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Tag: Ajit Narayan

  • Weekend Unwind’ with: Socxo CMO Ajit Narayan

    Weekend Unwind’ with: Socxo CMO Ajit Narayan

    Mumbai: With another weekend upon us, it is time to unwind with the latest Q&A edition of Indiantelevision.com’s Weekend Unwind — a series of informal chats that peek into the minds of corporate executives through a fun lens in an attempt to get to know the person behind the title a little better.

    In this week’s session, advocacy marketing platform & brand advocacy solutions provider Socxo CMO Ajit Narayan opened up the windows to his thoughts. Socxo is currently planning to launch its new product, Socxly, a one-of-a-kind smart linking and affiliate marketing product suite.

    Narayan runs everything’s marketing at Socxo. He built the entire brand framework: visual identity, visibility, demand generation, and the rest of the marketing playbook.

    With over two decades of experience in the marketing services, technology, and advertising industries, Narayan has extensive experience in brand, CRM, and experiential marketing at companies such as OgilvyOne Worldwide, Wunderman and Bates CHI, and Sercon. He understands the practical and implementation aspects as well as the big picture, strategy, and ideas.

    He enjoys experimenting with new ideas. His belief that ideas are what make life interesting and engaging stems not only from his own but also from strong collaborations and teamwork, as well as from inspiring his team and others around him.

    Narayan has a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Calcutta. He is also a Google Adwords, Mobile, and Search certified professional.

    He began his career in traditional marketing and has a thorough understanding of what distinguishes brands, in addition to hands-on experience with digital branding, performance marketing, social media, and analytics.

    He built integrated communications tools and strategies around B2B and B2C marketing communications at Bates CHI and Sercon, and many of the projects resulted in campaigns that won various international awards such as the PMAA-Dragons of Asia awards, DMA Awards, B2B Marketing (UK), and so on.

    So without further ado, here it goes…

    •     Your mantra for life

    “Life is Hard. Get used to it.”

    •     A book you are currently reading/plan to read

    None. I don’t read books too frequently.

    •     Your fitness mantra, especially during the pandemic

    Your dog is your best friend. He makes sure you get your backside moving and it is fun. Play with him. A couple of hours on the trail is always a weekend away.

    •     Your comfort food

    Sambar rice and poriyal. Also, daal chawal and aloo ki sabzi.

    •     When the chips are down a quote/philosophy that keeps you going

     Either of the two. Depending on mood.

    1. Keep your head down and ignore the noise. Work away at your skills.

    2. Even this will pass. So, chill. 

    •     Your guilty pleasure

    Rumali roti, galouti kebab, and dal makhni (provided it is well made).

    •     A life lesson you learnt the hard way

    Extremes of wealth (bankruptcy or opulence) are harmful to one’s health. I have been through the former. On the latter, I have a deep realisation of what’s enough for me. I wouldn’t know what to do with it.

    •     What gets you excited about life?

    New adventures, new things to do. Or there are times when nothing to do is exciting.

    •     What’s on top of your bucket list?

    Where is the bucket?

    •     If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

    Be wise with your money. Otherwise, you will become poor at the benefit of your so-called friends.

    •     One thing you would most like to change about the world

    The level of fakery surrounding us is so high that a couple of hundred notches lower would be better.

    •     An activity that keeps you motivated/charged during tough times

    Three things: playing the bass guitar; playing with my dog; and taking a long bike ride.

    •     What lifts your spirits when life gets you down?

    Any one of the three above.

    •     Your go-to stress buster

    Old Monk.

  • Covid19’s impact on the advertising & marketing world

    Covid19’s impact on the advertising & marketing world

    MUMBAI: The deadly Covid19 has put every country in an alarming situation with the economic impact of the pandemic disease being immediate for certain industries.

    To understand the effect of this global health crisis on the advertising, marketing, and consumer durables indiantelevision.com spoke to industry experts. They think that this crisis will have large-scale disruption in the coming months. They are of the opinion that the ad industry will be tremendously impacted as the two most important factors for advertising, product availability and consumer sentiment, are both headed south.

    “Large-scale disruption is coming and the real impact is to be seen in the coming months. For one, on a global scale, events are being cancelled as a precautionary measure and this will impact the B2B marketing space. The impact of events and conferences is big on the marketing services industry and not so much the mainstream advertising or social media advertising industry. However, from the mainstream perspective, it's an opportunity to magnify reach and brands will jump to use this to spread public service messages veiled with their brand connections,” says Socxo CMO and program head Ajit Narayan.

    According to Narayan, there will be supply shortage as many of the Asian suppliers and more Chinese suppliers have already started pulling back on raw material and other equipment needed to complete the product. Without products to supply, what will be advertised?

    Additionally, there will be buying postponement by consumers and a recession like behaviour which nobody anticipated will come so fast.  The sentiments are already echoing in the stock markets.

    Sharing the same views Godrej Appliances business head and executive vice president and CEAMA president Kamal Nandi said: “The coronavirus attack had a negative impact on consumer durables sector due to its dependency on imports from China – be it for finished goods or components. A price increase of up to 3 per cent for consumer durables, such as televisions sets, air conditioners, refrigerators, and microwaves is anticipated from March 2020 onwards. It mainly contributed to the short supply of components and finished goods due to Coronavirus outbreak, apart from the duty increase on certain components like compressors and motors and in some cases on finished goods.”

    The ad business may take a hit in the near future as any health-related problem always lowers the market sentiment. “The Coronavirus is a big one given the huge impact it has on China and its spread across many countries. It adversely impacts business given China has millions of dollars of exports and this affects the world markets The stock market dip has a negative impact on the market and businesses. The first thing that gets affected is brand advertising, still seen as an expenditure. In a low sentiment market mostly the essentials get purchased and indulgence has to wait for better times,” echoes Havas Media chief executive officer Anita Nayyar.

    With more than 4000 deaths, borderlines being shut and life at a halt there’s still so much we don’t know. In this scenario, media plays a pivotal role in providing correct information without blowing it out of proportion. This is the hype of panic which needs to be controlled.

    Meanwhile there are necessary steps brands can take to manage Coronavirus crisis. Narayan says, “Brands will get recognition for active steps they take as precautions and not the typical advertising at this juncture. The trend of remote work which was very slow is gaining momentum now. This could trigger a pivot in the real estate industry as the towers of offices could get impacted without physical office presence needed. This is especially true for the tech industry where it's already finding fast adoption.”

    He further adds, “If the businesses find their productive rhythms through remote work, the question that might arise would be one of reducing office space. Which is already a buzzing topic in global markets. Additionally, business owners need to proactively take steps to engage with mature information and fact dissemination among employees. Take action against false information and help employees get through this tough time.”

  • Socxo releases an e-book on Holiday season marketing – Time for buzz marketing with the Mango Man!

    Socxo releases an e-book on Holiday season marketing – Time for buzz marketing with the Mango Man!

    Mumbai/Bangalore: Socxo, the Bangalore based brand advocacy solutions start-up, has today launched an e-book for marketers to gear up this coming holiday and festive season. And this season in most parts of the world is a full quarter – October to December.

    The e-book guides marketers in leveraging word of mouth marketing this holiday season for their campaigns to maximize awareness, engagement, and trust at a time when the marketing world is ablaze with product launches and promotions, seasonal festive offers, and deals. This approach is proven to act as a sweetener to the deals that are already being flashed. And the real deal is a trusted deal.

    The key steps towards building an interesting holiday campaigns include:

    Getting the right technology

    Planning campaigns and selecting the right platforms

    Select the nano-influencers

    Buckets around which campaigns should be built.

    Measuring and optimizing.

    The e-book highlights the importance of using nano-influencer and brand advocates as the channel for building trusted reach. Not everything can be sold by celebrities and actors and brands end up missing the countless nano-influencers who aren’t actors, rock stars, who have thousands of loyal followers and may not be target of hate mails and messages. It’s time to think beyond celebrity endorsements and get into building your brands loyal believers.

    Speaking on the e-book, Ajit Narayan, CMO & Program Head, Socxo, “Brand advocacy has huge potential, provided its used strategically. It goes beyond celebrities internet or otherwise and focuses on leveraging the brand’s believers. The key to people who actually have a stake in the brand and business. Employees, Customers, Partners and Fans. It’s time for brands to shift their thinking and efforts towards the Mango man (Aam aadmi.) The common man as a network is far more powerful than any celebrity alone."

    "It is an untapped tool by marketers, and holds strong potential in building campaigns, especially during the festive season. With the current quarter being all about festivals and holidays, we conducted this research on how nano-influencers can be capitalised and used smartly. The e-book is designed as the guide on how to think and execute content marketing initiatives and campaigns around nano-influencers", he further added.

    Socxo is a SaaS and mobile based Brand Advocacy Marketing platform, based in Singapore, Bangalore and Kochi.

  • Whitepaper by Socxo unveils insights into salespeople beliefs on social selling

    Whitepaper by Socxo unveils insights into salespeople beliefs on social selling

    MUMBAI: Socxo, the Bangalore-based brand advocacy solutions provider, has released a whitepaper which gives a direction on what sales folk are seeking. Today, marketing and sales integration are a burning need. Before social media, there was always a marketing vs sales departmental tussle. But with the advent of social media, and the audiences, in general, being present in social, it’s become imperative that sales also does marketing and vice versa too. The room for the divide is diminished.

    Keeping this in mind, Socxo, a SaaS (desktop and mobile) based employee & brand advocacy marketing platform, conducted a month-long campaign on Twitter. Socxo’s circle mainly comprises of marketing, social media, and mar-tech folks based in the US and India.

    What social selling promises to deliver is a boost to business connections, leads and conversions but are the actual users (sales and marketing people) convinced about it yet? Does it really work to deliver on targets? While industry data points to success in numbers, Socxo decided to test this hypothesis in the market on what marketing and sales folks thought about the system. And the results were surprising.

    The research highlighted interesting insights from reasons for doing social selling, to source of content, to belief on the system, to choices of learning. One major point that stood out was that social selling is a massive business opportunity both ways – for the guys creating the market for social selling, as well as for businesses looking to leverage social selling.

    Socxo co-founder and CEO Sudarsan Rao said, “The idea of the study came because I was having a difficult time to get my own sales team to get into this mode. And therefore, we looked at the problem and decided to find some insights around it. The why of it. This clearly points towards the potential of the industry around training on the subject. And we have many famous trainers as early adopters of this method already. This will probably get into an organised business soon enough.”

    Socxo CMO Ajit Narayan said, “Buzz words are generally buzz only. And they are marketed. If anything has been marketed extensively, it only points in the direction of something being pushed and not organically adopted. So we wanted to find out what about the buzz was stopping adoption. This book will tell you: what people think about it; what they seek from company leadership; where they go to for content; and much more.”

  • MAGNONTBWA beefs up senior team

    MUMBAI: Post its acquisition by Omnicom’s TBWA, MAGNONTBWA has strengthened its digital capabilities with three senior level appointments in web/mobile technology, social media as well as client development functions.

    The appointments come as the agency’s preparations to strengthen its presence in the capital and also penetrate tier two cities in North India.

    The agency has got on board KN Ajit Narayan as group director, social media marketing, Paurush Pandit as group director, web/mobile technology and Alok Garg, associate vice president, client development for MAGNONTBWA.

    Garg comes with over 16 years of strong experience in client acquisition and managing key customer relationships. His digital experience is rich and vivid and he has led business teams at independent digital agencies in the past. He will be spearheading the client acquisition team for MAGNONTBWA in the Delhi NCR region. He will also be responsible for setting up MAGNONTBWA offices in key northern Indian cities like Lucknow and Chandigarh, and drive MAGNONTBWA’s penetration in tier two Indian cities.

    Narayan moves in from Interactive Avenues, where he was managing social media offerings for a range of clients. He has worked with several leading as well as startup organizations and has experience in new media marketing including online reputation management (ORM), social media marketing (SMM), SEO, content management and user acquisition. Apart from managing the group profile, he will also actively coordinate on account management for SMO services, social media consulting and campaign execution.

    Pandit is a technology evangelist with over 10 years of experience in both start-ups as well as large organisations. In the past he has worked in with Makemytrip.com and Yatra.com. He specialises in web user interface design, development, optimization, usability and web marketing. At MAGNONTBWA, he will be operating at the group level and will be responsible for driving technology excellence on both web and mobile platforms, across the board.

    MAGNONTBWA and MAGNON E-GRAPHICS founder and group CEO Vineet Bajpai said, “At MAGNONTBWA, people have always been central to strategy. As digital media evolves, agencies and marketers will need to find new innovative approaches to connect brands and consumers. The team expansion at Magnon is in sync with the current and potential opportunities and challenges. MAGNONTBWA stands committed to offering best-in-class interactive media solutions to our clients.”

    These hirings have been carried out for both MAGNONTBWA as well as MAGNON E-GRAPHICS, the agency’s international digital delivery arm.