Industry is Returning to Nurturing the Basics of Marketing- Harsh Kedia.

Could you guide us through Auburn’s journey and share some of the significant milestones the company has achieved during your ten years with the company?
Auburn was incepted in March 2013, and since then every day feels like a milestone achieved for us. We started as a team of 7, and today we’ve carefully handpicked and nurtured a team of around 250 self-motivated learners. We began in Mumbai and now have a presence in Dubai, Singapore, and Canada as well. Everyday learning across clients and business operations is a true milestone for us.

Can you please outline some of the pivotal trends that will influence the industry in the next two years?
I think the industry is returning to nurturing the basics of marketing, which are understanding your consumer’s day-to-day life. Serving hyper-personalized communication to eventually build advocacy is another key element. All the buzz around programmatic is going to eventually serve the same purpose.

As an agency, what is your point of view on the Self-Declaration certificate (No Misleading Ads) passed by the Supreme Court?
I think it’s a brilliant move by the Govt of India, but the execution seems rushed. Look, no ads, if creative enough, can be 100% transparent. The term “misleading” is vague because its effectiveness depends entirely on the implementation environment and how consumers interpret it. However, this move will likely make companies think twice before promoting anything.The key challenge lies in penalising vague self-declarations. We will likely see a flood of self-declarations with unclear promises. The interesting question is whether the government can actually take steps to penalise and stop such practices.


How has the target audience evolved over time? Being a co-founder of an agency, please enlighten us on how audience choice affects ad design or creative?
I don’t feel the audience has changed. They are looking for transparency, cost-effectiveness, and other such basics. However, consumption of media from large screens and print has gone mobile. 
So, as a company, we aim to provide our client’s consumers with thumb-stopper ads, concepts which they can relate to in real life, to be available around POS by going hyper-local. Look, again, all of this is very basic, yet effective when it comes to optimising ROI.


As an agency, what are your thoughts on brands spending a significant amount of money on CTV this year, especially during events like IPL, elections, and CWC T20?
If you can create a ripple with a significant impact on the surface, go for it – like you said, putting significant money behind it can do that. 
However, as long as your marketing budgets are well-thought-out (not just a spending spree) and if the pie of those budgets is significantly big enough for branding on platforms as big as CWC or IPL, then go for it. Otherwise, try to find your niche and create an impact there. Your audience is going to see you on some random YouTube pre-roll as well as election/IPL time – it’s all about the frequency you can buy and Top-of-Mind (TOM) recall.