Prateek
started his career with Sercon India Pvt. Ltd (now a part of WPP group), a BTL
agency that brought the concept of database management, audience acquisition,
and lead generation seminars for B2B businesses. He then moved on to Shobiz
Experiential Communications Pvt Ltd, where he started the Integrated Event
Marketing Services Division and converted it into the largest profit centre
within the organization both in terms of head-count and revenues within 5
years. Now the CEO and Managing Director of NeoNiche Integrated Solutions Pvt
Ltd, EE got talking to the expert about the use of technology in Experiential
Marketing and his predictions of the future.
A
couple of years ago there were ad agencies and event agencies. An ad was
perceived somewhere and executed by someone else, creating a disconnect. “We at
NeoNiche try to fill that gap and erase the disconnect. We act as a marketing
extension to the brand that we serve and then also carry out the execution of
the event.” says Prateek N Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, NeoNiche Integrated
Solutions Pvt Ltd.
“The
era of one size fits all has gone. There is a difference in the way you would
approach a marketing situation in rural areas vs urban areas. The situation has
changed, dependency on technology has increased, people are more
technologically connected. Tech creates that synopsis and makes it easier to
reach out to them directly.” says Prateek, commenting on the current scenario.
“Newspaper ads die out, hoardings are mostly ignored by passersby and most of
them are not even visible at night, while technology has made it easier for
brands to reach out to their customers at a time they know they will get the
attention and have a bigger impact.” says Prateek.
Giving
examples of how NeoNiche used technology to execute events, Prateek said, “We
created an experiential marketing campaign for one of our clients –
Salesforce.com – called Hackathon. The target audience of this event was mainly
developers. Conferences were held in major cities, but there was a live
streaming which also enabled all the people not physically present at the
banquet to become a part of it. The event eventually reached out to pan India,
while actually being physically carried out in a few urban cities. Technology
enables you to do that. You could be at one place but you can reach out to
millions at the same time.” The sky is no longer the limit.Technology enables
the brand to reach out to its target audience in smaller, tier 3 cities. Such
cities don’t usually have the infrastructure for events and it is difficult to
convince brands to event in such cities. “There is a lot of expenditure
involved plus there are a lot of difficulties that you have to face when it
comes to conducting events in such cities. But that doesn’t mean you ignore that
consumer base. Technology enables you to reach out to pan India, thus reaching
those cities too which would otherwise have not experienced the campaign.” says
Prateek.
It’s no
news that execution of marketing events usually involves a lot of expenditure,
and its usually big brands that have that kind of capital that are able to
reach out to their consumer base easily. That’s where startups fall behind, but
technology comes to the rescue. “If you’re looking at start ups who don’t have
the bandwidth to spend millions, for them we have created an entire CRM system.
So basically we create a level playing field – you receive the same thing that
could be given to big enterprises.” says Prateek.
Predictions
in technology developments?
“10
years back was a generation of Internet 1.0 – where everyone was basically
talking about the internet, e-mails, etc. Then came Internet 2.0 where people
began talking about social media marketing which include Twitter, Facebook,
etc. We are now moving on to a digital era where we are using experiential
medium in a digital space. So in the future Google Glass, Google Earth, and
social handles will evolve more.” says Prateek. Evolution of social handles?
“Till date you have been utilising Facebook as to what Facebook offers you and
not really what you would want it to do. Soon it is going to be an era of users
in which customizing power will lie in your hands. Before Facebook came into
the picture there was Orkut and Hi5. Who even talks about those now? That’s
because consolidation happened with Facebook as Facebook gave you everything
that these sites combined did along with youtube and tagging access. For a
country like India that is still developing, as power and electricity reaches
out to more cities there will be an evolution of mobile devices. Your life
within the pixel will change.” says Prateek.
How
does experiential marketing help brands that are not tangible?
“Everyone is talking about experiences. No
brand in today’s date is really talking about what they do. For eg Coke is a
means to happiness which is an experience. They are not talking about the taste
of coke but what it will make you feel like. Similarly mobile handsets are not
telling you that you will be able to make calls for them or send messages. They
tell you how using them you will stay connected with your near and dear ones
and ease your life. Anyone and everyone is talking about experiences, be it a
brand that has a tangible product or a brand that offers service.” says
Prateek.
At the
end of the day, it’s all about the experience.
See more at:
http://everythingexperiential.com/your-life-within-the-pixel-will-change-prateek-n-kumar-md-ceo-neoniche/#sthash.4NoNMV74.dpuf
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