Episode 136 / Shruti Samant / P&G Health / Digital Marketing Specialist
Stepping Away From the Digital Clutter to Reconnect With Consumers
Shruti Samant is the Digital Marketing Specialist at Procter & Gamble, having worked in various industries from IT to confectionery and banking. She is also the first singer on our podcast. Her Shiny New Object combines all her passions and knowledge: socially musically yours (respect by consumers) with voice tech.
We live in an era of digital clutter according to Shruti, especially from a visual point of view. With so many social media platforms and advertising targeting consumers, sometimes incorrectly, customers are shutting off from more ads in the visual sphere. However, audio content can establish a stronger and more meaningful connection in a space that is currently less crowded for people.
This is why Shruti’s Shiny New Object is artfully called “socially musically yours (respect by consumers) with voice tech.” This primarily refers to the use of sonic branding to establish strong links between a brand and consumers without being too invasive. Blending audio with digital marketing is a real opportunity because sound affects the limbic part of the brain, which activates emotions and memory. Consequently, an audio ad can be more memorable and distinctive than a visual ad.
Instead of chasing the digital FOMO (fear of missing out) which Shruti feels most brands are engaging in at the moment, audio clips can also engender familiarity and trigger emotional responses that will associate brands with consumers and influence their purchasing decisions in the longer term.
To find out more about Shruti’s singing and artistic talents, her favourite marketing books and tips, and her journey to marketing through art and tech education, listen to the podcast.
Transcript
The following gives you a good idea of what was said, but it’s not 100% accurate.
Tom Ollerton 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to the shiny new object podcast. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative. And this is a podcast about the future of marketing. Every week or so, I have the pleasure and the privilege of interviewing one of our industry's leaders, and this week is absolutely no different. I'm on a call with Shruti Samant, who is a digital marketing specialist at P&G Health. Shruti, for those who are listening to this show. Could you just give them a bit of an overview about who you are and what you do?
Shruti Samant 1:38
Hi, Tom, how are you? Thanks so much for inviting me to your awesome podcast. It's such a privilege to be on your show. And what we'll be discussing will be my news only. So a bit about me. Since my childhood, I've been very much inclined towards arts and its various forms. This passion led me to enroll for an interior designing and architecture course and then to pursuing engineering and Chemical Technology and MBA. As a person I like diversity. And hence I've worked in different industries like IT with Infosys, confectionery and snacks with Perfetti Van Melle, than financial sector with India's largest bank. And currently I lead digital marketing for brands such as Procter & Gamble Health.
I also like to compose music, along with singing and songwriting. So we know that May emphasizes on mental health awareness. Recently, I have made a song called Shadow to highlight how vulnerable you become. And also from the perspective of how we can support by just taking simple steps like, firstly, don't cause any scenario that might create or aggravate mental distraught and secondly, support. So even if it is as simple as just being there, as we often have the tendency to leave a person alone, when they're feeling down, or we try to avoid talking about it with the person. We pretend that it's only a counselor's responsibility to support or talk about it. But you see, about more than 75% of people who have a mental distraught, especially in developing or still emerging countries, they suffer in silence, because they can't or don't see counselling. So the least we can do is to firstly not cause and we should simply ensure to be there, just be a friend, you know, it's as simple as that.
Tom Ollerton 3:30
And would you be willing to sing on the podcast?
Shruti Samant 3:35
Oh, yeah, sure. Definitely. Why not? So I'll be singing the same lines that I just explained, which emphasize the importance of support.
[singing]
So yeah, that's about it.
Tom Ollerton 4:24
Shruti, thank you so much. I think we're Episode 130 or 140 of this podcast, and no one has even thought about singing and so you're in a league of one. So congratulations for that. And being our first singer on the podcast. That was fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. So unfortunately, we have to go back to the somewhat less rock and roll world of marketing. So what I'm curious to know is, so you're a creator, you write you sing. Are you also a reader? And if so, do you have any marketing books that you recommend?
Shruti Samant 4:55
Yes, so I'm not really a very avid reader, but I like, consuming content either through browsing or observing on social media or through reading books. So when it comes to marketing, especially, you know, when you want to recommend to a student, I think marketing is more of an observational and experiential learning. So especially with social media marketing, you definitely need to refer to online platform specific tutorials designed specifically for platforms like Google, YouTube, or Facebook, or to learn analytics, etc. But for a campaign design strategy or brand marketing, so there's no one book rule. Really, it's basically understanding the consumers, their needs, and how you can offer the best relevant product or services and how best Are you able to convey that, especially now that social media and internet is one of the primary platforms to gain knowledge. And there are so many products or celebrities who have very efficiently turned themselves into successful brands just because of social media? So besides reading the book, like for example, Kotler's, which is very essential, and will definitely lay out the fundamentals.
Tom Ollerton 6:11
Which is that book specifically for people who don't know?
Shruti Samant 6:15
Philip Kotler. So it's, it's a book, which is primarily, at least like I'm aware, in India, it is the go to book for marketing, for knowing the marketing fundamentals. It's by Philip Kotler. So it's a great book, if you want to get your fundamentals corrected, or fundamentals in place,
Tom Ollerton 6:38
Can you help the listeners understand what those fundamentals are? So some people won't have heard of the book already. So I'm just curious to know, what are the key takeaways from that book?
Shruti Samant 6:49
Yes, so one of the examples would be the five As framework which is aware, appeal, ask ,act and advocate. So aware is the phase where consumers are passively exposed to brands, advertising, influencers, friends, family, then appeal, which is whether or not consumers have registered that particular ad or brand messaging, then ask where consumer collects information about this particular brand, then Act, which is either you purchase, usage, or post purchase service, and advocate, which is basically retention and word of mouth. But more from creating, you know, more from a social media angle, because, right, I feel that marketing, again, is more of a hands on or experiential learning, especially digital marketing. So you can definitely follow you know, a lot of since you already must be following a lot of brands or celebrities, right on your social media when you consume content. So you can also add, start analyzing, you know, the kind of content they're posting the frequency, or you know, this certain digital metrics, which you would be learning from either the online tutorials, or a lot of other fundamental books. So you can follow the brands that you already follow. Would you like to give me such an example of somebody, maybe I followed or that I think has kind of, you know, turned himself or herself and do upgrade brands using social media?
Tom Ollerton 8:22
Are you asking me for an example? Or do you?
Shruti Samant 8:25
Would you, would you like me to like to elaborate more?
Tom Ollerton 8:30
Hopefully, we can come back to that a little bit later, perhaps. But what I'd really like to do is move on to a question about how you spend your time or your money. What, what has been the best investment of your time, energy or money in the last few years?
Shruti Samant 8:45
Yes, sure. So in terms of energy, or time, I would say that the best investment has been to follow my passion. And I do follow my passion. And since childhood, I've been passionate about arts. So I started composing music. And then I got into production that meant to filmmaking, you know, on my own, like a hobby. And as you know, there was no YouTube or many digital tools back then. But because I was so passionate about it, I kind of learned on my own. And although my MBA did teach me the fundamentals or concepts of marketing more in terms of metrics, or strategy or framework, but the main understanding of creating a content, be it an audio ad, or a video ad or any social media content, like designing a marketing content, I got that acumen because I pursued my passion. And I think marketing is a blend of expression from arts that I got from my passion and logical data analytics that I got from science of my engineering background, and definitely concepts and strategy and fundamentals from MBA. So in the process of pursuing my passion as a hobby, I learned the art of creating content and I think content is the most important element in marketing.
Tom Ollerton 10:04
That's just such an interesting answer, I really like the way that you you said, I learned this from so and so learn this from such and such, and yet they've all come together as marketing. And I think sometimes people feel that like marketing is sort of less of an art than the things that you mentioned. But when you talk about how you combine all those things being as fascinating, so you've had so many different hats you've worn, where they talk about film, music, whether you've worked in finance, or architecture, interior design, definitely the most broad background of anyone who's been on this podcast. And I'm curious to know, do you have a marketing tip that you always give your team or that you always find yourself passing on to those who are looking to you for guidance?
Shruti Samant 10:48
Yes, oh, so this is something that I even, you know, follow myself. It's quite simple. But I usually say, you know, follow the latest, be different and stay relevant. So to explain it a little bit more, since marketing is very agile, especially digital marketing. So it's extremely important to keep up with the latest technology for its application for platforms or even, you know, to know the trends for content, because there's so much digital clutter. And advertising is anyhow a crowded arena. So competition to get that attention of consumers is quite fierce, as every other business of different sector is competing to have their voice heard. The best method of standing out in marketing is to know exactly what objectives are, who your audiences and what are the most effective ways of getting their attention. This may sound like a very redundant or basic advice. But mostly what's happening on digital platforms, including searches social media is that as a consumer, you are at it. And I know this, because I am a consumer, right? Because the consumer is bombarded with just too many ads, even if the consumer is not interested, I understand that there are methods to make it more segmented or need based, but more or less, there's a huge overlap in the sets of audiences itself. And even if you segmented down to interests, because the consumer doesn't have just a few interests, right? a consumer has a plethora of things that he's interested in he or she is interested in. But that doesn't mean that they want to see your brand or your competitor's brand or you know, maybe not. And this is just the case of a single category further drill down, especially when you talk about search, when there is a whole lot of so I do see a lot of you know, improper tagging as a consumer, you know, when I'm searching for stuff, or not using the appropriate sets of keywords. So why do usually, you know, why is it being done, I assume that it's primarily because of FOMO of visibility.
So FOMO, which is fear of missing out, it not just applies to customers, it also applies to advertising. So fear of missing out on marketing platforms, especially on digital, if you are not there, you think you are missing out on barrier audiences, even if that is the set of platform where audiences is not interested in your ad. And that's precisely one of the many reasons why consumers get annoyed when they're watching the content. And then your ad pops up. So it does create awareness. But whether or not a consumer will convert or even recall depends primarily on the content and the need and relevance. You may say that one ATL also it's kind of the same. But you see the format and ETL is a little different. There are longer sections where ads are shown all together. But on social media, the available frequency of showing the ad is too high. So certain platforms are just too short to even, you know, register the ad and the minds of consumers. Although it does depend a lot on content. But I'm talking in general. And especially as a consumer when you're scrolling through the content unless the ad is relevant to you, or the content is distinct, you really, you know, don't care much as a consumer. So just because the platform provides an access to define your targeting, it doesn't necessarily imply that as a marketeer kind of over users availability. And usually there is a very common audience targeting even between different industries. So it's extremely important to stay relevant because there is so much clutter and to even have a recall or response from audience about your advertising or marketing. The content definitely has to be different. To summarize, my best marketing tip, which I myself follow is to follow the latest be different and stay relevant.
Tom Ollerton 14:56
Fantastic.
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We're now going to talk about your shiny new object, which has an amazing title. So I'm gonna read it out. It's socially musically yours brackets, respect by consumers close bracket with voice tech. So what does that mean?
Shruti Samant 15:57
Oh, yes, as fancy as it sounds, it's quite, you know, easy to understand, which I'll explain. So like I was saying, there's so much digital content, right, with consumers are being shown so many ads on different platforms. So it's kind of become a rat race to advertise and monetize on digital medium. I think the most important question is whether or not digital marketing is even relevant to a particular service, product or brand. And like I said, you know, a lot of advertisers just out of FOMO, or to maintain their social media presence are there on digital.
So this kind of makes the digital platform even more so cluttered, and especially if the content content is irrelevant to the consumer and not customized. So it's crucial to cut through the clutter, because it's visually so crowded. And I feel the best way to do is to utilize the concept of Sonic branding, like music streaming platforms, where a native ad is often accompanied with an audio jingle, or you know, a mix of both audio and digital. So that is how you know it's musically yours. So it's kind of blending the best of the old audio branding, but the best of the new digital Sonic branding is basically audio branding that involves assigning a specific tune sound, or jingle to a brand or logo that reinforces a side entity. That can be audio ads, catchy tunes, simple mnemonics. Sonic logos, or non lyrical jingles are focused on conveying strong messages to the audience, through music or sounds. So for example, can be the background music that you see in your advertisements or a phrase you say at the end of your video or blog, or even Tom, your podcast. So, yeah, I noticed, like in your podcast, the music that you play in between at the start, or in between the commercials, that that could be the sonic logo of your podcast, which I don't know if it is.
Tom Ollerton 18:12
Absolutely, yeah, I agree with that. Not that anyone's ever mentioned it before. But um, yeah, I use the accordion, which service I use, but I use like a creative AI tool to make the sonic logo, I'm gonna refer to it from now on.
Shruti Samant 18:27
Yes, because because we are, you know, once we start listening to your podcast, you kind of you know, it gets registered. And it's really cool and great to listen to very peppy mood. So this is where the psychology side of it comes in. So I was just reading that, you know, sound affects the limbic part of the brain. I know, it's sort of sound scientific, but that deals with emotions and memory. So that's the reason why, when we hear a jingle, we recall it much faster than a visual ad can be more influential than a video ad. Because an audio ad is distinctive, the space is not cluttered. And like you know how I was talking about digital visually, and it has its own dedicated spot. So as a consumer, you just hear it, you know, an audio spot, right and gets registered much better. It may even influence the purchase purchasing behavior. For example, if you are in a store and you're buying, let's say a juice and you suddenly hear the jingle or the tune that has a bead that you must have heard earlier, you immediately feel like buying it, it changes your mood, you kind of reconnected where you know, it reminds you of being energetic, working out staying fit, and it may initiate an action into you purchasing it. So it also induces that familiarity by triggering recall. And it immediately tells the potential customer what kind of brand new Are you serious? Are you quirky? Are you fun? Are you classy, and it does trigger response to action.
Tom Ollerton 19:57
Do you have any data on How many impressions Sonic branding needs to deliver before it elicits the right kind of emotion. So, for example, my daughter and I were watching the Pixar film Wall-E the other day. And the character Evo Eva was designed by the guy that designed the iPhone, Jony, Jony Ive, I'm never sure what's name. Anyway, there's a scene where Wall-E has his solar panels out, and he charges and at the point at which he reaches 100% charge, it plays the same sound as when you're turning a Mac on. And it's just a really lovely kind of Sonic branding moment for in the film, but had I heard that sound for the first time? Would that have had the same effect on me? Probably not. Because I obviously have an association with Apple. So yes, music is very powerful. Yes, it can evoke memories. Yes, it can work faster than visuals. I agree with that. But then that sound needs to become first likeable, second familiar, but third, it needs to be associated. So do you have any data or insight on how often a consumer needs to be exposed to Sonic signature or Sonic logo? before it actually starts to do the job? Or does it work straight away.
Shruti Samant 21:17
So there are a couple of options. And I do agree with what you're saying. So in order for you to become familiar at the maybe third frequency of your hearing, it also has to proceed to define your sound Sonic logo or Sonic branding, matching the personality of your brand, right, like I mentioned, which should be positioned accordingly, you know, in accordance with your brand. And when it comes to frequency, or how often would you like the consumer to be exposed to it. So if it is a sonic logo, I think it needs to kind of be consistent across your brand. So that when you so there are a lot of you know, Indian ads, or even global ads, where you kind of when you hear for example, McDonald's when you hear para papa. Right? So you immediately you may not recall visually what ad, you know, you must have seen McDonald's. But when you hear that, you know, sound or jinglu, which I'm assuming it was at some point of theirs, then you kind of immediately connect with it. Right? That Okay, this is McDonald's, and even if not that. So for example, in India also, there are a lot of, you know, brands that use it. Even in financial sector, there are banks that use the sonic logo at their outlets, like their What do you say the branches, the bank branches, the ATM machines, or the you know, their quality owns or through their call center, like on a customer care. So all these are different touch points of where you can expose a customer to connect through that Sonic to have a familiarity with your brand through that other than you know, of course, when it comes to fmcg or, you know, such where it's more retail oriented. So there, you're definitely obviously stores do play a lot. And advertisements do play a lot. So you can even have it as a you know, like a background of your ad or something.
Tom Ollerton 23:24
So question, do you think that it's an opportunity, or a necessity. So you give the example of the phone line. So I say for example, my internet stops working, which happens, not that they will they will not be mentioned. And I call them up. And what I don't want there is Sonic branding, I want customer service. So I don't care if the audio on the phone on the hold music is the same as the audio on the advert. In fact, like that I'm so enraged by the fact I can't get online and do my job and run a business. What I want is customer service. And actually with McDonald's, what I want is to get my food quicker, or I want more options or it'd be cheaper or wanted to be delivered. The audio branding piece is feels at that point as a nice to have as opposed to a necessity. So is there a point at which in a brand's journey, your evolution that it needs to start to thinking about this? Does the corner shop at the end of the road need to think about its sonic identity? Probably not. But does a scale up that's got you know, 2000 employees or something that's starting to become like a more global player. So which point does Sonic identity inside branding a common necessity to a contemporary brand?
Shruti Samant 24:48
Yes, absolutely. So I suppose what you're talking about is I completely agree with you. But as a consumer you definitely do call up a center and you know you do get annoyed when you that is only because you're put on hold for a matter longer period, right? You definitely want. So that's a completely different scenario. But in the meanwhile, to connect better, because they might any ways, you know, if there is a queue of customers, you know, who are calling a customer service. If it's a case where they do need to put you on hold right to, you know, you might have to listen to that. So it's an opportunity there. But I do agree that turnaround time or the delivery time definitely needs to be much faster. But I was explaining more in terms of this being an opportunity and not just, you're not talking in terms of Sonic logos, right, it is more to do with connecting, blending, both, you know, the audio branding and the visual together. So especially because, you know, there is such a boom in voice technology, which is kind of become the most destructive force globally, ever since the internet became a visual medium, and to point out a few, you know, data points. So I was just reading about that about 30 to 50% of all searches are voice led, and whether it's through, you know, different voice assistants like Cortana, Alexa, Google Home, Siri and many others with even, you know, Facebook, trying to kind of you know, launching its own voices soon. So currently, there are more than 1 billion voice searches per month. And according to Adobe, there are about 47% people will use voice tech to gather a product specific information, and 32% comparing price and 42% adding items to their shopping cart. So you see how effective this would be as an opportunity and convenience to both consumers and marketers. And currently, the voice shopping has about 1 billion - 2 billion dollar valuation and is estimated to increase by a tremendous, you know, $40 billion, and like, in very near future and few of the brands they have already initiated, you know, they have already stepped into this. So, since we talked, we were talking about fast food, right? So Domino's, they are a QSR (quick service restaurant), and initiated by launching Dom, their own personalized voice assistant, and then partnered with Amazon. Similarly, Nestle, they launched Goodness with Alexa giving recipes and nutritional information for a specific meal cookbook. And you can even ask which you can sell as you would need for the recipe. So it definitely elevates the whole cookie exchange.
Tom Ollerton 27:32
That was really unusual moment, because that was my agency that did that. I'm very proud to say Dom in the UK, as simple as it was back in the day. So that is I'll put my hand up and say I was involved in that. I didn't build it myself. Yes.
Shruti Samant 27:53
Oh, I didn't know that. That's great to hear. That that's amazing.
Tom Ollerton 27:59
Anyway, sorry, that was that was not expected to say that. But anyway, carry on. Sorry.
Shruti Samant 28:04
So there is a huge scope for voice technology, and primarily because it's very convenient. Right? And the role that technology plays is to make it as convenient as you can for yourself or consumers, you know. So, to summarize, yes, my shiny new object is socially musically, yours respect by consumers. By socially I mean being socially more responsible towards consumers in advertising on social media, and musically yours by utilizing the concept of audio planting clubbed with digital marketing, on either music streaming platforms, or voice technology that has a huge scope to create that uncluttered advertising method and respect by consumers by being more sensitive and advertising to consumers.
Tom Ollerton 28:52
So you obviously have so much to say on this very interesting subject. So if any of our listeners wanted to carry on that conversation with you, how would you like them to do that?
Shruti Samant 29:02
Yes, definitely. That'd be great. And please reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can search me by Shruti Samant and global listeners, I think you can check out my spelling on Tom's podcast. It'll be easier to search. So please, that'd be great, message me.
Tom Ollerton 29:21
Brilliant. Shruti. Thank you so much for your time.
Shruti Samant 29:24
It's a pleasure, Tom, thanks so much for having me on your podcast. And I for sure had a lot of fun talking to you.
Tom Ollerton 29:32
Me as well and for the singing. That was a massive first for us. Thank you so much.
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