ZenithOptimedia organises Zoogle Day with Google

The company's campaign 'Dil ke Ameer' motivates people to turn their dreams into a financial plan.

Zoogle Day, a first-of-its-kind digital marketing event hosted by the media services network ZenithOptimedia Group, in association with Google, was held on February 4 at the Le' Meridien hotel, Gurgaon.

With the mobile phone becoming an almost indispensable gadget for millions of consumers today, the main focus of Zoogle Day therefore, was on the micro-moments that arise every day in the lives of consumers. Micro-moments occur when people reflexively turn to a device, increasingly towards a smartphone nowadays, in order to act on the need to learn something, do something or discover something.

The ZenithOptimedia (ZO) leadership, along with top executives from Google, shared learnings, insights, and case studies where brands have taken the lead in a world dominated by mobile. The summit focussed upon several subjects such as, for instance, how mobile commerce is influencing sectors such as banking insurance and telecom, how data-driven planning driving programmatic, top trends in e-commerce, the success story of Alibaba, and other future-facing business models which are reaping the benefits of a digital economy.

The list of speakers included Craig Greenfield, COO, Performics Worldwide, Gareth Mulryan, chief executive officer for South East Asia, Performics Worldwide, Tanmay Mohanty, managing director for Performics and Resultrix in India, Punitha Arumugam, director, agency-business, India, and South East Asia, Google, Sapna Chadha, head of marketing, Google India, and Nitin Balwankule, director-sales at Google India.

Greenfield, who delivered the key address at the event, spoke about how 'search' on key words is outdated, and the accent will now be on image and video searches. Greenfield has, since 2005, worked in scaling client programmes and developing company-wide processes which have helped Performics successfully transition into the first global performance marketing agency. Craig currently leads global technology and innovation, as well as a network of change agents focussed on identifying, evaluating and developing new products, services and systems. He works with Performics' worldwide leadership, client teams, as well as with external partners, to help clients identify and capture new business opportunities and negotiate strategic partnerships.

Next was Anupriya Acharya, Group CEO, ZenithOptimedia Group, who in her opening address said, "It's been about 12 years since ZenithOptimedia and Google first created this property in the UK, with the clear objective of leading the change that digital technology is bringing in the lives of consumers. Back then, the digital transformation was just starting to take shape. Zoogle Day was so successful that the format was retained and expanded across years and across markets."

She further added, "Given the e-commerce boom, the digital India drive, and the launch of 4G, we felt that the time was ripe for us to bring it to India, too. And, the way it has turned out, we are committed to do more of these in the future."

There were several other interesting points highlighted during the course of the various sessions of the event. The panel discussion, chaired by Mohanty, saw participation from various marketers such as Jonathan Abramson (vice-president, marketing and head, online and value added services at Airtel), Abhay Johorey (head, digital consumer bank, IDFC), Amit Ojha (head of media, Nestle India), and Praveen Gupta (head of brand and digital at Tata Docomo).

Nestle's Ojha pointed out that the Maggi crisis had taught them the value of adequate listening. The Maggi return campaign was built on the back of data from loyal customers and it has been one of the best performing campaigns for them. He also added that there are certainly chinks in the data armour. The stiff challenge is marrying internet data with data from the real world.

Mobile wallet was another key item on the agenda. IDFC's Johorey was of the opinion that the launch of UPI may bring unprecedented changes and the need for mobile wallets may not be as much if the transaction can happen directly with a single UPI.

Tata Docomo's Gupta, was of the opinion that mobile wallets are very much here to stay. He also acknowledged that the consumer journey is much more complex with the advent of mobile, and marketers need to fully understand the role of content and media to deliver a seamless experience.

During the session on data and content-driven planning, Mayoori Kango, chief digital officer for ZO, spoke about how advertisers can harness the power of micro moments to create byte-size content and create a micro-moment map to deliver on the promise of a consumer-centric content plan that is seeped in the 3rdi view of Performics. In short, the content should address impulse - intent- interaction.

Mohanty also spoke on the need to have a data stack and a data maturity plan to deliver the single view of the customers in detail and need for multi-channel attribution to understand real value of each touch point.

Tanushree Radhakrishnan, senior vice-president, programmatic for Resultrix/Performics, spoke about the power of programmatic in addressing these moments with the power of audience buying and integration of new media innovations like voice, image search, and native advertising to deliver an advertising experience that is non-intrusive and relevant.

ZenithOptimedia is a global media services network with over 7,500 people working in 262 offices across 74 countries. Part of the Publicis Groupe in India, ZenithOptimedia's client portfolio includes brands such as Nestle, Micromax, OLX, LVMH Group, Telenor, Jabong, H&M, and Truecaller. Through Performics and Resultrix, it also handles the digital duties on Airtel, MaxBupa, ICICI Bank, Star India, Standard Chartered Bank, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Tata AIG Life Insurance, and Air Vistara among others.