Rise In Digital Is No Surprise: Rahul Welde, Unilever

The year 2020 was unusual not only in bringing unprecedented challenges but also great learnings for businesses. For marketers globally, the year has been a test of resilience. Rahul Welde, EVP, Digital Transformation & Digital Business, Unilever, no stranger to the Indian market, asserts that the crisis has redefined much in its wake in India as well.

Welde reminds that every smart marketer must follow the consumer. Given the increase in digital consumption, where in India rural digital users have already surpassed urban users, he remarks that the growth in digital revenue was expected. 

“We should not forget the core role that content plays in attracting consumer attention. The rise of digital is a natural outcome particularly how content is distributed and consumed today, and the major consumer shifts witnessed in the past months,” he explains.  

The transformation to digital has created an urge in consumers to not just consume content but also participate in various digital and social media campaigns. “This trend of a participation economy is interesting. People are converging to be a part of the action and therefore creating ‘participatory’ marketing campaigns. In the time ahead, this will be an important factor to look out for,” advises Welde.  

In context to India, the Unilever EVP agrees with popular global opinion that traditional media, in many cases, remains strong. “This is also because of the degree of affinity and consumer traction that media such as television and print have in India. Right now, for marketers in India, it is important to manage traditional media and at the same time embracing the new,” he says.  

Contingency Planning

Welde warns that the troubles of the crisis will follow in 2021 as well. He remarks that businesses will continue need a new degree of agility and flexibility because there is still uncertainty around how the pandemic will unfold. Businesses have to be in a better state of readiness with contingency planning to survive. 

“There is an enormous amount of enterprising behaviour in the Indian media industry which is unparallel. A different level of maturity has come in the industry because of the quality of leadership that it has seen in the recent past. Despite some bruises here and there, its confidence is still intact,” Welde says, indicating his optimism from the India media.

Welde’s leadership style has always been underlined by being appreciative of the challenges and in being compassionate towards others. This further reflects in how Unilever’s relationship with its partners panned out during the crisis. In the year, Unilever also continued to grow its partnership with companies that were solving problems of a new world order.

“From a marketing viewpoint, we have to think of much bigger partnership universe than just the agency world. The entire partnership landscape is widening. We have to look beyond the conventional marketing tactics of just having good ads being distributed to people and agencies have to get on the top of the vectors of change,” Welde states.