Ms. Divanshi Gupta, Director, The Marcom Avenue

Brief Profile:

The Marcom Avenue is a data-driven integrated marketing and communications agency that boasts of transforming communication by brands by creating stories with research and insights. The agency underlines of having worked with over 300+ clients, including real estate to FnB, FMCG to retail, B2B industry, and B2C industry.

Ms. Divanshi Gupta, Director, The Marcom Avenue, shares her views on PR techniques and the marketing and communication industry. Read on.

Q) What kind of services does The Marcom Avenue provide?

The Marcom Avenue is a 360-degree data-driven media and marketing agency that helps build brands from zilch. The Marcom Avenue was conceived as an integrated marketing organization that keeps in mind the dynamic needs of the market and focuses on fulfilling the various marketing requirements of brands from every industry.

To broadly enlighten, The Marcom Avenue offers a spectrum of 7 different marketing avenues, namely The Ads Avenue, The PR Avenue, The Film Avenue, The Creative Avenue, The Experiential Avenue, The Tech Avenue, and The Accelerator Avenue, that largely cover the marketing needs ranging from content creation to social media optimization, from search engine optimization to website development, from influencer marketing to public relations, from app development to filmmaking, and beyond, of the industry.

Q)Which PR technique should dominate the year 2021, as per you?

Public Relations is primarily known for its strong approach towards building and maintaining media relations with traditional periodical publications such as magazines, newspapers, and others. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has tested the power of public relations, which showcases how far the Public Relations domain has come with its engaging and far-reaching techniques such as influencer marketing, digital public relations, media relations, experiential marketing, sponsorships, content creation, online engagement events and more.

Going forward, I believe Public Relations will tend to continue operating within the same PR techniques while giving a bit more attention to the digital reach and engagement in 2021. Public Relations will focus on experimenting with influencer marketing, social media engagement, online digital experiences, and content curation for both online and offline platforms.

Q) How has the pandemic changed the dynamic of marketing and strategy?

The pandemic has certainly changed the dynamics of the media and marketing industry with an immediate shift towards the adoption of digital marketing tools from social media to search engine optimization.

To answer how we must look at the year that has gone by. 2020 is the year we spent week after week in complete lockdown to control the spread of the virus while engaging in work, entertainment, wellness, and our daily needs of human interaction and hunger.

Amidst this, every brand needed to stay afloat, needed to stay in the market and be remembered, be bought and engaged with, and, the only option to continuously build brand image, brand perception, and establish market presence was through digital media marketing, only. The brands shunned the offline marketing budget and re-worked their strategy to integrate various other modes of digital experiential marketing to reach their potential audience with full force.

Q) Businesses have different spectrums in terms of revenue generation. What is your take on this?

Yes, of course, businesses have a different spectrum of revenue generation depending on:

• What do they offer?
• When do they offer?
• How do they offer?
• Where do they offer?
• Who do they offer it to?
• How much do they offer it for?

With the past year bringing a lot of companies to revisit their spectrum of revenue generation, the companies that have emerged victorious and stable are the ones that knew how to adapt their offerings and their spectrum as per the changing market dynamics and business environment.

Q) Why is it important to sync marketing and communication? What are the difficulties around?

Marketing is a mere tool to reach and connect with the customer/audience whereas communication is an important message that needs to be transmitted via the tool to make sense and build relationships. If there is no communication, marketing is like releasing an arrow without an aim – it has no meaning. Having harmonious sync between marketing and communication is essential for creating a bond that is meaningful and solves a purpose at the same time, here building a customer-brand repo.

Several marketing agencies in the arena struggle to create a sync between the various marketing tools and communication, however, are unable to due to the following difficulties:

• Poor brand, product, or service understanding. Having a thorough knowledge about the offering is essential to create something that is both relatable and informatory, and be shared across the right platforms in the right formats.
• Poor brand-agency interactions. Yes, many times, having poor interactions with the brand also torments the agency to come on the same page with the brand in creating communication that resonates with their image.
• Poor knowledge of the industry and trends. Being up-to-date and agile is the need of any marketing agency to be able to communicate in sync with the audience requirement and need.

No industry is free from problems, however, it is up to the agency to stay on its feet and service with an in-depth understanding of the sector domain, and beyond.

Q) What are your future plans and programs?

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the media and marketing industry in every way possible. Nonetheless, the industry has drastically evolved (and continues to do so) with new entrants joining the league and several quitting their way out.

Amidst this, we, at The Marcom Avenue, have breathed a deep air of relief as we have managed to get out of this victoriously by enabling brands to transform digitally and help them meet their customer expectations. And, we will continue doing so.

We have adopted the latest marketing tools to realize best results for our customers, we are investing in learning and development of our team, and we are re-aligning with the need of the market – to holistically integrate marketing and communication that ushers business growth for both, the customers (brand) and us.