How AI marketing tools can help SMEs & start-ups take the big leap

In today’s edition of e4m TechTalk, we explore the untapped potential of technology by SMEs and start-ups in India and what tools will help them reach maximum audience

e4m by Nilanjana Basu
Published: Feb 27, 2023 8:53 AM  | 7 min read
techtalk

Technology has created an ocean of opportunities in the advertising and marketing world as every day, by every minute, there is a new idea, a new innovation happening. Be it the world of artificial intelligence, virtual reality or automation, every day there is something new to be worked with. These tools are even more integral for small-sized businesses and startups who can use them to get the recognition and reach the masses before their competition. But are they using it to their full capacity? We asked a few experts.

Shashank Rathore, Vice President, E-commerce, Interactive Avenues, believes there is a slow growth in terms of adopting technology by India’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) and they are still stuck on traditional methods of advertising. “While many are adopting an extremely dynamic, aggressive, and bold approach towards digital, a significant percentage of SMEs in India continue to rely on traditional marketing methods due to lack of awareness. The success of new-age, digital-first brands like Mamaearth, Plum Goodness, and Wow Skin Science, is encouraging more small businesses to proactively embrace digital marketing tools.”

McKinsey, in one of it reports titled Digital India: technology to transform a connected nation, said “Our survey found 70 per cent of small businesses use their own websites to reach clients, compared with 82 per cent of big companies. Small businesses are less likely than big companies to buy display ads on the web (37 per cent versus 66 per cent), but they are ahead of big companies in connecting with customers via social media, and more likely to use search-engine optimization.” So there is a disparity, but there are also certain spaces where smaller businesses are focusing more on.

“There is a heavy dependency on social media and platforms like WhatsApp to push out offers and promotions but there is little effort put into content,” Rajat Ojha, CEO, Gamitronics and Partynite Metaverse says, as he explains that certain companies need to scale up their digital marketing skills to keep the revenue coming. “Also, among B2B companies, digital marketing is very under-explored. They are more traditional and archaic in their approach to marketing. This will have to change if they need to scale up and reach a larger audience base because every company and brand needs to build their image and marketing is not always about revenue. If the right noise is made, then the revenue will eventually flow in.”

Startups in India have seen a massive growth over the last few years as an increase in funding gave tremendous boost to entrepreneurs to grow their trade. Small-sized businesses, on the other hand, had two tough pandemic years but awareness and government boost seem to have molded them up towards a better recovery. However, use of technology to advance their marketing skills is the need of the hour for these businesses. Recognition, leadership and business can only come from better use of technology that is available in vast numbers.

Use of technology: Quantity or quality?

Rajat Ojha believes it is the use of the technology that matters more than what you are using. “I feel in this case it is not so much about using the technology, it is really about how they are using it? Social Media usage for brands, companies will have to be more meaningful and not just mindless posting with little engagement. There has to be more stories to tell and tell them creatively. Just to give you an example, Netfilx’s Instagram page is a delight. They are promoting their content but every post has a theme, message, meme, joke or some takeaway. SME and smaller brands can draw from these pages. Another aspect of digital marketing is to test multiple platforms and channels and look for innovative means. Are banners working? Will a WhatsApp burst work? AI and programmatic advertising will give the numbers but the creative aspect has to be cultivated. Marketing is as much an art as it is a science, one has to learn on the job.”

Hareesh Tibrewala talks about how size is not the issue for companies but how they using their digital services. “I see a huge disparity in the usage of digital marketing in the MSME sector. I have seen small 20-member companies do a fabulous job. And I have seen larger 100-crore business having no clue about the potential of digital. So, it does not really seem to be “size” issue…I think it is the vision of the management that determines the digital maturity of the organization.”

Vyom Shah, Founder at Foodism, says that affordability is not the problem here as everything is available on the internet now. “The internet is available to them, and they don't have to worry about whether or not they can afford it. With the advancement in technology and the introduction of AI-powered tools, SMEs and startups can benefit a lot. SMEs and startups generally have a limited marketing budget. By investing in affordable AI tools, SMEs can streamline their marketing efforts, reach new customers, and better understand the impact of their marketing activities.”

Speaking on ChatGPT, Neeraj Bassi, Chief Growth Officer, Cheil India, says what you do with the tool is more important than the tool you are using itself. “There are new tools and new solutions coming up constantly. For example, today Twitter is full of links on how to use ChatGPT for marketing, a tool that is barely three months old! I am sure, soon leveraging ChatGPT would be part of curriculum for an upcoming online course. So, there is no end to tools. My advice to a lot of start-ups is to focus on analysis of inputs received from the tool and create a plan for action in the market. Your fortune would change basis what you DO in the market and not the tool that you used to arrive at the action plan.”

Technology to be incorporated into marketing by SMEs

Birma Ram, Founder, BabyG, lists down certain tools that SMEs should make use of to build their business and drive growth for the company. “There are many marketing technology tools to help SMEs to market themselves better. Here are a few examples: Social media management tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social can help SMEs manage their social media presence more effectively by scheduling posts, monitoring engagement, and analyzing data. Email marketing software such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor can help SMEs to create and send targeted email campaigns. Content marketing tools like HubSpot, CoSchedule, and ClearVoice can help SMEs to plan, create, and distribute high-quality content. Search engine optimization (SEO) tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz can help SMEs to optimize their website for search engines. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce, Zoho, and HubSpot can help SMEs to manage their customer relationships more effectively. Marketing automation platforms like Marketo, Pardot, and Act-On can help SMEs to automate their marketing workflows, track customer behavior, and deliver personalized experiences.”

Shashank Rathore, Vice President, E-commerce, Interactive Avenues adds on to the above list. “I personally follow a Think, Plan & Act philosophy, where technology can improve the quality of output and help save both time and cost at every step. There are many marketing technology tools that can help SMEs market themselves better. Some popular ones include: Landing Page and Form Builders: Tools like Unbounce, Leadpages, and Gravity Forms can help SMEs create effective landing pages and forms that drive conversion and E-commerce: Platforms like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce can help SMEs effectively sell their products and services online.”

Rajat Ojha gives a clear picture of what SMEs fear and what should they do instead. “The SME sector is fearful of cost but there are multiple ways of exploring and news use cases are coming up every day which can be very cost effective. They have to understand the larger implication, treat it as an investment and not an expense and develop an appetite for it.”

 

 

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QX Lab AI and Bobble AI forge alliance to drive innovation in Artificial Intelligence

The announcement comes at a time when India is poised to become a global leader in AI innovation

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 27, 2024 5:00 PM  | 2 min read
Q lab

At the BW Businessworld’s Gen AI Summit 2024, Dubai-based artificial intelligence firm QX Lab AI and conversation media platform Bobble AI unveiled an exciting partnership poised to reshape the landscape of artificial intelligence.

Specializing in generative AI solutions, QX Lab AI brings cutting-edge technology to the table, particularly through their Ask QX platform, which targets applications like chat functions. With a focus on accessibility and multilingual features tailored for the Indian market, QX Lab AI aims to revolutionize how AI interacts with users.

On the other hand, Bobble AI is renowned for its suite of keyboard applications, offering features like stickers and AI recommendations to enhance conversations. Their flagship product, the Bobble Indic Keyboard, boasts a user base of over 50 million, underscoring their influence in the AI conversation space.

Led by Indian-origin founders Tilakraj Parmar and Arjun Prasad, QX Lab AI, and Bobble AI, helmed by Ankit Prasad, have joined forces in a strategic partnership that holds immense potential. While the specifics of the collaboration are yet to be disclosed, both companies are expected to leverage their respective strengths to develop innovative products and services for their customers.

The announcement comes at a time when India is poised to become a global leader in AI innovation. With the promise of fostering a thriving AI ecosystem, this partnership signifies a significant step forward in harnessing the power of artificial intelligence for societal and economic advancement.

As the AI landscape continues to evolve, collaborations like this one are poised to drive innovation, accelerate technological advancements, and unlock new opportunities for consumers and businesses alike.

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YouTube takes down over 22L videos in India

As per Google's transparency report, 9,012,232 videos and 20,592,341 channels were removed between October 2023 and December 2023 for violation of its guidelines

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 27, 2024 11:40 AM  | 1 min read
Youtube

YouTube has removed 2,254,902 videos in India for violation of its community guidelines, according to Google's transparency report.

In all, the platform has removed 9,012,232 videos and 20,592,341 channels in the October 2023-December 2023 period.

India leads in the number of videos removed on YouTube.

According to the transparency report, a YouTube channel is terminated if it has violated three Community Guidelines in 90 days, has a single case of severe abuse (such as predatory behavior), or is determined to be wholly dedicated to violating the platform's guidelines.

Last week, YouTube announced that it has launched a new tool that will require content creators to disclose to viewers when realistic content is made with generative AI and other altered or synthetic media.

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IBM's Sandip Patel, Vizzhy’s Vishnu Vardhan to headline BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit ’24

Rakuten's Sunil Gopinath will also be speaking today at BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit 2024, to be held at The Imperial, New Delhi

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 27, 2024 8:44 AM  | 2 min read
IBM Sandip Patel Vizzhy Vishnu Vardhan BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit

BW Businessworld is thrilled to announce the headline speakers for the upcoming BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit 2024. The summit, themed "Building Generative AI for Bharat: Can India Become the Gen AI Capital of the World?", is poised to delve into India's potential to lead the global conversation on generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The esteemed headline speakers for the summit include:
1.Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia
2.Vishnu Vardhan, CEO & Founder, VIZZHY INC
3.Sunil Gopinath, CEO Rakuten India

These distinguished personalities bring a wealth of experience and insights to the summit, promising to enrich discussions and shape the future of AI in India and beyond.

The summit, scheduled for Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at The Imperial, New Delhi, anticipates a diverse delegate profile. Professionals from various fields including generative AI, Machine Learning (ML), information technology, computer sciences, ethics, regulatory affairs, compliance, risk management, marketing, creatives, philanthropy through technology, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, governing bodies, academicians, and users of Gen AI in creatives & arts are welcomed to participate in this transformative dialogue.

In addition to the headline speakers, the summit will feature esteemed speakers such as:
1.Tilakraj Parmar, Co-Founder & CEO, QX Lab AI
2.Tathagat Prakash, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, QX Lab AI
3.Arjun Prasad, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), QX Lab AI
4.Santanu Bhattacharya, Scientist, MIT Media Lab
5.Madhav Bissa, Program Director, NASSCOM AI
6.Deepak Thomas, Founder & CEO, SVAYO
7.Ayush Singhal, Founder & CEO, CodeMate.ai

The BW Businessworld Gen AI Summit 2024 promises to be a pivotal event in shaping the trajectory of AI development in India and fostering collaboration among industry leaders, innovators, and stakeholders.

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Adobe India is in hyper-growth era: Prativa Mohapatra

Prativa Mohapatra, VP & MD, Adobe India, spoke to e4m on the sidelines of the Adobe Annual Summit in Las Vegas that saw Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen launching a Gen AI app for marketers

e4m by Naziya Alvi Rahman
Published: Mar 27, 2024 8:17 AM  | 3 min read
Prativa Mohapatra Adobe India Las Vegas

The past few years have been a period of 'hyper-growth' for Adobe's digital media and digital experience business, said Prativa Mohapatra, Vice President & Managing Director of Adobe India, during an interaction with e4m on the sidelines of the annual Adobe Summit being held in Las Vegas, on March 26 and 27.

Although specific figures were not disclosed, Mohapatra mentioned that Adobe witnessed double-digit growth in India in 2023. "We are observing fantastic adoption of our creative suite of products. We have seen notable usage among top banks such as HDFC, ICICI and Axis Bank, as well as airlines like Air India, Indigo and Vistara," she added.

Mohapatra also noted some sectors are yet to fully leverage Adobe products, namely heavy industries, the healthcare sector and B2B businesses, which are still hesitant to experiment with MarTech. "While B2C companies have largely been early adopters, B2B adoption remains in progress. Although hospitals and healthcare in a few mature markets have embraced our products, there is room for growth in India," she remarked.

The automotive sector, according to Mohapatra, is now showing increased interest in MarTech. "After banking and airlines, we anticipate our third wave of collaboration with auto companies. We are currently in the process of finalizing several deals, which we will announce soon. With FMCG, our operations are predominantly global," she stated.

“World over, businesses are prioritizing their digital investments to improve marketing agility and customer engagement, while driving growth and profitability. Adobe products are playing an essential role in driving the digital economy. We’re excited to be joined by our customers and partners from India, as we showcase our next in line innovations that will pave the way for customer experiences of the future,” Mohapatra added.

The Adobe Summit commenced on Tuesday morning with a keynote session by Adobe Global CEO Shantanu Narayen, who made several key announcements and spoke of Adobe's collaboration with other companies, particularly those working with generative artificial intelligence and about establishing broad industry standards.

"Responsible innovation cannot be an afterthought. We are actively combatting misinformation by advocating for content credentials as an industry standard to establish trust in digital content," Narayen, also Chairman and President of the company, affirmed.

He further explained how GenStudio, which builds upon Adobe’s generative artificial intelligence model released the previous year, is enabling planning, creation, management, and measurement of campaigns.

Anil Chakravarthy, President of Digital Experience Business at Adobe, highlighted the transformative potential of generative AI in reshaping brand-customer relationships and driving profitable growth while delivering new digital experiences.

Last year, Adobe launched Firefly, its image generation model, with plans to expand it to video, audio, and 3D model generation. Speaking of the reception of Firefly in India, Mohapatra noted that there was significant initial interest followed by gradual adoption. "India is an experimental market. While Firefly initially received maximum attention in India, purchasing decisions take time here. Many digital marketing organisations have licensed Firefly in the past year, positioning themselves as early adopters. Additionally, some tech companies have also embraced it. As we move towards Firefly Image Model 2, we anticipate even higher quality images and pictures for our clients," Mohapatra concluded.

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Admatazz bags social media and SEO mandate for Boss Appliances

The account was won following a multi-agency pitch

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 26, 2024 2:49 PM  | 1 min read
admatazz

Admatazz, a Mumbai-based digital agency, has bagged the integrated social media and SEO marketing mandate of Boss Appliances.

As part of the mandate, Admatazz will handle the creative communications of the brand across social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to elevate social presence along with boosting organic traffic.

Speaking on the account win, Yash Chandiramani, Founder and Chief Strategist at Admatazz, said, “We are glad to add Boss Appliances to our roster. As we grow as a company, we look to partner with brands who believe in our methods and approach, and we are glad Boss Appliances entrusted their digital presence duties to us. Our key aim is to strengthen the brand's digital presence by curating interesting content that can be made in this category and increasing the brand's reach and audience engagement.”

Vidhi Gala, Director of Marketing at Boss Appliances added, "As a brand that has been present for over four decades, we have always moved forward with the times, and as we see the digital and social media space grow rapidly and consumers become more active, we realise the need to strengthen our online presence. With Admatazz, we are glad to find like-minded agency partners who are enthusiastic and excited to build our brand as we do. We look forward to our association with them.”

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Adobe unveils suite of AI-first applications for brands

The company has announced major updates in Adobe Experience Cloud and Adobe Creative Cloud that help brands activate generative AI to deliver customer value

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 26, 2024 9:35 PM  | 6 min read
Adobe Summit

The Adobe Summit unveiled a suite of innovations for the enterprise that will empower brands to activate generative AI in how they create, deliver and measure customer experiences.

The products expand the Customer Experience Management (CXM) solutions that enterprises have relied on to bring data, content, and customer journeys together to delight customers and build loyalty over time.

“Generative AI enables a fundamental shift in the relationship between brands and their customers, creating a transformative moment for business leaders to drive profitable growth while delivering new digital experiences,” said Anil Chakravarthy, president, Digital Experience Business at Adobe. “The ability to personalize every interaction has become the key growth driver in Customer Experience Management for enterprises around the world, and Adobe is leading the way in making this a reality with powerful generative AI deeply integrated into existing workflows.”

GenStudio

With Adobe GenStudio, Adobe is unveiling a new generative AI-first application that empowers brands (and users of various skill levels) to create content, access brand-approved assets, measure performance of campaigns, and more. With connections across Adobe Experience Cloud and Adobe Creative Cloud applications, it provides everything a team needs to address their organization’s Content Supply Chain, which is an end-to-end business process that every company needs to deliver the content required for marketing campaigns and personalized customer experiences.

For most organizations, however, their content supply chain is a web of disconnected workflows, teams and systems that often break down. At the same time, the demand for content that is personalized and engaging is exploding.

GenStudio capabilities span:

⦁ Workflow & Planning: Allows users to track and view campaigns, manage campaign briefs, see tasks assigned to them, and more. GenStudio also connects directly to applications such as Adobe Workfront, Adobe’s project management software.

⦁ Creation & Production: Brands can find images and generate variations through Adobe Firefly, along with Custom Models that fine tune Adobe Firefly with a brand’s own assets, to ensure that content is on-brand. This unlocks personalization at scale for content creation and production, eliminating manual tasks.

⦁ Asset Management: A content hub allows users to easily find assets across their organization. It connects GenStudio with Adobe Experience Manager Assets—a leading digital asset management system used by brands to manage their library of images, videos and other content—where any user can search for an asset and also create personalized variations with Firefly in Adobe Express, the all-in-one content creation application.

⦁ Delivery and Activation: Brands can create different variations of marketing assets for different distribution channels, with copy that is both audience-centric and on-brand. Users will be alerted if content is not on-brand, with suggestions on how to remedy it.

⦁ Insights & Reporting: GenStudio provides a feedback loop for brands to understand which generated assets and campaigns are performing best, down to the attribute level. These attributes can then be used to inform generative AI prompts. GenStudio is also connected to Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, to drive a holistic measurement of customer experiences across channels such as web and mobile.

In addition to GenStudio, Adobe is also unveiling generative AI capabilities in specific applications such as Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Sites, a content management system that enables brands to create high-performance pages across any digital property (from web to mobile to apps). With the new AEM Sites variant generation, brands can take a single marketing asset and create numerous variations of copy that speak to different audiences. Teams can take a web page for instance and generate variants where the copy is personalized for target personas across different industries, job roles, age groups, and more.

And with the new Adobe Content Analytics, brands can understand the performance of AI-generated content, down to the attribute level. The system can analyze and pinpoint elements (colors, objects, styles) that resonate with target audiences, providing a necessary feedback loop to ensure that AI-generated content also aligns with business goals.

Adobe unveils Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant

The Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant enables brands to boost the productivity of teams involved with delivering a great customer experience. It democratizes access to a broader set of users, while also helping individuals spur new ideas. This is made possible through a simple conversational interface that can answer technical questions and will automate tasks, simulate outcomes and generate new audiences and journeys within Adobe Experience Cloud applications.

Users can ask questions to uncover high-performing customer segments for instance—or ask the AI Assistant to create a segment that is more likely to embrace a certain promotional offer. This can then be leveraged to drive widescale personalization campaigns. The AI Assistant can also help users leverage Adobe’s enterprise applications more effectively, through querying support materials in Adobe Experience League.

Adobe Experience Platform AI Assistant brings all this to life with generative AI and a powerful conversational interface, as well as Adobe’s Generative Experience Models that bring together Large Language Models and Adobe’s product knowledge with unique insights based on customer data, campaigns, audiences and business goals—all in a brand-safe way and with a privacy-first mindset.

New capabilities in customer journey orchestration

Adobe also announced Adobe Experience Cloud innovations that empower brands to enhance customer engagement by orchestrating impactful cross-channel journeys. A new unified experimentation capability enables brands to increase the volume of tests to pinpoint customer paths that maximize conversion and drive reuse of offers across channels. Brands can support experimentation across content, channels and audiences, with machine learning models, and centralized administration to push winners and resolve conflicts.

New capabilities in Adobe Journey Optimizer bring together brand-initiated and customer-initiated interactions within a journey. This ensures that as brands interact with consumers on channels such as the web, social media and mobile, any real-time changes in user behavior or preferences are captured, triggering new experiences.

Adobe also unveiled Adobe Journey Optimizer B2B Edition, a new enterprise application built on Adobe Experience Platform. This enables sales and marketing teams to target specific buying groups within customer accounts, a departure from broad based marketing. It leverages unified data in Adobe Experience Platform and generative AI to personalize the journey, through a web chat bot for instance.

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Mirum India bags digital mandate for ibis Hotels

Mirum India will amplify ibis Hotels' digital presence

e4m by e4m Staff
Published: Mar 26, 2024 12:08 PM  | 2 min read
Mirum India ibis Hotels

Mirum India has won the digital mandate for ibis Hotels.

Under this mandate, Mirum India will be the digital and social media agency of record (AOR) for ibis Hotels.

Commenting on the partnership, Animesh Kumar, Commercial head - ibis & ibis Styles India, shared, “The partnership with Mirum India, marks a strategic move for ibis Hotels in our journey to reinforce our digital presence and connect more deeply with our audience. As we embark on this journey, we're committed to leveraging innovative digital strategies not only to amplify our presence but also to cultivate a vibrant digital community. Together with Mirum India, we aim to create immersive experiences that resonate with our guests, fostering lasting connections, and enhancing the essence of ibis Hotels.”

Mirum India will play an important role in amplifying ibis Hotels' digital presence through strategic planning, media, production, and execution of comprehensive digital marketing campaigns.

Mihir Karkare, Managing Director, Mirum India, expressed his excitement about the new partnership, "If we look at the recent stats, domestic tourism is expected to bounce back to the pre-pandemic levels by 2024–25, with foreign tourist arrivals increasing by 435% over the next three years. With the opportunity that it presents for the Indian tourism sector, I believe this partnership couldn't have happened at a better time. The team is fueled with determination to elevate ibis Hotels' digital presence to even greater heights. Together, we're set to create a captivating digital landscape that will enable ibis Hotels to foster deeper connections with its audience and build brand loyalty."

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