Generally it is seen that the Indian traditional media has became the mouth piece of marketing, promoting or advertising of the product and services to the audience. Wherein some feels that television commercial has maximum impact, while other take out-home-media as the alternative to reach the target group. But theres another group of people who opines that new media or the internet can do the same magic. And that is what was revealed at Eighth Digital Marketing Roundtable.

Eighth Digital Marketing Roundtable, organized by Ignitee India, the digital marketing agency and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has given a new touch to social media branding. The theme of the event How to use social media to build your brand has created a fine line to distinguish and explore the medium of new media advertising. 

The event came out with the result that social media, the highly discussed advertising space is a combination of many things, its a big genre among itself and is differentiated from the traditional media. 

The panelist who were discussing and explaining How to use social media to build your brand included Sanjay Tripathy, EVP Marketing HDFC Standard Life Insuarnce, Abdul Khan, CMO, Tata Docomo, Quateel Ahmed, SVP Advertising, SKumars Ltd, V.Ramani, vice chairman, Ignitee Digital Solutions Pvt Ltd, Rammohan Sundaram, founder, CEO and MD Networkplay.in. Atul Hegde, CEO Ignitee Digital Solutions moderated the panel discussion. 

Vijay Iyer, director – strategy and brand business, Komli Media says, “In comparison to the traditional media how the new media or social media that includes social networking sites, online portals among others can be different, are contents and activities done here are different. People are looking for jobs, B2B, B2C and other such activities.” 

The panelist are of opinion that the social media even brings in good return on investment and it plays a different role in educate and inform the audience. They also believe that word of mouth also enhance the brand market value. The social media helps the product can arrive to the desired audience. 

Abdul Khan, CMO, Tata Docomo says, “Bringing out our message to our audience through social media is a huge opportunity for us. Theres a need to develop a genuine value for the products and we have to do tangible things to promote our products and services. For instance, Linkedin.com has four million profiles of people so they are the desired target audience which the company will look for.” 

Even though the digital penetration has got a strong hold in country like India, new media still struggles. The jury team from the Eighth Digital Marketing Roundtable, feels that the broadband or the digital systems that exists today was not the same a decade ago, so the traditional media has the lion share of the entire media, advertising and marketing revenue. There are some new advertisers who dont know about the working of social media and hence they needs to be educated. 

Think of a idea, listen to the people, identify the target audience, fast, frequent and creative approach, understanding the medium and link it with the traditional media, trust and monetisation are the factors that finally the jury members came out with, and also feels that this things should be put in place for promoting social media and coming out of the barriers that social media face. The event is also likely to take place in other cities like Delhi, Bengaluru and Dubai next few months. 

Earlier, Ignitee India has done many such roundtable conferences, to reach out to brand managers, agencies and publishers on concerning topic. The conference provides a opportunity for marketers and other practitioners of the digital mediums to interact and understand the industry.