Mumbai: In today’s ever-evolving marketing landscape, Rishi Sharma stands as a seasoned chief marketing officer with a diverse background in managing brands across various sectors and business trajectories. His expertise lies in navigating the rapidly evolving digital landscape, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, technology integration, and speed to market.

Rishi’s career journey began with a fascination for branding, leading him through advertising, corporate marketing at Samsung India, and diverse roles at Aditya Birla Group. His experience spans both established corporates and nimble startups, allowing him to appreciate the nuances of innovation and adaptability required in different organizational sizes.

He shared a successful instance where tailoring marketing tactics, particularly focusing on content creation and digital channels, led to a significant increase in leads, conversions, and brand visibility.

Indiantelevision caught up with chief marketing officer Rishi Sharma,

Edited excerpts

On initially sparked your interest in marketing, and on your transition into your role as a chief marketing officer

My fascination with branding began at a young age; I’ve always found it fascinating to consider a creative that is based on consumer insight. I will never forget advertisements such as Hamara Bajaj and Kuch Khaas Hai. In addition, I began reading the A&M magazine that our neighbour was reading back then, and that’s when I made the decision to pursue a career in marketing. Fortunately, we were also given the opportunity to select a major after graduation, and I went with advertising and public relations.

My experience working closely with product and brand managers for ten years in advertising has led me to believe that marketing is much more than just communication; many other factors contribute to a campaign’s outcome.

To better understand the process of getting a product to market, I started spending more time with the sales and marketing teams. Eventually, in 2009, I was given the opportunity to work in the corporate marketing department at Samsung India. and it marked the beginning of my marketing career.

I worked in three separate B2C, B2B, and B2B2C businesses at Aditya Birla Group after leaving Samsung after three years. While these were still in the marketing and communication domain, I began to appreciate and admire the advancements occurring in the tech/digital arena. I also launched digital marketing, worldwide outreach utilising digital, and numerous other activities. After working for Aditya Birla Group for nine years, I felt that I could accomplish more.

So, I decided to start over and joined Zolo as a CMO, where I oversaw marketing, customer experience, communication, product, lead generation, and brand. A role that was more complex and substantial.

At Bonito as a CMO, I’m in charge of the entire client journey and funnel, even with the capital-intensive category  challenges, as a member of the core team, I help find strategies and solutions that aids in the business growth. Our distinctive offering of celebrity-designed houses including Gauri Khan and Manish Malhotra  has helped the brand reach number three in a very short span. Our most recent “World Design”  campaign was well received by the well-travelled Indian customer who responded to the campaign warmly. Additionally, I have built a team that is business focused and have implemented a full-stack Mar-Tech infrastructure, which has started delivering lead flow, improved conversion rates, and lowered  CAC.

On your balance your experiences working with both established corporations and nimble startups in your current role

That’s a really intriguing question. It is comparable to drawing a comparison between a boat and a ship in the ocean. In a boat, the captain interacts directly with the companions, however in a ship, there is a hierarchy and the captain rarely meets the crew.

Both are travelling in the same manner. The distinction lies in their ability to innovate quickly, even if both share the same goal. A ship will creep, but a boat will appear swift and quick. In a similar vein, a ship is responsible for hundreds of passages on board, whilst a boat can accommodate a handful. Last but not least, while a ship can withstand severe seas, a boat finds it challenging.

However, they both have a captain with the same goal of staying afloat. Both need to get to the destination safely. As with any organisation, large or little, it is crucial to be committed, detail-oriented, and aware of the current circumstances as well as to make plans for unanticipated events. Cannot afford to lose focus on the objective when in the lead role.

On staying informed about emerging platforms and changes in audience preferences to adapt your marketing strategies accordingly

I have subscribed myself to various publications and forums. It gives me a regular dosage of the latest in tech and digital. I used to read books but lately, follow podcasts that talk about Martech and topics around it. There are various sites, and even Meta and Google create reports on the latest consumption trends.

Can you share a particularly successful instance where tailoring marketing tactics led to significant results

The ultimate measure of our campaign’s success was leads and shop visits with a CAC that was well within bounds; for this reason, I cut back on our print and outdoor spending. I also cut back on spending on lead-only performance initiatives that offered no guarantee of quality.

As a result, my attention was drawn to content creation, increasing website traffic, dialogue, and display. I used programmatic, YouTube, Social Media, Display, and FM as part of my media mix approach. When combined with performance, this gave the brand a 360-degree appeal that was always in demand. It wasn’t just economical, but it also elevated Bonito to the status of one of the most well-known brands. We got, A noteworthy 100 per cent increase in leads and a 25 per cent improvement in conversion from shop visits are the outcomes of these measures. Sales increased dramatically as a result of the ripple effect, exceeding our highest revenue goals and making the brand positive in December.

In what ways do you ensure that your marketing strategies remain agile and adaptable in response to technological advancements and shifting consumer behaviours?

Continuous experimentations and pilots, in the digital age there’s no sure shot way without experiments and pilots. Like we learnt that young Indians don’t like calls and they are more comfortable with the text, we created a WhatsApp-based conversation module, and it is now contributing to almost 25 per cent of lead flow. With over 35 per cent qualification.

On the key elements that you consider when designing marketing campaigns to engage customers across different industries

Consumer Insights, the latest trends and shifting busying patterns across categories are good enough to get cues. Like EV sales reflect upon the need for sustainable options. Increasing travel will make the customer more demanding. More socialising at home would mean needing space optimisation solutions. These cues when embedded in a piece of communication subtly, it help connect with the larger audience base and help open the funnel.

On ensuring consistency and coherence across various marketing channels within a single campaign

Create a framework and see that everyone who is working in marketing sees and approves the campaigns through that framework.

On some common pitfalls or mistakes to avoid in marketing campaigns, based on your experience

Thinking of a solution before comprehending the problem, if there’s no sale the solution in not an “offer/promotion” but to understand what is behavioural shift

On measuring the success and impact of a brand campaign beyond traditional metrics like ROI

It is simple, in today’s age it is about Traction, Traffic on the website and what percentage of these customers visit your website and transact.

On ensuring alignment between your marketing strategies and the broader growth plans and objectives of the organisation as a CMO

CMO is equally responsible for business growth, the role is no longer only focusing on branding and awareness but on budget, awareness, lead generation, retention, conversion and CAC, each of the above is linked to the other and hence CMO needs to follow this through on a daily basis.

Nowadays there is a trend where even campaigns are releasing trailers, your outlook on it

This is a very super bowl approach, it used to be common in mega launches, like automobiles, movies etc. Even in the olden days when a celebrity was getting introduced… I think it is not going to last long… unless it is a content-driven campaign. Businesses are very conscious about CAC and long-tail campaigns cost a lot. In my view, it works where the campaign is content/story lead and has a direct impact on purchase behaviour.

On the trailer for this campaign or ad film engaging with its target audience

It only builds curiosity, but as I said, it largely depends on the category.