“2024 has been a year of surprises and has seen some interesting trends emerge,” said Unny Radhakrishnan, chief executive officer (CEO), Digitas India. Direct-to-consumer D2C brands are taking a step further and bolstering their retail presence through the opening of showrooms is a discernible trend, he noted.
In a freewheeling conversation with Storyboard18, he said, “Scaling up of quick commerce (q-commerce) with more brands in the fray is here to stay. We saw more retail media players in the market and an increase in media spends in these channels. While we saw many D2C brands go offline, new online brands continue to get launched. Influencers have become an indispensable stakeholder in brand building and have a larger play in the creative process. And the most obvious — the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled tools, platforms and ideas.”
Edited Excerpts:
What were the key highlights for you and your teams in 2024?
Some of the highlights of this year include augmented reality (AR) projects, and consumption based loyalty with WhatsApp as a channel for a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand, creative technology projects leveraging AI for an automobile brand, sales channel modernisation for a consumer electronics brand, setting new standards in social engagement for a digital first brand and building digital experiences, including e-commerce, for multiple brands across categories. Our global engineering, technology and data development teams expanded to more countries and clients this year.
What defining trends stood out for you in 2024?
The year saw many interesting, but not surprising trends. D2C brands have realised only online is not enough to scale and we saw many brands across categories opening retail showrooms. Scaling up of q-commerce with more brands in the fray. We saw more retail media players in the market and an increase in media spends in these channels. While we saw many D2C brands go offline, new online brands continue to get launched. Influencers have become an indispensable stakeholder in brand building and have a larger play in the creative process. And the most obvious — influence of AI enabled tools, platforms and ideas.
How did the rise of AI and generative AI impact your industry this year? Can you sum it up in three-five points?
Gen AI is transforming the way work is being created for clients as well as our daily operations bringing in more efficiency and creating space for creative thinking.
Enhanced creative production: AI tools (e.g., Midjourney, ChatGPT, Runway) are being used for content writing, image creation, and video production, speeding up the creative process. This enhances team collaboration and accelerates the creative process, ensuring precision in outputs.
Personalised content: AI-assisted tools help create targeted content for micro-audiences, improving customer engagement and driving purchases. AI also enables personalised ad messages and visuals tailored to individual consumers at scale, improving advertising relevance.
Budget & Audience Allocation: AI is also helping allocate ad budgets effectively, building richer audience profiles, and gaining insights into competitors’ advertising strategies.
Predictive Analytics: AI forecasts ad performance and consumer behaviour, aiding in strategic decision-making before campaign launches.
Workload Reduction: AI automates routine tasks, allowing human teams to focus on creativity and strategic initiatives.
As the technology matures, we can expect a greater emphasis on ethical AI practices, ensuring that personalisation is balanced with consumer privacy, ultimately leading to more authentic and engaging brand experiences.
What disruptive trends will take the spotlight in 2025?
As a market we will continue to face some dichotomies. Legacy brands would want to drive premiumisation, but it could get very well hijacked by online brands who will establish first online and then scale up offline. Our per capita income has not increased, so there is a possibility of more brands fighting for the same audience of top 100/120 million and crowding the space.
Having said that, India is a relatively unbranded country and new brands will come to market across categories and across price points. From a ‘digital life’ perspective, the continued scaling up of digital public goods infrastructure, the India stack, and various data sets being publicly made available will accelerate the development of new business applications.
What are your New Year’s resolution/s on a professional and personal front?
On the professional front the effort is to continue building a learning organisation, where individuals feel a sense of belonging and are able to have ambitious learning agendas and align them to organisational objectives. It’s a journey. I am trying to get better at it. That forces one to remain self-critical, keep revisiting my positions and try to be a better person. Which in turn becomes a personal resolution.
Read More: We are adopting a ‘best-fit’ approach with respect to AI: Unny Radhakrishnan, CEO, Digitas India