There is an almost 300% increase in voice search: Prasanth Kumar, CEO, South Asia, GroupM

India’s foremost event on voice marketing, the eagerly awaited exchange4media-GroupM Voice Marketing Conference, finally took place on Thursday, July 15. One of the most awaited sessions of the day featured Prasanth Kumar, CEO, South Asia, GroupM, and Nawal Ahuja, Co-founder & Director, exchange4media, examining the opportunities for voice-based marketing for brands in India and setting the context for the day’s proceedings.

Discussing the massive push to digital adoption among consumers and companies alike, Kumar spoke of the evolution of the voice space. “There is a trend as well as the evolution of digital that the market has been witnessing. And what Covid has really done is make people do this faster and experiment things as consumers in different forms. And it is also therefore accelerating the utility of many of the technology aspects in our daily life, given the context that we're almost closer to 600 million active mobile users, almost 5 million smartphone users. There is an almost 300% increase in voice search,” he remarked.

Kumar also expounded on evolving voice to access service on the internet. “We will soon see many brands put to use the voice access service with many organizations, leveraging it in their business. We have seen this already as one of the fast evolving spaces for marketers to try out as well as engage with consumers,” he signalled.

Decoding trends when it comes to language in the voice space, Kumar shared, “As we say, we are not just one country, we are a combination of multiple countries, essentially because there are multiple languages and multiple cultures. So it's important to understand how the technology is getting enabled here. I think the Indian internet users are fast adopting the search tool and finding comfort in written languages, the engagement in local language, the fun way to communicate, and even learn.”

He indicated that we’re seeing that some big tech companies and voice platform companies like Alexa, Google and Jio are supporting regional languages and the importance of it. “Language is probably the fastest way to get to the heart of the country, so therefore it could be a secret success for many brands. Many of us are observing this: brands, marketers, the entire ecosystem. And I think there are multiple options and solutions which are emerging,” Kumar observed.

Advertising giant WPP has rolled out VoiceLab in the space. It welcomes in all clients and partners to come and experience the power of voice. “Voice is a very interesting space. We feel it's a fantastic trend where many marketers can create a larger impact to brands. From an agency perspective, for a purposeful communication for our clients, it is imperative to enable our clients, to lead our clients and hence we need to be a couple of steps ahead. Being a leader, the responsibility comes on to shape the market. So a lot more emphasis on how technology becomes a key priority for all of us,” Kumar asserted.