'Separating advertising from integrated marketing communication is tough today'

The second panel discussion at the Pitch Madison Advertising report brought in reputed professionals from various sectors to discuss and share insights on Integrated Marketing Communication under the topic ‘Are Advertisers undervaluing the role and importance of IMC?’.

On the panel were Somasree Bose, Chief Marketing Officer, Marico; Vinay Subramanyam, Chief Marketing Officer, Pidilite Industries Ltd and Ashwin Moorthy, Chief Marketing Officer, Godrej Consumer Products Limited. The session was chaired by Vikram Sakhuja, Partner and Group CEO, Madison Media and OOH.

Sakhuja opened the session by asking the speakers about that one IMC campaign that has been close to their hearts. Bose was the first to go. “My favourite is the one where we launched the brand Godrej Aer, especially because there was no money. It will be about 10 years old now. It is a home freshener brand and we had launched it in 2012. The best part is when you are launching a brand, the budget is absolutely limited. If there is some spare money after the core categories and brands in the company, you would be spending on this. That is where we actually tried experiential marketing. We had to go much beyond television, which was a traditional media and at that time, digital was just about taking off. So, we used all sorts of sources of reach while maximising on ROI for every penny spent. With limited money, what we did was, within three years, we actually became the market leaders.”

Moorthy defined IMC by elucidating that IMC done well is basically an idea that derives from its strategy. “I think if you have ideas that lines itself well with what your initial advertising strategy was, and are able to use the medium in order to develop or build on the strategy it would be defined as IMC. It is the use of multimedia and understanding the nuances of different media and being able to adapt core advertising ideas into ideas that deliver the same communication job. But do it in a way that fits the medium,” he added.

Subramanyam further stated, “In every action, we do as a marketer, you will see a lot more investment going into performance than what it used to. Many of us are spending a lot more on what we think or what we are able to really attribute to good ROI.” 

Concluding the session Bose conveyed, “Separating advertisement from IMC is a little tough task in today’s world because you have to reach out to the consumers where they are today. So, TV and digital have to go hand-in-hand. The need for IMC or changing the advertisement which you usually use actually depends on what is the brand’s objective. Consistent message from the brand is critical and you reach out with that message where you think the consumer is at that point in time.”