Illuminatix, the Media and PR Cell of XIMB hosted the annual media conclave ‘Communique’ on September 1. The theme of the discussion was ‘Evolution of Media: The Nexus of Brand Transformation.

Yuvraj Mehta, Head-Corporate Brand Management and Communications, Larsen and Toubro; Digvijay Shekhawat , Senior Vice-President, Ogilvy; Manish Jhaveri, Senior Creative Consultant, IBD and DaCunhas; and Bibhu Ranjan Mishra, Associate Editor, Business Standard , were speakers at the occasion. Sandip Anand, Professor of Marketing, XIMB, was the moderator for the discussion.

Prof Anand started the session by briefly explaining the concepts of macromedia and metamedia.

The first speaker,Yuvraj Mehta, spoke about how social media has revolutionised communication. He cited the example of the ‘MeToo movement’ and how a single tweet through digital media spread like wildfire. Within a fortnight, there were 2.3 million tweets and 24 million Facebook posts, across 85 countries, he said.

He explained how brands are increasingly moving towards online marketing as it not only provides better engagement with the customers but also a better return on investment. Adidas had 40 per cent growth in online sales for the first quarter of 2019. The company largely attributed it to the advertising it does on Instagram. Mehta also touched upon how marketing is done through personalised communication to maintain customer loyalty.

“For me, the change in media is not evolution but a revolution, where every debater, blogger and influencer now has an opinion,” he said.

The second speaker, Digvijay Shekhawat, began by explaining the concepts of strategic marketing and data-driven marketing as tools increasingly used by brands nowadays. Using data, brands are moving towards customising their communications and specifically targeting the ‘ideal buyer’ rather than selecting a broad market to deliver their message. Brands are building relationships with these ideal buyers through increasingly powerful marketing strategies that foster trust in their product or service. He cited examples of various marketing campaigns that made an impact through social media, like GoPro’s ‘Photo of the Day’, IBM’s ‘Call for Code’, and Volvo’s Superbowl campaign.

The next speaker, Manish Jhaveri, started by drawing an analogy between Bob Dylan’s popular song ‘The times, they are a-changin’ and the need for marketers to change according to the circumstances . He talked about topicality and witty one-liners — something which Amul has been associated with from time immemorial.

“Before Twitter, Amul used to be the twitter with its witty one-liners,” he said.

Bibhu Ranjan Mishra , the final speaker of the day, spoke about the growing issue of misinformation on social media. He said that although social media is becoming the preferred mode of communication, traditional mediums cannot be ruled out as they are still known for their authentic content.

“As marketers, it’s up to us, how to use the media and how to identify the right platform for advertising,” he said.

The panel session was followed by an interactive question and answer session, where students posed inquisitive and insightful questions. This was followed by the launch of the 4th edition of ‘Communique’ newsletter. The eminent speakers felicitated the winners of ‘Communiquiz’, a quiz competition organised by Illuminatix in association with XQuizzite on August 20. The winners were Sarthak Satapathy, Kaushik Bhattacharjee, Sanat Sarangi, while the first runners-up team consisted of Sidhant Nayak, Sidharth S Panda, Siddhartha Biswal. The winners of the article writing and poster writing competitions were also awarded.

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