 "Prasanth Kumar")
As media platforms multiply and fragmentation takes root, media planners need to look at their jobs holistically rather than plan in silos, Prasanth Kumar tells Sangeeta Tanwar
Mindshare India has bagged a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions 2016 for its '6 Pack Band' campaign (India's first transgender pop group) for Brooke Bond Red Label Tea. The campaign was big on digital media and music apps. What does this win say about the changing creative and media landscape back home?
Recognition works as a motivation for carrying on with the good work. The team brainstormed, argued and developed the concept for the campaign ultimately marrying an uncomfortable subject that is a conversation around transgender community with pop culture. In the process, we succeeded in creating a comfortable ecosystem kick-starting a conversation around transgenders and their lives.
Creativity and ideas influence every walk of life. For any industry to thrive innovations are important and great ideas need to be allowed to take the lead. Further, for a body of work to get recognition, creativity and inventiveness are necessary. Infusion of great ideas, being innovative and being radical brings in excitement to every aspect of the work. And this only increases when we create a healthier ecosystem conversing with each other and integrating larger aspects of an issue in a brand communication. To continue doing great creative work one need to bring in a focussed way of answering how brands are impacting consumers' life. Both consumers and brands stand to benefit out of this approach.
In what ways has the consumer-brand relationship changed over the years? And what have been the ramifications of these changes for the media business?
The consumers' consumption of media as well as her behaviour in the market have and are changing significantly. This is essentially happening because of dynamic changes in the market. The consumers' changing consumption pattern is complemented by their changing media habits. For example, the amount of time that consumers spend on digital media today has gone up hugely over the last few years. Similarly, the amount of time when consumers are socially alive expressing, commenting and voicing their opinion on a product, service or for that matter every aspect of life has multiplied manifold. These are all dynamic and extremely critical factors impacting the brand and category objectives.
In a changing market scenario, the purpose of investing in data-led framework and tools is all about learning and understanding these different consumer voices and putting them to right use. Data points are crucial for making right deductions, coming up with relevant ideas and further putting up the right platform for talking to consumers. The impact of these changes on media is reflected through customisation of communication messages to influence consumer purchases. Also, the need to come up with customised messaging has resulted in diversity in talent in the media business. Today, we are investing in people with different backgrounds and training them to listen and decipher these diverse voices.
The amount of data that is coming to business leaders is unbelievable in scope. But the key to success is the effective use of this data. Do media agencies have the expertise and the tools to help brands decode data effectively?
We are focussing on areas like content, data and digital. All the three are complementing each other and help in developing the ability to study consumers deeply and therefore learn about different preferences that they have. This knowledge helps us in engaging consumers better.
At Mindshare, we are equipped with the tools necessary to lead data-insight led solutions that help in identifying and enhancing communication tasks and solutions for brands. To achieve the desired results, we have been practicing the essence of speed in real time. Mindshare fundamentally has many differentiators in the data-digital space with our own data-led business platforms and products like Loop. At the same time, we have developed partnerships and an ecosystem supporting the essence of creating solutions for functions led by data points helping us understand different consumer tastes.
Social media has given everyone the licence to feedback. How has this phenomenon impacted a media planner's job?
The rise of social media calls for a lot more grounded understanding of what's happening in the consumer world, a lot more understanding of how it will be reflecting in market developments and how brands and categories will be expressing themselves. Further, with everyone speaking and talking back, the industry folks need deeper understanding of the implications of different media and how each of these is to be used for responding to consumers' reaction.
Media planners today need to think with a holistic point of view instead of looking through things from a single media channel or vehicle. In today's simultaneous media consumption world, the role of the media planner multiplies with every aspect of media consumption. One needs to realise that from different music genres, movies, gaming and any other form of content - all these are engagement points to be looked at for achieving the right goals. All this makes the media planner more powerful and influential and calls for more responsibility. The growing power of social media calls for creating a lot more room for media planners to understand consumers, coming up with motivational strategies and requires them to innovate with solutions and brands.
