Music, marketing and mathematics can combine beautifully to create a million possibilities

As I reflect back over the year, this is one conversation that has left some deep impressions on me. The challenges that are there in rewiring our skills, learning from different streams and applying them in our day-to-day working is becoming more and more critical.

Marketing today is on the threshold of change. In the past, marketing as we knew it was largely dominated by 30-second TV spots and other mass media such as print, outdoor, radio and so on. The number-crunching only came into play while deciding which medium to back in the advertising campaign and for what price to buy the media.

But, look around today and there are the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter and others who apply complex algorithms such as Page Rank, Adsense, marketing mix modelling, content marketing and so on along with technology (analytics, digital marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) to make marketing a lot more data-driven. Similarly, in music the magic of maths plays a huge role.

As a musician, Padma Vibhushan Umayalpuram K Sivaraman has an accomplished career of nearly 71 years – he debuted at the age of 10 and has been seen and played with the best musicians across the years. His son has been one of the earliest adopters of marketing analytics in India. cat.a.lyst brings you a conversation between the legendary mridangam vidwan and his son S Swaminathan, Co-Founder & CEO of Hansa Cequity, a major customer marketing & analytics firm, on the cross-learnings from music, maths and marketing.

 

Here's the full link to the conversation

 


Here's the second episode of my podcast ContraMinds - Mediocrity Epidemic

In this second episode of my podcast ContraMinds, we explore how mediocrity is one of the greatest epidemic facing people and organizations. It explores how a mediocrity mindset sets-in, what differentiates people who strive for excellence versus people who want to be mediocre and what needs to be done to quarantine ourselves or organizations from mediocrity.

 


Here's my Podcast - ContraMinds

I am launching my own Podcast - ContraMinds - Decoding People, Minds, Strategy & Culture. 

This is a podcast that explores thoughts and conversations around the DNA of purposeful minds. It tries to decode what really goes behind the minds of people with a purpose, what are their motivations and inspiration, attempts to understand the why behind what they do and how do they successfully accomplish what they set out do. It helps provide a mental framework, markers and a mind map for each one us to learn and discover from their life purpose, their cultural ecosystem and their experiences. These conversations will hopefully open your mind, help you put some these thoughts to practice both in your life and career.

In this first episode, I am going to be sharing with you my thoughts on 'Differences between a professional and an employee mindset'. I look forward to having your feedback, conversations and comments from all of you.

This Podcast is available in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune-in, Spotify and please do go ahead subscribe and share this with your friends and colleagues.


Why India needs to take data privacy seriously

Data confidentiality and privacy is a primary right which Indian consumer needs to demand, as the economy becomes more and more digitally driven.

Data privacy and protection is a fundamental foundation for an emerging data-driven economy like India. Permission marketing will be the next battleground brands or marketers will have to take cognizance of, as India transforms from a data-poor economy to a data-rich economy. Permission marketing, a word coined by marketing expert Seth Godin in a book by the same name, is a non-traditional marketing technique that advertises goods and services when advance consent is given.

Let’s look at some trends on how the Indian economy is moving towards being more and more data driven. At the last count, India has claimed first place across the world with 270 million Facebook users followed by the US which has 240 million Facebook users. Indians are leaving behind so much private data and information on this social media platform which is accessible to the world. The number of mobile wallet users in India is already over 250 million with Paytm having more than 100 million users and growing at a rapid pace. India, not China, is the world’s fastest growing mobile payment market. The number of mobile wallet transactions is expected to surge to Rs 1 trillion in 2018. By 2025, digital transactions are expected to reach $1 trillion with four out of five transactions done digitally. There is little wonder then that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's central bank, has promulgated Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for wallet companies. The amount of privacy data that is being left behind with wallet companies is also enormous.

Read more