e Magus

Last week at the Cannes Lions Festival, the best minds in advertising gathered once again to celebrate creativity. Awards were handed out for what was different, daring, disruptive, and of course, “never-seen-before.” Funnily, for a festival that champions difference, the crowd looked remarkably…similar. Black or white t-shirts, jeans or linen trousers, sneakers, and perhaps a blue or black linen blazer to complete the uniform. The same happens at weddings—no matter how much we desire to stand out in the event, our hand automatically reaches for a kurta or a saree, even if it hasn’t seen the light of day in years. Why, have you ever noticed that at office parties, someone will eventually play “Summer of '69,” and as if it’s encoded, everyone in office joins the chorus of singing it together. There is something oddly comforting in sameness. Not just in rituals, but in behaviours, gestures, even aspirations. For a society that prides itself on diversity, we seem to hold a deep and en...

  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...

Sometime back, Martin Sorrell, WPP’s head honcho, was mentioning about data and how it can help creativity. In fact, he went onto the extent that (ad) agencies are no longer in advertising business ( http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/03/24/sir-martin-sorrell-definition-creativity-needs-change-we-re-not-advertising-business ) In today’s world, you are surrounded by data. In fact, it is happening right now when you are reading this. Your browser, the webpage, your device, everything is collecting data. From a marketing perspective, it was always a numbers game. Only difference, now, the numbers has become bigger and complicated. So, what is data? It is nothing but a collection of values - numbers, words, observations. Most creative folks in the agency would be aware of the numbers/stats quoted in the market research done by the planning team or client’s marketing team. It is just that, previously, it was mostly qualitative but now it is quantitative. While there are tons o...