Event: CII Big Picture Summit

Venue: Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi

The summit organized by CII was meant to be a platform where business leaders, performers and policy makers could get together to discuss on best ways to run the media and entertainment industry. Ease of doing business, increasing transparency and plugging monetary leaks were the major concerns addressed here. Also on top of agenda were ways to fend-off or even leverage the technological disruptions.

This write-up will describe session wise the major points discussed by the panel members and the responses to the questions posed by the audience.

Day 1

Inaugural Session

This session consisted of 5 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Mr. Sudhanshu Vats

As the head of the CII division concerned with the summit, it was his privilege to get the proceedings underway. He introduced to the audience the work CII’s National Committee on Media and Entertainment was into. The division conducts extensive business research to understand the various nuances of this sector in order to create a dialogue between the various stakeholders while eventually improving qualitative output. He also introduced the panel members, describing in detail their respective achievements. This speaker was ever present in between the discussion while acting as the principal moderator of this session.

Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu

The Honourable Cabinet Minister began his talk by first affirming that he had only spent a few months in this ministry as earlier he was with “Parliamentary Affairs”. Thus he is still in the learning mode, while few milestones have already been achieved. He spoke about the reform- perform- transform agenda of the present Prime Minister and how that has permeated across the ministry. In addition he coined the 3 Ss- skill, scale and speed- without which none of the plans can be properly implemented. The ministry is presently people and nation oriented. The philosophy is to learn and not earn alone. This speaker emphasized on the fact that India is a nation of treasure and this must eventually reflect into the diverse art forms. Film and other versions of entertainment must bear the hallmarks. He also made the audience understand that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is a regulator and not a strangulator. Thus the stakeholders must not view the TRAI with fear or suspicion but as a partner for the people’s benefit. The Cabinet Minister then proceeded to discuss the PM’s JAM strategy. This JAM stood for the triple goals of – Jan-Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile. These three tools he feels will enable India to mobilize bank accounts, transparency and last mile connectivity. He also feels that India is on track to achieve success in schemes such as “Make in India”, “Skill India” and “Digital India”. He ended the event on a note about the importance of vernacular or regional languages. He feels that of course English is needed as a nation unifier, but as far as possible people must communicate with each other in their native tongues. Within such languages is hidden the culture and history of the region stretching back millennia.

Mr. Harit Nagpal

Mr. Nagpal began his speech by speaking in a light vein about how he felt at unease to be at such an august forum. He feels that only in democracies is it possible that the lowest rung which included entities with barely much profit margins, to address such large crowds. This was the beauty that India was standing on. It is time to leverage the population dividend. Usually, it is those that create content who deliver speeches, but in this instance it was a distributor. This speaker also gave an outline of the kind of service his organization Tata Sky has been offering to the customers. A customer-centric approach is key to Tata Sky’s success.

Mr. R.S. Sharma

Mr. Sharma began by saying that how the ubiquitous nature of smartphones, tablets or wearables has turned around the world of media or entertainment. The latter is no longer something that users need to strive for specific periods, but indeed available at the click of a button anytime. Consumers are now empowered, being the centre of all business decision making. While disruption in business has always existed, the word used to have negative connotations at earlier times. Now disruption is caused by technology advancements and is considered business innovation. It has led to sources of revenue being disrupted, so no longer possible for existing businesses to be complacent about their cash flows. In this era of convergence across multiple platforms, it is necessary that a single regulator is in charge of all such proceedings. The TRAI’s job is to be business friendly and continue to encourage newer initiatives to develop but at the same time, there has to be some form of control. Just to put it into context, it is the broadcast sector which has run into maximum number of litigations. While the attempt is to clear up the cases as quick or efficiently as possible, there remains a lot of ambiguity as to under whose jurisdiction certain issues fall under. That is where the TRAI needs to be streamlined as the sole regulator for the media, telecom and entertainment industries.

Mr. Ramesh Sippy

This speaker concluded the proceedings for the session. He summarized the views of the panel. He also spoke about his personal experiences within the industry and how certain aspects need to be better streamlined for all stakeholders to be best served.

Session I: The Big Picture Dialogue- will there be symphony at the Altar of Convergence?

This session consisted of 4 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Two of the speakers from the previous session continued on. There was the release of CII-BCG Vision Report during this session which continued on from the previous one. BCG is the global leader in advising companies regarding business and corporate strategy so used their expertise here to help guide the media industry to indentify major fault lines in order to resolve the issues. The idea of this session was to arrange a brainstorming session involving the industry, regulator, licensor and policy maker all together on the dais.

Session II: Disruption in Television News

This session consisted of 2 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Ms. Amita Sarkar

Ms. Sarkar introduced Mr. Goswami who had a special address in store. She spoke about how the latter required no introduction being the face of Indian television’s serious news segment. She also spoke about the disruption caused by media channels such as Times Now due to their incredible mission to change the world for a better cause.

Mr. Arnab Goswami

Mr. Arnab Goswami remains ubiquitous on Indian television for his news and information channel Times Now. This speaker discussed his life and career which led him to adopt the divisive personality he tends to demonstrate on-screen. He spoke about his time as a young journalist and how there was little of serious news reporting in the capital city of those days. That is the reason he based his office out of a small establishment on Lower Parel in Mumbai and not in Delhi where majority of the serious news fraternity was based in. He has always believed in challenging established orders if he feels that something wrong is being committed. He mentioned some scams were Times Now was the first media house to break the story. Contrary to usual protocol, Mr. Goswami is a strong believer that objectivity can only be applied up to a certain level in news, but beyond that news telling is an emotional condition. The story of the boy Prince for example drew attention from across the country, in spite of this speaker being lampooned for picking on a relatively trivial issue as it first appeared. But because such a mainstream channel aired this piece of news, it faced attention from across the country. Eventually when the boy was taken out alive, there was a raft of happiness across the crew members of Times Now and indeed across the nation, proving that emotions did play a large part in news reporting. Also on matters of the nation, Goswami believes that it is essential that he take a somewhat skewed approach to support his nation while condemning the atrocities which may take place in any country. He also feels angst at the global domination by western media houses such as BBC or CNN or even the Middle East’s Al-Jazeera. He feels the time has come that Indians can not only lead news within the country but indeed create content for the global audiences. This speaker recounted an incident where members of a leading global news agency were trained by himself and his staff. So he feels that a media disruption is set to be launched over the next few years where a news hub will be led from India for global news. On a lighter note, Goswami spoke about why he had the characteristic method of shouting on-screen because he feels that in this country, that is what people listen to.

Session III: The Day the Music Industry died- Bye bye “Musical” Pie

This session consisted of 6 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

The mood of this committee was comparatively somber as the discussion centred around music piracy. A figure of US $ 4 billion was quoted as to the actual size of the music industry, yet the money really recouped amounted to only US$ 2 million due to theft and piracy. This is a grave problem, and thus the session even pondered this topic, whether the music industry needs to be dead. In addition, taxes are also a heavy burden on the as it is hit industry. A further problem is the technological disruption which means that while consumers want music free to their mobile phones, there remain very few ways for music producers to either charge legitimate money or stop the flow of music through illegal means.

Mr. Annu Kapoor though had a contrarian view to the rest of the panel. He feels that music content id delivered not from the tunes which as it is are highly limited, but because of the lyrics which give character to unique songs. Also he feels that it is a travesty that Indian music directors or film makers are asking protection from the law whereas in fact majority of the music in the country was ‘inspired’ from foreign tunes. He also feels that the majority of films made in the country were based around stereotypical potboiler themes with core commercial purposes and it was not right for them to ask for piracy protection when in the first place the industry isn’t that ethical itself. An audience member raised a query as to why his songs are not getting accepted on YouTube as tunes were common due to classical themes being used though the singing style and part of the lyrics were unique. So here Mr. Kapoor clarified that if the song was genuinely unique then there was no chance for YouTube or any other online player to refuse license. He even hummed the tune himself to make the audience understand the methodology.

Day 2

Interactive Session

This session consisted of 2 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee

This representative from CII was responsible for introducing the keynote speaker to flag off the day’s proceedings. He also acted as the moderator for the question and answer round with the audience.

Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore

The Hon’ble Minister of State began by elucidating how ironically maximum animations for Hollywood films are either developed by Indians or in India. The film Bahubali is particularly remarkable for its special effects and animations. This was created in India but received plaudits worldwide. What is needed is a greater integration between the IT industry and that of the media plus entertainment. For this greater collaboration is needed between the IT hub of Bengaluru with the home of the film industry in Mumbai. Also more trained professionals are needed. Talent recruitment in fields such as animation, film making, story writing and special effects is needed for the media industry. For this purpose, the government is setting up a new institute for filming and videography in Guwahati. Certifications are being provided accordingly there. Col. Rathore spoke about the trending topic of censorship. He was candid in admitting that there would be complete freedom of expression for artistes, yet anything that cannot be spoken off-the-camera cannot be spoken on it. A new fund has been set up for helping films based around socially relevant topics. Funding can be up to a maximum limit of Rs. 1 crore. This is specifically to target the most relevant or well known of film festivals. A film bazaar has also been set up to benefit startups with seed funds, centralized knowledge pool and recruitments. To reiterate India’s presence in the film festivals, Col. Rathore mentioned that in Cannes during the film festival, maximum advertisements were from Indian companies especially media houses.

Col. Rathore next spoke about how he felt about the proverbial small screen in India. He feels that the small screen is now actually big as it has greater bandwidth. It is used far more with hundreds of millions of viewers tuned in to TV programmes at any given point of time in India. The numbers estimated are around 300 million households. In fact in December a meeting has been planned to bring together the state ministers with the union ones in information and broadcasting. A new category for most innovative state has been launched in the National Film Awards to honour states which excel in experimentation. The experiments could be social themes explored or technologies used.

As a response to one of the question, Col. Rathore acknowledged the role of the oft maligned Prasar Bharti confirming that it was the only broadcaster in the entire world that beamed content in 23 different languages. Being a nationalized body, they even did news in Sanskrit. This speaker also admitted regret that online content was under the aegis of the IT ministry and not his, thus often alignment issues arose. Better streamlining of content both online as well as offline was needed.

Session VII: Digital- the new Mantra for Innovation and Growth

This session consisted of 8 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Mr. Vivan Sharan

The moderator introduced the panel members and experts to the audience. He described the role that his firm Koan Advisory is playing as a business consulting partner to several industries as part of the knowledge economy.

Mr. Manoj Sinha

The Honourable Minister of State was introduced as a technocrat, the kind of people ideal for ministries like his. He himself spoke about the various initiatives that the ministry is taking in order to ease off business. He also spoke about how the communications are being used to benefit his other portfolio railways that are being modernized.

Mr. Priyank Kharge

Being from Karnataka, he spoke about the particular advances the state and especially the IT hub of Bengaluru have made with regards to technology. He spoke about how Bengaluru has always been a supporter of technology, thus unsurprisingly the city geared up best to the IT revolution. Now specific technology parks have been set up where companies are free to pursue their creativity to develop cutting edge technology based tools. Startups are also being helped and for this specific help has been extended to them. Bengaluru is also being developed as a smart city which will further extend the technology driven growth of the megacity.

Ms. Kaveree Bamzai

As a leading journalist, Ms. Bamzai spoke about how her beautiful profession has shaped herself. She also confessed, that she was herself far removed from technological disruptions but understands that digital is the way to move forward. That is the reason, that her publication the India Today has gone digital in addition to the physical editions. Specific content is developed for this purpose. This has been going on for several years but has picked up further recently.

Mr. Sunil Kumar Singhal

Due to the unfortunate shortage of time, this speaker was not able to speak much. But he addressed the concerns of the panel and the audience, reassuring everyone on behalf of the regulator TRAI, that all decisions are being taken for the wider good. He was not opposed to digital marketing, but feels that some form of content must be controlled as a lot of it could be misinformed.

Mr. Vikram Chandra

As another leader of the media industry, Mr. Chandra described how his channel NDTV has taken steps long back to curb the unfettered growth of digital content. Instead NDTV itself has developed high level content to take on a lot of digital natives. This speaker feels that it is ideal if existing knowledge providers continue to dominate the digital landscape as long as the intentions are correct.

Mr. T.V. Ramachandran

Mr. Ramachandran expressed disappointment at the fact that in India the mobile internet does not work as fast it should due to lack of underground or even over-ground fibre optic. He coined the oxymoron ‘wireless fibres’ as what was the need of the hour. He also pointed out that USA and China were substantially ahead of us in terms of infrastructure. In fact, India was roughly ten years behind those two countries for implementation of 3G mobile technology and a few years for 4G even.

Mr. Harish Vaidyanathan

This speaker spoke about how Microsoft is at the centre of the innovations taking place and how India is primed to take advantage of several of them. India’s proficiency at data warehousing and further analysis was particularly lauded by the speaker.

Session VIII- Censorship to Creative Expression: The changing phase of Indian Cinema

This session consisted of 7 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Ms. Vanita Kohli Khandekar

The moderator clearly informed the audience at the beginning that she was on standby mode in place of someone else who faced some unfortunate emergency. Her knowledge of the subject was not as good as the person she originally replaced but overall she had a firm grasp on the media and entertainment industry. She set the stall by telling us that among all the industries in the country, it is art which is facing maximum repression. Technically, the name of the censor board has been changed to certifications, yet no one refers to them by the new name due to the continued status as a screening body rather than a facilitator. All forms of art especially cinema are subject to archaic laws which need to be altered.

Mr. Manish Tewari

Being the former Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mr. Tewari has in-depth knowledge of the workings. He confessed that indeed, restrictions do apply to movies, yet steps had been taken up by his government to ease them off. Had he remained the man at the helm things would probably changed, but even the present government was taking the right steps. He also added that the Shyam Benegal Committee has drafted down a proposal for altering the workings of the censorship norms. Steps will soon be taken as per the report of the committee.

Mr. Manoj Tiwari

This speaker somewhat differed from the rest of the panel. He started off by proudly announcing that he was presently shooting for his 100^th film, having done 99 of them so far. He is a veteran actor of the Bhojpuri cinema. Contrary to what others said, Mr. Tiwari says that he has never run into problems with the Censor Board. A lot of the apparently draconian measures of the board are exaggerated. He gave the example of the film Udta Punjab which was apparently subjected to around 90 cuts, yet he feels that this has been what the audience have been told by the media and even the courts. In reality, a few slangs were asked to be cut, but such words have been repeated several times, so all of those have been added as separate ones, though in reality it is all part of the same. He also feels that cinema dictates a lot of influence on the society with this being especially true in a movie mad market like India. So films, he added had a role to play and stick by board norms.

Ms. Nandita Das

This veteran actress and director confirmed the reality that her films have been subjected to. She feels a sort of no-man’s-land exists when it comes to film censorship. She spoke about her experiences with the films Fire and Water where certain vigilante groups in the country took charge and she was afforded little protection by the government. These movies got international acclaim but are almost taboo in this country. On the other hand, mass produced movies lacking in substance have been given clearances just because they never rocked the boat. She feels that the culture of intolerance that has swept through the country is primarily targeting art and artists but not any other field.

Mr. Sudhir Mishra

Mr. Mishra started off by claiming that he was bored. This discussion on censorship had been going on for decades but nothing has really taken place. He recounted instances of his own films being targeted by vigilante groups. He spoke about the system of disclaimers which had to be inserted at almost every stage. Mr. Mishra sadly confessed that when bans are imposed or A certifications put in, it is only the producer who is denied the money, as with today’s digital age, there is no way that any authority can stop any content from being leaked on some online source. He then recounted that anyway script writers do not make much money, but on top of that there are several taxes which are imposed on them as well in addition to the film makers. On the one hand, sarcastically, this speaker claimed that he felt porud that cinema was considered the gatekeeper of societal values. But on the other hand, he feels that this is just an eyewash where bigger things ought to be planned better by the authorities.

Mr. Anubha Sinha

Mr. Sinha feels that cinema does not have much power to influence society, but yet it is only this medium that is targeted for so much of censorship. He feels that cinema must correspond with reality, but only a sanitized version must be presented to the people. He gave the audience an eye opening narration of actual censor board run-ins. He says that the format is archaic, almost British era schoolmaster types. It starts with the director having to wait outside during the entire initial screening to the board. Then, he / she needs to stand throughout while the censor board members assess the criticalities and suggest cuts or otherwise. Cuts are suggested as per the tag. An A tag will have fewer cuts but an 18 or U will have more. Both the film makers are the dais were bemused as to why so many cuts where needed when as it is the movie gets an A certification. Mr. Sinha concluded on a lighter note by suggesting that Bhojpuri films must actually be subjected to greater scrutiny!

Ms. Sharmishtha Mukherjee

As a member of the ruling BJP, this speaker outlined the various plans that the party has regarding film certification. She assured that the government was firmly empathetic to the film fraternity and every step will be taken to address their issues. This includes the reformation of the Cinematograph Act, a reworking of the Censor/Certifications Board, strict action against groups that take law into their own hands, and strong protection of the fraternity who face threats or discord from such groups.

Talk by Maniesh Paul

Maniesh Paul is amongst the most famous of television presenters in India. He hosts the popular Jhalak Dikhla Ja which he has been doing for a while now. His entry was greeted with cheers from the crowd. He spoke about his background, the fact that he came from a very different family so it was a great struggle to reach the entertainment industry. Now he is extremely well settled in Mumbai. He then spoke about how his job is to keep people happy, and he genuinely wants people to be entertained at all times. Maniesh did not want to get into complexities but dealt with all questions gracefully.

Session IX: Solving the Funding Conundrum- The case of a bottle half filled?

This session consisted of 4 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Funding is one of the most crucial parameters where a gap exists. Bridging the funding- execution gap is a must. FDI can be one of the solutions to this conundrum. However, one of the panel members remarked that FDI may not be the answer as there is ample money present within the country. The industry must lessen its dependency on the government and must look at private funding sources. In South Indian cinema, a form of investment has already developed where corporate funding is seeping into cinema. This has seen improvements in talent spotting as well as in technical aspects such as animations or designing. There exists within western circles that India will be a good place to invest, yet tangible improvements aren’t being seen. Particularly impinging such investment is the fear of unaccounted money. The moderator felt particularly disappointed by India’s rank in the global ease of business ratings.

Session X- Sports Broadcasting in India: A Game Changer

This session consisted of 8 panel members. The panel members were as follows:

Mr. Charu Sharma

As the head of the organization that developed the Kabaddi Premier League (KPL), Mr. Sharma was brimming with pride regarding the kind of development that has been done for Indian sport. Kabaddi lacked the glamour quotient which sports such as cricket or football have, thus this was a positive step in what can eventually lead to inclusive growth. He feels saddened by the plight of Indian sports, but feels that more positive points may be taken from the fact that more Indians are now participating or watching sports at least, even if not playing it. He conducted some sort of a pilot survey within the hall itself, asking the audience whether they watched sports on TV. This was followed by a poll on how many participate actively in the same. To the first question, he received a highly positive response, but much less so for the second, thus clearly proving his point. The fact that people are watching sports is a positive sign but more participation needs to take place. He also urged the women in the room to take a pledge to allow their children to participate more in sports and not be dogged by academics alone. He feels women have that power to reform society. Overall, he addressed the audience to not lose hart, but take encouragement from several who have done well.

Mr. Vijay Goel

The Honourable Minister spoke towards the end because he wanted to pile in all the information. He expressed regret at the blame that got attached to his ministry during the dismal performance of the Olympics contingent. Yet he also reminded that this was the games where there was highest ever participation or qualification from India. He further reiterated that he had been in power for barely a few months, so it was not right to expect a miracle from him alone. Mr. Goel pointed out that in order to develop a sporting ethos, all the grounds belonging to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) which comes under his authority, will soon open its doors to the general public. This is in stark contrast to the states where there are far fewer open spaces for younger children to play. His other concern is that sports at present falls under the aegis of the Concurrent List and not Central, so his ministry’s control is limited.  He urged the people of the country to go out and play. Mr. Goel also spoke about the fact that the prizes accorded to sports stars after they won medals at international events, has often been used by the athletes themselves to develop fresh set of talent in that field. Many of them have opened up centres of excellence, as evidenced by the remarkable success of the academy run by former shuttler Pullela Gopichand. He has already planned that existing types of marathons in the country to be clubbed together as a marathon day when all people run. All need not run the full marathon but even a few kilometers will do just to boost the sporting values of the nation which will ultimately lead to a better medal tally.

Mr. Ayaz Memon

While introducing himself, Mr. Memon confirmed that while he has been a journalist, his first love is with the sporting part of that. He has written extensively on various sports in the country. He has covered sports across the country and even outside. In addition, he has even co-authored a book. Here he spoke about how the future of sports broadcasting looks like in India. Several digital channels are already functioning and set to transform viewing in coming times. Hotstar for example has already made changes to sports viewership patterns. Commercial models will need to be developed in order to tap this huge market.

The other speakers chipped in with their useful contributions. One of them mentioned about a race that takes place in Shanghai called the Vertical Race. Due to the paucity of open spaces in China, executives run up the tallest buildings in Shanghai with their bosses overseeing. This way they have maximized vertical space. This session was otherwise particularly remarkable due to the awards presented to two young para-athletes. Mr. Suyash Singh Jadhav and Mr. Varun Singh Bhati are para-athletes who won medals for India at the recently concluded Paralympics at Rio de Janeiro. They were both handed cash prizes. Being specially-abled and yet hungry for such success, gave the audience the kind of hope that nothing is impossible if sights are well set on them.

Conclusion

Overall the CII Big Picture Summit lived up to its billing of bringing the best of people from across stakeholder groups. This even was ideal for organizations to tap business intelligence on the vast network that is the media and entertainment industry. Industry insiders got the opportunity to network with peers at other organizations or at different points of the value chain. They also got to interact with policy makers, funding partners or international agencies. In its fifth year, this event proved a bigger success than ever before.

Key Speaker: Ms. Cathy Boyle (Principal Analyst- Mobile, E-marketer)

Relevant studies have pointed out that while number of mobile apps is increasing at a fast pace, the pace of downloads is barely moving. Also majority of people are interested in only a handful of apps. This is leading to some serious questions on utility of app based marketing. This write-up summarizes the important points discussed during the webinar about customer acquisition and retention by mobile apps.

Existing Trends

At present, it is understood that majority of smartphone users in the USA are app downloaders as well. This is borne out by the fact that the common figure stands at 93.7% for smartphone users and 93.5% for users of tablets. This is the opportune point of the year to debate on such matters as marketing research borne out by Apps-Flyer has clearly demonstrated that app downloads increase exponentially in the last quarter of the calendar year. I Phone apps see a 175% increase in October as opposed to September while Android apps similarly experience an increase of 144% during the same period. Shopping apps are particularly geared up towards leveraging the period around Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Gaming apps on the other hand experience hike in downloads due to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Major Dichotomy

One the one hand, the number of apps getting developed is increasing, download trend is barely moving. The figures stand and 33% for the App store on mobile phones and 16% for tablets but only 8% an increase in terms of downloads. Very few apps are in fact being downloaded by majority of the people. It has been observed that there are fourteen apps in total which are most keenly downloaded by users, whether I-Phone or Android. In fact, business consulting firm Localytics has confirmed that about a fourth of total users globally give up on apps after using them just once. The audience in the US is similar with about a fifth discarding any app after using just twice. The most generous users at a minimum of three uses, stands at a little over half the total. The biggest challenge as observed is that while an app maybe attractive enough for a one time download, it needs a lot more to keep the users engaged.

Further research suggests that about another fourth of the users did not return back to the app post download within a period of 24 hours. Very few return after thirty days or about a normal month.

User Acquisition Methods

Majority of companies have realized that instead of running after customers, it is a better strategy to retain the useful ones. Useful include the ones who provide genuine quality to the brand. The realization has been that organic app-store search and word-of-mouth are the top trends through which customers have been acquired. Being featured on top by the app store creates a strong desire to download among smartphone users. A fifth even confirmed that they downloaded an app as the corresponding advertisement was attractive.

App-Marketing

Marketers are increasingly looking at apps as means to do digital marketing. In fact worldwide the figure for ad spend on app-marketing has now gone up to US$ 5.7 billion. This is an extremely large figure, whichever way it is perceived. This is primarily due to increased competition in this field. More than half the budget for app-based marketing is in video and social ads. Social media is proving to be a great leveler. As the scope of this segment has gone up, so app specific ad formats have been developed. Better targeting capabilities have now been developed. This has been possible due to the massive amounts of data available which get processed using business analytics tools. Eventually this helps in segmenting the market so that targeted ads can be sent using customized content.

App Ratings

E-marketer has over a study asked customers to rate apps. Social apps are the best rated on average at. Within this as expected, Facebook has the best average measurement. Even Twitter’s particular Audience Network capability has proven to be a popular hook with users. Video on average got B rating. This is because while videos are catchy and engage audiences, many of them provide frivolous content. Video is at the stage where it will soon be much bigger, but as of now occupies that level below A. Search engines also got B ratings on average. Many marketers are considering paid ads on search browsers. This provides higher quality of web visitors. However, apps need to well integrated with mobile sites to make sure this gets executed. App ads on app stores have got an average score of C. This is due to the relatively low scale of this stream. A major benefit of this otherwise unheralded method is the specific targeting as the ads are highly relevant to the context.

Among media sources, Facebook once again scored the top rating. This was true across Android as well as IOS. Google AdWords on both counts finished second. Business analysis provided by Ad-Search also informs us that app marketers do not exclusively rely on apps alone but also venture into other marketing streams such as television and print media. The figure stood at 25% for television and 9% for print media. Television marketing was rated a lowly C on average as it was realized that this medium only suited well funded app developers or marketers. Radio ads were deemed most ineffective and scored the average D. Only during peak shopping season did this method have some form of success. Print ads similarly weighed in at D. It has been understood that print ads only make sense if the cost involved is negligible.

Related Marketing Streams

Certain strategies are adopted by marketers which complement app-based marketing. They are primarily email marketing, content marketing and influencer marketing. A fifth of marketers use email marketing, content marketing is used up by 29% and 42% use influencer marketing. Influencers includes individuals with a substantial following on social media or YouTube. Connection with influencers is usually routed via third parties. Once this source was tapped fully, marketers moved on to celebrities. Each of these marketing streams improve performance levels of one another.

Marketing Metrics

Measurement of marketing success or not has evolved over the years. Install and click through rates are no longer seen as paramount importance. Instead marketers are looking to attract and then further leverage quality users. In fact researchers are questioning whether the concept of installations itself is redundant. That is why Google as introduced Android Instant Apps so that apps may be test-driven before being installed. This avoids the organizations the false sense of success with apps being installed when they are rarely used. Only genuinely interested users will download post the test- drive. The metrics to measure now are- retention, Lifetime Value (LV) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Such metrics present more holistic success pointers.

It has also been found out that attracting quality customers is more expensive than the mass numbers. This is because more precise business intelligence is required to capture the top end of users who have specific tastes or preferences. There is also greater competition for that most valuable group of users. The ad spend per unit also rises due to the greater sensitivity of the data.

Thus we see that marketing has changed in every way and the same applies to apps. Marketers have moved away from the mass numbers to quality, retainable users.

Forum:   http://www.emarketer.com/

Key Speaker: Ms. Jillian Ryan (Analyst- Emarketer)

This write-up will discuss the various points which go in acquiring new customers. It will also speak about the lifetime value that loyal customers generate. Marketers these days are especially savvy about data and customer retention.

Trends in Customer Acquisition

Marketing research conducted by the Winterberry Group clearly confirms that new customer acquisition has been the primary task of marketers during the second business quarter of 2016. It has registered an 8% rise over the similar stage last year. Digital marketing and traditional ways differ in certain key parameters. The former aims more at an inbound method of marketing where leads arrive on organic basis and conversion is key. In traditional methods, the main focus is on lead generation and building a database so that sales can be activated. Hubspot says that 77% of inbound marketers says converting contacts is priority while the number is 68% for outbound ones. Final customer acquisition success can be the best metric to measure the success of different marketing campaigns.

A study conducted by Ad Roll has segmented the entire marketer crowd into priority areas regarding customer acquisition for the coming period. It can be better understood using the following pie chart:

This chart clearly illustrates that majority of marketers are more concerned about new customer acquisition rather than engaging existing ones to drive brand loyalty.

Process of Customer Acquisition

It all starts from the funnel. The funnel includes audience members who either have little to no knowledge of the brand or those who have started to take some interest in the same. Most marketers can identify with the various funnel positions possible. A study commissioned tells us that a third of US marketers consider brand awareness to be top marketing corporate strategy. This sort of awareness building to eventually drive sales differs according to organization and sector. High end liquor brand- Pernod Ricard- does maximum sales through bricks-and-mortars stores while marketing agency- Zenith Optimedia- gets most of its B2B assignments through online methods. Marketers are also now making extensive use of business analytics in order to capture data on customers to render unknown ones as identifiable. Once this is achieved, the lead may be targeted personalized content. This is much more desirable within the present context than the on-size-fits-all strategy of yesteryear. The website is the tool which finalizes the same. Many marketers though are not satisfied with this approach as for them the word acquisition can only be used at the point when the final transaction takes place.

Soft Conversions

These are those conversions which rely on emotional impulses rather than tangible outcomes that convert a prospect into a buyer. A warmly written email can best encapsulate behavioral elements on the website. Millennial customers can especially be tracked using this method.

Role of Data in Customer Acquisition

Management consulting giant KPMG conducted a survey according to which nearly half the CEOs surveyed confirmed that data analytics is extensively used in order to reach the last mile of the customer acquisition process. In fact marketing analytics were used in more than forty percent of cases, making it the single largest such source. Various touch points need to be tracked using different channels to complete the acquisition process. Attribution is the sub – process within that measured the effectiveness of each individual marketing channel. This gives the marketer a holistic view on what customers require. All data gaps get filled and technology will play a massive role in helping marketers with such visualization.

Mapping the Customer Journey

The customer journey involves several touch points which can be covered best below:

$1·         Who the person is

$1·         When is the best time to connect

$1·         Appropriate device / platform to use

$1·         Type of message to be sent as content

This is enabling marketers to be less brand or product centric but more focused at the customers.

Customer Lifetime Value

There is no sense is spending a lot of money to acquire customers, but those same customers not buying anything again from the firm. If re-marketing is to be done with more spends to re-engage the customer, then it is a loss- making proposition that needs to be avoided. Thus budgets must be allocated smartly. Another option could be to build such a mathematical formula that does a thorough business analysis on cost of the product and the amount of money spent on acquiring a customer. The best of customers must be tracked as they are the repeat ones and will remain loyal for a certain period.

Conclusion

It is clear from the discussion that retaining customers is as important as generating new ones. Innovative methods can derive new prospects for a brand but if servicing is poor, then these same new customers will not indulge in repeat buys. 45% of marketers polled did confirm that customer retention was one of the key strategic impulses. This also leads to a decent referral based business as experienced by 32% of executives in Europe and the US combined.

Forum:   http://www.emarketer.com/

Key Speaker: Ms. Pamela Hazelton (Contributing Editor- Practical Ecommerce)

This write-up will explore key points discussed during the webinar. The main focus of the said webinar was to discuss ways in which shoppers using multiple devices can be leveraged to increase sales.

Premise

Shoppers these days browse various outlets online before making their decision. Such browsing does not take place over one device alone, but may be spread across using personal PC, office PC, mobile phone or tablet. A search which may begin randomly at office PC, may culminate using a tablet. Thus focus on people rather than devices is critical. Business analytics compiled by Google confirms that a whopping ninety percent of consumers are multi device users. A study meanwhile says that Americans on average these days own 4 different devices. Maximum sales searches begin on smartphones.

Shopping Windows

A shopping window is the timeframe needed to convert a lead into a final sale. Typically a search may begin early in the morning while traveling for work and may culminate post dinner using home PC. More complicated shopping windows involve several days of a week but again typically closing on weekends. This is the perfect time for organizations to push coupons. Customers typically browse through number of competitor websites during this process and this is the stage where companies can best utilize their digital marketing capabilities. Sometimes during this search process, users may even add more products.

The rise of multiple devices in the sales process has led to a significantly longer conversion window. A seamless transition across devices allows customers the time to optimize their efforts and thus reduced frustration levels. For the marketer this provides a window the opportunity to push remainder emails. Customers often get hassled by having to maintain count on various shopping carts, but this can be helped by the seamless transition discussed about. That is where marketers can step in to ease out the process.

A big challenge as well as opportunity which such long windows present to marketers is the fact that an accurate inventory control needs to be maintained. An item which may have plentiful quantities still in stock may deplete within few days, thus presenting a totally different picture to the customers. Fluctuations in price may lead to further confusion but also benefits to either party. Customer browsing patterns even casual must be tracked as this provides critical business intelligence. The time and day of purchase will help marketers push messages accordingly. For this, cyber security must be assured as carts may be created across several devices leading to risk of security leakages.

Device Conversion Ratios

Certain points have emerged out of marketing research conducted by Google. They are as follows:

     A common perception is that tablets convert best while desktops do better business than mobile phones. While this may be true, it overlooks the fact that there is a far higher amount of search using desktops than tablets, which may account for the relatively low conversion rate of the former. The overall numbers in terms of both volume and revenue shows desktops as the best final source.

Maximum users of m-commerce are on Apple’s I Phone or I Pods but Samsung’s Galaxy S6 gives best conversion rate.

Responsive Design

This concept is that which dictates that any e-commerce website must be responsive to customer needs. A lot of companies commit this mistake of developing mobile apps for their products yet ignore the development of a user friendly mobile site. The latter is essential as individuals cannot keep installing large number of apps. So not having a good mobile site will instead stimulate the potential customer to discard the brand altogether.

Cart Abandonment

An unfortunate consequence of present trends is that customers often load up their carts to eventually discard them a few days later. During this interregnum between filling up the e-cart and making the payment, Push messages may be used effectively. The customer must also be educated about potential price fluctuations. Email reminders may also prove effective means of communication during such periods. Most importantly, the customer must be made to realize that products once loaded may see their stocks go empty if there is delay in final decision making. This is a common occurrence and may lead to customer dissatisfaction through no fault of the e-commerce platform.

Choosing the Device

While it is understood that there must be more focus on the people rather than devices, basic understanding of their individual purposes is a must. Desktops are used for deep browsing, shopping or research as opposed to lighter levels with smartphones while tablets fall in the middle category in this regard.

Myriad changes have taken place in the sales process including within online commerce. The longer shopping window and the use of multiple devices are two such. They provide challenges and opportunities for marketers to leverage.

Device Conversion Ratios

Certain points have emerged out of marketing research conducted by Google. They are as follows:

            A common perception is that tablets convert best while desktops do better business than mobile phones. While this may be true, it overlooks the fact that there is a far higher amount of search using desktops than tablets, which may account for the relatively low conversion rate of the former. The overall numbers in terms of both volume and revenue shows desktops as the best final source.

        Maximum users of m-commerce are on Apple’s I Phone or I Pods but Samsung’s Galaxy S6 gives best conversion rate.

Forum:   http://www.practicalecommerce.com/

Key Speakers:  Ms. Lisa Marcyes (Social Media Marketing Manager- Marketo) –  Mr. Scott Minor (Online Marketing Program Manager- Marketo)

This write-up will explore the important points learnt during the webinar which focused on ways to succeed at social media marketing. Social media is now an essential component for marketing and has to be wedded into the overall corporate strategy.

Premise

In order to reach the customer, marketers have always realized that the concerned brand needs to have a presence at places where the former visit. It includes physical locations but increasingly also virtual hotspots such as social media. Once reached, the marketers will need to conduct detailed business analysis on the audience tastes and requirements. Content is one of the critical measures to be marketable to the people today. Thus special metrics have been designed to evaluate the performances of various companies fighting out in this space. Business intelligence provided to us by Social Media Today confirms that there are a staggering 2.3 billion users on social media. About a million new users are in fact added each day using smart using smartphones.

Steps to Social Media Marketing Success- Organic:

Understanding the Audience

At first stage, the exact credentials and demographics of the target audience needs to be understood. This analysis involves an understanding of what social media platforms they use, at what time of the day, the content they prefer and also the segment of the market these regular users belong to. Some social media tools are favoured across generations and professions, while others are positioned more as niche players. Simply bombarding the target audience with content does not work with today’s generation. It has to be something that is considered useful by the customers. The topics need to selected post scrutiny and the tone of language ahs to be conversational or educational, not selling.

Set the Beat

At this stage, the brand has to assertively posture itself to the audience. At the initial stage, it needs to be industry news and suggestions on ways to leverage the current trends. The next level must involve genuine engagement. Video and pictures work best at engagement these days. For that webinars and news letter maybe curated. Also contests can be started especially on social media. Once the final sales stage is reached, here the brand must give buyers the option of product demos or trials. Also the purchase process needs to be streamlined so that it is easy to do so. A single click to active the purchase makes it user-friendly.

The brand has to create a certain perception to the audience. For younger people, the ‘voice’ may be more entertaining whereas middle aged professionals may require a more educative content.

Selecting the Social Media Channels

Social media platforms are dime-a-dozen but the brand needs to select those that really work in favour of the brand. The five leaders in customer engagement are – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. Twitter works best for short messaging plus brand creation around individual business leaders. It is also the best medium to create polls. Facebook is by far the largest social media player in the business, yet has some limitations. It is accessed across generations and across geographies. However, chatting is a limitation here and Twitter scores over. Live and video streaming is the new rage and is most popular methods for engaging audiences. While Facebook allows brands to have fun, the usual perception is that LinkedIn is a more conservative tool as it is used for professionals. However, it has to be understood that even professionals need visuals and thus video based content works very well on LinkedIn as well. LinkedIn is classified into various groups which allows easier segmentation as the brand may simply target one or a few such. On LinkedIn constant posting is necessary.

Instagram can be tapped very well if the right hash tags are used. Like the others so far mentioned, it is the visual content at Instagram which really stands out. One limitation of Instagram though is that Call-to-Actions (CTAs) cannot be applied here. Thus it is a purely content and engagement strategy but no direct business results. Finally, we come to Snapchat which is the latest of the tools. It has experienced phenomenal growth. Brands can connect to customers like real people using Snapchat. Like Instagram, as of now it is mainly an engagement tool rather than a direct business source.

Listening

At this stage, as the name suggests, brands need to be hooked as to what customers are talking about. There are several tracking tools to ‘listen’ to what they are saying. Business analytics can be used up on social media to analyze vast chunks of data and derive meaningful decisions out of those. With education of customers and their engagement now taken care of, at this stage, the brand has to support its customers. Their feedback needs to be analyzed carefully to provide them with relevant solutions.

Visual Content

As has been discussed, video is the best means for engagement with today’s audiences. Marketers must take care to ensure that the videos be relevant to the target market and have colour. The title must be attractive though not audacious. Keywords must be imprinted on the target line as that helps in digital marketing. Social sharing handles must be included along with the content to encourage viewers to share the matter within their circles. Brand advocates can promote the product highly effectively if share buttons are rightly inserted.

Beyond video content, what has emerged and is trending now is Live Streaming. This method allows the brand to act human rather than remote. Business research conducted confirms that Snapchat users view six billion videos a day. Similar tools have emerged from Facebook Live and Periscope.

Steps to Social Media Marketing Success- Paid

In addition to the above listed processes that are organic in nature, there are some paid means as well. How the targeting is done, plays a very important role. It is important to track usage patterns on separate social media channels and recorded. This data warehousing enables us to make informed decisions and target content accordingly. While using Twitter, it becomes necessary to know whom do the users follow most, which device do they use it from and of course the keywords must be tracked. On Facebook or Instagram, it is essential to know the basic demographics such as age or gender. LinkedIn allows specific targeting and this it is pertinent to know the designation of the person, groups he / she is a member of and the skills the person possesses. Older content can be rehashed in new format for newer audiences.

Certain points need to be considered at this stage. Separate accounts for different clients works as that allows personalized content for the audience. It is also advisable to have parallel campaigns for separate time zone so that they entire budget is not exhausted at the places where the paid ads are first targeted. Is Especially for LinkedIn it becomes necessary to optimize content individually for different levels of hierarchy.

Metrics that Count

Lots of business metrics are available but some of them count more than the others. At the early stage, reach is measured by impressions, acquisition through cost per lead and engagement is evaluated using Click-Through Rate (CTR). What matters in the end though are the conventional parameters such as revenue and ROI.

Constant testing is needed at this stage. A/B Testing has been known as universally valuable. Such tests must evaluate opinions on short text versus long text, stock images versus full designed advertisements, headline questions or listicles and whether the colour format will use bold ones or relatively conservative a style.

Thus importantly, social media marketing strategy must involve a multi-channel approach. Different channels have varying levels of engagement and final business results which need to be leveraged.

Forum:  https://www.marketo.com/

Key Speaker: Mr. Josh Todd (CMO, Localytics)

This write-up explores the intrinsic mistakes that most marketers are making with their mobile engagement strategies. Overexposure is not helping the business or its buyers. Thus a proper solution has been suggested based on extensive research.

Premise

Majority of the companies involved in the business of digital marketing on mobile phones have adopted a holistic approach. So beyond social media, content marketing or e-mailers, such agencies have also adopted ‘Push’ messaging as an aggressive option. However, excessive usage of the same has robbed the marketer of its actual uses. A kind of crisis has emerged in mobile engagement strategies and this needs to be rectified sooner rather than later.

Vital Statistics & their Deductions

Marketing research conducted by Localytics has found out that nearly a fourth (23%) of apps downloaded are used only once. This when measured against the backdrop of the fact that app developers evaluate their success based on number of downloads, appears quite stark. Measuring the number of downloads is not the right metric to evaluate performance as a substantial number of them are used only once. Also once people change phones, loyal customers re-download the previous apps found useful. While this does take into account loyalty, yet it also counts the same user twice or more number of times. The research also found out that about half the users of smartphones found Push messages as irritating.

What is quite remarkable is that a third of marketers do not segment their audience on any basis and blindly broadcast their Push messages to all. This is a very bad strategy as it leads to huge erosion of brand value as customers get inundated with excessive of what they consider ‘sales pitch’.

A simple arithmetic conducted shows that on average a single smartphone user receives more than 3,500 useless messages in a year. All this can alter if segmentation is applied to this.

Solutions to Mobile Engagement Crisis

The time has come for marketers to forge deeper and more meaningful relationships with the customer base. Two key ingredients have been suggested to achieve that which are as follows:

$1·         Data driven decision making

$1·         Truly knowing customers

Data Driven Decision Making

Customers these days are giving us so much information inadvertently. So much of data is available that with proper datawarehousing, marketers can get access to exact profiles of customers depending on their app usage patterns, shopping trends, feedback provided, time spent on website and exploration of competitor websites even. Marketers must track this information and make decisions accordingly. It has been understood that eighty eight percent more app launches are there for those that have Push messages enabled alongside.

Knowing Customers

Business intelligence procured on customers can allow deep personalization. Here personalization does not merely mean tracking of birthdays or sending a mail with the person’s first name being mentioned. It is about understanding what exactly the customer needs and likes. One company that has truly embraced such thinking is Nike with its running app.

Nike + Running

Nike’s app which measures and tracks the miles run by the user, is one example of an organization that has used all this data and subsequent business analytics to deliver value to its customers. It has used the real world A/B Testing methodology. It has also extensively studied data to know exactly when to push which message. The app can even predict when the user needs rest in between running, when he / she must restart or when to push the runner to endure more.

Segmentation

Let us compare the two methods of push messaging which are Broadcast messaging and Targeted one through the following table:

Segmentation may be done in two ways which are as follows:

$1·         Behaviour based

$1·         User profile

Behaviour based Segmentation

Here users are segmented on the basis of their purchase and search history. Trackers are adopted which measure the different pages where customers visit, how long they stay there and what they buy.

The New York Times app uses this method for its sports pages. It tracks whether readers are more interested in the NFL or other major leagues of North America. In case of the former, draft picks especially of New York or nearby teams are pushed aggressively as they elicit heavy readership.

User Profile

This methodology segments the user base depending on basic demographic trends such as gender, location and language.

At times these two approaches are combined and then give far better results, much greater than the sum of its parts. The benefit of such tracking is that it is all in controlled group with similar likes or dislikes. Clicked message rate is a vanity metric which does not yield any results but simply makes the marketers feel good.

Conclusion

It has been found out that 52% of smartphone users have Push messages enabled in their systems. However, this also means that 48% of users do not have it enabled and this presents a massive business opportunity. These people need to be brought onside. A method where they are simply asked to sign up on the launch of a new app will not work. Instead a unique well designed, in-app message needs to be launched for all.

Mobile engagement provides a massive opportunity to marketers globally but it needs to be target with sensitivity. Marketers must think like customers. Also the knowledge base presently is still growing and it is imperative that individual firms only enhance that.

Forum:    https://www.localytics.com/

Key Speakers: Ms. Megha Nayak (Marketing Lead- LinkedIn Talent Solutions).  Ms. Richa Telang (Head Talent Branding- Flipkart). Ms. Shuba Bhaskaran (Senior Enterprise Relationship Manager- LinkedIn India).  Ms. Shabnam Charania (Marketing Specialist- LinkedIn India) 

This write-up will explore the important points learnt during the webinar conducted by LinkedIn where Indian retail giant Flipkart discussed ways in which it conducts talent management, recruitment and employee engagement. It will highlight why Flipkart in tune with many such modern organizations sees employees as the highest rated capital which will yield positive results.

Premise

Flipkart is one of the top online retail companies in India. On its way towards success, the company has realized that employees need to be treated the way one would treat customers. Corporate training for employees should be seen not as an expense but as an investment as results far outweigh the costs. A holistic social strategy can best leverage employee engagement and Flipkart has already got rewards due to this policy.

Content

The first thing that every talent solutions provider or team must take care of is the content part. The content has to be relevant, useful and interesting. Also the content to be targeted has to vary depending upon segment. A post may be extremely popular among a young audience hooked to Facebook but may not work so well for a mature professional who is more of a LinkedIn user. Organizational branding begins with the employees and this process is called co-branding. That is why some of the better corporates make sure that employees are happy as that leads to them proving to be advocates for the brand. Happy and motivated employees further spread positive content about the organization.

Styles and Themes

The style and theme for the content also varies according to segment. Various pre-built themes exist for content to be displayed on. The career site for example is stylistically diametrically opposite to the ones used for shopping or branding. All photography that is displayed is using internal sources as no photo-shoots are arranged. It is employees who themselves volunteer to help out in the same.

Poll on Employee Branding

A poll was conducted by LinkedIn to gauge which department is to be trusted better for employee branding. The choices were between the marketing and PR team on the one hand and the HR and talent division on the other. All the webinar attendees voted in it. This marketing research threw up the surprising result where about seventy percent of attendees voted for the marketing and PR team rather than the HR team.

Content Targeting

It is not enough to only curate great content. That content then has to reach the right audience. Just as the HR team follows the maxim that employees are to be treated as customers, similarly the marketing team at Flipkart treats customers as potential future employees. Thus a vibrant, positive image about the organization and its culture needs to be presented to the outside world as the one viewing could eventually be tempted to join the organization. The marketers have to make sure that the content thus broadcast is genuine and authentic. Flipkart has consistently used both online as well as offline techniques to reach the audience.

Social Partners

Flipkart has built strategic partnerships with social media platforms for the purpose of co-branding. This helps the company in two ways. One the one hand, it takes care of an important aspect of digital marketing. On the other, it also facilitates employee engagement.

For this purpose LinkedIn is ideal. This is a purely professional platform and members use this with a very different mindset. For example, a minor tiff at the office will not resonate negatively on LinkedIn the way it may on less formal platforms. Twitter is also used in the form of Tweet Chats to connect with employees. These Tweet Chats are then promoted on LinkedIn thus allowing a multi-channel social strategy.

Recruitment Cycle

In order to raise awareness about the organization, Flipkart has created engagement strategies. Even gamification has been used to connect with talent pool. Different employee pools have been targeted profiles accordingly. For example, someone working with e-kart which is the supply chain wing of the company, will be looking for hard core operations solutions. On the other hand, those working for Flipkart Global will have a different perspective. There are those who are targeting the US market alone. Flipkart also has specific teams working purely on technologies.

External talent is potentially the employee of the future. Thus constant engagement strategies work better than one-time solutions. That is why the ‘always on’ employee branding is the preferred mode by Flipkart.

Leveraging Internal Ecosystem

Recruiters need to behave like sales persons these days. Talent may be knocking around but it is very important to recognize the right candidate. Most organizations have this policy of employee referral where a good candidate is referred to by an existing employee. It works similarly at Flipkart though some crucial differences do exist here.

Social triggers are a very good source of attracting fresh talent whether internally or through some external source. An example of the same can be the ‘life at Flipkart’ sneak peak that was presented using tweets and podcasts. During such social media postings, employees must be tagged so that their contacts’ traffic may be driven towards the post. Such stories need to be constantly developed and presented to the public so that there is continuous engagement. One such story is that of the first Flipkart customer or the billionth purchase.

Digital Trends

Detailed business analysis has been conducted on the digital trends regarding Flipkart. It has emerged that Flipkart has had the maximum views and followers in social media than anyone else in the peer group. Flipkart has experienced a rise of 5.7% on LinkedIn, 7% on Facebook and 4.5% on Twitter over a period of a year. What is important to note is that this entire rise is organic. No paid followers or robots have been used in any of this digital strategy.

In addition there has been a 600% rise in website visits. This has led to a 15% reduction in the cost of hire. Now Flipkart gets more recruits from internal referrals than via some recruitment agencies. All this digital success has been possible due to several steps taken such as localizing of content. This content is different for professionals than college students. Leadership tweet series were also started. Detailed social listening of social media takes place in to track business intelligence. Even Glassdoor gives Flipkart an Above Average rating as a place to work in. It has been understood that social media campaigns are easy to launch but difficult to sustain. But so far, Flipkart is doing alright on that count.

Conclusion

Employees at Flipkart are treated as talent ambassadors who will attract more good people in. Thus the JD is always created at this organization as if it is the pitch of the company. Candidates must go through an entire experience during hiring events. In order to build such valuable employee branding machines, it is always advisable to use ‘always on’ strategy rather than the ‘on demand’ model.

Forum: https://linkedin.webex.com/mw3100/mywebex/default.do?siteurl=linkedin