AI can never match human ingenuity in advertisement: Vikram Sahay at MarCon 2023

This year MarCon explored, through 30 sessions, across four tracks, on the theme of 'Tomorrow’s Canvas: Tech and the Art of Marketing'. The conference was co-powered by Whistle Feed.

“Remember that advertisement is all about making a product or a service unique. Even the best software like ChatGPT will never offer that uniqueness. So, do not feel discouraged by them as they often compromise the quality of the advertisements,” said Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, while delivering his keynote address at the 19th edition of the Marketing Conclave (MarCon) in Mumbai. 

Addressing the conference’s theme topic, Sahay delved into the dynamic intersection of technology and marketing, shedding light on innovative strategies to navigate the evolving landscape of digital advertising.

In his keynote, Sahay also dwelt on advertising regulatory practices and underlined the importance of ethical marketing.

“Today, we have certain regulatory practices and guidelines that protect us from misleading ads, especially in education and healthcare. We must stay away from such unethical practices,” he said.

MarCon 2023 brought together 65+ industry captains and subject stalwarts to explore the theme subject 360 degrees. 

Speaking on unified measurement for digital platforms, Gulshan Verma, CEO of Jio Ads explained, “Fundamentally, measurement is the backbone of business, translating into vital components such as your business metrics, engagement metrics, and sales figures. What further adds to this process is the perception of your brand. Introducing unified measurement transforms the landscape, where the context makes all the difference. Online and physical touch points make it challenging to analyse or even apply unified measurement. Unification will happen if we are able to link business numbers and other tangibles to arrive at some sort of numeric unification or one scale of measurement for digital platforms.”

Talking about changing tech allowing new age marketers to connect with ‘BHARAT’, MVS Murthy, CMO of Federal Bank, said, “AI does not have an emotional quotient hence it cannot be sensitive towards human emotions. Only humans can understand the subtle sensitivities of any matter. While targeting Bharat, it's important we understand and acknowledge these nuances and think regional and vernacular first, it's a human emotion, we think in our mother tongue and then speak in English or any other language.”