Big Fan Of Traditional Media: Damyant Singh Khanoria
Damyant Singh Khanoria, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Oppo, has completed more than two decades of experience in the marketing industry. Started his career in the advertising industry to entering the world of full-fledged marketing in 2004, Khanoria found his true passion towards the marketing industry.
In our 'Marketing Maestros' series, Khanoria takes us on a captivating journey through his career in the dynamic world of marketing. He shares his insights, experiences, and the pivotal moments that shaped him as a marketing leader.
Excerpts:
What attracted you to the marketing landscape?
I think it was more of an accident than anything else. I got an opportunity at an advertising agency called Capital Advertising and I happened to meet two giants of the ad industry, Sunil Sachdeva and Prasad Subramanian. That was really my initiation into the world of marketing. I think it's the raw passion that Capital injected into people and how we were encouraged to think and how we were encouraged to solve the problem was what lured me in. I think the romance of marketing started, while working on brands like Spice Telecom, back in the day, there was also Philips India, and essentially the way Capital would encourage people who work there to think, in being creative, the way we thought of solving problems and using consumer insights in very simple ways is what kind of hooked me in and got me addicted to this world.
What has been the turning point of your life in the marketing industry?
Two instances shaped how I ended up being the kind of person I am. The first one was working on McDonald's while I was at DDB Mudra, my last job in advertising. The way McDonald's works with their agency partners is really empowering, The way the agency works helped me get into the thick of things and understanding what really drove McDonald's business, understanding the business model. For me, that was a first turning point, if I may call it because I literally think of working on McDonald's as being my MBA. Then, Adidas was the next big turning point. It was a 12-year turning point in my career. I play sports and for me, joining Adidas was to get the opportunity of sharing that passion into the next generation was a dream. Adidas inculcates a certain behaviour of being passionate at the workplace and believing in a larger objective, or a larger vision of how sports can make the world a better place. For me, it was just something that vibed really deeply with me. For me, the journey was insanely inspiring.
Sustainability is the new word in marketing. What is your take on brands for green messaging as well as attempting green washing to stay competent in the market?
To begin with, we all of us need to acknowledge the deep crisis that our planet is in. I see it from a lens of, yes, there's greenwashing and there are brands that potentially are doing it for the sake of ticking a box but I also feel that some action is better than none. There are brands that feel deeply about this and are hence acting on it. Acknowledgment of the issue, I think has been the big challenge for the environment. Some brands do it really well; others not so much. I'm really proud that at Oppo, we've taken the pledge of being carbon neutral by 2050 and it is something that's important to us. We're not really waiting that long, either to make changes in the way we literally create our products but the way we build our products, we literally want people to buy our products less often. We are making them more durable and making them last longer. Even the products that we're putting in the hands of consumers today are greener products.
How do you envision AI's potential to enhance content creation and storytelling strategies?
We need to acknowledge that AI unlike the metaverse is here to stay. It's a bit like what the smartphone was 12-13 years back. When smartphones came into the world, what smartphones did from a productivity standpoint is what AI is going to do. Usage of AI and the areas that it touches, I think people, consumers, or just us as individuals, we're wasting about what it is going to do and job loss and are we going to lose control over how the world is done around us? Yes, those are all concerns. I think when it comes to creativity, it's probably one of those things where there are going to be advancements, and there are some base-level things that AI is probably going to do better than humans do. But what AI does not have, which all of us are blessed with is imagination. There's a reason why humanity has survived for all these centuries and millennials. I think we'll figure out a good balance and how we utilise AI, and not let it get out of hand. AI will play the role of a force multiplier of sorts. It's about using ingenuity that we've all been born with, in meaningful ways to really harness the power of AI instead of kind of being scared of it and pushing it back. I feel there are a lot of upsides around AI, and we need to kind of just figure out what the sweet spot is.
How do you ensure authenticity and transparency in purpose-driven marketing, particularly while addressing sensitive issues?
If what you're saying to consumers is not a part of your DNA, and how the company builds its products and what it stands for, then you should probably not put out work of that nature. Consumers are smart enough to figure out when you're being real and when you're not and they figure and I think when you're not being authentic, you're simply wasting your effort, your energies, and your marketing dollars. It's best avoided if it's not authentic.
How do you balance between creative freedom for influencers and maintaining brand guidelines to maintain brand consistency and messaging alignment?
It eventually comes down to who you pick to work with and how authentic their story is with your brand narrative. When you get this mix, magic happens and when you don't, then you have noise. The way influencers have evolved in the last few years, they've become a very important and powerful voice for brands, especially when you get it right. They tell the brand’s story in really deep, meaningful ways and the way they incorporate the product that is surprisingly beneficial in various ways to the brand is what makes them important in the marketing mix. I think it goes down, to figuring out the overlap between your storyline and what communities these influences reach out to, and the kind of messaging they put out.
When it comes to Gen Z, I think they mostly are seeking honesty. I think for Gen Z, it's what's worked for consumers over the last many years, I think the way they articulated is obviously a lot sharper than probably what was happening a few decades back or a generation or two back. But the essence of how consumers have been hasn't really changed and honesty in advertising is been as important in the 40s, 50s, and 60s as it is today. It's just how you are putting that message out, is what's evolved and changed.
What opportunities and challenges do you anticipate in the future of social media marketing and how do you plan to navigate them to stay ahead in the ever-changing landscape?
One of the things about the emergence of social media also is the fact that traditional media has kind of underlined its own importance in several different ways. I think the power of TV and print is something that's making a big comeback. Business magazines, for example, I mean, there's a certain authenticity to reading a business magazine, and the depth that it covers in the editorial content, it supports that it makes it a great platform for brands to leverage and work with. I'm a big fan of traditional media.
There's nothing as powerful as television when it comes to driving preference because what you get when you're advertising on TV is, of course, scale but there's also bigness attached to it. Although I think it's still very important to acknowledge social media and digital media. For me, the big challenge around digital is really attribution of spends to real consumers, to begin with, and then, is it really driving brand metrics, it's probably a great tool for you to sell, to do social or ecommerce. What's important for marketers to do is acknowledge that traditional media today is probably as powerful as it was back in the day. If you use traditional media, well, the scale and the impact that you create, are very powerful.
Which marketing veterans or leaders do you admire and find inspiration from in your professional journey?
I think there are a lot of people for me. I can pull it down to three names. The first one for me would always be Sunil Sachdeva. He was one of the founders of Capital Advertising. He just had a deep passion for what he did, which is addressing and marketing but more importantly, he also is amazingly talented. What he did do was also bring a sense of purpose toward giving back to the country and society in general. Sunil definitely is somebody that I have huge admiration for. Then the second person is Phil Schiller. He was the head of product marketing at Apple. For me, he bought a sense of clarity and purpose to what one needs to kind of do in terms of marketing which I found or still find inspiring. I have notes from his emails that you'd sent out to people on my phone even now, and I glance at it from time to time because it just helps you reset your North Pole or your North Star in kind of doing the right thing and understanding why you're even in this. For me, he probably is the second person that I have a lot of admiration for. The third one I wouldn't say it's because of the marketing prowess of the individual, but because I just find her to be supremely inspiring as a person and what change she's bought around in the company, Nita Ambani. I had the good fortune of working with her when I was at Adidas, we were a sponsor of Mumbai Indians and I firsthand saw her journey as a businesswoman starting in 2010 I think. Some of the things that she would talk about and how she even worked with Adidas, were for me just special.
How would you describe your entire marketing career in one word or one sentence?
I think I'm just grateful to put it. I'm grateful for everything that I've experienced and the opportunities and the parachutes the Lord has thrown in my way to kind of allow me to experience what I have.
During the interview, Khanoria also addressed that the significance of digital platforms in their marketing strategy is approximately 40-45 per cent. However, he candidly expressed the challenge of standing out on social media due to the clutter and the need for hard work and creativity to create memorable advertising. Despite the challenges, he affirms the importance of social media, particularly Instagram. He stresses the value of having a differentiated point of view and focusing efforts on the platforms that align with the brand's mission. In Oppo’s case, Instagram and YouTube are the primary channels they leverage, showcasing the importance of making strategic choices and investing efforts in creating impactful content on select platforms.
