IAA celebrates the platinum jubilee

The International Advertising Association organised a Global Marketing Summit to commemorate 75 years of inspiring excellence in communications worldwide.  The Summit, in partnership with the exchange4media, had speeches and panel discussions around what constitutes a brand, digital branding, rejigging a declining brand, the importance of social marketing, niche marketing and the need to innovate to stay relevant. An engaging panel discussion on Future of sports and movie marketing also took place.

Speaking at the event, Srinivasan K. Swamy, President, IAA, India Chapter, said, “IAA in India decided to celebrate the platinum Jubilee in a fitting manner and what other way to do other than to have a global summit on marketing aspects?”

He said that the face of marketing has changed and it is no longer adequate to produce a good product and let people know. There is too much of everything – options of products/service and technology that keeps levelling differentiation between them, multiplicity of media while consumer attention span and engagement is diminishing, enhanced distribution challenges while on-line distribution poses new opportunities, internet comparisons has brought feature-price comparisons to the fore and social and interactive media can quickly bury a product if unconnected with consumers. He therefore felt that brands will have to meet these challenges if they are to survive in tomorrow’s world.

Tyler Bryson, General Manager - Marketing & Operations, Microsoft SMSG India spoke on reimagining marketing in a digital world. Sanjeeb Chaudhuri, Global Head Marketing, Standard Chartered Bank talked about maintaining a competitive edge in a slowdown. Wally Olins, Chairman & Co-Founder Saffron Brand Consultants, UK, explained what a brand really is.

Ashley Benigno, Director, Creative Expression, Global Brand Strategy & Marketing Creation- Nokia, Finland shared lessons from Nokia Asha and talked about connecting with the youth.  He said, “IAA Global Marketing Summit was very inspiring in terms of the context. He also added that National & International marketing can definitely go hand-in-hand as it plays an important role in any campaign.

Will Platt-Higgins, Director, Global Account Partnership, Facebook, USA spoke about Building Brands on Facebook.

The panel discussion on Future of Sports and Movie Marketing was chaired by Kaushik Roy and the lively discussion by Farokh Balsara - Partner & Markets Leader-India, EY, Ekta Kapoor - Managing Director & Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms, Shailendra Singh - Jt. Managing Director, Percept, Ritesh Sidhwani - Filmmaker and Venky Mysore – CEO & Managing Director, Kolkata Knight Riders left the audience spellbound. It was evident that the Indian audience can expect many new and differentiated marketing aspects, which will present the entertainment industry in good light.

“We have been able to put together a great programme covering a wide ranging topics. We had over 200 delegates of senior marketing, media and advertising professionals and the feedback has been overwhelming” said Monica Tata, Hon. Secretary, IAA-IC and Chairperson of the Summit.

Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, exchange4media Group, said, “ Exchange4media is happy to partner IAA for this landmark marketing event and to share its various online and print platforms to involve advertising and marketing communities with the Summit and to have the proceedings reach all stakeholders. The line up of top international speakers at the Summit will bring in essential knowledge on industry issues, best practices and insights in a rapidly changing business environment. The overwhelming response from the industry to participate in the Summit reflects the success this partnership.”