ITV

Tag: Parul Bhargava

  • India Affiliate Summit edition 10 concludes on a high note

    India Affiliate Summit edition 10 concludes on a high note

    Mumbai: The tenth edition of the India Affiliate Summit (IAS), organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) was concluded on 8 November. The two-day summit brought together leading marketers, industry experts, and innovators, creating a dynamic forum to explore the latest trends and strategies in performance marketing. The conference featured an expansive expo floor, engaging agenda of keynotes, masterclasses, panel discussions, and networking sessions, providing invaluable insights into the future of the industry.

    The summit commenced with an insightful keynote session by vCommission CEO Parul Bhargava, on ‘Future Trends: Shifting Paradigms of Affiliate Partnerships’. She highlighted the transformative shifts underway in affiliate marketing and the need for brands to adapt to these evolving dynamics. She stated, “Our industry is at a pivotal juncture where embracing change is not only essential but urgent. On the advertiser side, the pillars of transparency, compliance, clean media, and long-term engagement have become fundamental. For affiliates, the focus lies in achieving stability and campaign sustainability.”

    A highlight of the event was the panel discussion on ‘Winning Touchpoints: Less Clicks, More Sales’, featuring insights from Adani Group joint president and chief digital officer Nitin Sethi. Sethi emphasised the importance of precision, personalization through analytics, micro-conversations, mobile voice search, and A/B testing frameworks in today’s competitive market. “In today’s landscape, out of every 100 consumers, about 90 tend to bounce back on the first page. At each stage of the funnel, drop-off rates close to 70-80 percent are common. Even with significant investment to bring in 1,000 customers, conversion rates average only 10-15 percent, which is the industry’s best,” he said.

    NP Digital founder Neil Patel, in a fireside chat on AI, opined, “When you think about your KPIs and business goals, start by asking how AI can help you achieve them. Many marketers run ads, but when AI is used alongside human creativity, it creates a powerful combination. AI can analyze data in real time, helping optimize content and ad strategies on the go. Personally, AI has been instrumental in scaling my content. The next big trend I see coming to social media is live selling it’s already huge in China but hasn’t yet taken off globally. I believe it’s going to generate significant revenue in the near future.”

    India Today CMO Vivek Malhotra while moderating the panel discussion on ‘The Modern Data Stack: Revolutionising Customer Insights and Marketing Agility’, remarked, “In the past 12 months alone, we have collectively gathered more customer consent than in many previous years combined. I believe the key to unlocking future opportunities lies within this consent, empowering us to build more personalized and impactful customer experiences.”

    Indian Express Digital CEO Sanjay Sindhwani commented, “In the media industry, if we look back five years, data largely rested with intermediaries, and we didn’t focus on it as much. Over the last five years, however, we’ve witnessed a tremendous shift. Media now has massive reach and relevance to advertisers, who increasingly seek more definitive, targeted insights. As subscriptions grow, the intersection of technology and marketing becomes even more critical in shaping this data-driven landscape.”

    HDFC Bank SVP Deepak Oram said, “The modern data stack today essentially unifies a brand’s data, encompassing behavioural insights and predictive information. What many tend to overlook, however, is the importance of third-party data and the concept of data reflexes. While it’s relatively easy to hire data engineers in the industry, what’s truly lacking are data reflexes, the ability to quickly and effectively respond to data insights for real-time decision-making.”

    In a panel discussion on ‘Bridging Online and Offline: The Impact of Programmatic Advertising on Consumer Behaviour’, Uniqlo India head of marketing Nidhi Rastogi said, ‘We strategically leverage data from our e-commerce platform to gain insights on order origins, guiding our decisions on store locations and optimizing our product assortment for each market. This data-driven approach is integral to our expansion and product mix strategies. Additionally, programmatic advertising has been highly effective in precisely reaching our target audiences.

    More than 50 stalwarts from the digital marketing ecosystem addressed over 15 engrossing sessions over two days. Over 6500 industry professionals and around 50 exhibitors participated in the summit. Some of the major partners supporting IAS 2024 are vCommission, Valueleaf, Flickstree, Optiminastic, and Seventynine Digital.

  • India Affiliate Summit (IAS) 2022 sheds light on trends, predictions and innovation in two-day conference

    India Affiliate Summit (IAS) 2022 sheds light on trends, predictions and innovation in two-day conference

    Mumbai: The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and vCommission jointly organised the 8th edition of The India Affiliate Summit (IAS) 2022 on 14-15 September, 2022. The event, which included engrossing keynote sessions, masterclasses, panel discussions, and exhibitions, was held at The Leela Ambience, Gurugram.

    The country’s biggest affiliate marketing event saw the participation of national and international attendees from over 700 companies and provided ground for them to network and discuss opportunities to accelerate business.

    On the first day of the two-day long event, vCommission CEO Parul Bhargava opened the floor for discussion with her keynote session, wherein she spoke about the lessons that she has learnt from her entrepreneurial journey in affiliate. “Affiliate marketing has made businesses millions and people millionaires. The affiliate industry is so young and innovative that no one can say, we know it all.”

    Looking at the journey of the India Affiliate Summit since 2015, she added, “As I stand here, from where we started this journey, I am very proud that affiliate as an industry, as a department, is now prevalent in most brands, companies, and agencies.”

    As a piece of advice to marketers, Valueleaf vice president – delivery & ad operations Ameya Kaulgi pointed out, “Affiliate is a massive pull. If you make your funnel right, with the right checks, you can build your brand with the bottom funnel.”

    Patanjali Ayurved COO-media and communications Anita Nayyar spoke about how a brand should optimise its customer lifetime value. “It is important to go back to basics in terms of brand benefits and customer engagement, and once this war is won, optimising ‘lifetime value’ will follow.”

    On the first day of the conference, industry veterans presented new insights, data-driven strategies, and innovative ideas on affiliate, ecommerce, D2C, etc. Twitter business head Kanika Mittal, Meta industry head automotive & D2C Hari Pulipati, HDFC Bank VP and head-acquisition content and social media marketing Jahid Ahmed, and The Man Company director-brand marketing Rumi Ambastha, were among the other key speakers on the inaugural day.

    The second day of the event threw light on several subjects, such as social media listening, influencer marketing, and creativity. Admitad country head Neha Kulwal spoke about Indian SMEs, “For SMEs, partner marketing is a great way to increase their reach and raise brand awareness without breaking the bank. Since most SMEs strike a balance between productivity and profitability, including low-cost and high ROI-driven channels such as partner marketing is a must. Also, the world is moving to ‘Digital First’ and with this shift, performance/partner marketing will be a major driver in their marketing mix.”

    Addressing a session titled, “From celebrities to social media influencers.. what’s next?”, HDFC Bank vice president and head-digital acquisition content and social media marketing Jahid Ahmed said, “Today celebs and influencers are shaping up well. But as a brand, to ensure stronger and long-term communication for the audience, it is important that they focus on building individual brand advocates who can further educate micro communities. And that’s how they can turn this around to build a large pool of their brand lovers.”

    On a panel about “Programmatic reach by using new age media-CTV, audio & DOOH etc.,” Optimise Media Group – India CEO Shaan Raza revealed, “The IAS as a platform has evolved over the years. This year, they’ve discussed new marketing trends like programmatic and connected TV, which are preparing the audience for the web 3.0 space. The new age media has now become popular and it is in its transition phase. Various new trends are entering India, and new age performance marketers should look forward to them. They should use their creativity and imagination to engage with them from the performance marketing aspect.”

    Amongst other prominent speakers who spoke on the concluding day at IAS22 were Google Cloud head of regional marketing-India Virginia Sharma, Samsung Electronics deputy general manager Nitin Guleria, Max Life Insurance VP & head of D2C ecommerce Sameer Jain, and Niva Bupa SVP head of marketing Nimish Agrawal.