Learning real ways to drive growth in change

At Star FLOW – The Change Festival, a host of workshops and knowledge-sharing sessions were held in parallel, enabling marketers to learn about diverse topics – from sonic branding and targeted content for millennials to the best Indian brands. They also heard Susan Credle, Global Chief Creative Officer of advertising firm FCB, talking about marketing to new-age women.

In one such jam-packed workshop, Matt Webb, chief technology officer of digital agency Mirum, gave a presentation on the growing utilities of virtual reality (VR). He said the emergence of e-commerce over the years has prompted brick-andmortar retailers to use VR in various forms to attract consumers.



“You’ll see a lot of augmented reality in high street fashion and grooming fashion. There’s a fantastic demo (of) people being able to check what their hair colour will be live in front of the saloon window using a simple AR (augmented reality) technique, again using artificial intelligence,” he said. “…a little bit like trying to reclaim the high street back from Amazon.”

Ashish Mishra, MD of Interbrand India, said it is necessary for companies to innovate to stay in business.

“Our own league table - best global brands ranking of top 100 brands by value – Nokia was at No. 5 in 2009. In 2012, it just dropped off the table,” he said in the workshop on the best Indian brands. “It’s no longer about somehow co-existing with change. It’s about the only real ways to drive growth in change. If you don’t do that, you perish.”