An evening with Mr Vikas Chawla: Decoding the digital jungle
On Friday, September 16, we has a very insightful session by Mr Vikas Chawla, a digtal marketing expert, entrepreneur, author and angel investor and co founder of Social beat. With a 300+ member team, Social Beat is amongst India’s fastest growing digital marketing solutions companies and a trusted digital growth partner for leading brands and hyperscaling startups in India.
The full recording is avaliable at:
About Mr Vikas Chawla
Mr Vikas Chawla is an alumnus of London School of Economics and the winner of British Council UK Alumni Awards 2020 for India and South Asia. He actively mentors and invests in startups in India, via The Chennai Angels and IP Ventures. He has close to 2 decades of experience with organisations like Murugappa Group, NSDC, Taj Hotels and AIESEC.
How digital has evolved in India
About 10 years back, there were not even 2 crores of active internet users in the country. Today, 65 crore Indians (half the total population) are online. 5G is adding a new momentum to internet connectivity. Social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook have become very popular.
Platform |
No of users (million) |
Linked In |
87 |
215 |
|
350 |
|
YouTube |
550 |
| 600 |
Full funnel marketing
The full funnel marketing approach has three layers. At each layer, the focus is different:
- Upper funnel: Building awareness
- Middle funnel: Consideration
- Bottom funnel: Getting the customers into action mode and making them buy the product
Upper funnel
This funnel is about building awareness. We should be clear about our brand’s USP. Talking to customers and understanding them is an integral part of this funnel. Of course, a great product (in terms of features, price, distribution, and customer experience) is a must. Without that, no amount of marketing will deliver the necessary outcomes.
A very useful tool for consumer research is Google Trends. It can tell us what kind of products are trending and enable us to compare things which are trending. The trends can also be studied in individual cities.
Storytelling is necessary to convey the brand’s USP. A great visual story brings the brand to life. We should be able to stitch together a compelling story that keeps customers engaged for 15 -30 seconds.
Vikas illustrated this for different products: Tata India Tax Savings Fund and quicklyZ, Mahindra’s car subscription service.
The first ad, using a scene from cricket, turns a boring matter such as taxes into something we can feel vividly. The umpire awards only 4 runs for what looks like a spectacular six indicating that a deduction of 2 has been made for taxes!
The second ad highlights that the tenure of EMIs on car loans can sometimes be longer than the life of a car. In contrast, a subscription service like quicklyZ can be for as short a period as one year.
Vikas showed a striking campaign for Himalaya Quista Pro (a fitness ad). He emphasised that such videos can be made cost effectively using tools such as Animoto, Invideo and Fiverr which can be subscribed for just Rs 2000-000 per month.
A website or app needs to be in place before starting activities in the upper funnel. In the online world, they play the role of the storefront. Various tools are available to design websites without the need for technical expertise.
An omnichannel presence helps:
Middle Funnel
This funnel is all about engaging and connecting with customers. Both content and social media campaigns are needed. The social media is a low-cost medium to build awareness. Each platform is different, and we must know how to leverage it.
YouTube is for more evolved brands. Instagram is better than YouTube for new brands to get started. Facebook can be used to target older people. Linked in is useful for B2B marketing.
On Instagram we must think vertical first and keep the sound off. Mr Chawla showed an interesting video to illustrate this point. Vertical videos can be more engaging. Most videos these days are shot on mobile phones which are easier to hold vertically.
Vernacular is a key trend that brands are embracing. 93% of Indian content is vernacular. Wherever relevant, we must use vernacular.
Cleverly packaged content can get the attention of customers. Mr Chawla explained how Tesco used clever ads to educate customers, returning to stores after the lockdown, about the product range.
Mr Chawla showed a social media campaign of Tata Cliq, which brought out the pleasure of going back to office after the lockdown forced people to say at home. Thus, all social media campaigns need not involve a hard sell.
Mr Chawla illustrated an innovative Women’s Day campaign run by Snapdeal. While the objective of this campaign was to enhance brand awareness, recall and audience engagement, the campaign wanted to achieve this by breaking the monotony of regular women’s day campaigns. The campaign showcased how women didn’t need any ‘support’ to achievegreat things. Great women pave the way for greater women. The campaign celebrated the inspirational women who broke all barriers of bias not just for themselves, but for the generations to come.
Key tips for creating digital videos
- Less is more.
- Capture the attention in the first few seconds.
- Design for sound off.
- Build for each channel: Vertical videos for Instagram
- Build for each step of the funnel.
- Build a connect.
Bottom funnel
This is about driving business results.
There are multiple ways to target the audience. We can look at the interests of consumers, ie what they want. We can also consider their intent: what they are in the market for and what they need.
We should remember that the customer journey can be complex and involve many channels. Consider the following example:
Measurements must also happen across channels.
Q&A
On his journey
About 10 years back, Vikas was with the TI Cycles division of the Murugappa group. This was his first exposure to digital. The company was an early adopter of Facebook and sold bicycles through its website. The early exposure made Vikas aware of the power of digital. When he started his digital marketing venture, the first two years were about selling customers about the power of digital and convincing them to leverage it to their advantage. But now, there is no holding back digital. In 2022, digital marketing dollars are expected to exceed television dollars.
On why he uses the term jungle
The world of digital is about the survival of the fittest. There is plenty of clutter with each customer getting about 300 different messages every day. So we must be fit enough to stand above the crowd.
Just like in a jungle each animal is different, we must be aware of our strengths and leverage them to survive. That calls for continuous learning. As Prasad added, a jungle is also a place where we can easily get lost if we are not careful.
To survive in this jungle, we must keep things simple and be true to our own brand and core strengths. We must continuously learn and experiment as things can change quickly. We must stay hungry and not rest on our past laurels. For example, if we are on Instagram, we must churn out at least 10 reels per month to get attention.
Phygital
The physical and digital worlds must come together seamlessly. There is nothing like a digital business. We might leverage digital technologies and channels. But at the end of the day, we sell an actual product.
Even the most traditional brands are realizing that they must engage with customers on digital channels. Thus, for Jaguar (bathroom fittings), where 95% of the sales happen offline, 30-35% of brand building happens online.
So, a strong online presence is necessary for even the most “physical” products.
Online tools and stores must be seamlessly integrated. Today, it is possible to track customers across their entire journey. We must choose the communication mix and sequence it appropriately. The journey may vary depending on the business.
Digital marketing in education
This webinar saw a considerable amount of time being spent on this topic. With hosting platforms charging more than 50% of an education provider’s revenue, how can online education be profitable? Vikas himself admitted that he started an edtech business during the pandemic but closed it when he found out that the cost of acquiring customers amounted to almost 90% of revenues. Unit economics is important. Byjus (losses of more than Rs 2000 crores in a year) offers a cautionary tale. Indeed, we could legitimately ask on what basis VCs are funding such loss making EdTechs.
It is not necessary to be an Edtech to go online. What we need is an omnichannel approach. We must replicate the offline performance in online channels. Technology should not override education.
The basic rule that the product must be good should never be forgotten. Many EdTechs do not have a good product. That is why they do a lot of hard selling. In the process, their costs have gone up.
Growth School is an example of an edtech with a good product. Their unit economics is profitable.
Ultimately, the success of online education depends on understanding students and their pain points. Students are looking for placements and the skills needed to get them into good jobs. We must make learning simpler and more engaging. So, byte sized learning and enablement of student progression across different levels of the program, will help in improving learning outcomes. But without impact, the program will not succeed. There should be a demonstrated track record and prospective students should see previous participants benefiting from the program and moving ahead in life. Students may be pressed for time but if there is value in what we provide, they will find the time.
Talent
Few universities are producing digital talent. So, the demand exceeds supply. Indeed, talent is the no 1 challenge for Vikas. He has a partnership with Kraftshala who provide a rigorous 12-week training program with assessments and group work.
Vikas also visits the leading arts and science colleges and media schools across the country for campus recruitment. His company has an Academy with clearly developed 30 day, 60 day and 90 day plans.
It is not so easy to get talent at middle and senior levels. So Social Beat believes in catching people early and grooming them rather than depending on lateral recruits.
Vikas explained later that the same principles of product branding also apply to employer branding. We must tell a great story to prospective employees and assure them that we can groom them and make them experts.
Manufacturing customers
These are mostly B-B customers. So, channels such as LinkedIn and India Mart can be leveraged. Here also, the target audience is spending considerable time online. Useful content on YouTube can used to strengthen relationships with customers.
Freedom vs Privacy
If there is too much privacy, targeted ads will become more difficult. We will see a lot of clutter and irrelevant ads.
A large part of the digital economy is free. It is subsidised by ad revenues. If we take away the ability of marketers to target customers, who will fund the content?
Privacy is an easy problem to solve technically, in fact, with the press of a button. But the social and economic challenges are formidable.
Apple may claim to be a champion of privacy. But all that it is doing is to push ads into its own ecosystem. Apple can use consumer data but third-party apps cannot!
As far as individuals are concerned, the only fool proof way of ensuring privacy is to stop using mobile phones! Thus, the costs of ensuring privacy are way too high.
Rural Marketing
For digital marketing to pick up in rural areas, we need better connectivity and internet speed. We will probably get there in a couple of years. Without this, digital marketing using mobile phones will not be effective in rural areas. We also need more vernacular content. Today, only 200-30o brands can do it. Once the number hits 2000-3000, we will reach a tipping point.
Cybercrime
Various kinds of cybercrime are prevalent: financial, identity theft, harassment. Some cybercriminals have been apprehended. But global hackers are more difficult to deal with. When it comes to eve teasing and other forms of harassment against women, more can be done. We have competent police. But controlling such crimes also depends on our societal norms and how much we respect the right of women to live safely and in dignity.
