Streaming platforms best option for advertisers this year, says Rajesh Uttamchandani of Syska Group

Having successfully brought about a retail revolution in the otherwise institutional category, Syska keeps innovation as its core focus. The brand operates with 3-4% as marketing budget and uses a strategic mix of TV, OOH, and digital.

In an interaction with BestMediaInfo.com, Rajesh Uttamchandani, Director, Syska Group, said that the brand is constantly working to achieve optimal personalisation in the marketing function to target specific customers and deliver better content.

The brand is also creating more digital footprints on the basis of its online presence, warranty registration programmes and neuro-tagging to draw and map the customer journey and enhance the lifetime value for the categories the brand is present in.  

Excerpts:

What were your unmet expectations in the market in 2019 that you wish to achieve in 2020? What factors would help you meet your goals?

As a brand strategy, Syska has believed in lateral expansion to enter newer segments offering innovative solutions. It has established a strong equity across the stakeholders, including end customers, on the basis of technology-led innovative products in various categories. Syska will continue this journey of increasing its brand footprint per household even in the coming years.

One thing in marketing that you couldn't implement last year but like to do it this year, and the factors?

We are constantly working to achieve optimal personalisation in the marketing function to target specific customers, deliver better content and create a stronger bond based on their need and behaviour. The brand is creating enough and more digital footprints on the basis of its online presence, warranty registration programmes, neuro-tagging, etc., to draw and map the customer journey and enhance the lifetime value for the categories the brand is present in such as LED, personal care appliances, mobile accessories, wires and cables, smart home products, etc.

How do you see advertising and marketing trends evolving in 2020?

We have witnessed several marketing trends evolving in 2019. With the advent of the internet and smartphones, new and innovative ways of advertising trends have evolved. People are seen spending most of their time surfing the internet, thus making digital marketing one of the most important platforms for marketing and advertising. The key digital marketing trends we see for 2020 include:

Audio and video advertising is one of the key trends in the year 2020. Voice search technology is being adopted rapidly and is changing the way of consumers interact with the world around them. Earlier, it was television that kept the attention of everyone. But now people are switching to online streaming platforms and that is why these can be the best option for advertisers.

Social media marketing is on the rise. Social media platforms are constantly evolving as they grow and adapt to consumer behaviour and incorporate new technologies. Advertisers need to go where the people are, which is why social media channels are often the best way to reach your target buyer.

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing. People with high influence on a topic endorse the products of brands to their target audience. This form of advertising has seen significant growth in the past few years and will be one of the advertising trends of 2020.

Written content in the form of conversational scripts is the primary input to chat bots, which are expected to see an increased usage trend in 2020 and beyond. Any business with a website and visitor traffic can benefit from using a simple Chabot that answers the common visitor questions and helps convert visitors into warm leads.

Do you plan to increase your marketing budget for this year? If so, any rough estimate on the percentage increase? Would your category behave in similar fashion?

We operate with 3-4% as marketing budgets, which are optimally used to achieve the functional objectives across different segments such as LED, personal care appliance, wires and cables, mobile accessories, etc., where the Syska brand is present, catering to pan- India consumers. Our focus will be to achieve better ROIs on the marketing spends in the coming FY. Our category of FMEG (fast-moving electrical goods) is witnessing a surge in IoT technology to bring more convenience and comfort to customers, which will help in gradually shifting the functional value proposition of mere energy saving to aspirational and functional proposition of connectivity (app and voice assistants) and saving.

How would your budget allocation for various mediums change in 2020? Would it be different than your category? 

As a thought leader brand, Syska is known to address the fundamental need of educating customers about the very benefit of LED adoption. Our brand uses a strategic mix of TV, OOH, digital, etc., to create the desired equity and convey the proposition for both offline and online customers.

How do you expect your agency/communication/content partners to change this year?

Across the years, not only the brand has grown in terms of multi-segment presence but our marketing partners have also grown in terms of their understanding towards the category and the evolving customers and their media habits. On the basis of this committed association, it is possible to create impeccable marketing deliverables and target the customers more efficiently and effectively.

What’s your brand's outlook in the next three years?

We conduct an in-depth research and development for all our products and solutions and acquire a keen understanding of our consumers’ behaviour / demands prior to introducing new products. The core focus for us is innovation and we are constantly striving to introduce innovative products that meet the ever-evolving needs of consumers, especially the millennial and GenZ audience. Our vision to constantly offer innovative solutions across various categories helps brand Syska to remain “Light Years Ahead”.

Social media and consumer behaviour are changing the dynamics of marketing faster than brands could even get the grip on the current trend. What would help you and other brands keep abreast with these quick changes?

Social media has become an important platform for brands to advertise their products and solutions. Today, consumers are present on multiple social media platforms whether it is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. They are at the receiving end of information from multiple companies and brands and are constantly getting to learn new things via these platforms. Hence, it is imperative that we tap the enormous opportunity that exists and reach out to their customers through these channels.

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