e Magus

  How AI-Altered Images impacts the Integrity of Marketing, Social Media, and Communications I'll start out by saying that AI-altered images represent a powerful transformative tool, revolutionising the way brands engage with their audience. Take, for instance, a fashion brand utilising AI to retouch photos for a sleeker, more polished look. With the capacity to enhance visuals, correct imperfections, and create aesthetically pleasing content, otherwise which will have to be made from the scratch - increasing time & expenses, AI offers marketers an unprecedented level of creative control. This ability to craft captivating imagery that can elevate brand perception, attract consumer attention, and drive engagement in a digital world - where visual content is the key to drive competitive advantage. But in today's marketing, the allure of perfection through product or communication has become an irresistible temptation.  And my thoughts are more fundamental. With artificial in...

  Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! I began delving deeper into Zen philosophy during the Covid lockdown, became hooked, and now make effort to incorporate its principles into my day-to-day life. As a marketing consultant, I occasionally attempt to integrate Zen-inspired strategies into marketing too. Some interesting concepts have emerged and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. In the fast-paced world of marketing, where trends come and go and consumer preferences evolve rapidly, brands often find themselves navigating turbulent waters. In this dynamic landscape, the timeless principles of Zen philosophy can serve as a guiding light for marketers seeking to establish genuine connections with their audience.  Embrace Simplicity: At the core of Zen philosophy is the principle of simplicity. In a world bombarded with information, consumers appreciate brands that cut through the noise and convey their message with clarity. In my experience, I’ve seen that simplifying pro...

  A Roadmap for Real-Time Personalization Campaigns Driven by AI and Data In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing and advertising, the convergence of technology, data, and AI is reshaping the industry. A paradigm shift towards personalization and real-time experiences has become the new norm. In a recent McKinsey report on personalization at scale ( https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/a-technology-blueprint-for-personalization-at-scale ), four key pillars were identified: Data, Decisioning, Design, and Delivery. While Data, Decisioning, and Delivery have seen significant advancements where big technology and consulting players - Adobe, Salesforce, Google, to name a few, are making great strides, the Design aspect remains a manual and resource-intensive process. This presents a unique opportunity for creative advertising agencies to revolutionize the industry. The untapped opportunity lies in addressing the Design pillar of person...

About 8 years back, I wrote an analogical article about Kung Fu Panda and digital marketing (you can read it here ). That time my kid was 3 years. Now my kid is 11 years old. As all growing kids do, he too has out-grown the Kung Fu Panda-The Lion King phase. His current fascination is The Star Wars. I guess, by now, he must have finished watching at-least 3-4 times….The Star Wars Saga - the original, sequel, and prequel trilogies, animated series, The book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian, and even the Thrawn trilogy books. The next on his wish list is to own an original lightsaber… Kids are demanding! Well, this article is not about my kid or his love for Star Wars. Working from home and watching these movies along with my kid, this is about my thoughts on what Star Wars can teach us about marketing, or more importantly what marketing tips Yoda can teach “Do or do not. There is no try.” We all know that planning is very important when it comes to any campaign/project. But every great pl...

I’ll never get tired of saying this - writing is tough but getting into the mood to write is tougher, and what to write is toughest. Today, after a long time, I’ve decided to address the tough, tougher, and toughest. I’ve been working on a lot of data related stuff the past few months. I can safely assume basis the data analysis, that Mr. X from Company A is interested in Product/Solution M & N. Also, looking at the frequency, recency, and additional time spent on the website, I think Mr. X from Company A is looking to buy this or similar solution at the earliest. Superimpose this data with data from other sources, I can closely guess his potential budget, the competitors he is reviewing, etc. This made me wonder, why do people like Mr. X (and I too) leave our digital footprint around, some times unknowingly but mostly knowingly.   I keep coming across tons of articles about data privacy and how easily we share personal data or how easily there is inter-portability of personal...

Internet, they said, was an ocean (or cloud) of knowledge. The Net was invented for free and smooth transfer of information, thoughts and ideas. But somewhere along the way came algorithms, data collection, & AI and now we are being served information conforming to our likes, interests and digital behaviours. The more we use the Net, instead of swimming in an ocean of knowledge, we sit inside an echo chamber confirming our own biases. Let’s take the 3 common use cases we engage on the Net - reading news, social media, and search (for information) engine Discovery of news on the Net happens mostly through aggregator platforms like Google News or through the home pages of the news portals. Apart from the top/latest News, have you ever noticed sections that mention - News for you, top picks, etc? These are News articles that is shown to you basis the past content that you’ve consumed. Ah! Social Media, the favourite waste of time for most of the digital natives. We spends hours chatti...

Pic sourced from Flexijobs I know that only a few of you will get to read this article. Taking a cue from the apocryphal Chinese saying, we are living in interesting times. It is really disturbing not being sure of how the future will be. With the virus out there and most people confined to basic travel and self-isolation, Work-from-Home might become the new norm. This article is future-gazing on the obvious and not so obvious impact, if working from home becomes common. The obvious impact would be seen in the commuting sector. There will be lower demands for automobiles, cab hailing services like Uber & Ola, and affiliated categories like fuel. The demand for commercial real estate would also decrease, with more manpower for lesser commercial spaces. Remote working pods will increase. Telecom - internet service providers would see increasing demand for data, smartphones and better computer devices that can be used for networking and collaboration would increase too...

Few days back, thanks to surprisingly less traffic, I checked in early at the airport. Since I had time to kill and the domestic Delhi airport has nothing great to offer in terms of shopping / killing time, I too indulged in the favorite pastime of the nation, or maybe the world, I dare say - Mobile internet (social and search) What caught my attention was the OTA (Online Travel website) banner ad that kept following me. I knew it was because, I had searched for the flight details and fare on their website a few days back, and the cookies were re-targeting me, etc. Couple of thoughts crossed my mind Why were the OTA digital marketing team wasting their ad budget following a 'dead' prospect. I mean, they do not know that I've purchased the ticket from some other place (in my case, directly from the airline website). I had put my date of travel on their website, why didn't the re-targeting ads stop a day before my date of travel. From my ...

Lately, everyone seems to be talking about personal branding and what it means in today's digital and marketing age. I cringe whenever I get to see any headlines or articles promoting 'Personal Branding' through social media. Every 3rd or 4th article on branding topic in my Flipboard dashboard is about personal branding - how important it is, how to capitalize, listicles on personal branding etc. Over the last 5 years google trends on personal branding shows an interesting pattern. While there is slight increase in terms of the interest over time, it has a jagged growth. The December months sees a huge dip & so also a mid-year dip around June-July. One main reason could be that year ends and mid-year periods are usually lean period for job changes, perhaps? As much as I don't like the whole idea of 'personal branding', this is a new reality and professionals needs to successfully engage with their audience with the available digital tools. While t...