MMA Global India successfully concluded the highly anticipated MMA IMPACT India 2023 at Taj City Centre, Gurugram. This immersive marketing conference brought together some of India’s most brilliant marketing minds. The event featured a series of engaging panel discussions involving notable figures such as Moneka Khurana, Country Head & Board Member, MMA Global – India; Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder & Chief Innovations Officer, Honasa Consumer Ltd (Mamaearth, The Derma Co. & Ayuga); Varun Alagh, Co-founder & CEO, Honasa Consumer Ltd; Shireesh Joshi, Chief Business Officer of ONDC and other esteemed delegates, making it a resounding success in the marketing industry.
The iconic event also witnessed the unveiling of the ONDC Playbook titled ONDC Advantage x toolkit – an MMA and GroupM initiative – GTM Guide to digitise & democratise for commerce-led growth by Ghazal Alagh and Shireesh Joshi, which offers a step-by-step approach to implementing the ONDC. This resource equips businesses with the necessary tools to position themselves at the forefront of the digital commerce revolution, driving growth and fostering innovation. Another notable session was the fireside chat featuring Varun Alagh and Moneka Khurana, discussing the selection of the right mix of sniper and bazooka techniques for businesses.
The event also witnessed an impressive turnout of industry professionals, marketers, and stakeholders, all eager to delve into the evolving digital landscape. This event encourages attendees to rethink their execution methods, relearn how to leverage technological advancements, and rebuild their marketing organisation structures, ultimately leading to the development of Winning Marketing Organizations 2.0.
Moneka Khurana, Country Head & Board Member, MMA Global – India, opened the event with her welcome address and said, “We are living in a world more empowered than before and therefore we need more empowered marketers, neither looking at the glass as half full nor as half empty – that’s a full stack marketer for you. They are marketers serving aware customers in an advanced world and are well-versed with traditional and digital marketing strategies to drive performance and leverage data and technology whilst building brand and reputation with story-telling, design and cultural relevance. The only way forward in this dynamic marketing ecosystem is to take decisions across functions, take risks, and be vulnerable while staying close to the consumer. MMA globally has taken the lead in bringing cutting-edge resources in the form of White Papers, reports, and ecosystems to encourage learning and equip marketers with transformational strategies to drive growth. India alone has launched 15+ reports and White Papers in the last 18 months. That makes MMA a melting pot for large and established organisations to learn from emerging ones and vice versa.”
Amit Jain, MMA India Board Chair and Chairman of L’Oréal India in his keynote session, talked about marketing excellence, embracing the strengths of insurgents and said, “MMA is truly a diverse body, creating a culture of building marketing excellence within organisations. The theme Winning Marketing Organizations 2.0 has been inspired by a global study that MMA has done, the bottom line of which is – organisations that lead on revenue and customer acquisitions can be distinguished by the kind of investments they make in marketing capability. Thanks to AI, marketing as we know it might stand on its head over the next year. This calls for rethinking the paradigm of marketing, which is why today’s theme has got a big part in the emergence of the insurgents. We can now either rethink, relearn and rebuild to stay competitive in the emerging ecosystem”
Rohit Dadwal, MMA Board Member and MD APAC MMA Global APAC unveiled the Global MMA study – State of AI in Marketing and said, “AI is being used and has been used by all of us in the last 10 years, and we will only be using the majority of our work on AI going forward. MMA undertook a study about the state of AI in Marketing and Consumer experience, with the aim to help senior marketers understand the risk and governance in AI. The key insights were that first, we are at an inflexion point, second, building the business case unlocks leadership support, third, organisational and data challenges will hinder adoption and lastly, the time to think about AI-related risks is now. It is important for marketers to understand that measurement, which is an ongoing challenge in the digital world, is not going to be resolved today, but will enhance the capability of every part of the marketing organisations to be able to establish a return on investment and the measurement and data around that.”
Rahul Agarwalla, Managing Partner, SenseAI Ventures, delivered a keynote session titled ‘From Data to Dollars: Marketing Insights from AI-First Investments.’ The session provided valuable insights for marketers on leveraging the power of AI. Key takeaways included understanding the transformative potential, exploring powerful use cases, fostering company-wide adoption through talent, culture, and leadership shifts, identifying emerging trends, and addressing challenges, risks, and regulations associated with AI adoption.
Rajesh Ramakrishnan, MMA India Board Member and Managing Director of Perfetti Van Melle India presented a keynote session titled ‘Picture Perfect Transformation: Lessons from Photography.’ This session emphasised the importance of transformation in a rapidly changing world and how companies must embrace it to thrive, as illustrated in his excerpt from the recently released annual report, Modern Marketing Reckoner Rajesh correlated the key elements of successful transformation with elements in photography, including composition (strategy), multiple perspectives (benchmarking), lines and curves (systems and processes), and connecting with people (engagement).
Similarly, the representatives include Aditya Swaminathan, Vice President, Paytm Ads addressed ‘Next Generation Marketing: Harnessing the potential of fintech platform for business growth’ and gave valuable insights on targeting capabilities, innovative ad formats and how to create a seamless commerce user journey. Another keynote session on ‘Unlocking the Power of Commerce Ads: Transforming Brand-Consumer Connections’ by Sudarshan Sarma, Senior Director – Monetization, Flipkart gave an insightful session on the transformative role of e-commerce in advertising through contextualization and innovation.
During the event, a masterclass titled ‘Rethinking Everything You Know About Media Quality’ was conducted by Nachiket Deole, Head of Sales, India, DoubleVerify. The masterclass addressed the transformative changes that brands have experienced in recent years, including the impact of COVID-19 on media consumption habits, the rapid growth of Connected TV (CTV), and the amplification of social media discourse, providing a platform for all voices.
After the unveiling of the ‘ONDC Advantage X toolkit – an MMA and GroupM initiative – GTM Guide to digitise & democratise for commerce-led growth’ with Ghazal Alagh, Moneka Khurana and Shireesh Joshi, a panel discussion was held to shed light on the potential of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative and its impact on India’s digital economy. Together, the panelists shared insights and decoded the highlights from the ONDC Advantage X toolkit. The discussion revolved around how brands and sellers can leverage the ONDC Network to enhance their businesses, providing practical guidance and valuable strategies for successful implementation.
MMA IMPACT India 2023 concluded successfully, providing a platform for marketing professionals to explore the evolving digital landscape. The event featured engaging panel discussions, enlightening keynotes, and insightful masterclasses. The launch of the ONDC Advantage X toolkit – an MMA and GroupM initiative – GTM Guide marked a significant highlight, offering businesses a roadmap to leverage the transformative potential of the ONDC. With thought-provoking sessions by industry experts and discussions on marketing excellence, embracing innovation, and redefining strategies, attendees gained valuable insights into navigating the dynamic marketing landscape. The event fostered collaboration, innovation, and growth, empowering marketers to adapt, leverage technology, and build winning marketing organisations.
