IAA India chapter holds its inaugural digital event 'TechPulse'

The India Chapter of International Advertising Association (IAA) hosted its first digital event, TechPulse, on April 27, 2023.

The event was held at the Taj Santacruz in Mumbai. It brought together industry veterans, thought leaders, and innovators to discuss the latest trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in the field of advertising and marketing.

The event’s theme - "Digital Transformation: Implications for Advertising and Marketers" - provided insights into the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Neena Dasgupta, Chairperson, IAA TechPulse, and CEO and Founder of The Salt Inc Consulting, CEO of Aidem Ventures, said, "With TechPulse, we brought together some of the brightest minds in the advertising and market industry. Going forward, IAA TechPulse will provide a platform for industry professionals to learn, share, and collaborate on the latest developments in the field." 

IAA India chapter TechPulse kicked off with a minute of silence in honour of the late Siddharth Rao - Co-Founder WebChutney (acquired by Dentsu) and Punt Partners. 

Neena Dasgupta and Avinash Pandey, President - IAA India Chapter and CEO, ABP Network, set the context for the event before a conversation by Megha Tata, CEO Cosmos-Maya, and Anant Goenka, Chairperson, IAA TechPulse and Executive Director, The Indian Express Group, on the change in content delivery in linear and integrated context.

The main event began with a session by Neeraj Roy, Founder and CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, on the role of technology in India's digital foundation and the opportunities it presents for maximising efficiency. The event also saw an engaging session by Charulata Ravi Kumar, MD of Accenture, on the topic of digital disruption and its impact on socio-economic changes. 

Karthi Marshan, Advisor, Kotak highlighted the need for cautiously adopting the latest developments specifically in the areas of Banking and Finance. Niraj Ruparel, Emerging Tech Lead at GroupM/WPP presented some novel applications of Generative AI. Tarun Katial, Founder and CEO of COTO App discussed the marketer's dilemma in the conversational AI era and how to solve it. 

TechPulse also featured a panel discussion on "Marketing Solutions in a cookie-less world," moderated by Nandini Dias, Former CEO, Lodestar UM. The panel members, Prasad Shejale, Founder and CEO, Logicserve Digital; Sanjay Sindhwani, CEO, Indian Express Digital; Siddharth Dhabade, Managing Director, MiQ, and Neil George, Managing Director, Nivea India, discussed the challenges and opportunities of marketing in a cookie-less world.

Satya Raghavan, Director Marketing Partners at Google India, highlighted developments happening at Google in understanding consumer behaviour given emerging environmental and contextual constraints. Shilpa Sadana, Associate Director of Sales at Affinity Global Advertising and Ritu Mittal, Head of Marketing and Digital at Bayer Consumer presented a case study highlighting the significance of research insights in formulating creatives for digital platforms. 

The need for integrated media measurement and possible guidelines for it was presented by Priya Choudhary, Director of Business Solutions and Insights at Google India. This was followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Vivek Malhotra, Group CMO (India Today Group) and COO Consumer Revenue, focused on the new world of cross-media measurement. The panel members, LV Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research; Anand Chakravarthy, Chief Growth Officer, Omnicom Media Group; Vishal Chinchankar, CEO, Madison Digital; Gowthaman Ragothaman, Founding CEO of Aqilliz, and Prasun Basu, Head of Growth and Digital Transformation, Kantar, discussed the need for cross-media measurement and the challenges that come with it. 

The last session was by Amer Jaleel, former Group Chief Creative Officer and Chairman of MullenLowe Lintas Group, on the importance of creativity in the world of technology, data, and methods.

The event also announced innovation awards to recognise the enterprises and the foresight of individuals to implement innovative thoughts into action. The innovation awards were identified under four segments - Marketing, Media, Agency and Platforms:

· Prasad Pimple, EVP and Head of Digital, Kotak Life was presented the innovation award for going deep into customer mindset segmentation and linking psychographic triggers to behaviours to unlock value across all digital activities.

· Niraj Ruparel, Emerging Tech – Lead at GroupM/WPP for diving deep into Conversational AI and Metaverse and bringing the two together to unlock and implement some of the best experienced innovations.

· Neha Barjatya, Director Marketing, Google India, for combining the power of platforms and the ambition of empowering rural women to create sustained opportunities and strong communities.

· Vivek Malhotra, CMO India Today Group and COO Consumer Revenues for innovating on integration content, context and audience behaviour to grow the customer base exponentially.

The event was sponsored by Google India, mCanvas, Veve, MiQ, the Salt Inc, and The Indian Express. It was supported by the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA).

Full event: 

Post-lunch event: 

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