Get ready for ‘CMO Week’: marketing lessons from 2020

What have marketers across categories like e-commerce, edtech, FMCG, auto, etc., learnt in 2020? We’re asking them at CMO Week, from December 14-17.

2020 has been a rather interesting year… a year no marketer, advertiser or brand had prepared for. As we near the end of it, we, at afaqs!, are excited to know what lessons the top names in the marketing fraternity have learnt this year, and the wisdom they have acquired as they enter the new year (2021).

Yes… all this will happen over a week-long conference – ‘CMO Week’.

We are glad to share that our ‘All Week’ webinar initiative has been very well-received by the media, marketing and advertising fraternity. afaqs! has so far held three series of themed e-conversations at the same time, every day, for an entire week, under this umbrella. These include Television Week, Digipub Week and Languages Week.

CMO Week, the last series of this year, will be held next week, between December 14 and 17, 2020. It will include marketers from across categories like edtech, automobile, e-commerce, FMCG, immunity and hygiene, among others. They will all share the invaluable lessons this year has taught them, and the road ahead. One session will be held each day between 4 and 4:45 p.m.

Presented by India TV and powered by Nickelodeon Sonic, Day 1 of the webinar will see Bata India’s Anand Narang, Viacom18’s Navin Shenoy, Bombay Shaving Company’s Samriddh Dasgupta, Xiaomi’s Sumit Sonal and Tata CLiQ Luxury’s Gitanjali Saxena discussing ‘The E-commerce Story’.

The session will throw light on how in the darkest hours of 2020, e-commerce platforms found many first-time users. And now, as brands invest in their own e-commerce channels, will they rival the very platforms that rescued them? As multiple e-commerce channels vie for consumers' attention, who will win the home delivery race? And, are e-commerce brands relooking their connect with the youth?

Day 2’s session is titled ‘What Next for Immunity and Hygiene?’. Anuja Mishra of Godrej Consumer Products, Jayen Mehta of Amul, Nikhil Gupta of Signify Innovations and Suman Varma of Hamdard will be the participants. They will share their views on: as habits stabilise and the sampling phase of products that helped consumers sanitise ends, which categories will stick in the consumers’ shopping list and which will struggle to find scale.

Day 3’s session on ‘Automobile Marketing 3.0’ will see CarDekho’s Gaurav Mehta, Audi’s Gaurav Sinha, Fiat Chrysler’s Rahul Pansare and Skoda’s Tarun Jha as participants. They will talk about how the rules of engagement have changed in their (auto) segment after this challenging year. And, how will the demand for used cars and other market trends impact the segment.

On Day 4, the final day, the edtech segment will take centre stage. Atit Mehta of Byju’s, Amit Doshi of Lenovo, Sonali Bhattacharya of Viacom18 and Sudipto Chowdhury of India TV will form the panel. They will talk about how the segment came into its own in a locked down world. And, as schools adapt and go digital, do brands in the space need to recalibrate and reposition.

Meanwhile, kids entertainment brands have limited marketing touch points, as malls and schools remain largely inaccessible. Are there lessons that these two brand sets can learn from one another?

To register click here.