The first-ever exchange4media Conclave, South, the regional version of the flagship event by the Group, was held in Bengaluru on December 1, 2017 at Royal Orchid Hotel. The event saw eminent speakers and industry leaders gather to discuss all that goes into ‘building purposeful Brands’. The event started with an inaugural address by Mr. Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief exchange4media and BW Businessworld. In his address, among other key pointers, he underlined the importance of print as an important medium even though digital is the new star, “Print will continue to be fairly large.” Mr. Hemant Malik (Divisional Chief Executive, Food Division, ITC) in his keynote address spoke about managing consumer sentiment in times of uncertainty and how the media plays a significant role in influencing the consumer. CVL Srinivas, Country Manager WPP & CEO Group M South Asia, spoke about rewiring the marketing value chain to build purposeful brands. He pointed out four aspects on which challenges could be faced in contemporary times - a) the consumers, who are super connected, very vocal, and very unforgiving if their needs are not met - b) the competition, which is now in the online world as well - c) In India, the structural changes and new policies putting pressure on brand owners - d) and the explosion of data. Agreeing with the Kantar report findings, he said brand owners need to act quickly to gain competitive advantage. Brands have to be ‘first to mind’. Marketers need to identify what drives sales now and in the long term. Also, they should know how and where to invest – i.e. media planning etc. The first panel discussion on ‘Speaking the Purpose Language’ was moderated by Mohit Joshi (MD, Havas Media Group India). The panelists were: Vineet Sehgal -CMO, Quikr, Meera Iyer- Marketing Head, Big Basket, Amit Gupta – CEO, Asianet News, Narayan Raja- Director & VP Sales and Marketing, Toyota, Suparna Mitra- CMO, Titan and Pallavi Chopra, Marketing Head RedBus. Mohit pointed out that the Havas Media meaningful brands study found that 74% of the brands could soon disappear unless brands add value to the lives of their consumers. After a riveting discussion, they were all asked to name one brand other than theirs that they felt had created purpose. Here’s what they said: Meera Iyer – Amul, Pallivi Chopra- Indigo, Narayan Raja – ITC, Suparna Mitra- Tata, and Vineet Sehgal – FabIndia. The second panel on ‘The Experience Economy’ was moderated by Ramesh Jude Thomas (President and Chief Knowledge Officer, Equitor). The panelists were, Samar Singh Shekhawat – Sr. Vice president Marketing, UB Group, Santosh N S – Marketing Head, Fujitsu India, Sujith Sudhakaran - Senior Director- Brand Marketing, Myntra and Sushant Sreeram – Marketing Head, Xiaomi India. The panel discussed consumer experience – its importance, and the challenges faced in today’s digitally connected world. Can brands create a metric around tracking experiences and is this needed? Humanising Brands was the topic Mr. Shashi Sinha spoke about with examples of Amul and its campaign. The conclave ended with a fireside chat between, Rahul Agarwal - CEO & MD, Lenovo India and Vasuta Agarwal – VP & GM, InMobi India. They chatted about why brands need a purpose and how the changing consumer behavior impacts a brand's purpose. The official vote of thanks was given by Nawal Ahuja, Director of exchange4media group. More information can be found on exchange4media.com