NxtQuantum places 70% of its marketing bets on traditional media for AI+ smartphone launch

New Delhi: With India’s smartphone market long dominated by Chinese players, Madhav Sheth, CEO and Founder, NxtQuantum Shift Technologies, is gearing up to challenge the status quo. 

With the launch of AI+ smartphones, a brand that, in Sheth’s words, is intended to be “India’s most indigenous smartphone brand,” NxtQuantum aims to capture the segment that is seeking a transition from 2G to 5G. 

At a time when most new-age brands are rushing to maximise performance marketing spends, NxtQuantum Technologies is taking a contrarian route for its smartphone brand. The brand’s marketing playbook leans heavily on traditional advertising mediums to establish its brand narrative, with digital forming a supporting role. 

“The current mix would be around 50-50 each,” Sheth said, referring to ad spends split between global tech platforms such as Google and Meta, and Indian media channels. But when asked about the broader media mix, the numbers shift. “Traditional media like TVC would be around 70%, and digital media would be around 30%,” said Sheth. 

This may sound surprising coming from a tech-first company, but for Sheth, it is a conscious choice driven by the brand’s ambition to build widespread awareness across India’s diverse consumer base, much of which still engages actively with television.

Sheth is clear that AI+ is not positioning itself as just another smartphone. “AI has always been considered a feature, but not as a brand. So, for us to establish AI+ as a brand, we will be spending a lot of money to ensure that consumers register AI+ as a brand,” he explained.

Flipkart has been announced as the brand’s exclusive online partner, but the bulk of consumer education will happen offline. “While Flipkart is our exclusive partner, we have got enough visibility and more support there as well. We will be using traditional media to ensure that probably the consumers are more aware of the brand, but not on the product side,” Sheth added.

The company recently launched a TVC, aligned with their marketing strategy. Watch it here: 

Unlike most smartphone launches that talk up camera specs and chipset performance, Sheth’s pitch for AI+ rests on two larger purposes. The first, he said, is to bridge India’s digital divide.

“There are about more than 300-400 million 2G consumers across India. For them, the adoption of 5G is very difficult because the price points are starting. 2G ends at around Rs 2,000 and 5G starts at around Rs 10,000, approximately,” Sheth explained.

He acknowledged that while several brands operate in the affordable smartphone space, “none of the smartphone brands are designing it for India.” His focus, therefore, is on “democratising” smartphones and helping consumers climb the ladder from 2G to 4G and eventually 5G, without the usual price barriers.

On the sales front, NxtQuantumm is bypassing the usual multi-layered distribution network that most smartphone brands follow. “We will be going D2R, directly supplying to more than 12,000 retailers across India,” said Sheth.

He argued that incentivising middle layers in the retail chain would drive up the final price for consumers and defeat his goal of affordability. Retailers can register directly on the newly launched aiplusstore.com and receive GST-compliant invoices without intermediary mark-ups.

The company, going forward, will also engage with tech influencers and lifestyle creators to push its awareness. “We will definitely be collaborating with the tech influencers, lifestyle influencers to ensure that the brand awareness reaches at least around 30% to 40% in a short span of time,” Sheth said.

Having previously scaled Realme in India, Sheth reflected on the difference this time around. “With at least AI+, I know that I have complete control over driving the vision even for a longer period of time,” he said, indicating that this venture gives him more freedom to follow through on long-term goals like building a tech community.

Looking beyond the launch, Sheth revealed that the company already has a community strategy, an OS roadmap, and a new product plan in place for the year. “Going forward, we will be going to be a SaaS company, where hardware will be a commodity for us,” Sheth said.