[Interview] We spend 15% of total marketing budget on digital: Mayank Shah, Parle G

Parle-G's Mayank Shah shares how the legacy brand latched on digital marketing to bond with its consumers. A look at the Parle G social media strategy below.

What is it about the legacy brand, Parle-G which makes it one of the most beloved brands in the biscuit category? And what exactly goes behind campaigns such as #YouAreMyParleG? Mayank Shah, Sr.Category Head at the brand decodes the Parle G social media strategy.

Excerpts:

How has Parle G's marketing changed over the years especially with the advent of digital?

Parle G is introduced to you as early as when you are an infant. The brand doesn’t have a specific TG. As marketers, we need a medium to reach people across segments. This is where digital plays an important role. Apart from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, there’s a lot of content we curate for millennials.

We call and position Parle G as a 'staple' to the consumers. In a scenario like this, it becomes relevant for you to always be in the top of their mind and keep creating buzz around the brand. It is critical for the brand, is to be part of the communication. 

Trying to bring in some of the attributes of the brand, every time we do some content and making people talk about it, is our idea behind its marketing.

How does memevertising provide an edge to a legacy brand like your on digital platforms? 

The beauty of digital is its ability to go viral. That’s why working on memes has become, both, challenging and interesting for the brand.

One way to do memes is going with topical and remaining on top of the minds of the TG.

The ideal way to do memevertising would be to highlight an attribute of the brand while you do it. Have some synergy as to what’s going on topically.

When Netflix and sacred games happened, we highlighted the attribute of the brand that Parle G comes to your rescue at the most challenging times.

How we do content marketing is, first we look at content which is trending, which content is relevant for our consumer and then we see how seamlessly can we integrate the brand with the two aspects. That’s what can make it viral in my opinion.

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As an FMCG brand, what kind of digital marketing trends have you witnessed? Also, how has the consumer evolved with the advent of digital?

The capability, the medium provides you to interact with your consumers as opposed to a TV which is one-way communication is great. You can see whether your communication is resonating in real-time with the audience. The kind of brand love you can generate by that is phenomenal. This is one brand that belongs to the consumers.

The brand has transcended that barrier of being owned by you to something that is owned by consumers.

There is this information diarrhea that’s going on digital. Attention spans are decreasing and experts are moving towards short-format ads. Unless you keep the consumer at the center of whatever you are doing, you would never be able to crack it. So, relevant content and native plays an important role in that.

While digital is growing at a rapid pace, as FMCG marketers, we are waiting for a time when its reach becomes unparalleled and become a mainline medium.

How do you measure the results of your social media campaigns? Take us through your measurement metrics

The way we look at ROI is way different. One needs to be clear about the objectives for a campaign. When you talk of digital, there is something called ‘marketing funnel’.

Depending on what is your objective you have to measure your ROI and decide on the measurement metrics. For an evolved brand like Parle G, the objective is certainly not awareness but bonding and advocacy.

So, how much is the consumer enjoying your content, how much is it resonating with them, how much interaction is getting generated and whether it is going viral? This boils down to eventually how much is your earned media viz a viz your investment on it. We are spending anywhere around 15% of our total budget on digital.