“India is the perfect battleground for Content Marketing due to its sheer market size & potential to do innovative work in content space. Brands have started experiencing dip in their advertising response rates and that is largely because of content issues than anything else. Eg. Most of the brands end up driving users through advertising to their brand websites or social media pages where these destinations either have no content or only branded product focused content, which the users have seen it all. Users are always looking for content in the form of Information, Education & Entertainment and they end up going elsewhere who fulfills that need. Nobody searches for ‘shampoo’ online; rather they search for ‘hair problems’.” Said- RP Singh, Conference Chairperson, Content Marketing Summit Asia.
In an interview with MediAvataar India RP discussed the swelling role of content marketing today and what marketers must hold on to, to formulate memorable communication ideas for the future.
Here is the complete Q&A….
MediAvataar: Do you think content marketing is the future of marketing?
RP: Content marketing, especially in India, has always been looked at a thing of future but we really look at content marketing as a discipline, it is more than hundred years old already. Brands have been telling stories since ages in different shapes & forms, sometimes through branded content and sometimes by creating content that will help their potential or existing consumers. John Deere, a tractor manufacturer, launched its first content marketing initiative in the form of magazine called “The Furrow” in year 1895 so it is really surprising to see sometimes marketers struggling to put this into today’s context. It was and will always be an integral part of marketing, and with technology controlling most of the digital marketing these days; the importance of content is at the peak right now.
MediAvataar: What is your view on how marketers are utilizing this boon?
RP: Different marketers are at different stages of utilizing potential of content marketing. The very evolved marketers have figured out their ways to create content across the marketing funnel that caters to different marketing objectives. Content marketing is helping brands in achieving multiple brand objectives whether it is Brand Awareness or Sales metrics. While FMCG brands try to use content to entertain & empower their customers through content to maintain top of mind recall, B2B businesses are using content to deliver on their ROI objectives by generating leads for their products and services. Examples can be found from each and every product category to see how content marketing can help across verticals.
MediAvataar: Please tell us what to expect from this year’s Content Marketing Summit?
RP: The marketing fraternity in this part of the world needs education & hand holding when it comes to understanding content marketing. And that is the sole objective of Content Marketing Summit Asia ever since it’s conception. This year again, we have tried to pool in experts from different parts of the content marketing ecosystem to share and spread content marketing knowledge among the entire set of stakeholders. We have speakers from leading brands, technology providers, content creators & agency partners to create a perfect learning platform.
MediAvataar: What do you think you could improve upon or take suggestion from last year’s event?
RP: Content marketing being a very vast subject; we have always had a challenge of scarcity of time. There are a lot of topics we could not discuss in the previous two editions of CMS Asia. We will definitely try to cover those in the upcoming edition. We are learning continuously from every edition, since no one from either the Advisory Board or the organizing team is from events background, there are improvements happening every year. We have always tried to address every single attendee’s expectations and we will continue to speak to each one of our attendees to ensure we deliver value through our content.
MediAvataar: Who all should attend it and what could be their best take home advice?
RP: My humble advice is that anyone & everyone who is in marketing directly or indirectly, it is an important platform not to be missed. The industry is going through a continuous rapid shift and this will be a good way to keep yourself abreast if you are in marketing related job function whether you are at Top Management level or at the beginning of your career. Typically, if you are a brand marketer, service provider, PR professional, Agency partner, content creator, publisher or a production house, then you will enjoy every bit of this event.
MediAvataar: Is India really ready for real content marketing?
RP: India is the perfect battleground for Content Marketing due to its sheer market size & potential to do innovative work in content space. Brands have started experiencing dip in their advertising response rates and that is largely because of content issues than anything else. Eg. Most of the brands end up driving users through advertising to their brand websites or social media pages where these destinations either have no content or only branded product focused content, which the users have seen it all. Users are always looking for content in the form of Information, Education & Entertainment and they end up going elsewhere who fulfills that need. Nobody searches for ‘shampoo’ online; rather they search for ‘hair problems’. Given the amount of digital advertising done in India and it’s year on year growth, content marketing is a huge connecting link that India can leverage immediately.
MediAvataar: Do you plan to take the summit to other countries?
RP: As the name suggests, CMS Asia is an Asia conference that needs to travel across APAC. We are happy to take it to Mumbai after New Delhi and we are exploring other countries such as Philippines, Malaysia, UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong & Singapore for next edition in 2017. We are building right partnerships in all these countries at the moment which will help us spreading our wings faster into other parts of the continent.
MediAvataar: How you plan to grow and what challenges/bad/good you see ahead?
RP: One of the biggest challenge we are facing is the amount of speaking requests we receive every time, although it is a good problem to have but we don’t want to let go of some brilliant speakers every time. So we are trying to work out a method to accommodate maximum speakers at the summit. Another issue is the geographical limitation in a country like India, we have been receiving requests for hosting the summit in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and then other countries from across Asia are also looking up to us to host it there. We are very happy that we are able to take this from Delhi to Mumbai this year and hopefully other countries as well in near future. We are too young too see ‘bad’ yet but we are learning from our own mistakes every year.