E4M's Pitch Brand Talk Conference And Awards Culminates On A High Note

The latest edition of the Pitch Brand Talk was held at the Leela Ambiance, Gurugram on 22 November 2023. The conference began with a keynote address by Sudhanshu Pokhriyal, Chief Executive Officer - Bath and Tiles Division, Hindware on ‘Innovate To Elevate: Hindware's Brand Journey.’

Raj Rishi Singh, Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Business Officer- Corporate, MakeMyTrip said, “During Covid, people were very hesitant about travel. They didn’t know that if they booked a journey and later didn’t want to, could they cancel it or change the date. There was a need to build assurance and give assurance to the consumers. So on top of a flight ticket, we used data science to bring about products that have zero cancellation or products, which have date change as a top-up,” as he delivered the spotlight session, ‘MakeMyTrip’s Journey From (-) 70 Million To (+) 70 Million Dollars.’

Another spotlight session on ‘Brand Axis Bank = Customer-Centricity + Emotional Connect + Trust’ was delivered by Anoop Manohar, Chief Marketing Officer, Axis BANK.

The first panel discussion on ‘How Gadget Brands Can Build Brand Preference Among Digital Savvy Shoppers?’ was chaired by Sameer Mitha, Associate Director -Marketing and Business Development 91mobiles, and consisted of Anuj Sidharth, Deputy Director- Marketing and Corporate Communication, MediaTek, Mayuri Saikia, Director of Marketing (Consumer) Dell Technologies India, Shivam Ranjan, Marketing Head – Asia Pacific, Motorola Mobility and Shivani Chopra, Marketing Head, Consumer PC and Peripherals, HP India.

Sidharth said, “We have seen that in markets like India, consumers are caring about what is inside the device, what kind of speed is there, what kind of memory is there or what kind of GPU is there. So, it is becoming really, really important for the brands like MediaTek to bring the right kind of content for the end-consumer so that he or she can make the right decision when they are doing any kind of buying in any of these categories.”

The discussion was followed by a networking lunch allowing industry professionals time to chat and share their knowledge with each other.

The event continued with another panel discussion on ‘Revolutionising Brands With Cutting-Edge Technology’. Participants in the panel were Gaurav Mehta, CMO, Noise; Kishan Panpalia, Founding Team, PepperContent; Madhur Acharya, VP – Ecommerce, Lenskart; Manav Sethi, Head of Martech & Growth, Vida; Puneet Arora, VP – Marketing, Cashify; Sachin Vashishtha, CMO, PaisaBazaar; and the panel was moderated by Kanika Mittal, Country Head – India, Taboola.

The spotlight session by Puneet Dua, Co-Founder & CMO, SportsBaazi covered the topic, ‘Growthism: Time To Liberate From Performance Marketing & Focus On Product-Led & Content-Led Growth.’ This was followed by a special address by Ayush Gupta, Business Head – Domestic Business, KRBL, on ‘Stirring The Pot: How India Gate Became A Household Name.’

Gupta said, “The traders were blending pure basmati rice and selling it for huge profits and low quality. This is how India Gate, the good quality Basmati rice was born.”

The conference saw another panel discussion on ‘Winning Through Consumer Experiences.’ This conversation was moderated by Puneet Avasthi, Director – Specialist Businesses, Insights Division, Kantar. Participants included Gaurav Dhawan, Chief Revenue Officer, Times Network; Kunal Sharma, Head of Marketing, KRBL; Monika Mishra, Director – Marketing, MobiKwik; Ram Suresh Akella, Executive Officer – Marketing, Maruti Suzuki; and Vinit Kapahi, Head of Marketing, Aviva.

Jayen Mehta, Managing Director Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., Amul delivered a keynote address on ‘How Amul Continues To Stay Relevant To Changing Tastes Of The Indian Consumer.’

The evening then headed into the ‘Top 50 Brands’ awards ceremony which was followed by cocktails & dinner to wrap up the event.