India is a very Quality Conscious Market : Starcom Director Arnab

by Leplan on July 8th, 2011 1

Today I am featuring one of the biggest man in Asian Digital Media Industry, Arnab Mitra – National Director – Digital at Starcom Mediavest Group.

Arnab is a proud Engineer turned Media Professional, who has spent 10 years in the Digital Media space. Before taking the current role at Starcom, he headed Media Contacts as the Regional Director for South Asia. He is believed to be the brain power behind Social Media initiatives within Media Contacts, and is likely to bring huge Social Media initiatives within Starcom in weeks ahead.

I know Arnab from Media Contacts days, and have been fascinated with his vision for Social Media in India. When I met him early this year, Arnab shared some great insights on developing best practices for businesses on the use of Social Media, and discussed on leveraging the value of human connections in Social World for companies. It was just awesome, and I have to admit that it was one of the best vision talks I had with folks in the industry. He is certainly a man to watch.

Here is my short discussion with Arnab, where he has shared his personal and professional life. Enjoy it.

[Bhupendra] You have an Engineering background and you came to Media and Advertising Industry. What brought you to this industry?

[Arnab] I keep getting asked this question time and again. Well, I give two answers: the honest one is, I didn’t know it was becoming a part of the future while I was honeymooning with internet a decade ago. So I just loved being on the internet, was amazed with the exposure I got and one day woke up to a dream career. The other one: I was born to be in advertising and designed my first website when I was barely ten.

[Bhupendra] It’s been over eight years since you are into the industry. How has the journey been?

[Arnab] Small correction first! It’s over 10 years. It’s been fabulous, enlightening, exciting and rewarding.

[Bhupendra] You have just recently joined SMG. Tell us something about SMG and your role.

[Arnab] Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human Experience Company and these days most of our brand experiences are created virtually and digitally! Digital is the core, not only of our offering but also it is in our DNA. I have been entrusted to be the lead architect in designing and deploying these experiences for the customers for our clients’ brands. Yes, it is a challenging and exciting task. I am up for it.

[Bhupendra] How is Indian and Emerging market important to SMG? What are the plans for future?

[Arnab] India is very important in the global landscape of digital and so is it for us at SMG. We are focusing on the quality of our digital product by introducing smart, intelligent and robust Decision Support Systems (DSS) and also involving the best digital minds of our times. We believe that no challenge can withstand continuous and focused thinking. Our idea of having great minds supported with great tools will fetch excellence for SMG here in India.

[Bhupendra] How social Media savvy are you?

[Arnab] I am passionate about social media. I am not only active on the popular networks like Facebook and Twitter but also on those which drive my social influence. For example: I was one of the very first people to log on to Foursquare from India. If being savvy means doing some tech stuff on them: yes I can make a basic FB app using Facebook Markup Language.

[Bhupendra] What is your favorite network? Why?

[Arnab] My vote goes for everybody. All of them are successful as they have filled up a certain gap in our need diagram. All of them did amazingly well to not only get us interested to log in for the very first time but also did well to keep us hooked on.

[Bhupendra] What is the most difficult problem that industry is facing in terms of Social Media adoption? How do you plan to solve it?

[Arnab] Many brand managers have the uncanny knack of considering every social network to be similar to what already exists. They do it at the cost of putting off consumers. However this is one animal they have to deal differently with and have to look beyond just their personal conveniences. We are implementing interactive social media boot camps for our clients to take them through the nuances of various social networks before they take a plunge. We want to ride the wave together and we are seeing change!

[Bhupendra] There is a hue and cry about second dot com bubble in the World after the successful IPO of Renren and LinkedIn, besides biggies Groupon, Zynga and Facebook are preparing for going public. Is this a bubble?

[Arnab] I don’t think it’s a fad any more, I don’t think it’s a bubble. This is a serious business more so than ever before. However, like all media reach saturation, so will digital. Probably it will be faster and similar to how it grew. In a “today” of innovation the lesser innovative “yesterday” can’t be immortal. If you look at any industry other than the brick and mortar types- they all grew, reached a plateau, had a slow down and then again attended another lower level of plateau, where they did remained ever after, till the demand grew.

[Bhupendra] There are some great Social Networks from Japan and China like Gree, Mixi, Weibo, Youku etc. What is stopping India from having one? Can India ever have such network?

[Arnab] Against popular belief, India is a very quality conscious market. In the case of social networks, we take the same in our stride and use it as a social status. So we would never like to get into any local language or for that matter a Hindi social network as we consider this not appropriate for our social status. This is the reason that has prevented Indians from creating something local.

[Bhupendra] What will be your word of caution/ advice to our reader for effectively using Social Media?

[Arnab] The biggest advantage of social media could be the critical disadvantage as well. Integration is what I am referring to. We are lazy to replicate content that we have created once. So we tend to integrate all our social channels with one and other. So our Facebook page is connected to our Twitter handle, our LinkedIn profile is connected to our Tweets and so on. The digital age that we are living in today prompts us to update our status about a five second fight we had with our parents, the same update goes up on Twitter, FB and also LinkedIn. Trust me nobody likes to hire an employee who fights with his/her parents ….would you?

About the Company

Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) is one of the world’s largest and most celebrated brand communications and consumer contact organizations. With 110 offices in 67 countries, SMG is connected like no other network. Our 6,200 global media professionals all aspire to a common vision to be Leaders of the Consumer Attention Economy, and they build captivating connections between consumers and brands for hundreds of clients, including many of the world’s most powerful marketers.

You might also like: