How is TECHNOLOGY changing ADVERTISING Kishore Dharmarajan TBCY

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Welcome to another episode of The Brand Called  You. A vodcast and podcast show that brings you   leadership lessons, knowledge, experience and  wisdom from thousands of successful individuals from   around the world. I'm your host, Ashutosh Garg  and today I'm delighted to welcome a very, very   senior marketing guru, and a Metaverse  expert from Dubai, Mr. Kishore   Dharmarajan. Kishore, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me on the  

show and very excited to share  some information with you. Thank you. Kishore is the CEO of Seo Souq FZ LLC. He is a Metaverse expert. And he's   earlier worked with companies like Saatchi, Eureka,  WSI, and HSBC. So, let's start talking about   Seo. So I hope that I have  the pronunciation correct?  

Yes. Tell me about this venture, and  what was your motivation to start it? Sure, I used to work in the corporate world, like  many of our listeners, and in 2016, when LinkedIn   opened up its content platform for people to make  posts, I made a post on LinkedIn, in those   times, it was an article. And I got a call from  a prospect which led to a meeting and a contract   all within 24 hours. Wow. And so I realized that  just sitting on my laptop and putting some words   together, can get your clients without cold  calling without emailing, not doing anything.  

So that motivated me to start my own business.  And because I assume that once you start posting   on LinkedIn, you can get as many clients  as you wish. And that was the trigger,   starting Seo Souq in 2016. Wow. And the rest, as they say, is history.   So let me move on and ask you, I'm  much older than you. But I remember in the   early 80s, when I was in ITC, and  talk about branding and launching,   they're very different agencies. Today, they have  transformed very substantially.   Tell me, how are you seeing technology  changing the way advertising functions? Yeah, you're absolutely right. Technology has  changed all aspects of business. And it has kind  

of thrown the advertising industry at the bus. And  many people have been squashed by it. But the real   good news is that technology is not moving fast.  We are all under the assumption that technology is   moving fast. It's only the young generation that  can figure it out. Because things are buzzing by, we really can't grab what's happening  on, all of that is actually a myth. The reality is   that technology is moving along very slowly, it's dragging its feet. And anyone can  

figure out technology, if you try to come out of  this fog, and this myth created, which is   that technology is moving very fast. So that's the  good news for all of our listeners. Wonderful. And then there is this whole new position  of digital marketing and I know you focus   a lot on digital marketing, what are some  of the challenges companies are facing? That's a very interesting question. And the  reality is that most digital marketing campaigns   tend to fail. And one of the reasons why they  tend to fail is that it's dominated as you know,  

by large search engines by a  few large social media platforms.   And so, they are between you and the end customer  who will actually make the final purchase. So,   they have made it virtually impossible to to get  a customer for the right acquisition cost.  

So which means you will have to pay more to get  a customer than the net margins you will make per   transaction. Which means most campaigns will  actually bleed money at the end of the day. Okay. And from a customer perspective, and when I say customer, I'm talking about the   brand manager. How have their expectations  changed from an advertising agency? Yes, so from their expectation, most brands  have experimented with in house agencies,   in the hope that they will have more control over  the platforms when they have people sitting the   office and controlling the platforms. But that  again is another myth. Because none of us control   the media. The media is been controlled by a  few search engines, a few social media platforms.  

And they are the people in between you and  the end customer. And they have put in various   layers of complexity so that you don't reach the  customer easily. Now, that is the negative side.   The positive side is, once you are smart enough  to figure out what exactly the customer wants,   and you have a great marketing message. And  your marketing message has a viral coefficient,  

which means if you're paying for one click,  and you're getting 10 clicks out of that,   because people are sharing your content and  your ads, then these search engines and these   social media platforms are very happy to give  you as much sales and as much traffic as you   wish. So they're not all negative. They're  just trying to weed out most of the people   who don't take the time to figure it out. And they  are very partial to people who are smart enough to   figure out how their system works. And they're  ready to give you as much sales as you wish. And again, if you look at the last  30-40 years, from big billboards to full page ads,   to cinema advertising, now the whole  thing is changed very significantly,   and almost entire communication is taking place  on your mobile phone. What   are the challenges of so many different types of  digital formats that marketers have to use?   In reality, that is not a big challenge, if you ask me. This is a myth that people   have, it's kind of fog, where people are losing  their way of different technological formats,   and how do we take control of the changes, which  is happening in technology and all of that.  

But at the end of the day, if you can figure out  what exactly is going through the consumers mind,   what are the problems they face? What are the  aspirations that they have? And you have a message   which resonates with that, and you find the right  creative, which can deliver that message to the   right person at the right time. Number one, you'll start getting sales. And number   two, you will start seeing that the same people,  they refer, they share these creatives among their   network, and then you have the viral coefficient,  working in your favor. And that's when the   sales starts to double. And the third thing that  happens is because these search engines and these   social media platforms have access to a lot of  data. They kind of know who your customers are,  

after your conversion starts. And they're happy  to introduce you to other customers out there   who are similar to the person who made a purchase.   So you can actually tap into these three  layers of sales, which is hidden out there   on these platforms, and you can see  an exponential growth in sales. Amazing. So Kishore, a lot of our viewers  and listeners are startup entrepreneurs,   and one of the challenges they all seem to  have is how do they start formulating their own   marketing strategy? And with so many different  social media platforms, which one should they   go to? I'd love to get your perspective. Yeah, sure. So we are looking at two different   things here. One is which platform to choose.  And more importantly, what message to convey. I would advise everyone who's starting off  to actually concentrate on your customer.  

So have the 10 dream clients that you wish to work  with, plotted on a piece of paper. And you would   look at what are the kinds of challenges those  industries are going through. And then you will   also look at the decision makers in those  companies. And you can do that with LinkedIn,   look at the kinds of posts that are being made.  And you figure out what are the challenges that   these decision makers in these companies are  facing. And if you create a marketing message,   which is answering all of those problems. So  that is your marketing message, number one.  

And number two, when you want to figure out which  channel to use, that obviously comes from where   your decision makers are hanging out. So if they  are on Instagram, you should be on Instagram. If   they are on LinkedIn, you should be on LinkedIn.  But a word of advice is it's better to concentrate   with one message and one channel rather than 10  messages and being all over the place because we   all have limited energies. And it's better  to focus all of that on one channel and go deep.   Rather than spreading ourselves thin  and making posts on LinkedIn, on Facebook,   and Instagram and TikTok and not doing a good job.  So it's better to go deep down. Spend some time   really figuring out the problems being faced  in the industry and coming up with solutions,   which would be useful for the end user.

The other thing that often comes up as a  challenge is that now with these different   kinds of formats, communication needs to be  done in 5 seconds, 7 seconds, 10 seconds.   How does one give a message about your  brand in such a short period of time? I'm glad you asked that question. And this is  again, another myth that we all tend to believe   that people have very low attention spans  and your message has to be very quick, can   you need to deliver your message within  seconds. So this is again, one myth we  

all believe. So how do you break this myth?  Just look at your own consumer behavior, you will   spend three hours watching a series on Netflix  without blinking your eyes. So how did you spend   180 minutes watching that series or that movie?  Because it was interesting. And the same  

thing conveys to your marketing message. Can I say  something which is interesting to the audience?   If you can answer some of the questions buzzing  around in the target audience brain, they would   definitely wake up and they would look at you or  they would go through the message, they would read,   they would consume, and more importantly, they  will think about it. And when they think about it,   they're giving you mind space and mind space  is one media that no one can actually purchase.   So once you enter mind space, most of your work  is done, because your brand is embedded forever   in their brains. And that will give you a  great advantage over your competition. Fantastic. So Kishore, let me now move to your  other area of expertise, which is the metaverse.  

For our very young audience and  for a lot of older on, let's   start by asking you what is the metaverse? Yeah, sure. That's a very interesting question.   And this actually comes from the first myth, which  we broke, which is technology is moving fast.   So the metaverse has been around for 20 years.  And no one really realized it was around us.  

So there was a site called Second Life, which  started in 2003. So they were kind of round,   before Facebook and before Instagram and most  of the large brand names that we are exposed to.   So Second Life is very good creating avatar and you could roam about in a virtual world.   And you could enjoy life, you could have a fight  and things like that. Now suddenly, because large  

brands like Facebook have rebranded into meta,  and they are creating an immersive experience.   Metaverse has suddenly become very popular  and everyone is moving into that. So Metaverse   definitely is experience based. It's giving  you a virtual world where you can play games,   you can coexist with others, you can have  chats, and you can have multiple activities,   but everything is experienced based. Probably if  you have an Oculus Rift, you can have a 3D vision   of your virtual environment. But you can also  do it using your mobile phones and your laptop.   So when any new trend comes along, a few  brand players will start dominating and   once they dominate, that really can stay forever.  So if you look at cola's,  

we know that there is only Coca Cola, there is  Pepsi, and then there is 7up, taking top of   our mind. The same thing, if you look at mobile  phones, we have an apple, we have a Samsung.   And then we have HUAWEI, for example, as a  third brand competing for it. Now the same   thing has happened in the metaverse, you have a  decentraland, which is very strongly out there,   you have the sandbox. And then you have a few  small players like x infinity, for example,  

taking that space. Now this is where the large  players like Facebook and Google are kind of   worried that they have been a little slow to  the game. And even with the meta verses that   we are creating, like horizon world and other  platforms, it's not getting as much traction. And  

this is because the mind space is taken. And once  a mindspace is taken, no matter how big you are,   no matter how many billions you have in your bank  account, you simply can't buy people's attention   and their thoughts. So decentraland is the center  of the metaverse right now. And I don't think   anyone will be able to challenge  that, at least in the near future.

Interesting. And my next question to you is  that as a marketing and advertising guru,   how do you see the metaverse changing communication, marketing of brands? So once the metaverse adoption increases,  and definitely, it is on the rise. So you can   see behind the scenes that developers, a lot of  developers are moving into the metaverse. They are  

getting into the 3D environment. They are getting  into coding which can support the blockchain and   the metaverse. So definitely, the adoption from the younger generation, the   millennials, the Gen Z, and all of that is moving  towards the metaverse. So there is no doubt in   my mind that the future belongs to the metaverse.  But at the same time from a marketing perspective,   being the metaverse per se is not going to  solve all of your marketing challenges. Because   the marketing challenge that you have right now,  the physical world and social media are the same   that you're going to face the metaverse. So if you  can't really figure out who your end customer is,  

you can't figure out what their problem is.  And you can figure out what is the unique   selling proposition or the unique offer that you  have, which can talk to them, then probably the   metaverse is not going to solve that problem.  It's just that it's a new media which has come   along and people are going to enjoy that immersive  experience. But brands will have to be smarter over   their marketing message. Because it's only  the delivery mechanism which is changing. Very interesting. And yet, Kishore there  are multiple meta verses. Every  

major company seems to  be wanting to create their own. What do you see,   as your prediction over the next few years, will  there be two or three big players like you said,   there are Samsung and Apple and so many others  and or will there be multiple multiverses? So, we will see the same marketing principle  work out which is you will have couple of large   metaverses like Decentraland, you will have the  Sandbox and you will have X infinity, for example.   But at the same time, as you rightly said, all  companies are building their own metaverses. And   these metaverses will start talking to each other.  Because already these tunnels are being created,  

technology is being built up where from one metaverse you can move to the other one, just like you   click a link on a website and you go to another  website. So Metaverse is going to be a network   of small metaverses where you can move from one  metaverse to the other. And if you want to reach   a broader space, you can just enter Decentraland and after playing games there, you feel a little   bored, and you click and you go to Sandbox, and  then you enjoy your time there. And then you feel  

okay, now I need to do some tech building. So let me  go to X infinity, so you can go to X infinity.   So it's going to be an infinite world of small  metaverses, and they are all interconnected.   That's how I see the future building up. Wonderful. So I've got time for one   more question. And this question is for the many,  many people who will listen to our conversation.  

Based on your vast experience in advertising,  marketing, and the metaverse. What would you say   are three lessons you would want our viewers and  listeners to take away from our conversation? That's a very interesting question. And my number  one lesson would be to jump into it and move ahead   very quickly. Because most people what they do is  they tend to wait around and see if it matures,  

or it fades away as a trend. And they are  always late to the game. This is what happened   with social media when Facebook came along,  many other players had an opportunity to build   their own social media. They all waited and then  Facebook's became so big that it was too late   for anyone to do any thing. So my advice  would be to jump into the metaverse, build your own   Metaverse, experiment with things, play  around-break things and see how it goes.   So even if nothing happens, you will have a very  enriched experience from the whole thing that you have created.  So do not wait for this thing to become a big   trend is my number one advice. Number  two would be to look at the marketing angle on  

the metaverse per se. And that would come from  the marketing angles that you're creating in your   social media world, in your search engine world  and the real life challenges that   you're facing and trying to adopt that messages to  the metaverse. So already platforms have come up,   wherein you can advertise in one place and it  will be seen on all banners on metaverses within   Decentraland, for example, the game is happening  in Decentraland. And you want to advertise on the   virtual billboards you can do that. So the  format's are already available. It's the   marketing messages that cannot be created. And  this is something which you need to be creating  

from yourself. Number three is to fund your metaverse experience using your non metaverse world.   So if you look at some of the  most successful businesses online,   it would look like it is e-commerce, but there are  aggregator sites like booking.com, which has done   SEO and anyone trying to book a hotel will reach  booking.com and from booking.com, they divert that   to hotels, and when people book a room in a  hotel, booking.com gets a commission. Their commissions   are in billions. So these are very, very  successful companies. And that's all coming from a  

non-metaverse world because as you know, there are  more than 6 billion searches happening on Google   itself. So do your SEO, do your social media, get  all this free traffic, convert this traffic into   sales and and put a part of that income which  is coming from there into building your metaverse.   So using a non-metaverse world to build your metaverse world could be a slogan that you could use.

Wonderful. Kishore on that note. Thank  you so much for speaking to me. Thank you for   your amazing pieces of advice, which is jump in  and move ahead now. Look at the marketing angle   or the metaverse and use your non-metaverse  profits to fund your metaverse. Thank you so  

much for speaking to me about advertising,  marketing, about branding, the digital world.   And thank you for agreeing to talk to me today.  Good luck in everything that you're doing. Thank you so much. And if anyone wants no further  information, they can reach out to seosouq.com or  

they can search for me on LinkedIn, Kishore Dharmarajan and I'm quite active over there. Thank   you and have a great day. Thank you very much.   Thank you for listening to The Brand Called You,  videocast and podcast. A platform that brings you   knowledge, experience and wisdom of hundreds of  successful individuals from around the world.  

Do visit our website, www.tbcy.in to watch and listen to the stories of many more  individuals. You can also follow us on YouTube,   Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Just  search for The Brand Called You

2022-07-12

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