Indian Digital Media Industry Leaders Gather at WATSummit 2013

The third WATSummit took place on 15^th February 2013 and it brought together some of the most renowned names in the digital industry to a single platform.

With the five panels across the spectrum of the Digital Universe covering Social Media/ Building Brands on Digital / Ecommerce/ Mobile and Start up Marketing WATSummit revealed some of the top trends of 2013 in the industry.

The panellists not only shared industry insights but also gave a forecast of the biggest trends for this year. The summit began with a welcome note from Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO of WAT Media Pvt Limited.

Keynote speaker, Neville Taraporewalla, Sr. Director Microsoft for Emerging Markets, India, Malaysia, Thailand & Korea Advertising and Online shared his views on the growth of social media, the smartphone culture across the world.

Growth of smartphones and tablets are changing consumer experience are catalysts in building an identity in the digital space

said Neville. According to Mr Taraporewalla the smart phone culture has given a huge impetus to gamification.

Games are everywhere. Everything is becoming a game.  In Korea, games are ranked no. 2 activity, after talking on phone

he added.

The first panel discussion of the summit – Social Media Marketing – Making sense of jibber-jabber by brands saw personalities like Eklavya Bhattacharya, Head – Digital, MTV India, Jessie Paul, CEO, PaulWriter, Preetham Venky, Business Head – Asia KRDS and Gulshan Verma,VP and Country head, Ad Network, Komli Media discussing social media platforms and the opportunities it brings for the B2B and B2C brands.

While Jessie Paul thought that B2B is a major challenge on social media, Eklavya deciphered the pros of contextual advertising catering to the B2C industry. It was commonly agreed that platforms like Facebook and Twitter drive engagement and help you converse with the B2C group and platforms like Linkedin are more influential for B2B.

B2B is a slow adopter of social media.

Said Jessie Paul.

The second panel discussion – Digital Media Marketing – ‘Can it build a brand on its own?’ saw panelists discussing conversions and the effectiveness of the digital medium to enable conversions. There is a lot of investment that goes into digital. Amit Duggal, Digital Director, Madison Media said,

Any medium that converts more than 100 million users is a huge medium in itself.

Can an e-commerce brand build its brand or its business? This was answered at the third panel discussion – E-commerce Market, build brand Vs. Build business. Ashutosh Lawania, Co-Founder, Myntra.com and Manish Chopra, CEO, Zovi.comhighlighted issues concerning the e-commerce industry. Digital is imperative in brand building of e-commerce portals. Ashutosh Lawania said,

Every channel is an opportunity to build a brand. For e-commerce to gain momentum in the country, it is important for every channel to be accessible”. While it was agreed that e-commerce marketers focus mainly on Facebook and Twitter, the power of YouTube to interact with consumers is a concern.

The effectiveness and importance of mobile marketing was discussed at length at the fourth panel discussion – Mobile Marketing – Promises of reach Vs. Actual Impact. The panelists were seen conferring the various aspects of mobile marketing. Mobile First is the way for marketers.

Advertisers have realised the need of the mobile medium and its penetration

said Binay Tiwari, Head – Global Marketing. It was also stated by the panelists that there is a lot of impact-oriented strategies taking place on mobile. ‘App routes’ and ‘Web routes’ are the best ways to target consumers on mobile.

Known for his expertise at startup, Alok Kejriwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Games2Win, one of the eminent panelists of Startup Marketing said,

If you are a start-up, you don’t spend money, you spend your brain.

The event concluded on a positive note that aimed to bring about a new revolution in the digital industry and the beginning of a new era of digital marketing. Rajiv Dingra, signed off by saying,

I am grateful to all the panelists for coming together and sharing the in-depth insights of the digital industry. The medium is growing by leaps and bounds; hence, events like WATSummit are important in shaping the way digital is growing. The response at the summit has been over-whelming. With this move, I am certain that we are now entering a new era of digital advertising.

The event concluded with honouring the best talent in the digital industry with WAT Awards. The categories for WATAwards were across Web, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Over 250 entries were received and the key nominees were judged by an esteemed panel; Suresh Reddy - Chairman and CEO, Ybrant Digital, Neville Taraporewalla - Sr. Director of Emerging Markets – India, Malaysia, Thailand & Korea Advertising and Online, Microsoft,  Amit Tripathi – Managing Director, id8labs, Anuj Kumar – Co-Founder & CEO, Affle, Sunil Kamath – Vice President for South Asia, Opera Software, Nishad Ramchandran – Vice President, Hansa Cequity and Dinesh Swamy – Digital Creative Leader, BBDO Proximity.

The first award in the Web category for creative was won by Webchutney for the campaign ‘Harmonium Love’ for the Website/ Brand Microsite of the Year. For Impact, Mahindra & Mahindra won the same award for the campaign ‘Spark the Rise’. The Travel of the Year award was won by Ixigo.com, Classified of the year by Gaadi.com, and the best E-commerce site of the year was won by Digi-cult for the campaign goosebumpspickles.com.

In the Viral Marketing Campaign of the Year, creative was won by Webchutney for the campaign ‘All about Rajni’ and impact by Omnicom for ‘Axe Shower Gel’ campaign. The Web category awarded Social Samosa as the Best Blog of the Year.

The Advertising category, Social Media Campaign of the year (creative) was won by Ignitee Digital for ‘Wasseypur World’ and (impact) was won by Social Wavelength for ‘Reliance Tweet-a-Tab’ campaign. Similarly, Digital Media Campaign of the year (creative) was won by Network 18 Media and Investment Ltd. For ‘moneycontrol.com and (impact) was won by nteractive Avenues for ‘Amex So you got promoted!’. The Mobile Media Campaign of the Year (creative) was won byWebchutney for ‘Turquoise Cottage’ and (impact) by Rocketalk for ‘Nokia Channel Me’. Digital Innovation in the creative category was won by Glitch Media Pvt. Ltd for ‘Diesel Gun’ and in the impact category Hungama took the accolades for ‘Mahindra XUV 500’

Technology being the primary category of digital, awarded Cleartrip in the Mobile App of the Year category, while Digital App of the Year was won by MTV Roadies 9 Head Collectors. The award for the Social App of the Year award was won byBBDO Proximity for ‘Visa D2A’ and the Innovative Product of the Year was won by Digi-Cult  for goosebumpickles.com.

The award for the Digital Media Entrepreneur of the Year was won by Vikas Tandon, Managing Director, Indigo Consulting. Ankita Gaba Co-Founder of Social Samosa took the award for the Social Media Entrepreneur of the Year. Mobile Media Entrepreneur of the year was won by Dippak Khurana, CEO of Vserv Digital Services Pvt. Ltd.  Shripal Gandhi of Swipe Telecom won the award for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

A special set of awards were presented to Hungama Digital Services in the Digital Media Agency of the Year category,Social Wavelength in the Social Media Agency of the Year and Rocketalk India in the Mobile Marketing Company of the Year.

The chairman of BBDO Proximity Mr Josy Paul was present at the function and gave away some important awards for the evening. Commenting on the success of WATAwards, Mr Paul said,

The work presented today has inspired me personally and I would like to congratulate the winners for their creative thought and execution

Rajiv Dingra, Founder & CEO, WAT Media Pvt. Ltd. added

We at WATSummit are extremely proud to honour the best talent of the digital industry. Our esteemed jury members – Suresh Reddy, Neville Taraporewalla, Amit Tripathi, Anuj Kumar, Sunil Kamath, Nishad Ramchandran and Dinesh Swamy were extremely pleased with the kind of work submitted by the agencies. To award the brilliance of the work done has been a pleasure and a memorable experience.