatory. He talked about how brands are specifically targeting their ‘ideal buyer’ rather than selecting a broad market to deliver their message. Brands are building relationships with these ideal buyers through increasingly powerful marketing strategies that foster trust in their product or service. He further gave insights about various marketing campaigns that made an impact through social media like GoPro’s ‘Photo of the Day’, IBM’s ‘Call for Code’ and Volvo’s Superbowl campaign.
The next speaker, Mr. Manish Jhaveri started by drawing an analogy between Bob Dylan’s popular song ‘The time they are a-changin’ and how marketers need to change according to the circumstances otherwise they would be left behind. He talked about topicality and witty one-liners, something which is associated with Amul from time immemorial.
“Before Twitter, Amul used to be the twitter with its witty one-liners.”
He further explained a key issue of how governments are using media to communicate with the common public and how it is trying to regulate media.
Mr. Bibhu Ranjan Mishra was the final speaker of the day. He spoke about the rising issues of misinformation on social media. He told that although social media is becoming the preferred medium of communication, traditional mediums cannot be ruled out as they are still known for their authentic content. So, every medium should find its own space.
“As a marketer, it’s up to us, how to use the media and how to identify the right platform for advertising.”
The panel session was followed by an interactive question and answer session, where students posed inquisitive and insightful questions. This was followed by the launch of the 4th edition of ‘Communique’ newsletter. The eminent speakers felicitated the winners of ‘Communiquiz’, a quiz competition organized by Illuminatix in association with XQuizzite on 20th August 2019. The winners were Sarthak Satapathy, Kaushik Bhattacharjee, Sanat Sarangi, while the first runner’s up team consisted of Sidhant Nayak, Sidharth S Panda, Siddhartha Biswal. The winners of the article writing competition and poster writing competition organized by the team were also awarded at the occasion.
Ms. Kriti Sinha, the student coordinator of Illuminatix delivered the vote of thanks to all the dignitaries, media partners and concluded the event.
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