Unilever’s Rahul Welde: ‘These are the best years for anyone in marketing’ | M&M Global

Unilever’s Rahul Welde: ‘These are the best years for anyone in marketing’

M&M Global asked Rahul Welde, regional vice president, media at Unilever, and chair of the judges at the Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards 2016, for his predictions for marketing in the APAC region.

Rahul Welde crop

What qualities are you hoping to see from entries to the Festival of Media APAC Awards this year?

“I am excited to see a great array of cases. I am hoping to see an overall uplift in the work – across countries and categories. As the media landscape gets more complex, as the communication clutter keeps increasing – innovation is the key. I am looking for cases that break new ground and create high impact.”

What benefits is there to you as a marketer in seeing all these case studies from across the region?

“Looking at all the work in award festivals is a great source of inspiration and learning. I love going through all the great work often cutting across different industries and consumer segments. It is time well spent and I encourage all marketers to get involved in some form of judging at least once a year, if not more.”

How is consumer media consumption changing across Asia, and which areas of the region are leading the way?

“Media consumption continues to grow rapidly across Asia, particularly driven with the explosion of the mobile as the primary media device. The excitement in media is true across Asia with amazing work across the markets. China, India and Australia are leading the way.”

“Mobile, mobile, mobile. This will be the mantra that marketers will espouse widely”

How important is mobile, and how is mobile changing marketing and media for advertisers in Asia Pacific?

“Mobile now occupies centre-stage for consumers and thus for marketers. It remains a relatively under-leveraged medium despite fast growth in spends and interest. It presents enormous opportunities – to be innovative, to break through the clutter, to harness the power of location, to drive agile and responsive marketing, to seize key moments – in short, tremendous opportunity to leverage a multi-faceted medium.”

How is content being used by marketers to communicate with consumers in the region?

“Content is King and always will be. This is even more important today with the dramatic rise of video and social – powered by mobile. The scope, scale and nature of content is changing vastly. Content now has to live and thrive in the new world – multi-format, multi-platform and multi-channel.”

What trends do you believe will be most influential over the coming year or two?

“The three key trends that will mark the next couple of years are:

“1 – Mobile, mobile, mobile. This will be the mantra that marketers will espouse widely.

“2 – Proliferation of content across platforms. We will see more global content and more local content. Both will co-exist and win.

“3 – Automation in planning and buying media will grow very rapidly. This will leverage data and provide greater visibility and accountability to marketing spends.

“Marketing will continue to be very exciting and dynamic. The next few years will be the best years for anyone in marketing.”

The Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards 2016 takes place in Singapore on Tuesday 22 March.

Attendance is by invitation only, and invites are prioritised for shortlisted entrants and judges. Those wishing to attend should email: fanny.nicot@csquared.cc

 

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