The agenda for Stream India 2017 is in your hands. There are six session times a day, hosted in nine different meeting spaces. Each session runs for 1 hour (give or take) and all sessions are led by you, the Stream participants. Here's how it works:
The Stream team is on hand to help. Please get in touch if you'd like to talk an idea through before posting, or would like help finding some co-hosts.
In a world obsessed with big data, there are magical answers found in smaller data sets or just a singularity that set off breakthroughs. Resurrection of LEGOs or how Lays beat Pringles in China owe those successes to just such moments Let's share and celebrate those magical insights that can't be found via algorithms running wild on databases. Besides, behind, beyond or between its"big brother"
Multiple businesses across the world have been in denial mode w.r.t. arrival of ecommerce! However, some embraced it with open arms, deciding to ride the transformation. Lets jam together to talk about consumer journeys, opportunities for dhanda in a holistic manner. And demise of advertising as we knew it!
What do marketers aim to do everyday? influence consumer decision in their favor. What happens when consumers leave their decision making to AI? Lets chat about how your daily world could change!
I believe technology is helping us move forward, with speed and efficiency. I also believe technology is slowing me down. I believe technology is simplifying my life. I also believe that it’s taking away the simplicity I want from life. The question I ask myself often is that “Am I an addict but don’t want to acknowledge it? What about you?
There is a popular saying that DR OR Die. On the other hand, Coca Cola along with many brands that consistently figure in the list of world’s most valued brands focus mainly on brand communication. So, what’s the right approach? There are two schools of marketers and the answer probably exists somewhere in between. Pl join Sandeep and me to discuss this. We don’t pretend to know the answers and look forward to co-create the approaches that will work for various marketers.
Can we rethink consumption patterns, rethink life cycle of products and to embody a cradle to cradle approach? Can we change our lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles? Can we reduce what we trash in landfills and incinerators to zero? Everyone is invited to workshop and making "zero waste" personal care products while talking trash.The question I am asking is: why not prevent waste in the first place?
The rise of ultra-left and nationalist feelings is now happening across the world. Trump, Brexit, Marine Le Pen, and even to some extent Modi, are all symptoms of the same underlying issues. Why is it happening now? And do brands need to take a stance on these issues too?
We all want their attention, we want them to talk to us, engage with us and in the process be our evangelist to the digital world. Think like a publisher is an earnest effort to have a dialogue with the audience@Stream on how can brands benefit by understanding what the internet generation is consuming and what role can collaboration play.
India has witnessed sporadic eruptions of stirs and unrest over the last few years. On the surface some of them seem to be propelled by economic compulsions while some others seem to be driven by cultural issues. But stripped of all the outward manifestations, are they all really about reclaiming identity? Are they all isolated local issues or are there some underlying threads of commonality?
It’s not just the millennial you should be worried about, it’s the informed consumer. Talking to a generation that is well informed, cynical and ready to call you out on your smallest misstep, we as marketers can never be too careful. Are we taking consumers for a ride by exploiting advocacy to a point of no return?
With the speed of technology and innovation in digital - should creative and media agencies once again be under the same roof?
Or the immersive experience we've been waiting for?" Steve Kalifowitz, Director of Brand Strategy, jAPAC w/ Food Blogger Celebrity Kalyan Karmarkar - @FinelyChopped
Fact: 62% of marginalised Indian students drop out of school before passing the 10th standard, lacking the basic education and vocational skills required to earn a livelihood. By 2025, we will have 500 million jobs, which only 2% of formally trained students can fill in. This is because vocational training, leading to blue collared professions like plumbers, electricians, beauticians, tailors are for ‘losers’ who didn’t make it to college. This is a real problem we have the WPP Foundation. We are the clients and we have budgets.Help us understand how we can change attitudes of 500 million Indians and make Vocational training sexy and aspirational to them.
Our society is in danger ... from many sources, and ideas and ideology is a big part of things. Recent rise of fake news (and more accurately perhaps, hate news) clearly demonstrates the problem we are up against. This session explores how we can build digital tools and communities to counter the rise of fake news etc. Important topic, so your ideas and intellects are needed, please help! :)
Meditation is all the rage these days, yoga is in. This session explores what it all actually is ;-) But from our own background, rooted in the Upanishads, we already know the Truth. Meditation is a way to gain true Understanding of this world, and it culminates in the ability to see for yourself what is Real, and what is Unreal. Come to this talk for a bunch of philosophy and conversation, and exchange notes about your practice if you like! P. S. - it even has business value!
As competition heats up in the Indian market players such as Jio have driven a paradigm shift by launching their free data offer. Is predatory pricing the new weapon? Do the good old tenets of brand marketing cease to matter as much? Is India (at least majority of it) a pure price driven market? Join the discussion to debate and discuss these and many more such angles to what promises to be a never before witnessed time for the Indian marketer.
First we lost it to drains. then gods. then urine. then hawkers. then shops. then to general encroachment. At a time when urban density and traffic are fast becoming unsolvable problems, how do we ensure that future generations can walk? How can we make sure that walking remains possible, pleasurable and safe? How do we reclaim our foot paths?
Why do we always speak of politics in third person? Why do we never use lofty adjectives when we describe politicians? Why are they never perceived with the same trust, admiration and respect as a corner office CXO? Can we make politics a more organized sector? How can we ensure that it is a career path people aspire for? Is it about training or building transparent organizations or both? Is there more to it?
The internet and related technologies have radically altered the way we live and interact with each other. Not to be left behind, everything money and commerce too have seen significant disruption in the last decade. We'll take a look at some of the larger trends in the fintech world covering everything from your neighbourhood grocer becoming your banker to how institutions redefine the meaning of trust. It's a brave new world out there for finance. Get a glimpse of it in this discussion.
We all love to travel. Today people are traveling more, staying away for longer periods. This generation travels more often than other generations.. for Business for Leisure! Let’s look at some of the travel trends of tomorrow. ((Once-a-year activity is now Several short breaks, Traveling=unconnected is now Traveling= Constantly connected to social media, Switzerland is now Iceland, Personal Service is now Automated and low touch.)) Let's look at some of the breakthrough technologies & new destinations that will shape the global travel industry.
As any new marketplace style start-up grows, there is the invariable struggle between B2B and B2C. Many start-ups run in both modes in parallel. Is this the best approach? How to leap frog from a B2B model; which brings in revenue but requires that personal touch; to the promised land of high volume standardized B2C model where huge marketing spends are needed.
Certainly not on Naukri or Linkedin! It's common knowledge that the best talent is not often actively looking for opportunities. They are also not mostly attracted to positions. Instead, what attracts them is the work itself, the culture and vision of the company. How can we communicate this to attract the best talent to come work with us?
Each of us has heard the statement "That's the stupidest idea I have ever heard" at least once in our life. They are typically said because the proposed idea probably defies the conventional thinking at the time. However, some folks have made a career out of executing to those ideas successfully. This conversation should shed light on the power and value of contrarian thinking using examples from Starbucks (who will ever pay so much money for coffee?) to Fedex to other such companies and the takeaways for us in our personal and professional lives
LinkedIn is the world's largest platform and used by everyone to maintain their professional identity and for professional growth. However, when it comes to leveraging the platform for their brands, there are a lot of per-conceived notions about what the platform can or cannot deliver.
While there has been emergence of plethora for OTT players from hotstar to Voot with multiple video formats from in-stream pre rolls to vertical Videos, Is Digital Video as good as TV for Brand story telling & have brands invested enough time and budgets for Digital Video formats Do we have the right measurements techniques for Brand KPI on Digital Video vis a vis TV. Is there a need for Programmatic TV buying and central attribution platform for TV and Digital
Most of us have been raised on the traditional notion of a three-stage approach to our working lives: education, followed by work and then retirement. But this well-established pathway is already beginning to collapse. As life expectancy is rising, job security and pensions are vanishing, and an increasing numbers of people are juggling multiple careers. Whether we are 18, 45 or 60, we will need to do things very differently from previous generations and learn to structure our work and professional life in completely new ways. The discussion will deliberate on how one can learn to make the transitions needed for this new way of living, working and learning?
According to research, people identify with one or more of the following six workplace personality types - realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. While, no one is in a fixed bucket, most people have a combination of two or more types - for example : social-enterprising or conventional-realistic. It is also said that people who are the most successful and fulfilled in their careers tend to work in an environment compatible with their workplace personality type. Hence, the discussion will try and understand the nuances of our personalities better and match each to an ideal workspace, from open offices to private spaces to telecommuting.
Fashion is an emotional purchase focused on self-expression and the human touch is needed. Yet the role of data keeps increasing in fashion. Some say the most intelligent and empathetic solutions invoke both left and right brained approaches. True ? How far can we go in this direction? Where else can it be applied?
All digital content seems to be veering towards the under 25s while the online spending power rests with their mothers. Are we pressing the right buttons to involve the real decision makers?
While advertisers & marketers are looking for the right formula to monetise, amplify viewership on this medium, who is really focussing on the next big thing? Where is the next GOOP story coming from? Are we forever going to be led by the bottle flippers, the abusers and the flashers or will some real talent find takers?
As per a study on Open defecation, 47% of respondents find defecating in open "Pleasurable and Comfortable". Another report suggests that many of the newly built toilets are unused or used to store grain or to tether goats. Most feel that toilets are just for women. How do we leverage the power of behaviour change communication to make world a better place. Let us together explore the power of SBCC (Social & Behaviour Change Communication) and what is needed to make India OD free
Hotstar says go solo; food courts in India offer variety so that each can choose what to eat; why is FMCG still so obsessed with the typical Family Packs? What will make it viable to cater to the individuals choice, portion packs, multiple variants? Any breakthrough in packaging? Will shopping move from "for the family" to by the family - each deciding & planning their own meals? What happens to the older - empty nest generation? Is the idea of family changing? How do we cater the new family?
There is an increase of clutter and excessive waste in the competitive marketplace. We find ourselves bombarded with information and options for everything. Can we step back and think before we do.
Is it possible to achieve the elusive myth of following your passion and personal development with a fast paced career path focused on professional skills and excellence? Can we marry the two by looking at the needs of the next-generation workforce through concepts of remote working, experience based reward programs, sabbaticals and entrepreneurship? Looking for some answers..
- Everyone's connected, everyone's talking, everyone's a marketer. So what's real and what's not? - I believe my friends. Not what you tell me - I'm ever connected, yet most difficult to catch - Do you really know me? the online me and the real me ... are two different people! - and such else!
3D printing has been making news across verticals like manufacturing, fashion, healthcare and food. How would this impact the everyday life? What is possible today and what is for future? Limitations Vs expectations.
What will it take for India to be a truly Product-tech Super Power? Should it be following the path of China to be a manufacturing giant or should it be following paths of innovative tech countries like Israel or should it be a mix of both? How do you make it sustainable? What should be the role of tech-startups in making that happen? What is stopping India from achieving its greatness in tech domain?
Software is eating the world, Marc Andreesen famously said. Besides software and advertising, many other industries predominantly employ knowledge workers whose tangible work output is created on a computer. With device & task mobility and ubiquitous connectivity, it's time to rethink how we work. Perhaps, "Out Of Office" should be the norm?
Yup. Because we, grown-ups have monumentally messed up our world. Think about it - pollution, bad air, no toilets, no place to play, not enough schools, bad roads, violence, crime, plastic in the ocean, girls are not playing enough. If the only solution is to reach every child, every where in the world ( say a 100 million of them), empower them to right our wrongs, give them the choice of changing, saving our world, taking over, going sustainable, starting enterprises, living with empathy, having a better life - how would you do it? And now. There’s no time left. P.S - Every kid, everywhere, means just that.
For girls. For boys. Because in schools, government schools, often private schools, in cities, in villages - the most remote one you can think of, more often than not, kids (and grown-ups who like playing) don’t have a safe place to play. A place that is not encroached, a place that has toilets, a room to change, lights to play after dark, grown ups to help them, coach them. It’s fun to play. Everyone should play. And it’s great for our overall existence. Why then are we (grown-ups, media, government, Justin Trudeau, the universe) doing nothing (or not enough) to change this situation? Right to play. Revolt to play.
Most of the time as a marketer we consider the views & engagement metrics to gauge the success of any video be it a pure story content or commercial ad. Sometimes even we don't consider how many people actually completed 100% of the video. I promise this is going to be a fun discussion. We will break down all the various ways to analyze watch time across platforms & the importance of it by applying some use cases around.
Does segmentation & understanding your audience's behaviour across social video platforms (YT,FB,Twitter,Instagram,Snapchat) help you create better marketable content? When it comes to data, people talk a lot about social listening. I believe you cannot wait for people to talk about something to know weather they like a certain kind of content or not. An open discussion for people who somewhere deep in their heart believe that success of a video not only depends on content but also on how you use data and insights.
Metro millennials read English dailies but watch local language TV/ Movies? How does this extend to digital advertising? Is there merit in localizing non-audio based native or banner advertising? Let's share learning and build a consensus.
Can brands use content effectively to impact business. Are we looking at the right metrics and do we end up putting the brand ahead of the content. Do we have the staying power to let the the content goodness kick in. What do we need to make this marketing channel succeed both from the creators and the brand owners standpoint.
Often times we see that creative minds come up with ideas which are then reflected in our every day lives many years down the line. Isaac Asimov spoke about video calling and robots in the 1940s. In an age where technology can be the answer to so many of our problems, can we create an avenue for the best creative minds in the country to meet the best technology minds in the industry and tackle some of our very basic problems, from affordable healthcare, to clean water, to income inequality! A forum that leads to implementation of certain ideas as well
For a country which is famous for its storytelling tradition and makes the most movies in the world today, what does it take for the creative industry, content creators and marketing & communication wizards to create global best-sellers in content from India ? A compelling freewheeling discussion for all those interested in STORYTELLING IN A GLOBAL WORLD.
While social media is here to stay, social media platforms may however come & go. In the evolution of social media platforms, what more would you want out of it, as a brand? What next? Questions that I ask myself/my team, and would love to discuss with you all: 1. How do brands interact better with people on social media? 2. How do people interact with each other about brands on social media, in a better way? 3. Is there an opportunity for a social media platform to be centered around brands / what brands stand for? 4. If at all, can such a platform be built out of India? 5. How can marketing be done best with & via people v/s at them?
Mindshare
Irrespective of integrating as many data sets as possible, marketers still do not know if they reached the same consumer from YouTube and/or from Facebook or from any other platforms. This is the single largest challenge marketers have, dealing with the walled gardens; single largest “dis-service” the digital platforms are doing to themselves in the online advertising world, by zealously guarding their own data. The reality is that there will be another world which is "off the grid" and probably the consumers will live to keep it that way - will remain to be 50% of the universe, by choice; until the Internet of Things wires the entire Universe.
Mindshare
We are most definitely entering a new era. An era post globalisation and digitization; where after M having delivered his operating system, it is the Oracle that is going to disturb the status quo with her micro communities. For every force of “globalization” there is now an equally strong and emerging force of “recognition” – one that is pushing the humanity towards some measurable and supporting identity to which it can cling on to – to give it a purpose – here and now.
How is musical expression evolving? How is technology affecting it? Are acoustic instruments and traditional live performance styles under threat? Should they be “protected” and supported more? Or should we let humanity and pop-culture take its course?
Talk to Parvati from Seva ka pura, Rajasthan, Akanksha from Mihraulia, UP and Alfa from Kumardhi, Jharkhand as they share their experiences of how Internet opened up a new world for them and how they are now committed changing the lives of their communities as Internet Saathis
Brazil's most successful telenovela Caminho Das Indias is a Brazilian production starring Portuguese actors playing Indian characters, based in India, shot in Brazil. Is there something to learn from this? Are we doing enough to satisfy the world that is hungry for Indian content? Can we or should we be doing more?
What an age to live in, right? Just go to your Twitter or Facebook and get all the information and updates from around the world. Let's discuss why it leads to the flow of selective information and how that is bad.
More than 50% of millennials say they would appreciate a brand/retailer to use emerging technologies to show them interesting products in more engaging ways. Join in to discuss HOW?
What does your social media timeline look like? Does your online persona accurately reflect who you are or do you carefully choose what you share in an attempt to control how you are perceived?
We live in a time where you can connect with an unlimited number of profiles before you can say 'Uber'. What does this mean for relationships? Is marriage going to die? Does love have a chance? Do we even need to meet in real-life? Utopia? Dystopia? With the CEOs of Tinder, Floh & TrulyMadly at Stream 2017, this is a session that you don't want to miss :)
Are Indian companies really innovating? Is it a case of innovation always ON or NO innovation at all. Only 5 Indian companies made it to the Forbes 100 Most Innovative Companies list. What will it take for more companies to drive innovation within?
How do leaders keep the young workforce motivated today? Is it a mix of chemistry and capability and experience? Recasting of KRAs that are productive but relatable? How do we change the game at work? These are some questions I think of. Try to find solutions. Have initiated some at work.Would love a discussion and views that help all of us in the industry.
Media is about content. In this discussion we will talk about how content is leaving the screens and entering into our lives in any form. Be it AR/VR or Spatial Projections. We will talk about how can you use these new mediums for advertising.
For how long brands emulate the western content formats for Indian audience? Is this the reason for few world-class Indian brands built on digital
- Regendering brands make men re-think at their life choices differently, in a culture where living with families is a social reality for the majority. - Does brand's template of viewing Indian problems of everything about being a man being evil is an abject generalization? - The growing recognition of need for man’s evolution is a national crises; can brand participate with the wisdom of holding back the positive values of Indian masculinity
What goes viral and why? Is it random, or is there a science behind it? Can virality be engineered? If Malcolm Gladwell had to determine a tipping point for virality, what would it be?
Digital specialists galore. Each with more than enough credits & expertise to justify their existence and growth. There is Mindshare, Group M, Wunderman, Culture Machine and more. Why then are most consumer brands at 5-15% of spends on digital ? Are the marketers clueless? Don't they have the digital marketing heads to drive digital agenda? Why are these digital marketeers not succeeding?Are their barriers outside the CPG organization ? As a CPG marketer myself, who is a digital evangelist, I firmly believe that addressing this, will unleash growth & progress ...
Those who were born in 80s remember the times of sharing scarcity. Food was a collective idea. Clothes too were up for grabs within family (and extended relatives). Love and relationships was easy - we just to had find that 'one' to settle with, and it was literally just 'one'. Now we are in the times of Tinder, Swiggy, Downloads and a host of entertainment services at just a click away and life ain't that easy as it was supposed to be. How to we find simplicity in a era of complexity, in an era of plenty?
First, there was the Internet of Things, the idea that we will become a networked society with our houses, cars, work and social circles. And it makes sense that if we are going to be connected through the internet, we need a financial system that works within that environment. Hence, the idea of the Internet of Money was born. A radical change in the form of financial innovation is imminent, and the answer is Cryptocurrency.
Since we're at an interesting point of in-flexion with technology bringing down barriers to collaboration & indeed even non-centralized production it would be interesting to discuss the direction humanity is projected to take with a fair bit of future gazing involved.
When TV viewership shows less than 1% audience share for English content and 50% content on mobile web & desktop is currently consumed in local languages and btw growing base then why is it that marketers are shying away and not investing behind digital advertising in language of choice? I know few reasons by interacting with marketers and would be keen to get your view on this subject and how do we make it happen!
If you are so smart, why aren’t you happy? How do you ensure you make consistently happy decisions? What’s the difference between Happy Smarts v/s academic smarts and career smarts.
Is value of each impression same ? Does value of each GRP same ? TV and online exposure comparable ?
The digital platforms have opened up regional and international market for musicians - from Dholavira to Denmark, well planned and well executed music content can resonate with people locally and globally! Can this kind of content enhance a brand's image?
Today, anyone can sell online, start a blog, get on social media, get the word out there. The world of fashion has never been so democratic. Nor has it ever been so crowded and competitive. So how do you create a brand that can stand apart from the clutter, and that has the potential to become truly iconic? (Can apply to other categories of brands as well.)
Unless news publishers are able to monetize their audience better, journalism is dead. This talk discusses the various techniques new media publishers are using to convert audiences into fans - ones who repeat, and generate meaningful, monetizable data for the publisher...
Wunderman Thompson
Are consumers switching between brands now more than before? Are brands innovation fast enough to add value for their customers and keep then loyal? What can companies to keep customers loyal? These are some of the questions we can discuss. Join the discussion to see what the future holds for customer loyalty. Can we find some answers.
Things are more real when we can touch. Today devices are smarter and cheaper and sensitive. They can tell you when they are not well and do things for you. But is IOT for real in India. If yes, then who will use it the most. Who will pay for this? Does the unit economics make sense to use IOT in India? Is it fashionable to use IOT?
Every human being in the world today is creating data. Feature phone, smart phone, no phone, digital, non-digital - billions of us creating data and more data and more data. This data is today available for free consumption by several entities. What is the best way to use this data? How can this data ever benefit the owner only? How secure are we?
Buying digital audiences is an established paradigm in digital marketing, particularly in the desktop world. The science of using cookies to track, profile and eventually address visitors to web sites is well understood. Unfortunately, as digital marketing dollars increasingly follow mobile users, these techniques are no longer useful. In this session we will highlight the important differences between mobile and desktop users and discuss the emergent ways in the industry to solve this issue and allow mobile audiences to be targeted
Politics & Violence are shaping the world today. That's not really new, coz its been happening for a few millennia now. The proliferation of media doesn't allow any story to be told one way. No one remains a hero for too long. How do we find role models to emulate in such a world ? Who do we look to, to see (& show) the right value systems ? What do we tell the next generation about how to choose their actions ?
India as per recent report by App Annie NASSCOM has joined the top 5 countries in 2016 for game downloads with over 1.6 billion of game downloads that will jump to 5.3B by 2020. Another report by Tune mentioned that 84% of smartphone users in India play games with at least 2-3 games regularly across all age groups from 8-55 years.What is though unique about gamers in India is they play more casual games,foreign games & don't have propensity to pay unlike the West or even East counterparts. While at one end game developers to make it big in India have to look at customization, sachetization, offline advertising at the other end brands need to figure out how can they engage with this rapidly growing community in an non-intrusive yet engaging way?
Pokémon Go has been monumental for gaming industry both globally and here in India in 2016.... Games have always played an important role in the history and mythology of India. Mobile like other spheres of our life also revolutionized gaming taking it to the masses...Since Indians don’t pay for games they have a high tolerance for ads in them. However, instead of billboarding the games with banners & interstitials it is interesting to look at new native & rewarded ads in the game...How can brands tell an interesting story natively in a game to enhance the gaming experience & still meet its objective of brand awareness and build interest... How can brands reach a mass audience instead of building a game ground up? ... Let's make ads beautiful beginning with games!
With chatbots, are we seeing the start of the next big shift in information dissemination and consumption? In what contexts are chat bots useful - e.g. discovery, transactions, customer support and more? Does a conversational UI have better ROI with respect to other channels such as websites, apps, SMS, USSD, call centers and more? What is the cost if a bot misfires in its response? Let's explore and # it out.
"Jesus, I still can't believe Trump is actually the POTUS! Where is Obama and where is Trump!!" is a refrain I hear from many. By the time we're in Stream, he would have taken charge of US's nukes officially. So what makes a uncouth bully like Trump tick? When did such a character become kosher? What can we learn from Trump style communications? Can it work for brands? This goes diametrically opposite to Anant's discussion topic around authenticity - I do understand that!
23 farmers kill themselves every day in India. 50 years ago, the Green Revolution saved the lives of Indian farmers and consumers. The next Revolution cannot be about seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, only. It is about data, information, market access, and the Cloud. Will the next green revolution be grey.
Uber, Airbnb and other platforms have massively disrupted traditional business models. They say that at the end, the platform business model will ALWAYS win over a traditional, pipe model. Think: The API economy, algorithms, big data, radically different business models. Why do you urgently need to think platforms, and how do you platformise your business?
The tech and financial world cannot stop talking about Blockchain. It is supposed to change everything, like the Internet did. How will it impact our life and business? Will it change the way we live and work like the Internet did, or is it just another fad?
Can you answer this existential question? Why does a publisher or an agency matter in the world of data-driven audience platforms like Facebook, Google, etc? And perhaps, a more useful sharing: see how our publishers & agencies are delivering $100+ CPMs in the age of Facebook.
The premise is that Indians will embrace their roots -- and, therefore, authenticity will command a premium. Authenticity will be back in food, music, clothes, health and medicine and literature -- and that will be a huge opportunity for brands and for marketers.
