Ad:tech 2015: The marketing challenge - customisation at scale

On the second and last day of Ad:tech 2015, Ravi Vora, SVP -- marketing, Flipkart, addressed the audience on the ‘Future of brand marketing in internet world’. Vora presented his perspective from having worked as a brand manager in the FMCG industry, and presently at an online shopping portal.

He pointed to the 'Tilt' from the mass era to one of personalisation. 

 

“For a marketer, the challenge is to make customisation possible at mass scale. The brand building process has moved away from addressing the household to addressing each individual as a unit. Hence, we need multiple insights across multiple target groups,” he noted. 

 

Flipkart also needs to create multiple propositions for each consumer set, he explained. On the role of technology and creativity, he said, “This is where brand manager’s role gets interesting. While each of the ATL, BTL, creative, search agencies et al become solution providers, we do not get a consolidated solution based on our data sets. Creative deployment and measurement is the most ambiguous part.” 

On measuring RoI at each stage, Vora said, “If a person lands to my site after five clicks, I do not know if click three was more important or if I can do away with the fourth click.”

 

In the digital age, Vora pondered over whether brand building would remain sole purview of marketing function.

 

He said, “My hypothesis is that it shouldn’t.”

 

The role of creative has changed, Vora noted, adding: “It is definitely not as dominant as earlier but it will remain strong. Thus, more intelligence needs to be gathered at the front end."