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There is a lot in common between a quizmaster and marketer, says Sai Ganesh Dunzo’s former head of brand. For both the roles, “one has to be always curious about the lesser known stories, lesser known artists, trends before they become trends, the next-big-thing before it becomes the next-big-thing.”

While he was still working with logistics and grocery app Dunzo, Ganesh also put together India Wants To Know – country’s first panel quiz show with his friends. 'India Wants To Know' was born as a passion project over numerous rounds of drinks and with the ambition to make quizzing more accessible and fun. 

Prior to Dunzo, Ganesh worked with companies like Zomato, AB InBev India, Hanes, and TVS Motor. After a fulfilling stint at Dunzo, Ganesh decided to pause his marketing journey and wear the hat of a quizmaster and a community builder with his friends at #Team9 Productions.

In an exclusive interview with Storyboard18, Ganesh shares how the world of quizzing is keeping him on his toes. He also shares marketing lessons from Dunzo and more.

Read on.

Storyboard18 wants to know what inspired you to set up ‘India Wants To Know’?

Our vision as an organisation (Team#9 Productions) is to make India smarter and more empathetic, one fun fact at a time.

To be honest, it is our love for quizzing, trivia and stories that made us create India Wants To Know, and making this so-called “mindsport of quizzing” more accessible, fun and inclusive for everyone. 

My personal story: I never quizzed in school because it always felt like an exam (“what is the capital of…?”). It was only in my college days that my cofounders and I encountered the cult of “open quizzing” (where anyone irrespective of age, background or affiliation could come and participate in quizzing. In Bangalore, open quizzing was spearheaded by KQA (Karnataka Quiz Association) and they created this form of quizzing where it wasn't just boring facts but interesting stories being discussed in quizzes, with interesting people from various backgrounds. They had journalists, CXOs of companies, writers, musicians, RJs, professors, students, even families, etc. That’s where my co-founders and I found our love for quizzing. My friends and I never won too many quizzes, but we loved quizzing nonetheless.

For decades, the quiz culture in India was driven by Bournvita Quiz Contest. Do you have any BQC memories?

Yes, of course, BQC was the very first show I remember that me, my father, mother and sister had as a ritual. Sunday morning, 11 am on Zee TV. Just after breakfast, before lunch. We were glued to the TV. For me as a young boy, Derek O-brien was up there in terms of pop culture heroes with James Bond and Captain Kirk (from Star Trek).

Do you think there is a potential to build a property like BQC in India again?

There is an even bigger opportunity today than before because of technology and social media. There is also a huge shift from rote learning to lateral thinking and holistic learning. I think the pace at which children are learning, and especially beyond the textbooks, there is a huge potential for a quizzing show or a platform that is in the space of knowledgetainment content” - questions on stories and interesting facts, rather than just plain vanille Q&As. Rewarding interesting wrong guesses, encouraging humorous or witty answers, and not just the right answer as has always been the case.

What we are building with India Wants To Know is what is known as Panel Quizzing in the UK. It is where the focus is not the answers being interesting and entertaining without necessarily dumbing down the facts and stories that people come to quizzes for. Given the current content consumption trend, Panel Quizzing is the best form of knowledgetainment that can reach the masses. Given that panel quizzing is a booming content bucket in the UK, USA and Europe, there's no reason why it won't work in India too.

Coming back to India Wants To Know, how are you scaling up? What are the marketing plans in place? Do you plan to work on it full-time?

Yes, for now I am working on this full-time, and the plan is to grow India Wants To Know into a content-led quizzing platform.

Quiz Show: We have released one season of our India Wants To Know - India’s First Panel Quiz Show, and that is now on Rana Daggubati’s channel - SouthBay. We are currently working on Season 02 with some big names. We are also building other panel quiz shows, in vernacular languages which is where we see a huge opportunity.

We have also scaled up our online events, having hosted 63 open quizzes with over 7,600 plus participants and 100 plus influencers as panelists. We are also hosting quizzes for corporates both in India and South-East Asia / Bay area, primarily in areas where we have an Indian expat audience. We have also been hosting quizzes to promote book launches, and even ran a series of quizzes last year to promote Clubhouse, with Kumar Varun.

Over the next year, we plan to host more offline events with what we call as “revenge quizzing” coming back in a big way, in not just big cities, but also the smaller cities.

We are also building a trivia-based game (either a board game or a digital game), that is still in the planning stages.

So far, we’ve built a strong community on social media, with 20,000 plus followers combined from Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Newsletter. Our followers include prominent journalists, actors and social media influencers. Our reels content on IG, Twitter trivia threads, and our weekly trivia newsletter have gotten somewhat of a cult following, and we plan to double down these three platforms this year.

Not too long ago, you moved on from a full-time marketing job at Dunzo. What made you do that?

I spent the last four years building brand Dunzo, and it gave me the opportunity to do something different and very fulfilling. Dunzo will always be a brand close to my heart.

After four years, I felt the need to do something different, build a unique community of like-minded people who want to know more about our rich country and the world we live in. Know more Bollywood and entertainment, about Cricket and other sports. For example, did you know that before Sachin Tendulkar played for India in 1989, he fielded as a substitute for Pakistan in a friendly match in Mumbai in 1987? That fact should not just make us laugh, but also make us more empathetic to our neighbours.

What's the hardest decision you have made in your tenure as the marketing lead at Dunzo?

We’ve had different challenges over time at Dunzo, but the thing that was toughest was the pivot from being a “pick and up drop delivery service” to a “quick grocery delivery” brand. Building a brand positioning in the consumer’s mind is hard enough, but changing it yourself is even tougher. Because it goes against the traditional wisdom that positioning becomes stronger with communication being consistent over time. So repositioning Dunzo to a grocery service was the most challenging task.

What is the most important thing you've learnt from your competitors?

Every competitor has something new to learn from, that’s what makes startups so exciting - everyone is doing something new. Swiggy has a fantastic product experience, Zomato has also led the way in social media marketing and even how to optimise on performance marketing and personal branding. All this helps raise the bar for everyone else.

Do you see any similarities between been a quiz master and marketer? How has being both helped you personally and professionally?

This feels like one of those “entrepreneurial lessons to learn from Iron Man” type things. To be honest, being a quizmaster means you are always curious about the lesser known stories, lesser known artists, trends before they become trends, the next-big-thing before it becomes the next-big-thing. So it definitely helps in marketing because these first principles of staying ahead of the curve, helps in brand marketing as well. And at the end of the day, the best form of quizzing and marketing are at their core, “content marketing”. So yes, there is a lot that feeds into each other.

Fun fact is that some of the rejected ideas from India Wants To Know did make it to Dunzo’s social media content and vice versa.

Do you have a dream brand that you would like to work with as a marketer?

It’s a tie between working at Netflix and working as a Marketer for a politician. 

If you had to give one candid piece of advice to your fellow marketers and agency partners, what would it be?

In marketing, try to create works of art that work for your business. You will then see the impact of your marketing work on business metrics, brand love, and your personal happiness. The trouble is when we optimise for just one of the two things - either too artistic or being just tactical.

Meet Sai Ganesh – the marketer who turned full-time quizmaster

WPP-owned global advertising company Ogilvy appointed Devika Bulchandani as its new global chief executive officer.

Bulchandani was born in Amritsar and became the world's most famous ad agency Ogilvy's CEO this week, following the departure of a former Deloitte hand, Andy Main, who joined Ogilvy in 2020.

In her new role, Bulchandani will be responsible for all aspects of the creative network’s business across 131 offices in 93 countries and she will also join WPP’s Executive Committee. She most recently served as global president and CEO of Ogilvy North America.

Prior to joining Ogilvy, Bulchandani spent 26 years at McCann in various leadership roles including President of McCann North America. She was the driving force behind Mastercard’s long-running “Priceless” campaign as well as “True Name,” a first-of-its-kind feature launched in 2019 that empowers transgender and non-binary people to display their chosen name on their Mastercard.

Known for ideas that capture the cultural zeitgeist, Bulchandani also helped launch “Fearless Girl,” an iconic and beloved symbol of women’s equality; the campaign became one of the most awarded campaigns in the history of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Indian-origin global CEOs

Bulchandani also joins the long list of Indian-origin leaders at the helm of multinational conglomerates as CEOs including Chanel’s Leena Nair, Twitter’s Parag Agarwal and Sundar Pichai at Google.

Take a look at this growing club of Indian-origin leaders running global companies and brands. (This is not a comprehensive list.)

Devika Bulchandani, Ogilvy

Laxman Narasimhan - Starbucks

Ivan Menezes - Diageo

Parag Agrawal - Twitter

Satya Nadella - Microsoft

Sundar Pichai - Alphabet

Leena Nair - Chanel

Arvind Krishna - IBM

Raghu Raghuram- VMWare

Shantanu Narayen - Adobe

Sameer Suneja - Perfetti Van Melle

Raj Subramaniam - FedEx

Sandeep Kataria - Bata

George Kurian - Netapp

Thomas Kurian - Google Cloud

Vasant Narasimhan - Novartis

Puneet Renjen - Deloitte

CS Venkatakrishnan - Barclays

Sanjay Mehrotra - Micron Technology

<img src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/631b6eceabf8b-631b6eceabf8cWho-is-Devika-Bulchandani-Ogilvys-new-global-CEO.jpg-434x1024.jpg" alt="" width="434" height="1024" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1948" />

55-year-old consumer-industry veteran with roots in Pune, Laxman Narasimhan will take over as CEO of Starbucks and was the chief executive of FMCG major Reckitt. He will also be a member of the Board of Directors on April 1, 2023, stepping into the big shoes of outgoing CEO Howard Schultz, who built the US coffee chain into a global empire.

What makes Indian managers shine?

Moneycontrol interacted with senior corporate leaders, leadership mentors and professors who have served in both Indian and international markets to find out more.

The report quoted Raj Narayan, who retired as EVP and CHRO from watch manufacturer Titan last year and is currently a mentor and coach with years of international experience in talent and leadership development in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Narayan spotlighted three qualities. He said, "the ability to handle ambiguity and find clarity; to think and act synchronously and to quickly settle into new and strange environments without losing our own identity -- are distinct about Indian leaders that help them succeed and do well on the international stage."

“We have enough opportunity to develop and hone all these skills in the multicultural and diverse milieu we have in India and to which many are exposed at home,” he told Moneycontrol.

Career Coach Sawan Kapoor told Moneycontrol "...we Indians are more battle ready, this positions us as some of the best CEOs on the planet, adding in a lighter vein, “The ultimate goal of any global organisation's founder must be to eventually have their company run by a CEO from India or of Indian origin."

Devika Bulchandani enters the club of Indian-origin CEOs leading global companies

Note to readers: Media Mavens is a new Storyboard18 series featuring media investment firms and power players - the X-Women and X-Men who make the big calls on how and where to spend advertisers' money. This is a peek into their minds - how they work in a dynamic landscape, the next big trends they’re watching for, insights into what advertisers need today, the disruptions driving change and the factors driving their decisions. Watch this space for all that and more.

It’s been close to six months since news ratings have been bought back by BARC India that went on a blackout period from October 2020. The return of ratings that now follow a different measurement methodology have brought some permanent changes in rankings.

Marketers and media buyers now do not depend on past performances and social media data to crack deals with broadcasters. The ratings make all the difference, says Niti Kumar, Chief Operating Officer at Starcom India, a leading media investment firm. Kumar also said that ratings have made it much easier for a planner and an advertiser to make choices and select what works for them

Read on.

It’s been close to six months that BARC ratings are back for the news genre. What has changed for the industry and how is it helping in planning spends?

It is definitely good to have ratings back. Especially when most clients have a lot of KPIs attached to factors like CPRP, it’s definitely good to have ratings back and all of our clients echo this statement.

In terms of what has changed the way BARC is now reporting these ratings, which is a four-week rolling average, has led to a change in rankings. After the methodology change, it took a while for the channel positions to stabilize. For example, if you look at some of the channels that used to feature in the top five intermittently, they have now been ranking much lower.

So there have been those changes. But news also historically has been a genre that has seen a lot of fluctuation in terms of viewership. That being said, there are still two to three channels which held the top position before the blackout and they continue to do so.

Overall, I think everyone is much happier. Conversations have become easier because one knows now where the genre stands. It has become much easier for a planner or an advertiser to make choices and select what works for them.

BARC claims to have gotten rid of all the anomalies that existed in the system? Do media buyers buy that? How important are these ratings for you?

BARC ratings are the singular source of TV measurement right now. There is no other way to get the kind of data that BARC gives you and it’s not just for news. When media planners are evaluating options they need to evaluate a holistic level of growth, across channels, across audiences, markets and so on.

Those kinds of cuts don't come from any other source.

It's a choice between having no ratings and no data source to help drive your investment versus what BARC gives you. I would always pick sides with where you at least have the data available.
<blockquote>What we need to see is a lot more innovation in content. Don't ask me what because that is a bit of a million-dollar question.</blockquote>
India is a complex market to measure. There are many challenges at the ground level, which exists. Therefore, whatever data is available, I think if a planner or an advertiser uses it knowing that the data has limitations and is not a hundred percent absolute, it's fine.

At the moment, I think we are happy with the BARC ratings and using them wherever needed.

What are the other factors that you consider while deciding where the clients spend their ad money?

While ratings are critical I think when one chooses a plan there are many other factors that come. One looks at affinity. So it's not just the pure TVR or GRP number but you also look at the skews in your audience.

We also look at things like social media reach and chatter about a particular channel. Which channel is kind of being talked about more and so on. We look at factors like what's the value that the channel is giving. There could be two channels which in terms of performance, at par, or they're a little different but the value that the channel gives whether it's a sponsorship, an innovation or anything else helps in picking one over the other.

Lastly, it’s also possible to assess in terms which channels actually, or a mix of channels get a better response. Learning from past campaigns is one example.

Also for news it is important that it reaches the trade audience, your dealers, your CXOs or the investor community which is an important audience. So, you know, one also picks channels based on these factors.

What is the role of reach? How do you use it?

If you look at the news genre it has never been a big reach builder. But then again why advertisers get on to the genre is because of the audience. Decision makers are watching the news. So while reach definitely helps, the audience profile is the most important factor contributing to the growth of the genre. On digital platforms, however, news is being used to build reach because it helps you reach out to audiences who may not otherwise be on your platform.

Are ad rates fixed purely on the basis of reach?

It's actually a combination led by demand and supply. So there are certain channels who very clearly based on their position or viewership fix a benchmark range they want to operate in. There are others who are more flexible when it comes to different categories. So there's a category which doesn't advertise much on TV. You may get a sweeter deal from an entry perspective into the category.

So depending on what the inventory supplies are versus demand from advertisers at that point prices are decided. However, there's no one formula to it. Every broadcaster has their own threshold and they work around it.

There are a lot of broadcasters that also have digital offerings? Does it give them an upper hand in terms of better reach and offering better deals to advertisers from the perspective of bundling?

From an advertiser or a media buyer perspective it is very helpful if a broadcaster has digital offerings as a part of their network simply because of the additional reach. So much of our news consumption has moved to digital today. Additionally, with connected TV coming up where digital consumption of news is happening, it helps a lot.

However, when it comes to bundling, there are some networks which do it but there are some that don't because their digital businesses run as different or completely separate PnLs or separate revenue generators. So in that case, it becomes a hard task for a buyer to bundle it. But wherever possible, we are very happy to get such proposals where we look at a TV plus digital offering.
<blockquote>Regionalization will only increase. Maybe news will get into a sub-genre game at a regional level. That's what I anticipate because there is that appetite in the market.</blockquote>
Regional is something every broadcaster is focusing on? How does it help their case?

When you look at the viewership landscape, over the last three or four years, what is very clearly happening is regionalization of viewership. We are seeing it on the internet too.

There are a lot of vernacular functions that are going up on platforms. A lot of content is consumed and created in vernacular languages. The same thing is happening on TV where consumers in tier II and tier III cities and even in select tier I cities prefer to consume news in their own local language.

So by having offerings across different languages, it just helps you reach the Bharat market. If I want national coverage, I do have to take regional inputs across the South Market. Broadcasters that have these offerings are naturally doing better than the others.

I see regionalization only going up over the next few years. Maybe news will get into a sub-genre game at a regional level. That's what I anticipate because there is that appetite in the market.

What are marketers asking for when they invest in media today?

I think the top priority for everyone is ROI driven. There has to be some way of defining return on that investment and it goes beyond just your BARC reported number. Ideally, they want to see impact on sales or impact on brand awareness or some equity parameter. If there is some direct linkage that one can draw to that then there’s nothing better.

For example, if you run a QR code led promotion on one channel and don’t run it on the other, you get a very good sense of what is effective. So a lot of the conversations are now around the effectiveness of individual channels.

The other conversation is around value and it’s not just about costs. It’s not about getting X per ten seconds or getting Y per ten seconds, but more about what value am I getting against what I'm paying. It could be through some integration, something to do with digital offerings, some innovation or simply some ground level support.

What would you say broadcasters can do to crack better deals?

The broadcasters are doing a fantastic job. It is a tough business to run infrastructure wise. What we need to see is a lot more innovation in content. Don't ask me what because that is a bit of a million-dollar question, but content should be able to shake the monotony.

I know there are certain kinds of reporting that probably drive ratings but I'm sure there is some innovation that's possible. There is also scope for a lot cleaner analytical news reporting that could probably make a difference to the clutter that exists.

Watch this space for more Media Maven dialogues. And catch Storyboard18 across Moneycontrol, CNBC-TV18 and Forbes India.

Media Mavens: Conversations have become easier with BARC ratings' return, says Niti Kumar, Starcom

The last two years have changed the way people look at fitness. While a lot of internet searches were around banana bread recipes and Dalgona coffee, there were simultaneous searches on health, weight loss and diets. Right when the first lockdown started according to a Statista survey, mobile apps in the health and fitness category saw a spike in usage. 71 percent of respondents looked up ‘Six pack abs in 28 days’ while many others looked for home workouts and fitness apps.

This is when Curefit, known for their group workout centres Cult, also started working aggressively on home workouts and started thinking of adding new elements to their fitness app that were primarily being used for booking Cult classes or offering food and activewear.

Shriya Malpani, Head of Design at Curefit tells Storyboard18 how Lights Out Studio brought a 360 degree change in design to amplify customer experience and bring overall changes to the look and feel of the brand.

She talks about the importance of design and how it is an important tool for a modern marketer especially those who deal with app based services.

Read on.

Why did you think of changing the look and feel of your app? Was this something that was on the cards for the brand? Or is this part of any new marketing campaign?

In the last 5 years Cult’s products have expanded from group fitness classes to gyms, online workouts, sports, mental health, nutrition, fitness gear and more. And as we were expanding we realised that it was becoming harder each day in maintaining consistency in experience and the end user experience was getting impacted because of the chaotic look and feel.

In March 2021, we set a vision for ourselves that in the next 2 years we want to join the league of world’s best apps and we called it Design+. This vision led us to building a robust design language which would allow us to create consistent yet highly differentiated user experience.

As a part of this project we deep dived to understand what our members liked about Cult and how they remembered the brand. There was a strong recall for our bold black facades of cult centres, dark yet vibrant and energetic in-center experience. With the new look and feel we wanted to extend the similar recall on the app.

How do you think Lights Out helped you and why did you think getting external help is better than in-house design operations?

Our new design language, Aurora, was conceptualised and designed by our in-house team. Lights Out came as a knight in shining armour who helped us scale the concept across different flows of the app. They understood our vision and honestly all we wanted was a partner who shared our values and ideology in design.

External teams can add immense value when you are working on projects that are not ongoing in nature but require deep expertise. Lights Out adds that lens of an expert partner in crime for us, across our application.

Our internal teams focus on more core aspects of user experience and usability across different products, So when it came to implementation of Aurora which was a time sensitive project and required best in class UI and visual expertise we decided to go with Lights Out.

The project took us more than a year with dedicated effort from both our in-house teams as well as Lights Out.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-1715 size-full" src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/IMG_3963.jpg" alt="" width="577" height="788" />

With people back on the roads and in gyms, who are the people who are still using your app? Other than booking workout classes, what are the other functions of the app that are widely used?

Class and gym session booking/checking is the most used function. Followed by joining live and interactive digital classes. Followed by AI based workout plans that users use in gyms. Commerce comes next with our cult sport brand followed by commerce of fitness packs that range from weight loss consultations, therapy, diagnostics to doctor consultations.

The idea behind Cult was a huge disruption in the fitness space but what next? What is the next narrative you are trying to build?

Disruption is by no yardstick complete. India fitness penetration is 1-2 percent as compared to 15 percent in the US and much higher in Europe. We have to make fitness and health easy and enjoyable for hundreds of millions of Indians in a relatable way. We want to make sure that anyway an Indian thinks of consuming fitness, whether it's sports, gyms, walking, swimming, dancing, their first choice is a Cult offering.

With a redesigned interface, what is the increase in engagement and retention you are expecting?

We have seen a clear correlation between how many workouts someone does in a month and retention rates. While Cult’s retention rates are more than double than that of the rest of the industry. we feel we can still reach higher numbers. We aim to do this by increasing active workouts by our members by 50 percent.

What is the increase in new customer acquisition that the new design could potentially help with?

With the launch of the new design language we saw a 300 percent increase in engagement of our key app properties. Cutlass trials went up by 12 percent and acquisition increased by a steady 5 percent. One of the biggest benefits is that we now have a fully coded design system which allows us to ship new products and enhancements at a significantly faster pace. At the same time maintaining a high level of consistency.

How Curefit saw 300 percent increase in engagement after redesigning its app

Which company powers video games such as Fortnite, Pokemon Unite, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Arena of Valor, Honor of Kings etc?

The answer is Tencent, the brainchild of Ma Huateng, also called Pony Ma.

Notwithstanding the fact that Jack Ma of Alibaba calls Tencent a copy cat company with no innovation, Tencent is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world and ‘the largest’ video gaming company. It has been in the news in August 2022, for repurchasing its shares more aggressively than ever!

Pony Ma (not related to Jack Ma) built Tencent along with co-founders that he met in school; they would spend time competing to recite the digits of Pi in the hallway after class. School halls reverberated with the epigram shi bu wo dai, meaning ‘time will not wait for me.’ One part of the Tencent story could almost belong in a parallel universe like its products. One of three people in the world, use the web accessing it through a filter that obscures Facebook, Twitter Snapchat, Instagram, The New York Times and YouTube! This universe loves WeChat (called Weixin locally.) The other part of the Tencent story lives in the entire world of the eight billion. Flouting the irrational need for overnight success, Tencent has been built over two and a half decades, with tons of collaborative minds. That’s a good thing!

A few other great things about the book.

1. Pony Ma, a programmer, realised early that devices are not instantly scalable like internet platforms. He stepped out of his reticent shell much later in his life when he realised that there was a business need for it. Masterstrokes such as getting soccer superstar Lionel Messi to campaign for WeChat and negotiating with Elon Musk and Evan Spiegel for stakes in their companies made his voice heard.

2. Colleagues describe Pony Ma as temperate, stoic and almost irritatingly self-aware! With his dogged persistence, he rallies people, many of whom he considers smarter by his own account to undertake his mission. A master of creating products so convenient and intuitive that billions of users want to join his network, Pony Ma is a private entrepreneur in a state dominant economy with a gift for survival. And part of this gift is knowing how much and when to talk.

3. The story of the initial hustle is endearing - Pony himself posed as a woman and engaged users in the chat rooms of OICQ his initial venture, inspired by a service ‘ICQ' (I Seek You), a ground-breaking online chat system created by a bunch of Israelis in June 96. OICQ was built on the concept of a fully centralised service with individual user accounts focused on one on one conversation. When AOL bought ICQ, they filed a lawsuit accusing Tencent for violation of intellectual property rights. Tencent had to shut down OICQ. They found a way to rally back.

4. There is a wonderful lesson for modern business owners in the book. When Nasper’s Wallerstein offered Pony Ma a valuation of 60 million dollars, requesting that he become the largest shareholder in Tencent, he refused because he wanted the team to keep control over their company. It wasn’t until Naspers found a way for Tencent founders to maintain control, that the deal worked out.

5. Pony even found his future wife while chatting with a music teacher called Wang Danting for 3 months on his own Internet product QQ.

Naturally, in 2017, when Tencent took over Facebook to become the world's 5th largest company, for many, it came as no surprise at all. What is brilliant is that Tencent has transitioned into a global voice, producing Hollywood blockbusters like Wonder Woman, Men in Black International and Venom.

In being able to reach both the Chinese people and the worldwide audience by entertaining them, lies its ‘influence empire.’

Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ On Twitter @OfficialReetaRG.

Bookstrapping: Influence Empire - The story of Tencent and China’s tech ambition

Why PepsiCo India’s Lay's launched gourmet chips

Zomato has done it again. The online food delivery company has yet again managed to start a boycott trend with its new campaign featuring Hrithik Roshan. This was the brand’s first attempt at using deepfake technology. What won Cadbury's Cannes Lions-winning campaign applause, clearly didn’t work for Zomato. Angry priests and hurt netizens pushed the brand to withdraw the ad.

However, domain experts do not blame the brand. According to them, Zomato was just trying to promote local businesses with the help of technology.

“Every word is scrutinized these days and people somehow have become over sensitive. Zomato has been successful with their tongue-in-cheek content and the campaign was an extension of the overall messaging. They didn’t deserve the trolling,” says N Chandramouli, chief executive officer (CEO) of Mumbai-based brand intelligence and advisory firm TRA Research.

This is not the first time the brand has found itself in a boycott saga.

Shockvertising 

It is, in fact, the third time in a row that a campaign from the brand has received backlash. One of the first campaigns that didn’t go down well was the brand’s outdoor campaign where the letters "MC.BC." (mac n’ cheese, butter chicken) were used in a creative way. Even though they were used as abbreviations of food item names, there was no fooling the crowd. People called out Zomato for pushing "sexist" and "cheap" messaging.

Then there was the 'Har Customer Hai star' campaign last year. When the campaign went live across TV and digital, people took offence because the spot showed how the delivery executive did not even have the time to take a selfie with Hrithik Roshan who also ended up calling the delivery executive 'Jadoo' (the alien character from Roshan’s film Koi Mil Gaya).

While the focus of the brand was to portray how every customer is important and calling the valet Jadoo was more about his super power of quickness, that was not how the ad was perceived.

There were questions on the gig economy, treatment of delivery agents, the impact of celebrity endorsements and, of course, brand culture.

Advertising in sensitive times 

Talking of brand culture, Rutu Mody-Kamdar Founder of Jigsaw Brand Consultants, says Zomato’s content is reflective of their brand ethos which is fun, impulsive and tongue in cheek and off the traditional path.

“Unfortunately hypersensitivity has been dominating the way we respond to situations. Zomato is an iconoclastic brand and brands like this have no option but to face the reactions to their actions and wait for the controversy to fizzle out” she said.

"Sensitivity" is a very thin line in the world of advertising, and creators often find themselves on the wrong side of it, unintentionally says another industry expert who didn't want to be named. "Brands definitely need to be more careful and avoid any prejudice or stereotyping. Brands should be cautious not to rub religious sentiments the wrong way.”

Never too late to apologise

Looks like Zomato didn’t want to earn further ire of the Ujjain priests who were offended by the mention of Malakal in the brand's hyperlocal ad. They not only took down the ad but also issued a clarification that said, “The Hrithik Roshan-starrer ad that ran in certain pincodes of Ujjain referenced ‘thalis’ at ‘Mahakal Restaurant’, and not the revered Shree Mahakaleshwar Temple. Mahakal Restaurant is one of our high order-volume restaurant partners in Ujjain, and thali is a recommended item on its menu.”

The note further said, “The video is part of a pan-India campaign for which we identified top local restaurants and their top dishes based on popularity in each city. Mahakal Restaurant (simplified as ‘Mahakal’) was one of the restaurants chosen for the campaign in Ujjain. We deeply respect the sentiments of the people of Ujjain, and the ad in question is no longer running. We offer our sincerest apologies, for the intent here was never to hurt anyone's beliefs and sentiments.”

Why doesn’t controversy go off the menu for Zomato ads?

MAST

MuscleBlaze - Ladies Who Lift

Agency: In-house

<iframe title="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tjzziDz3Qmo" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Surprisingly even a two minute spot can be fun if made well. This new campaign titled Ladies Who Lift (#LWL), by MuscleBlaze is an interesting one. Conceptualized and executed by an all women in-house crew, the ad shows women from all walks of life who don’t live by conventional expectations. The campaign creates a progressive narrative around the spirit of ‘Zidd’ portraying women at their stubborn best when it comes to choosing the kind of life they want for themselves. The catchy number ‘Ni Aar Di’ is the cherry on the cake. This one blazes all the way to the top.

MAST

Paytm First Games

<iframe title="Play Rummy on First Games and Win Cash!" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hFZXTALBWkg" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

To promote the game of Rummy, Paytm First Games brought Fukrey famed actors Richa Chadha and Varun Sharma in its latest ad. The 30-seconders feature the actors indulging in a fun shayari (a form of poetry) to communicate how First Games is akin to having the best rummy gaming experience, comparing the experience to combinations such as Butter-Chicken combo or No Ball-Free Hit. The campaign is relatable and is likely to engage viewers.

MEH

Vadilal Ice Cream

Agency: Mullen Lintas

<iframe title="Har Moment Ko Right Kar with Vadilal Ice creams! Ft. Ranveer Singh" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tzVnqZ2GKYY" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Vadilal’s new ad featuring Ranveer Singh follows the tropes of a typical celebrity campaign. Singh, true to his personality, appears in a brightly coloured attire mimicking the shades of a cassata ice-cream at a party. Calling himself a slice of cassata he starts gyrating to the – ‘lick it, bite it, right it!’ jingle while distributing the brand’s ice-cream variants to the party guests. It’s a clear case of the celebrity overshadowing the brand in the spot, viewers are likely to remember Singh’s bizarre fuzzy outfit and crazy moves, not the ice-cream unfortunately.

MEH

Country Delight - Oil is Well.

<iframe title="Oil is Well" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NtrxKD64atA" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

A traffic jam - petrol in a well - curious cat - Country Delight. A roundabout way to drive a straight message. We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth.’ Unfortunately, that’s exactly what has happened in this case. Country Delight has a value driven product, a coconut that guarantees two full glasses of water. However, this core message gets lost amidst all the din and commotion. The traffic jam and the loud sound of cars honking, followed by a loud conversation between the two main characters, constant pumping sound of the well and background music that is very unpleasant to the ears, left us eagerly searching for some harmony in all the chaos. Adding to all this was an unclear product shot. The best part about this ad was its short duration. All of the above points, if it isn’t clear already, resulted in us awarding this spot a big, huge MEH.

MAST

Cleartrip - #MeantForMore

<iframe title="Cleartrip International Flights | #MeantForMore" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cx63ypMxTmU" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Online travel aggregator Cleartrip’s latest ad film is high on reliability. Stand-up comedian, Biswa, narrates the brand’s insight which is, passports are meant for more than just being an identification proof document, in a cheeky way. Biswa is seen submitting his passport as identification proof for a home loan to a bank officer. The passport then personifies itself and calls out that its job is to travel and not be an ID proof. It talks about the dreams that it has, from adding autographs of immigration officers to scuba diving in the Maldives. Cute writing. The passport demands respect and recognition of its purpose, that is to explore the world. And then we get the sell - Cleartrip’s offers for international flights. The brand hits the spot by converting a sharp insight into smart advertising with a layer of humour.

MEH

Swiggy - Big Birthday Bash

Agency – In House

<iframe title="Swiggy Instamart - Our birthday. Your surprise!" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ISAu342jRGY" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

<iframe title="Swiggy's Big Birthday Bash is here!" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8gtd5TDOoAw" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

<iframe title="Swiggy's Big Birthday Bash is here!" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0hdHC8eL9TE" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

This is the third Khali ad that we are calling out in the last two months. Before you send us angry emojis, hear us out. Everyone enjoys a bite of Swiggy’s topical advertising. However, this one was bland. The food delivery platform collaborated with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star The Great Khali to celebrate their respective birthdays. The Great Khali and Swiggy will be turning 50 and eight, respectively, this year. Is that insightful enough to drive a big campaign? We aren’t sure. Talking about the ads in the campaign, it lacks that “Swiggyness” we’ve come to expect from the brand. It’s forcefully quirky. Also, this might be a good time to find more creative ways to deploy the Great Khali in advertising.

MAST

Shopsy - Aaj Shopsy Kiya Kya? Har Din Aisa Sale Jaisa

Agency: Tilt Brand Solutions

<iframe title="Aaj Shopsy Kiya Kya? Har Din Aisa Sale Jaisa | Sara Ali Khan" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hv2nzg_l0pA" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

This commercial is in some ways the holy grail of advertising - relatable, informative and entertaining. It is a known fact that most wait for the sale season to drop so they can splurge. Shopsy’s ‘Aaj Shopsy Kiya Kya? Har Din Aisa Sale Jaisa’ captures that sentiment in an entertaining manner. The brand got the casting spot on, with the three characters in the film portrayed by talented actors. This spot is an early antidote to what we expect will be a season of ads that read and feel like a dull catalog of offers.

MEH

JSW Paints - Think Beautiful

Agency: TBWA India

<iframe title="JSW Paints - Independence day | Think Beautiful Film" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NLKaEo1O9RE" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

If people have watched the critically acclaimed movie Lage Raho Munna Bhai, they will be able to relate it with JSW Paints’ ‘Think Beautiful’ commercial. A paan chewing biker repeatedly spits on a wall where it's clearly mentioned that one should not spit. A paint shop owner quietly goes about painting over the paan stains. This quiet act of resistance has no effect on the actions of the person spitting. The paint shop owner paints the colors of the Indian flag on the wall. This stops the man in his tracks as he’s just about to smear the wall with paan juice again.

The ad garnered lots of attention in a sea of I-day ads. Most were positive and some were critical of the theme. The big question was around the moral of the story in the ad. Do we need to paint symbols all over the country for Indians to develop a civic sense?

MAST

ResMed - Awaken Your Best Film | Baba Sehgal x ResMed India

Agency: Bang In The Middle

<iframe title="Awaken Your Best Film | Baba Sehgal x ResMed India" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DLyzgN_IKEQ" width="885" height="498" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Are musical ads back? Porter's delivery song and dance from last week, and ResMed's sleep song by India's OG rapper Baba Sehgal, makes us believe they are. This is such a smart use of a celebrity in an ad. The song has ear-worm-like qualities, the writing is top notch and every scene has something interesting going on, like the guy asleep at the coffee machine of all places. You certainly won’t snooze or skip this one.

MEH

HDFC Bank - Vigil Aunty

Agency: Kinnect

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MFkGKrECcvE" title="Origin Story of Vigil Aunty | HDFC Bank" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

In a bizarre twist, this big HDFC Bank campaign that talks about fraud detection and prevention is being accused of plagiarism. It's accused of lifting ‘Vigil Aunty’ from author and artist Appupen's character that was created in 2016 for the Indie satire comic called Halahala. But, keeping that aside for the sake of this review, the campaign is still not hitting the right chords for us. While the story of Vigil Aunty’s origin has a good flow and is fun to watch, what’s missing, especially in this film, is an explanation of her existence. Is this an attempt to make a public service campaign or does this open a window to a larger brand purpose? We are still scratching our heads. What is also off the mark is how the narrative is weaved around stereotypes. The usage of veshti and vibuthi because the character from a Southern town made us facepalm. 

Watched a Mast or Meh ad recently? Tell us about it.

Share your picks and reviews with us at <a href="mailto:Storyboard18@nw18.com">Storyboard18@nw18.com</a> and, if we think your review is Mast, we'll publish it.

Mast & Meh: Swiggy, Shopsy, JSW Paints, Vadilal, Cleartrip, ResMed, Paytm, Country Delight

How many brands do you use? How many are ones you truly care for? From these, for how many can you recall advertising? I am sure the answer would be a single digit. But there will be many more brands which you can identify, at a glance, without any other prompting. Just their design, packaging, colour, smell etc will pop them up in your memory. That is important.

We have never lived in a time so full of brands and commercial stimuli. Already in our daily lives – on TV, radio, magazines, and billboards–digital marketing has brought them to every moment of our lives. But are we building stronger brands? Many argue that this is not the case. Brand Darwinism has peaked. Why is much forgotten and only so little remembered? In an over communicated society too much is being said and not enough is being repeated. At their core, brands are about trust. You don’t demand trust, you earn it through your actions. Being the same at all times is a big factor in trustworthiness.

Via evolution, we are all descended from people who relied on short cut decision making. In the early human period, one may guesstimate that less than 10% of information required for decision making would be available. Hence ‘fight or flee’ type reflexive decisions looked out for markers and signs which were extrapolated with lifesaving consequences.

The reason successful brands are vivid in people’s minds is thanks to distinctive assets. They must remain constant. This could be one big anchoring hook or many small ones sticking on to the consumer mind like Velcro. The ‘distinctiveness’ provides a reason to recall and that is a big battle won where marketing is concerned. Distinctive assets help create and consolidate a brand image and make it more desirable and remembered positively in the market. They work as mental triggers, reminding people of a brand and all its attributes and associations.

Distinctive assets are elements that trigger the memory of a brand in the consumers’ minds without mentioning its name. They can be something you see, read, hear, touch, or feel, and immediately reminds you of a brand. The barebones definitional criteria for a distinctive asset would be anything that strengthens at least one brand element in the public’s imagination.

Think slogans, colours, logos, fonts, music, sound-effects, visual effects, scents, packaging, product shape, characters, ambassadors or celebrities.

These elements, when associated with a brand, create a picture in people’s heads. When they are reinforced enough by consistent and coherent communication, they “stick” to the memory. Thus, distinctive assets can be easily accessed among other memories with just a small trigger.

But it is not a coincidence that these elements stick to the memory. We are talking about branding work here but with a deep scientific basis.

Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, and the head of the Brain and Creativity Institute in his book, ‘Self Comes to Mind’, distinguishes between "emotions" and "feelings," stating that emotions are the unconscious, physiological responses in your body, and feelings are the mental perceptions of those physiological changes. Damasio is one of the world’s most preeminent neuroscientist whose view on emotions, consciousness, and decision-making are ground breaking. His book, Descartes' Error, shed light onto the ideas that rationality and emotions weren't opposites, but actually worked together and required each other. Damasio’s concept of Soma or a group of somatic markers is relevant to brand assets. Dr. Robert Heath writes in his book Seducing the Subconscious how "subconscious associative conditioning" is the method by which these associations get connected to brands.

When applied to brands, we see how every small encounter with a brand or even things associated with it influence our somatic marker for the brand. They emerge in our conscious minds prior to purchasing decisions. More than the conscious message, think also of shaping all the subconscious associations with the brand.

That is already enough to reach distinction. From there, it is possible to establish a deeper connection with consumers, stir their emotions, and make a difference in their lives.

People expect brands to contribute to the quality of their life and their well-being. Therefore, they are willing to create positive connections with brands. And a brand is nothing more than the set of experiences that the consumer has with it. These are associations of thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and sensations provoked by the outside world that are put together in people’s heads, forming the brand image.

Distinctive assets help to compose this experience and activate them in the memory of consumers. When hearing the set score of a brand signature tune, all past experiences are triggered in the memory and the relationship with the brand is strengthened. Distinctive assets remain there, stored in the memory. All it takes is an input – a chord from a soundtrack or the colour combination of a logo – to trigger brand recall instantly.

Distinctive assets make brands much more recognizable by the public. You don’t even need to mention its name for it to be remembered.

This recognition is important because it helps consolidate the brand image and build awareness.

It is interesting to think of distinctive assets in international marketing, especially since many of these elements work regardless of the language spoken. An image, a sound, or a character, for example, can be recognized anywhere in the world.

But this memory does not just bring that brand element to mind. With it, also comes everything that is associated with the brand, such as perceptions, opinions, and sensations that have been stored in your memory through previous experiences. Of course, this presumes a bedrock of subliminal positive experiences and associations.

It may be that distinctive assets trigger a memory of the positive feeling that using the product has already provided. But it may also be that the consumer connects it with memories that are not directly related to the brand but their life experiences - affective memories and create stronger ties with people’s emotions.

The vast majority of brands don't get to be loved. We feel slightly positively or negatively toward it, so we buy it or we don't. Research shows that we tend to narrow down our choices even in very high involvement categories like buying a car or a house. We fix a set of options and then choose from those. It's often our general gut feeling that gets those options put into the consideration set in the first place. The brand's somatic marker gives it a fighting chance to be considered. If you are in the subconscious mind, you will pop up when the decision funnels begin to get firmed up.
<blockquote>So, for most brands, rather than building a conscious feeling of "brand love”, unconscious recognition is a better bet.</blockquote>
Distinctive assets help to put these brands in a special place in your memory to be remembered when the time comes to make a purchase decision. This hopper from awareness to consideration is crucial. 

- Being unique - the element must be unique, original and differentiated, to highlight and evoke the brand and not its competitors.
- Being well-known - the element must be recognized by most of the public to be understood as a representation of the brand.

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute proposes a methodology to identify the potential of distinctive assets, which consists of the following steps:

 - An in-depth study of the brand elements: survey the brand elements to analyze, test, and measure their strength.</li>
 - Research to collect data about the consumer experience and identify how connected the brand and its elements are in their perception.
 - Interpret users’ responses and identify how to use the elements in your brand communication.

Align the distinctive assets with the essence of the brand
<blockquote>Whatever element you choose to use as your distinctive asset needs to be aligned with the essence of your brand to be coherent.</blockquote>
Keep communication consistent

Create consistent communication to consolidate distinctive assets in people’s minds. Repeat repeat repeat.

Memory is built from reinforcement and insistence, with consistency across all content and brand channels.

Bring to mind Netflix’s “ta-dum”, Tiffany’s patent colour ,The Michelin Man, Coca Cola’s Red or the Nike swoosh. Then think if you recall anything more. Do you need to?

I rest my case.

Shubhranshu Singh is vice president, marketing - domestic &amp; IB, CVBU, Tata Motors. He writes Simply Speaking, a weekly column on Storyboard18. Views expressed are personal.

Simply Speaking: A brand mosaic and the little things that make it

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