'Performance and digital are synonymous while brand building is only possible via traditional mediums': Kashyap Vadapalli

Campaign India's countdown to the end of the decade will feature leading names from the marketing and communications fraternity. We ask senior executives from the advertising, marketing and media fraternity about the last 10 years and the year to come.

 

Here's what Kashyap Vadapalli, CMO, Pepperfry, had to say:

 

One piece of work created by a competitor in the last decade that you wish you had created/worked on?

 

While there have been several commendable campaigns in the past decade across sectors, the one from ecommerce that truly stood out was the first set of advertisements that Flipkart released in circa 2012-2013, wherein they conceptualised the idea of having kids pose as adults to highlight the various aspects and features of ecommerce. Kids acting as adults worked as a metaphor for the simplicity and new-age approach of online shopping.

 

If hindsight is 20/20, what is the one thing that you could have done differently in the last decade?

 

In the first half of the decade I was of the belief that performance and digital are synonymous with one another while brand building is only possible via traditional mediums such as television, radio and outdoor. However, starting 2015, with the increasing use of mobile phones my strategy and views have been altered such that I now focus on implementing integrated strategies for both brand building and digital sales given that all mediums, whether online or offline, are components of the overall consumer environment. 

 

One skill that you would want to pick up in 2020 and why?

 

In 2020, I would be delighted to start hosting my own podcasts, which can be knowledge-sharing platforms. This idea was sparked by the fact that start up ecosystems globally exchange information through this medium, which is currently at a very nascent stage in India. Introducing a podcast will give me an opportunity to both learn from industry experts and share this with audiences. 

 

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