Some of the best marketing minds of our times gathered in the chandeliered conference hall of The Four Seasons Hotel in Mumbai to discuss new ideas and techniques to speak to the Indian consumer at The Pitch CMO Summit 2014 yesterday. This year, the event is being held across two cities – Mumbai (24^th March) and Delhi (27^th March).



The annual event organised by Pitch, the marketing magazine of the exchange4media group was powered by general entertainment channel Colors in association with Headlines Today, supporting partners WATConsult, co-partners Global Advertisers and airline partners United Airlines.



The overarching theme of the night was ‘Reinventing brands’. Marketerstook to the podium to share their success stories, insights and experiences of heralding their brands into a new era of marketing. Some of the important topics discussed were building brand loyalty, the art of brand activations and reinventing brands for earning growth and consumer preference.



Mr. HemantBakshi, Executive Director, Home & Personal Care, Hindustan Unilever,highlighted the paradigm shift from conventional to more participative methods of marketing in his keynote address. ‘Always keep the consumer at the heart of whatever you do. Last year at the KumbhMela, we hired a hundred promoters to stamp the message of “Have you washed your hands with Lifebouy?” on 2.5 million rotis to highlight personal hygiene. It came good for us.’ He rounded off his talk by saying, ‘Put people first, build brand love and unlock the magic.’



Vasantha V Kumar, Director, Marketing & Communications, India & South Asia, IBM,spoke about how the digital medium will influence the experiential marketing industry in times to come. Technology must be used to create immersive digital-physical experiences. Brands can leverage these experiences to mine data for insights and marketing, he said.



The evening also saw a case presentation of the JiyoBefikar Champs activation by Mr. Rituraj Bhattacharya, Head Product Development & Marketing Management, Bajaj Allianz. The campaign saw five talented children earn a trip to the Allianz Arena football stadium in Munich. ‘Such activities help generate priceless user generated content and ensures people live an experience that stays with them forever,’ he asserted.