Summary of NASSCOM MarTech Summit 2022

NASSCOM MarTech Summit 2022 was a virtual event that took place on January 21, 2022. The theme for this year’s event was “Re-thinking the 4Ps: A new Marketing Technology paradigm.”

According to the event’s website, “The event will help you understand what should be centralized and what should be bespoke, identifying where consistency helps and where it hinders, highlighting the confluence of strategies, operations, and technologies required to drive growth.”

Topics discussed at the event:

• Re-Thinking the 4Ps
• Marketing Operations
• Data-Driven Approach
• The Age of CX
• Virality of news
• Agility is everything
• Right Tech Stack
• Key Trends of MarTech
• AI-First Strategy

In this post, I summarize key points from some of the sessions I attended.

The role of data analytics in customer experience (CX)

The first session I attended was “Attaining CX Nirvana with Data & Analytics,” presented by Nirav Bhatia, Associate Director, Customer Intelligence at SAS. Nirav shared these interesting statistics:

• 71% of consumers say that personalized emails would influence their decision to open and read them
• Omnichannel communication and personalization efforts can boost revenue by 15%

According to Nirav, customer experience is a point of competitive differentiation that creates brand advocacy and loyalty. He shared these five steps to reach CX Nirvana:

1. A single view of the customer
2. An analytical ecosystem
3. Cross-channel, AI-guided segmentation
4. Intelligent journey orchestration and personalization
5. Performance tracking and reporting

The emergence of conversational messaging

The next session I attended was titled “Conversational Messaging – the most upcoming Marketing Tool for businesses.” It featured the following panel:

• Ashish Bajaj, Head Of Marketing, MediBuddy
• Saurabh Agrawal, Sr Vice President-Analytics & CRM, Lenskart
• Utsav Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer, Noise
• Vipul Oberoi, Director of Marketing, Dun & Bradstreet India

The panel was asked about the use of conversational messaging in the pre-purchase journey. The panel cited research that reported that 75% of consumers prefer to engage in conversational messaging during the pre-purchase stage.

Outbound marketing is being used to complement conversational messaging – a combination of bot interactions and outbound messages can take prospective customers to the right page on websites for relevant offers.

Once users convert to customers, natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis can be used to optimize conversational messaging in the post-purchase phase.

Conversational messaging can be used to sustain trust and assurance with customers. In addition, by understanding the nuances of customer behavior, conversational messaging can build deeper connections with customers.

Re-imagining martech for digital customer experience

Next, I attended a session titled “RE-IMAGINE MarTech for Digital Customer Experience.” The session featured this panel:

• Abhinav Kumar, Vice President Marketing, Paytm
• Sarika Naik, Chief Marketing Officer & Chairperson, Diversity-India, Capgemini
• Bharath Vaidyanathan, Senior Director & Head-Data, Analytics & Campaigns, Hansa Cequity
• Madhavi Irani, Director, Customer Engagement, Enrich

The panel was asked to weigh in on the expectations of Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) from their peers and from the CEO. The CMO is now responsible for understanding and improving customer lifetime value, revenue and digital transformation of customer experience, said the panel.

CMO’s are expected to manage the “umbrella” of all brand communications and ensure that the entire organization communicates clearly and consistently. It’s expected that the CMO and her marketing organization be “one-on-one with everyone.”

In terms of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), the panel mentioned conversion percentage, customer retention, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT).

Influencer marketing

The last session I attended was titled “Leveraging Influencers to drive marketing vehicle,” presented by Vineeta Singh, Co-founder and CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics. Vineeta said that success in influencer marketing starts with the level of authenticity from the influencers.

Paid channels, such as Facebook ads and Google ads come with a high customer acquisition cost. Earned media by way of influencers can yield comparable results at a lower cost. Influencers should be involved not only for promotion but for input on product development and packaging, said Vineeta. Incorporating their experiences and feedback can help create better products.

Vineeta has witnessed an explosion in the number of influencers and the number of conversations they’re having. On content formats, she said that short-form video is getting the highest engagement. Consumers are spending a lot of time on mobile devices. Engaging with influencers on mobile has led to more purchasing activity from customers.

Looking out five years from now, Vineeta sees an emergence of social commerce. Metaverse influencers will use augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) to promote products and create personalized experiences.

Wrapping up

I found the NASSCOM MarTech Summit sessions quite interesting. I’d like to attend other marketing technology events that happen this year. At Lohika, we have the opportunity to work with numerous marketing technology companies. Learn more about our work on the Marketing Technology page.