Its very rare when the Captivating series captures something this emotional. In a gesture to honour the sacrifice of Col MN Rai who laid down his life gunning down terrorists just a day after he was awarded the Yudh Sena Medal on 26th Jan. 2015 , and the tearyeyed goodbye his daughter Alka paid to her father, we pay homage to his supreme sacrifice.
Captivating also pays homage to Head Constable Sanjeev Singh of the J&K police who was also KIA.
"Play your role in life with such passion, that even after the curtains come down, the applause doesn't stop." - Col MN Rai`s whatsapp status.
The last day of the summit. I was just praying that it was not too heavy as Day 1 and my prayers were answered as we had an interesting line up of people speaking up with the focus on the distribution of content.
Gitikka - the bubbliest host
Nikhil Swarup, Kontent Cart-
He had promised the previous day that he would give us 2 demos of how Kontent Cart worked and he fulfilled that with the same energy and banter which he had last evening. Sample his definition of broccoli- “ The stuff that American kids don’t eat”. He gave a piece of advice – Content helps people notice brand so it was important what you show.
George Paul, Ericsson-
The company present in 180 countries, 187 languages and having a workforce of 117000 employees. The content has moved from mobile to cloud. Content still remains the king. There is a content team in place at every place here ans there is a 24 months of planning cycle in place.
Victor, Dhoom 3 –
Remember Just Mohabbat, Jassi jaisi koi nahin and many others ?? Then welcome Victor, the man behind all these creations. He is better known as the director of dhoom 3. He explained what is content by sharing the history of Jassi, Just Mohabbat and Dhoom. There is the challenge of fresh content in every dhoom as they cant rest on the success of the past one. Content marketing through the idea of the song “ Kamli”. Never thought Katrina would make it to a summit. No, she was not there but had a mention nevertheless. RP Singh was interested in asking about Aamir and I was tempted to ask about Katrina but then decided against that. Looking for logic in dhoom? It wont come ever as the makers show what they believe in. No promotion of any dhoom at any of the TV serials like Big Boss or Comedy Nights as Victor feels that the exclusive content of the franchise speaks for itself.
The question about Dhoom ever having a logic was met with a reply- " In dhoom, the makers show what they believe in."
Amit Sinha, VP, Tata Telecom-
Interactive video was the mainstay as it showed the history of the internet in a very interesting way. The content must be used to engage with people and yet do your business with.
Khurafaati Nitin, 104.7 FM-
Khurafaati Nitin and us.
The morning just got even better. Here was one speaker who talked about how radio was changing lives by its content and CSR, but not before he joked as to how he got his name. He shared stories how radio changed lives- When he started a campaign to bail out a man who was arrested on charges of selling railway property so that he could send his sister to college. By his help , the man was bailed out, got a job and his sister got into a college. The applause that went up in the hall immediately after that spoke volumes of the reaction of the audience. Then he played a poem “ फिर शांत है दिल्ली ”which was mindblowing. This is it-
फिर शांत है दिल्ली, भीड़ का शोर नहीं , बच्चों की किलकारियां नहीं
एक और ब्लास्ट , फिर वही राजनीतिक इल्ज़ाम , एक दूसरे पे आरोप, उजड़े घर, सूनी मांगे , बिखरी चूड़ियाँ.
फिर शांत है दिल्ली....
आदत पड़ती जा रही है बिखरा रूप देखने की
सुर्ख छीटो से, सड़कें अब साधारण सी लगने लगी हैं
फिर शांत है दिल्ली मगर शायद अब कह रही है कब तक यूँ ही पन्ना पलट
के आगे बढ़ते रहेंगे हम ?
कब तक त्रासदीयाँ सहते रहेंगे हम ?
ख़बरों में कब तक अपनों को मुर्दा देखते रहेंगे हम ?
क्या इस खून में उबाल आएगा या फिर एक दिन यह भी बिखर जायेगा ?
फिर शांत है दिल्ली.....
क्यूँ शांत है दिल्ली
Me and Rahul took a break after that. The day had been phenenominal till now. We got hold of Victor and Nitin for pics.
Danish, SAP –
He showed the need for relevant content by making us see a snapshot of his personal mailbox. Believe me, it had more than 9000 spam mails. 60- 70% of marketing content is unused because it is usless, not relevant. 90 % of emails are unopened and 80 % of TV ads go unnoticed. Content marketing is all the marketing that is left and behind every piece of bad content is an executive who asked for it in the first place. Its important to know your audience , know what content works and then make smarter decisions. He quoted the example of Indigo airlines for personal attention to things
Sandeep Amar, Zee Entertainment –
Brands can reach users but they do not have credible content sources. They need to push their content on social media. Responsibility of driving traffic is both of the brand and the publisher. Maggi noodles is still stuck in the junk food image although the atta variant is also there but very less people know about it and even then, unwilling to try it.
Harish Behl-
Its important to create content about the audience. Mine data and create content out of it. Help people satiate their primal curiousity and create a content that takes a life of its own. Even simple number and figures can generate content out of nowhere to say the least.
Rupak Saluja –
His focus was on the fact that content is good, distribution is god. Traditional marketing is stating the world that you are a rockstar, content marketing is showing that you are one. Today with so many distribution ways around, it was important to know what would work. Netflix spent $ 3 billion on content alone last year. Go pro uses youtube to spread and share content which is uploaded by the customers themselves and which again shows that there is a huge amount of content around us, we need to distribute it properly.
Distribution has a new player in the form of Vessel which gives 70% of ad revenue to the creators as opposed to 55% by youtube and further more the ads on Vessel are just 5 seconds long.
Closing address
At the end of this I felt happy. After 2 days of the so called Crash course” I learned a lot of things, met a few interesting people whom would have not been possible otherwise. Comparatively Day 2 was much good for me as compared to day 1.
“ Your passes have been arranged. You can pick those up from the venue”. That’s all the mail had said. Well I was lucky one top go at the CMS this time, it was another matter that I was nervous not knowing what to expect. A previous knowledge of things was important but it was totally new for me and I was excited. Then Rahul Prabhakar called up and said that he too was coming. We were lucky to have got the chance to cover the event. 9 o` clock time at Gurgaon meant that I had to leave home early. All I had was a military fiction novel with me to give me company in the metro. After changing metros, battling office goers and nearly crushed to death I reached IFFCO Chowk metro station from where Rahul picked me up. Westin- एक और नयी जगह देख ली. After the checkin, hilarity ensued at the reception desk as the girls could not spot my ID card. They found Rahul`s though. They checked up the list twice but my name was not there. A girl checked up the system and found it. It was another struggle to find the card in the pile of 100 of cards.
After the चाय वाय we got down to click the pics of ourselves- proof that we had actually come. Once inside the conference room, picked up the table at the front and got down to work- about which I was clueless.
For the first 3 speakers I was ducking bouncers trying to get a
grasp on things. In between I was also busy on twitter explaining all that was happening at the summit.
RP Singh- The man behind the summit. The young sardar who made all this possible. After the welcome speech and telling us how airplanes can be sold using content marketing, he declared the summit open.
Now before I go any further let me quickly tell you what content marketing is, in simple language. Anything written by anyone is treated as content (facebook posts, advts., website content etc.) and how to market them effectively so that it reaches the target audience effectively in the huge expanse of matter all over the net. That’s all. Refresher course done for you….moving forward.
Ran Buck, Taboola-
An interesting speaker with tons of info and how can taboola help people with their content. Content Marketing needs both people who can create content and people who can distribute them effectively..bulls eye to the person whom you want it to see. Started in 2007 it has now revenue in excess of $200 million. It has captured the untapped mobile market as the first timer net users are on mobile. Taboola at 86% is just behind google`s ad network at 95%. Every page should be personalized according to the requirement of the user otherwise they would go away if they find that they wont get what they are looking forward to. Correct content to the person ensures that more people come to the site by word of mouth publicity. Expedia spends a staggering $1 million per month on search alone to know what the users are looking for and give them that. Traffic in Asia Pacific is in English but Hindi is the next big thing and the Click through Rate in hindi on a hindi site is 30% more than English. Its the ideal partner for technology and empowering partners.
Amrita Thapar, Genpact-
The main concern is to decide what to outsource and to inhouse when it comes to content. The target markets are America, Europe and Australia. A long lasting impression of content is needed. Masters- specialists are hired to make sure that the content created is exclusive in all regards. Specialised tools are needed as excels and charts are of no use. 2015 is all about distribution and the source of the information is important. The criteria is prioritization and then meeting the various deadlines. The distribution is through social media and also through print media for a long shelf life.
By this time I was like a batsman ducking bouncers and pace at Australian pitches. As time passed I was getting a hang of things but I must say that the session was damn heavy. It was all about speakers coming, speaking data and stuff. I was close to yawning so both me and rahul decided to take a break. Headed outside and as I adjusted my eyes to the light outside, a person came upto me saying, “Hello Shwetabh” and I was surprised ( I had a stalker???? ), hadn’t seen him before.
Maybe that confusion showed up of my face and before I could ask him his name he said, “Nirav”. Ok so now I meet the man behind blogadda. Rahul came up just then with his coffee and so did Ankita. We got all chatty.
Tara Sharma & Svati Bhatkal (Satyamev Jayate)-
The session takes a turn now. I breath easy. Tara (yep the bollywood actress) discussed how content helps her in her serial. What started as a simple blog on her experiences on raising her children later transformed into a show. Johnson and Johnson is engaged about the show ( The Tara Sharma Show) about its content. Being a big brand it supports Tara in the quest for content which changes the lives of the people and helps them connect with the show. Its aired on TV and also on youtube. There is actually no budget for the show, its all dependent on the advertisers and the content is what is driving it all.
Swati took it forward when she discussed the concept of Satyamev Jayate. Touching and reaching the audience.Travelling the whole country for the stories. The government got engaged as well. A foundation dealing with mental issues connected with the audience after one such episode. Live interaction was made possible through social media. Satyamev Jayate has both outsourced and inhouse content.
Sujatha Kumar, Coke –
Possibly the session that I enjoyed the most. It was the most interactive. The consumer engagement is through content which is spread through time and which would move with or without the brand. It was all a series of ads which showed how content can get you on a more personal note with people.
This ad was the most moving one. FIFA trophy is touched only by the winners and the head of the state but see how coke makes a request to FIFA for an exception for some blind footballers and here is the result.
One small secret- Santa Claus was created by Coke in 1939.
Coke Studio- A show loved by music lovers. It connects with emotions, appealing to a higher purpose than just the values of the company. Making sure that musicians, performers and people all come together.
Panel discussion-
Content helps people make choices as to what they want. Content distribution is to know that the content is accessible, it is available and Content marketing is to let know that the data is available. Correct distribution helps get revenue, hits and impressions. Word of mouth publicity about the content brings people. Paid content also backfires sometimes as its totally against the general rules of content marketing. It needs to be trustworthy. It is like a story which should have the power to involve you and move you.
Vaishakhi, Capgemini –
There are 3 rules about content- Don’t analyse, be a consumer and don’t bore him with things. She then showed how the Super Techies show connected with people just by this show. They changed the content, changed the format, changed the game and each time the participation of the people was much more than the last time. She also gave an insight into the story behind the Sunny Leone flash mob held by capgemini employees and unless there is a message to deliver in the video, it wont go “ viral”. That was all a part of Capegemini`s employee engagement programme where they let the employees do what they wanted to do without compromising on the corporate values. A fun way to let the families of the employees know of the bond they share.
She said one important thing that there are no viral videos, its the content which makes them viral. With a damn heavy dose of back to back speakers it was time to head for a break and when we got back, it was a pleasant surprise.
Nikhil Swarup, Kontent Cart –
Give any batsman a powerplay and his eyes would light up. Thats the same with this. Nikhil had gauged that we were all going damn sleepy so he went on with his light, humorous interaction which was awesome. He gave a real insight into what Kontent Cart really does. It has thousands of articles across 11 content categories which caters to the wide variety of needs of the people when it comes to content. Content should cater to category (70%), should be custom made (20%) - the same thing which previous speakers also said and the content should also promote the brand (10%). I personally loved this session.
Aashish, Hero Motors-
The emphasis here was on keeping the customer in the focus. As with the previous speakers too, he also told that it was important to show relevant content because there are no shortcuts when it comes to content marketing. The focus is keeping the customer at the center. The ZMR advertisement was a part of this thought process that worked well. A wide distribution in the south and the north eastern states was an add on.
Swapnil Srivastava, Times Internet-
Content can be distributed in the following way-
Contextual - the placement of the ads, the positioning is important.
Social / Viral - Making us of Facebook, twitter to spread the reach as far as possible.
Popularity of the content makes sure the desired results are achieved.
Audience - cater custom content and the job is done.
Manu Nanda-
For the 1st time he emphasized on content for the sales force and the partners. They are the people in the distribution channel so content for them is also needed. Manual, guides etc. A well informed sales force which can satisfy a customer in his query would ensure that a satisfied customer is the best form of content marketing channel.
I felt that I was watching the India Australia Kolkata Test match of 2001. An interesting stage at the end of the day and promising an even exciting next day.
