Speaking at the exchange4media Red Carpet Experiential Marketing Summit 2024, Navroze Dhondy, Founder & MD, Creatigies Communications spoke about how certain thoughts and philosophies of various legendary changemakers continue to resonate with the business of experiential marketing and his thoughts on the ever-evolving events and experiential marketing industry and more
Navroze Dhondy, Founder & MD, Creatigies Communications has been in the business of integrated solutions with a multiplier effect across advertising, promotions, experiential marketing and sponsorships, in addition to management consultancy to the brands. Working across Lintas, J Water Thompson (erstwhile Wunderman Thompson and now VML), TBWA Anthem and setting up Creatigies Communications around two decades back, spoke about how certain thoughts and philosophies of various legendary changemakers continue to resonate with the business of experiential marketing and his thoughts on the ever-evolving events and experiential marketing industry.
From Einstein to Zuckerberg: Learnings for Experiential Marketers
With Albert Einstein’s thought - Try not to become a person of success - but rather try to become a person of value – Dhondy underlined the likes of brands such as Hero Honda, Horlicks, Unilever, Nestle and banks like HSBC and IDFC, wherein these brands not only talk about their success but actually become valuable to the customers that they associate with.
He quoted Charles Darwin - It's not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one who is most responsive to change. Stemming from that thought, Dhondy reiterates that experiential marketing needs evolving and changing techniques to be successful – one successful experiential marketing campaign or event cannot be replicated in the same way for another one because it has already been done – there needs to be an innovative approach to different kinds of needs of clients and brands.
Helen Keller’s quote - The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart – Dhondy mentions that that's what experiences are all about, the ones that you remember the most. “I was at two weddings in Rajasthan on the last two weekends. And I came back with two different experiences. And I can tell you there was no ROI there. The ROI was a different feeling and sentiment and how I felt with my heart about those experiences.”
Dolly Parton’s thought - The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain -Dhondy draws an analogy that experiential marketing is not easy. It's not going to be a cakewalk. There will be trials, tribulations, tough times, failures. “So if you want success in experiential marketing, you have to be ready to put into hard yards and also face some disappointments, before you achieve the success that you wish to.”
A famous gentleman called Arthur Ashe, the first black to win a major tennis tournament at Wimbledon said - Start where you are. Use what you have, do what you can – Dhondy, in the context of experiential marketing mentions, “You don't need to have millions and billions of bucks behind you, don't need to have the backing of an Ambani or a Tata or anybody else. You just start from where you are. And if you have the ideas and the guts and the gumption, you can make it happen. People with an experience of five or seven years are the ones who are readying to carry forward and be the flag bearers of this industry in the future, and this is what they need to know.”
Abraham Lincoln, interestingly said - It often requires more courage to dare to do right than fear to do wrong – to which Dhondy draws a similarity for experiential marketing professionals, “Don’t be worried about what could go wrong or this is wrong, you need to have the guts to do the right thing and therefore you just go ahead and do it. And invariably those experiences for the brand, for marketing, for the company that you're working for and working with will succeed.”
Growing up with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, saying interestingly - The biggest risk is not taking any risk – Dhondy points out, “In a world that's changing quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. Knowing Sabbas Joseph of Wizcraft, he was setting up the IIFA Awards about two decades back and speaking to me about it before its launch. No one thought that IIFA would survive more than one or two years because there was the Filmfare Awards and that was the Oscars of India and there's no question coming up and taking on that challenge. But he took the risk.”
Experiences and Experiential Marketing
Talking at the exchange4media Red Carpet Experiential Marketing Summit 2024 which took place on 27 December, 2024 at the Eros Hotel in the capital and chronicling his experiences of being involved with the IPL before it was even born, initiating the Hero Cup with the Munjals, understanding that no one size fits all, getting deeper into connecting with the audience, not about passive communication but more of interactivity and engagement, about retaining uniformity in brand identity and aesthetics across multiple touch points, compelling storytelling built through consistency, emotional connection and empathy, not misusing AI to fool or dupe customers and more, Dhondy gave a deep dive into the aspects of experiential marketing and events which many could draw inspiration from.
BW Reporters
She is the Senior Editorial Lead at Businessworld and majorly covers pieces on advertising, marketing, branding and experiential marketing. She writes closely for BW Marketing World and Everything Experiential.
