In conversation with Karan Gupta, Alchemy Group

Karan Gupta is the CEO of Alchemy Group. With 20+ years of experience in the industry, Karan is the go-to person for all things marketing and his strategic efforts in various capacities have shaped his digital business acumen to cover the spectrum of innovative internet technology, creative advertising, and next-generation online media consumption.

Agency Reporter- Can you please tell us briefly about the different verticals under Alchemy Group?

Alchemy Group is a tech-first digital media and content agency providing marketing solutions to reach next-gen audiences. Founded in 2015, Alchemy Group is a firm believer in the power of technology and scale via new-age marketing channels that disrupts the traditional methods of marketing. It caters towards experiential marketing using technology as an enabler to help create granular, real conversations via Influencers, delivering marketing communication not only in local languages but also across future ready mediums like Digital Audio rather than as legacy mass marketing.

Alchemy Group started with the vision to create new-age solutions by being digital-first. The company caters to over 700+ large-scale advertiser and media publication clients globally and from around the world. Backed by cutting-edge technology, the company’s focus on experiential marketing to push digital boundaries in an ecosystem thriving on growth and exclusive engagements has delivered an uber-connected environment across all avenues of digital. Alchemy Group has four businesses under its umbrella -WORD,  AndBeyond.Media, Localyze, and OneLoop. 

WORD

WORD is a full-service influencer marketing agency which is aimed at professionalising the space, building connections with original talent and helping brands tell stories that deliver measurable impact. Along with the state-of-the-art robust technology and data, the business strongly believes in a human-first approach to talent identification and high-touch service. Our journey at WORD has been an exciting one, we have driven 1000+ campaigns for 150+ brands, handpicked and managed over 30,000 influencers across our private network. At WORD, our motto is to help brands build influence and influencers build brands. We work on a seamless platform that enables intelligent creator discovery, streamlines end-to-end workflows and drives meaningful measurement. 

AndBeyond.Media

AndBeyond.Media is a global SSP that caters to brands, media publications & content creators globally offering new age programmatic advertising solutions with technology at its epicentre. We work with over 500 publishers spread across the APAC, Gulf, India and the U.S. We operate from our offices in Mumbai, New York, Dubai and Singapore. AndBeyond.Media technology was developed to understand context, determine intent and auction ad space via programmatic channels using RTB platforms and Alchemy is the face for that.

Localyze

Localyze is the largest multilingual ad tech platform that offers end-to-end localization solutions across 10+ regional languages, and can help brands to reach 300Mn+ regional untapped audience.  We offer a 360-degree solution which includes the creation of a language ecosystem for your brand through Transcreation, reaching out to the relevant language user through our Media-Tech solution and driving efficiency for the business by ensuring that the brand talks to the TG in its native language.

OneLoop

OneLoop sets the precedent in the digital audio industry by creating limitless opportunities for artists, labels, digital streaming platforms and brands from around the world, enabled by domain expertise and an innovative tech enabled marketplace. OneLoop is the result of the coming together of Alchemy Group and N N Sippy Productions. We combine our Ad Tech and Intellectual Property Rights expertise with innovative technology to make audio content more profitable for content owners, publishers and brands.

AR- As the influencer marketing sector witnesses a rise in the number of agencies, what sets ‘WORD’ apart from others?

We have been in the influencer marketing business for over two years and this has given us a great sense of how the industry functions. It has also helped us build different business models across the board for different types of brands and content creators. 

From what influencer marketing was to what it is today, there’s definitely been a boom. Even though there have been multiple agencies that have entered this space, not all of them are really focusing on it end to end. But what makes WORD the needle in the haystack is the way we promote experimental and storytelling campaigns that actually resonate with today’s audience. We don’t usually opt for the tried and tested formulas while crafting an influencer marketing strategy for brands. Rather, we bring in a twist to get the audience hooked with the perfect messaging. In fact, our data driven AI platform ensures that we give brands the right kind of influencers that they’re searching for, backed by deep-researched data integrated directly with social platforms to enrich creator and audience profiles. What’s more, we also have a self-serve offering called WORD Marketplace that can be used by brands & influencers directly; connecting them by offering an array of services that can be levied by the brand from an influencer directly in a seamless manner.

WORD’s vision is to build offerings for a creator first future that not only empowers them but also bridges the gap between brands and agencies to work with them using technology as a strong tool for meeting marketing objectives.

AR- What were the factors that encouraged you to tap into the digital audio industry in India with OneLoop?

The digital audio industry in India is still at a nascent stage and has a lot of untapped potential. Believe it or not, we’re yet to witness a major audio revolution because we believe that digital audio is the next big thing for many stakeholders in the digital industry. We see it growing, but there are many loopholes that need to be fixed.

With OneLoop, we aim to create a digital audio marketplace for artists, publishers, and brands to catalyse the distribution of audio content in a more streamlined manner by building transparency and seamless management over a platform. As much as the content consumption is growing, there is a lot of catchup to be done by the audio monetization players and we believe we can be at the forefront of the same with our offerings.

AR- The rise of social media has drastically changed the way companies interact with their audience. What role does experiential marketing via digital means play in this new-age scenario?

Social media and its multiple use-case scenarios cannot be argued against and this presents immense opportunities that brands can leverage. As we move towards an extraordinary technological age, we must embrace the vast potential of digital transformation and how it will streamline and accentuate experiential marketing strategies in upcoming times.

The advent of experiential marketing started a couple of years back, but now it is being realigned to fit new digital realities. As brands and businesses become skewed towards digital thereby changing the nature of interaction between them and their customers, companies have been encouraged to find new ways to build a connection with their audience which was earlier done by traditional/ direct marketing. 

Digital experiential marketing goes a long way in ensuring successful outcomes. The most positive result is that not only is there noise around your brand before an event/ kick-off happens, but also ensures a sustained amount of chatter long after it is over owing to the right mix of digital tools. By increasing the longevity of your campaign, you increase its ROI, engage with audience real-time which was missing before the advent of social media as well as get data about your engagement. For this purpose, marketers are now using new-age digital solutions which allow them more creative freedom and imagination like content, filters, giveaways, UGC, sponsored ads and hashtags that can be associated with a brand/ campaign. There is also a plethora of unexplored digital mediums nowadays like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality and mobile technology which are bound to dominate the marketing landscape in the coming decade. Alongside this, the most important thing to remember is uniformity in communications and messaging across your marketing campaigns – both digital and otherwise. 

There is little doubt that experiential marketing will take on increasing importance in the digital age as technology advances and new social media platforms emerge.

AR- In the wake of the pandemic, how do you think small-scale brands can utilize and benefit from technology-driven marketing efforts?

The COVID-19 pandemic has inadvertently changed the way the audience consumes content which has been a wake-up call for brands – both large and small to rethink their marketing strategies. The consumer base has completely shifted online and the only way to connect with them is through smart, relevant and innovative digital + technological efforts which strikes a chord with them. This is even more important for small-scale brands to showcase the prowess that they possess and now, more than ever, they need to turn to the power of technology in an effort to engage customers in new ways. Marketers are now asked to find the best use cases for their brands to benefit from this shift, helping consumers make the most of technology.

As new technologies show up, brands are at the forefront to gain the first-mover advantage. This has forced marketers to keep up with the trends to ensure they are able to speak their audience’s language. Despite the initial hesitation in the interaction with bots, consumers seem to be more confident to benefit from such interactions, however, it will still be important to make the exchanges more human-like. That is exactly where personalised technology plays a crucial role. A marketing strategy that includes emerging technology needs to understand the consumers’ needs, their interaction with technology and their expectations to forge a meaningful connection for an improved user experience.

In this cluttered environment, when brands are constantly trying to outdo each other by offering competitive propositions, technology becomes the mainstay disruptor. Tech helps brands in a multitude of ways and the need of the hour is to bring in new technologies supplemented by awareness, engagement and conversion.

Moreover, the digital space is enabling people to explore concepts that are otherwise too costly or practically unrealistic, however with the rise of progressive, immersive means – the sole limitation is your creativity.  Technology driven marketing efforts are an inexpensive way to develop awareness and establish a start-up’s brand. 

AR- Lastly, what are the major problems that you think have been prevalent in the digital marketing ecosystem in India? And what could be the possible solutions for the same in order for the industry to grow steadily over the next few years?

The digital landscape is rapidly changing in India, what with new mediums and tools entering and exiting the market very frequently. Hence, it becomes difficult for marketers to acclimatize to these changes and often require last-minute revamps to plans overnight. Not only that, there is still a mind-block about the importance of SEO and good website marketing and the influence that these hold on the success of a business. Businesses often undermine them and would rather earmark a lot of budgets on traditional marketing tools which may not garner as well an ROI rather than digital marketing which provides clear engagement levels often deemed as non-tactical by them.

Another common problem is that the end consumer is often misguided or unaware and may find operating the internet a little complicated. Oftentimes, brands do not know what to expect from digital marketing and how to go about it and hence, do not reap the full benefits of it. They often believe that it lacks a personal touch, and there is distrust in terms of security and privacy breach.

There is no doubt that India is one of the fastest and largest growing digital markets globally owing to GOI’s digital India initiative and rapid internet penetration.  The need of the hour is to keep your eyes and ears open to everything that is happening around you and identify opportunities and jump onto the bandwagon as quickly as possible while maintaining your own persona. A few important things that can be undertaken to enable the digital marketing industry to flourish over the coming years are:

• Marketers need to pay special attention to online reputation management by engaging with the consumer online and ensure timely grievance control
• Making user friendly interfaces and ease of working things on the internet
• Innovation is the key and there should be constant technological advancements to further this cause
• With the rise of digital, companies must constantly evaluate and fine-tune their brand, ensure they keep audience engaged and loyal, and manage an increasingly interconnected web of partners, processes and technologies

Being cost-effective, flexible, fast and enjoying an exceptional global reach, digital marketing has brought about the advent of a new era of marketing moving away from traditional.