With an illustrious career in marketing spanning over 20 years,
Navdeep Dhindsa today leads Cheil India’s specialist team of event marketing and activations specialists. Educated at PPS, Nabha and at Hartmann College, Navdeep went on to earn an MBA in Sales & Marketing before working on a number of leading brands across different product categories including Consumer Electronics, FMCG, IT and brands from other media-averse categories such as Liquor and Tobacco.
In addition to brand activations for audiences in both urban and rural markets, Navdeep has handled a wide range of product launches and high-profile national events for Samsung, Philip Morris, P&G, Bharti Walmart, Cisco and suchlike. In an exclusive conversation, Navdeeptalks about the need for experiential, the challenges of running a campaign and extracting the most from it.
Q-You have 20 years of experience in the field of marketing, how has experiential marketing evolved in this time?
A-When I started working, there was excessive focus on ‘exposure’. It was said and believed that if you exposed the brand in the best possible manner, then the leads would follow.But a lot has changed over the years and I fervently believe the change is all for the good.
Gone are the days of the museum-like brand space where consumers were invited into a stagnant atmosphere without any engagement with the brand at all. Today in this dynamic world, all brands understand the need to engage the consumer and let them experience the product versus simply being exposed to it. And because the payoff is quite high, brands today are willing to spend a significant part of their marketing budgets on experiential campaigns that resonate with the consumers.
Q- How important is it for brands to engage customers through experiences?
A-How many of us switch channels when an ad appears on TV or skip them while watching a video on Youtube? We also do not pay any heed to pamphlets being distributed in our residential complexes. So obviously there is a strong need today to market brand products in an interactive way that generates curiosity in consumer’s mind and induces him to experience it. Through experiential marketing you step into the shoes of the consumer, you understand him, listen to him and then narrate his story back to him with your product as its protagonist. It is a win-win situation for both – the consumer and the brand.
Q- Share with us a challenging campaign brief that you take pride in having designed and executed.
A-Every brief is a challenging brief these days. Consumers are exposed to different things and the market itself is very competitive so the ideas which we think of should not only draw TG attention but also help brands to reach out to a larger group.
One of the recent campaigns we conceptualized and executed for Reckitt Benckiser was for their flagship brand, Dettol. The objective was to spread awareness globally about the importance of washing hands. Our team came up with an integrated experiential idea #GiveLifeAHand led by on-ground activation. On the occasion of Global Handwash Day, this campaign was launched in 32 countries wherein we went to different schools and educated children on the steps to a healthy hand wash. The baton of good health was passed on from one country to another through live global handwash relay. People were also invited on social media platforms to share the #Handfie for a selfless cause of care. The response of the campaign was overwhelming and the campaign was awarded as best brand campaign by GMO of RekittBenkiser.
So that’s the beauty of integrated experiential marketing. As an agency, Cheil Worldwide believes in ‘Ideas that Move’: Our intention is to move products and move brands but most of all, we strive to move people through our work. I think the work our agency did for Dettol was a great example of that promise in action.
Q-In your opinion what are the elements that make for an enriching experience for consumers?
Today, consumers are always on the move. That’s why more than ever, brands need to communicate seamlessly and in an integrated manner across all touch-points.One should think of integrated campaigns with a mix of on-ground, digital, mobile as well as print so that it covers the entire consumer journey and creates top-of-mind recall in the consumer’s mind.
Q-Cheil India is known to use the latest in technology in many of its campaigns. Any specific reasons why?
A-Our biggest client is a leading technology giant so the usage of technology comes most naturally to us. Also, we believe that technology lets you do so much more in a smarter and more meaningful way. It helps you to deliver your brand story to the consumer in a more interactive manner which builds curiosity in the consumers’ minds to experience the brand/ product.
Q-After the brief from the client has been received, is there a specific process that you follow to formulate an experiential campaign around it?
A- We are a company driven by ideas. We believe it is important to understand the consumers and their behavior first so that we can use that learning to come up with a powerful and moving idea. Once our planning team does the research and finds the most powerful and relevant consumer insights, our integrated team brainstorms together and works on ideas to meet the campaign objective.
Q-What are the elements that an event agency should think of before designing an experiential campaign?
A-Before designing an experiential campaign, it is extremely important to understand the message that needs to be communicated. Secondly, it is also important to know whowe are speaking with. Who the consumers are. What are their motivations. Thinking of it as one series of events is usually not enough to create the buzz required. One must be consistent in order to get the desired experience. Pay utmost attention to feedback. Today in this dynamic world, and more so, thanks to the power of social media, reputations are made and marred in absolutely no time. Listening continuously allows us real-time information about what our worthy consumers think about us.
Q- What changes in the world of marketing can you predict in the next 5 years?
A- I fervently believe in the fact that we are in the business of telling stories. We have been doing it for some time now and I believe we will continue to do so. The consumer has been and will continue to be the hero of these stories. However, I think what will create the difference is the way in which these stories are told.
The way we engage and interact with consumers will change phenomenally. The way we create key consumer experiences will also see a stark change. Already, we find that technology is blurring the lines between different media like – ATL, BTL, Digital and Media. This leads to an immersive experience. I also believe that ‘transparency’ will be the new black. Brands will be expected to deliver what they claim more so now than at any previous time. Summing it up, I think it is a whole new level of integration that we are looking forward to. Consumers in the upcoming times will be served with totally memorable and more immersive experiences.
(The story has been extracted from BW APPLAUSE)
