How Sumit Virmani Mastered the Ad Budget for Infosys
The aspect ratio for tv and film will always stay the same. A billboard or print magazine will have set parameters that need to be met. A radio ad has a recommended time stamp.
But digital marketing is always changing and evolving. Something that is new in the morning can be old news by the time five o’clock rolls around.
Traditional marketing schemes often don’t perform as well in the digital realm and need to be adapted in order to keep up with the scene.
It is something that some brands are still trying to fully grasp and understand. Trends can be hard to predict and even harder to find success within them in order to catch, if you’ve missed the first train.
Sumit Virmani, executive vice president and global CMO of Infosys, gave LBB’s Casey Martin an insight into the world of digital marketing and the current renaissance in which it is travelling.
LBB> How do you align marketing goals with the company's business objectives?
Sumit> Our marketing efforts at Infosys are designed towards driving holistic business value. To this end, we have created what we call a ‘brand and business impact framework’ to measure and report - awareness, consideration, and preference for the brand - in the long-term while also delivering short-term impact for business through nurturing high quality leads for our sales teams that translate into higher win rates and revenue impact.
LBB> How do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns?
Sumit> It’s often said, half the money spent on advertising is wasted; the trouble is we don't know which half.”
And the challenge is all the more significant in a precarious economic environment when businesses are struggling to be more efficient. Rigor in tracking ROI backed by a best-in-class marketing technology stack, which helps with the groundwork in bringing in the clarity of measures and metrics, can prove more invaluable now than ever before.
Equally important, is the need to establish a common language, between marketing and other business stakeholders, when it comes to articulating this value.
LBB> Can you provide an example of a successful campaign you ran?
Sumit> Back in 2018 when we articulated our brand promise of Navigate Your Next, we had a very clear focus on evolving Infosys as a brand that will stay relevant to the needs of all its stakeholders. At that point of time, the big shift happening in the industry was around digital and we wanted Infosys to be seen as the brand of choice for our stakeholders. It determined the choice we made, to partner with the global tennis ecosystem, including the Australian Open, in a credible way where our digital technology started to power the future of tennis by making it more exciting for the billion fans of tennis around the world. We started to bring the power of tech to coaches and players to analyze the game and develop their strategy. Using technology, we began to provide access to broadcasters, for example. More recently, we onboarded Rafa Nadal and Iga Świątek – two world renowned tennis champions - as our brand ambassadors. This is a good example of a successful campaign and how it’s leveraged to bring the Infosys brand promise to life.
LBB> What emerging marketing trends are you keeping an eye on?
Sumit> Brands need to continuously differentiate in an extremely cluttered market where consumer attention is hard to grab and retain. Smart marketers are embracing multisensory branding to stay a step ahead - to extend beyond the visual experience of the brand and appeal to the other human senses to make the experience more immersive and memorable. At Infosys, we recently launched our sonic identity – starting off on our own multisensory brand journey.
Another factor that I believe is growing in influence is brand purpose. Brands with purpose and strong socially conscious values have emerged as more attractive to buyers over the past couple of years, with the pandemic greatly intensifying this movement.
LBB> How do you manage the balance between traditional and digital marketing strategies?
Sumit> There has been a renaissance of sorts in digital marketing in the past two years. And we will all continue to build on what we’ve explored by continuing to acquire new digital capabilities and master new digital tactics. Does that mean the future of marketing is all digital? Not quite. While, clearly, this appreciation for all things digital will only gain momentum, the craving for tangible human connection has also grown and with it the enthusiasm to connect in more human ways. I think we will strike a balance between the two dynamics. We will be more human – using more personalized, more engaging, high-touch channels and at the same time, also become more digital.
LBB> How do you handle marketing during times of crisis or rapid change?
Sumit> Times of crisis, like the one we are in the middle of, means it’s time to pull out the playbook for success in a world of slower growth, cost inflation, and shrinking budgets. And here’s what it might look like for many of us.
Making well-hedged marketing bets. Hand-picking strategic programs that don’t just strengthen the leads pipeline in the near-term but also amplify positive perception and set the brand up with a head start for when the markets revive.
Having a keen sense of what’s working (and what’s not). That, in turn, means having sufficiently granular data and sophisticated algorithms that can help one understand customer behaviour in real-time.
Hiring digitally savvy, analytical talent. They are needed to derive insights from the messaging output that the creative storytellers generate.
Staying true to the brand’s stated purpose. Now is as good a time as any other to shape a compelling narrative around living the brand’s purpose that employee
LBB> Can you share a marketing challenge you faced and how you overcame it?
Sumit> In sales-dominant companies like our own, finding a seat at the table for marketing has traditionally been a challenge. Remedying this situation has meant strengthening relationships with the C-suite. Branding is a shared priority. However, a business head can struggle to understand the language of marketing unless it’s translated into clear business impact metrics. We started to embrace success metrics that impact the top and bottom line to make it easier for the business leadership to support consistent investments in marketing.
The CIO, or the tech leadership in the business can be another critical partner. They see that marketers have their fingers on the pulse of the customer and if customer experience must be digitised, it’s the CMO who knows what’s most likely to work. We marketers deal with the accelerated pace of digitization and certainly appreciate the tech wizards. So, the partnership makes sense any way you look at it.
LBB> With in house marketing on the rise, how do you feel about this trend and what future do you see for it?
Sumit> Talent is and will remain the CMO’s priority – and as the war for talent rages, it will also continue to be a challenge. Bringing the right mix of talent – both the inspired creators and storytellers along with those skilled at identifying and tracking data-led trends to best target marketing content – will remain an interesting challenge. Supplementing internal teams with talent from an ecosystem of partners will continue as a tactic to achieve agility and scale in the near future.
