Our roles as marketer’s will be recast in the future as the inevitable technological forces, such as AI, will completely revolutionize the way we buy, work, learn and communicate, said media agency PHD India at the Predestination session held on June 1st at Zee Melt 2017 organised by Kyoorius. PHD emphasized that as marketers, we need to shift focus to brand ideas where scalability means millions of personalized messages delivered simultaneously using algorithms and as such technology will help to transform the future and not make us fearful.
PHD’s Predestination series – a result of a collaboration with the author, visionary, provocateur and Wired founder Kevin Kelly (and author of The Inevitable) to understand the technological forces shaping our future – explores the ubiquity of technologies such as AI that are taking us towards a Predestined destination, brimming with opportunities but equally disruptive and challenging.
PHD’s session was introduced by its India MD, Jyoti Bansal, who gave an overview of the trends –
cognifying, flowing, filtering and remixing – with a focus on how brands are actively exploring and engaging with them to deliver innovation and the topic was actively debated through a panel discussion featuring Arnab Goswami, Founder Republic TV, Raghav Bahl, Founder & Chairman at Quintillion Media, Samir Bangara, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Qyuki and moderated by Kel Hook, PHD APAC’s Regional Head of Global Account Management. The panellists debated if technology would make us dumb, killing our aptitude to question, or would it force us to be more creative and critical in our thinking.
The key takeaways:
1.Cognifying and Flowing -Technology is enabling companies to become smarter and access more and more data every day to evolve the way they develop their products and services. Brands are now embracing this future and understand that technology and data will open new opportunities and ideas.
2.Filtering and Remixing – Digital technology is changing the way Indian audiences respond to content. As time with mobile screens continues to increase, there is the need for brands & agencies to be able to deliver content and messages in real time. This challenges us to think more about what our audiences need and what they are seeking for.
3.Growth in Digital – Brands and agencies run the risk of underestimating the size and scale of India’s digital audience. It’s time for companies and brands to move into digital channels to cater to the existing audience who fall into the age group of 15 – 35 yrs.
Raghav Bahl mentioned how the new age of data is causing over-certainty, which could lead to us operating in echo-chambers, something marketers and media professionals need to be cautious about.
Arnab Goswami, who announced the launch of virtual reality journalism in Republic at the panel, emphasized that technology should not take over decision-making as the onus should be on human intuition leading change.
Samir Bangara spoke about how Qyuki is using filtering and remixing to leverage trends to gain insights for a mass audience and how technology will help consumers find what they need at a quicker rate.
Jyoti Bansal added, “Technology will only further help to enhance the marketing function; however, creativity will always remain at the core. The value of compelling,engaging and relevant content will only get bigger in this new age that is dawning on us.”