Finding the perfect blend of tech and creativity in brand storytelling

New Delhi: In today’s digital age, the interplay of technology and data is redefining brand storytelling, offering marketers powerful tools to create more personalised and impactful narratives. However, balancing this data-driven precision with genuine creativity remains a critical challenge. 

Some marketers are taking the backseat to assess if they are over-relying on data and tech to woo their customers.

An esteemed panel of folks from the marketing industry gathered in Mumbai on Tuesday to discuss ‘Technology to build brands’ at MRSI’s 32nd Annual Market Research Seminar that focused on uniting creativity and data.

In other words, senior marketers spilled the beans for making the perfect cocktail, with key ingredients being data and creativity.

Citing an example of what a successful marriage between data and creativity looks like, Saugato Bhowmik, Group Director, CPG-Auto-D2C, Meta India, said, “With Maggi a couple of years ago, one of the briefs was to build a consumption occasion for Maggi during the rainy season. We used a weather API to trigger ads in specific locations when it started raining. 

AI-generated a rain background with a steaming bowl of Maggi, creating a classic scene. This ensured the ad met the occasion exactly when consumers experienced rain, blending creativity and technology. The focus was on building an occasion, not reach, awareness, or acquisition, but increasing usage.”

Despite technology and data being a great ally for marketers, experts feel that marketers are increasingly making decisions based on data, missing out on the core focus of a campaign: “Telling a good brand story.” 

Shedding light on the matter, Siddhant Mazumdar, Country Head, India, Mediabrands Content Studio, said, “Tech is a great tool in our shed; no doubt about it but tech is not the message in itself.  Tech helps us determine if a brand is in the right place for its audience and how to deliver the message effectively. We did a campaign for Dark Fantasy with Shah Rukh Khan in it. What we used was AI to get people into the same frame as Shah Rukh, and that's something that people loved. 

But there did come a brand that wanted to utilise the same tech. We kept telling them it was not the best fit because, unlike Shah Rukh, people cared about being a part of that visual. Here, people didn't necessarily care, but they were enamoured by the fact that this technology exists. They made us do it. Did we get the numbers? No, we didn't. So at some point, it's important to not get enamoured by every shiny new tech that comes in the market.”

However, it’s always easier said than done. Imagine being in the shoes of a marketer, constantly moving around with a fear of missing out (FOMO), thinking this new piece of technology might be all you need to make your campaign go viral.

Speaking of FOMO and every marketer’s nightmare, Nithya Komanduri, Beauty Incubator Head, Hindustan Unilever, said, “The FOMO is real, but it’s crucial to understand why you’re using technology. Beyond creative tech, there’s tech that helps identify launch spaces and create immersive consumer experiences. Depending on your brand’s journey, it’s vital to know what you aim to achieve with tech. 

For example, use immersive tech for retention, not acquisition, to get the best results. With abundant tech options, it’s essential to define your goals and measure outcomes. Otherwise, you’ll end up using tech for its own sake—buzzwords like AI—without understanding its impact on your business. Ultimately, the objective remains to drive business success.”

Komanduri suggested asking yourself the right set of questions before using tech for marketing. From the horse’s lips itself, she said, “Before diving deep into tech, marketers should focus on using technology to enhance the current processes. For example, tech can help make better decisions about market spaces and brand launches, improve efficiency in production, and personalize communication. Enhancing what we already do with tech is crucial and often overlooked in tech discussions.”

It’s not just FOMO that makes marketers make bad decisions; it's also the eagerness of CMOs to be first when using a new piece of technology. Highlighting this impediment in a marketer’s mind, Mazumdar said, “One challenge we face in the industry is the overdependence on being first. If someone has already used a tech, it doesn’t matter. The goal isn’t to be the first but to get it right and create magic like a chef making a great dish; the end consumer doesn’t care if it’s the first; they care about the experience.

So, don’t hesitate to use older tech if it works. If people are willing to experiment, great, but don’t forget past experiments. Sometimes, old tech can be unexpectedly useful. Good execution is what truly matters.”

Be it AR campaigns, virtual showrooms, or other types of immersive tech, they all intend to serve one purpose in marketing: spending more time with the customer than an average digital ad. As Gen-Z attention span moves closer to that of a goldfish, marketers are constantly complaining and finding new ways to attract the consumer’s attention for more than five seconds.

Highlighting the shift in consumer behaviour, Bhowmik said, “Despite audience behaviour shifting significantly, the principles of marketing remain unchanged. The average attention period now spans between 6 and 8 seconds, so short-form content is crucial. In 2023, time spent on reels in India was three and a half times that of TV. Regardless of the attention span, what still remains important is creating effective content, targeting the right audience, and measuring outcomes. 

This shift means that creative strategies and measurement methods must evolve. AI has disrupted traditional marketing funnels, making them non-linear due to numerous touchpoints. Consumers now learn about products through their social networks rather than direct brand communication.”

Showcasing a rare example of Gen-X backing up Gen-Z, Karthik Nagarajan, CEO, of Hogarth India, said, “Attention span is not the issue; engagement is.”

Expanding his thoughts on the same, Nagarajan said, “I think Gen-Z needlessly gets beaten up on attention span. For instance, Emily in Paris, a Netflix series, has an episode that is roughly about 22 minutes long. Most of my team is in their early 20s. 

They can binge-watch an entire season in one sitting, which is about 210 minutes. This generation doesn’t have an attention span problem but an engagement problem.”

An attention problem or an engagement problem, let’s call a spade, and look at what are the possible solutions to the problem. Bhowmik suggested “Let AI manage it for you” as a plausible remedy for the wound caused by decreasing engagement and attention.

In the words of Bhowmik, “AI tools can automate budget allocation and target audiences most likely to achieve campaign goals. Instead of traditional media planning, let AI handle targeting based on billions of daily signals. Provide AI with creative inputs around a core theme and let it optimise audience reach and budget allocation. Set clear objectives—whether for conversions, app installs, ad recall, or awareness—and allow AI to manage the rest. This requires a significant mindset shift, especially for brand marketers used to being in control.

For example, Snitch, a fast-growing male fast-fashion brand, has expanded its automated campaigns 8x in the last year, with ROAS more than doubling. Typically, scaling campaigns leads to a drop in ROAS, but the opposite happens because they embrace these principles. Instead of giving up control, provide the system with the right inputs and the freedom to find your audience and achieve your goals.”

Wrapping it up in the words of  Nagarajan, “Tech is like the car I arrived in. Whether it’s a Maruti Dzire or a Mercedes Benz, I would still be 10 minutes late. The car doesn’t change that. But data, on the other hand, is like Google Maps for my journey. It helps navigate better. We’re in a better place now than 5 or 10 years ago.”