The Best of 5 Recommended Digital Marketing Companies.

1. JANUARY 5 Digital Marketing COMPANIES 202 1 I N D I A THE BEST OF MARKETING INSIGHTS DIGITAL MARKETING VS TRADITIONAL MARKETING – WHICH ONE IS THE WINNER? RECOMMENDED MARKETING DYNAMICS DYNAMICS OF INDIAN DIGITAL MARKETING SPACE Tarun Gurwara Founder VIRTUAL PEBBLES The Trendsetters in Digital Marketing

4. EDITOR’S NOTE Welcoming the Digital Tomorrow D igitization has emerged as one of the promi- nent avenues revolutionizing the way people do business. But the fun fact is digitization has spread its wings across many verticals not just limited to business. It has made personal blogs available to a lot of people who have started to monetize it now to give it a professional swing. Individual approach towards digitization has changed from just single use to multiple applications in over a very short amount of time. Needless to say, the digital wave has struck mankind and technology alike, transforming our lives for the better. Ours is a digital generation and this generation has become more tech-savvy as the advancements in the industry have availed a lot of opportunities. Digital literacy has now become a foundation for not just businesses but people in general. It is serving as the cornerstone for development may it be personal or professional. Now, when we say we need to go digital, what do we mean by that? It simply refers to grow our presence on the internet. In personal terms, we are known to be digitally aware of

5. RECOMMENDED Digital Marketing COMPANIES THE BEST OF things only if we leave a digital footprint on the world wide web. Internet is the place best known as all things digital and we are yet a tiny part of that universe. Its ever-expanding network makes us available with all the information needed at our fingertips. The digital world is creating an environment that discards traditional practices completely by replac- ing them with new methods and strategies that are cost-effective, efficient, and user friendly. In business, these are the most crucial factors to stay relevant in the industry. In this latest edition of CIO Look India magazine, we are going to talk about some of the companies that are drawing the power from the digital world and utilizing it for the better- ment of other businesses. All in the form of provid- ing exceptional digital marketing services. Digital Marketing is a concept that is although not new but coming out of its shell post-pandemic. The advent of smart devices has made leveraging the power of the internet easier. That is the reason, the wall between the digital world and the real world is thinning, invention by invention. Innovation happening in the tech space is just mobilizing our access to digital products and services that become hassle-free and efficient. ‘The Best of 5 Recommended Digital Marketing Companies,’ is the edition in which our team has brought the readers a few of the incredible stories related to the digital marketing agencies that are dynamically making a difference in this sector by providing unique services to their clients. So, just sit back and flip through the pages of our latest edition, where you might stumble upon some of the articles curated by the in-house editorial team of CIO Look India. It dynamically paves the way for evolution, some- thing that we have never experienced before. AI-ML, IoT, Cloud, and other next-gen technologies are constantly changing the environment where we work or stay in. Digitization has made all this not just possible but accelerated its growth on a whole different level. Even though we can quantify and realize this growth spectrum, we still need to ascertain the ways in which we can leverage digitization in the most productive ways. For that, how digitization is chang- ing the way we do business is something that we need to focus on. In its entirety, digitization as an avenue for business can result in a set of newer opportunities that gives exposure, knowledge, experience, and growth prospects. DarsHP Darshan Parmar

6. Articles Marketing Insights Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing – Which One is the Winner? Marketing Dynamics Dynamics of Indian Digital Marketing Space 30 20 VIRTUAL PEBBLES The Trendsetters in Digital Marketing 08 Cover Story

7. C O N T E N T S BrandLoom Consulting A One-stop-shop for all your Digital Marketing Needs ALVI Web Tech Delivering Result- Driven SEO Services 18 24 FLUODIGITAL Mastering the Art of Creating Strategies from Consumer Data Analysis 26 WebHooters Whisperers of the Digital Era 36

8. I N D I A Sumita Sarkar Editor-in-Chief CONTENT FOLLOW US ON www.twitter.com/ciolookindia www.facebook.com/ciolookindia/ Managing Editor Darshan Parmar Assisting Editor Abhishaj Sajeev Contributing Writer Aditya Umale WE ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON DESIGN CONTACT US ON VisualizerAsha Bange Email sales@ciolookindia.com For Subscription www.ciolookindia.com Art & Design Director Deepanjali Jena Associate Designer Priyanka Rajage SALES Copyright © 2021 CIOLOOK India, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from CIOLOOK India. Reprint rights remain solely with CIOLOOK India. Operations Head Megha Mishra Sales Manager Ashwini Pahurkar Sales Executive Neha Bhilare TECHNICAL Technical Head Aditya K. Technical Consultant Tanaji abhishaj@ciolook.com sales@ciolookindia.com JANUARY, 2021

9. RECOMMENDED Digital Marketing COMPANIES THE BEST OF Company Name Featuring Brief ALVI Web Tech was incepted to help businesses in boosting more visibility for their website, enhanced business conversion rate, continuous engagement, and brand awareness. Nadeem Sabugar Founder and CEO ALVI Web Tech BrandLoom Consulting Avinash Chandra Founder and CEO BrandLoom has emerged as one of India's most trusted digital marketing and branding companies. Rahul K Soni Founder and Director FluoDigital is data driven performance marketing and research company. FluoDigital TMU Branding & Marketing - Virtual Pebbles Virtual Pebbles works with the vision to get Indian businesses online with technology and marketing strengths working in equilibrium. Tarun Gurwara Founder WebHooters is a company that has managed to stay focused on its objective of capturing the essence of digital in an unforseen way. Mahima Chawla Founder and CEO WebHooters

10. Tarun Gurwara Founder C O V E R S T O R Y

11. VIRTUAL PEBBLES The Trendsetters in Digital Marketing C O V E R S T O R Y “ THE PLAN IS TO INFUSE FRESH THINKING AND NEW PERSPECTIVES INTO THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONS USING THE MEDIA CHANNELS AND MAKE LIVING AND NON-LIVING – EVERYTHING – POPULAR “

12. RECOMMENDED Digital Marketing COMPANIES THE BEST OF T opportunities for professionals of all kinds. Few areas have gone through a revolution as remarkable as marketing, which today has a large part of its activities conducted in the digitized environment. he internet expansion meant the breaking down of barriers and the creation of numerous transformations using the media channels and make everything – living and non-living – popular. converting to business which is one of the topmost USPs– • With currently 30 renowned customers in almost 3 years of their existence, Virtual Pebbles have proved themselves to 4 states (Gujarat included). • Creative illustrative content that we develop after ideation. • Data collection in the form of videos and stills. • An integrated method of marketing – digital marketing strategies clubbed with sales and marketing strategies of a business (customers). • Strong lead generation B2C and B2B. Mission: “Our mission is to harness our creativity into a viable solution. We’re all about that new, which excites us: New services, new design thinking, new ideas to generate leads, the latest of every successful service we have given to our customers since 2017,” said Tarun Gurwara. Digital marketing is not just a marketing technique. It has the potential to make your business popular and then keep it popular for ages. Being a top player in this game is like possessing the ability to make or break businesses. One such titan in the digital marketing space is Virtual Pebbles. Promoting #AllDigital At Virtual Pebbles, they are a very aggressive digital branding agency and marketing team, which is#AllDigital. The team is an assortment of a certified professionals from various digital marketing disciplines and from design schools. They strategize quarterly plans and execute to generate inquiries and direct leads Founded in the year 2017, when Tarun Gurwara, the Founder, along with his group of crazy, eclectic, and creative thinkers of team members, co-founded ‘Virtual Pebbles’ with the plan to infuse fresh thinking and new perspectives into digital For the team over at Virtual Pebbles, trends and the way businesses perceived the process of sales and marketing was the biggest challenge. It was a huge challenge back from 2012 to 2017, where clarity on how digitally using technology, activities can boost sales via marketing was not widely understood. Scenarios changed dramatically in India with telecom companies disrupting the digital arena and industries taking the change positively. “Our struggles vanished slowly, and today in 2020, Virtual Pebbles, with brands like ‘tera mera uska’ and Branding & Marketing café, are successful with firm clients and have a good presence in various states of India,” informs Tarun. The Visionary Virtual Pebbles' idea was

13. “ THE DIGITAL WORLD’S ‘NEW NORMAL’, AND WE SURE DID A GREAT JOB ON THAT! to get Indian businesses online with technology and marketing strengths working in equilibrium. ‘Tera mera uska’ was awarded by the Vibrant Gujarat Startup summit as No. 1 in 2019. WE MADE THE MOST OF WHAT THE PANDEMIC HAD TO OFFER OUR CUSTOMERS AND US. SURE THERE WERE LIMITATIONS AND EVERYONE WAS BUSY ADJUSTING TO THE NEW NORMAL, BUT WE TRIED OUR BEST TO COPE UP WITH Tarun Gurwara visioned the same in 2012 and initiated this company in Toronto also started with a team in India. Being certified on the software development front as a PMP (project management professionals) and certified on various digital branding, marketing, and advertising fronts with his strong strategy on forming, mentoring and growing Virtual Pebbles with brands like ‘tera mera uska’ and branding and marketing cafe, has catapulted the whole operation in India, with a bang, since 2017. Making the Best of a Bad Situation, and Preparing for The Digital Future The pandemic was a major downside for the nation and as well as the whole wide world. But, as things would have it, people were stuck at home and the primary mode of communication was digital. What more could a digital marketing agency ask for? “

14. DISTINGUISHED SERVICES ON A PLATTER Transformation is widely understood as doing normal and regular chores differently. In the four years since Virtual Pebbles came into existence, they have acquired 35+ clients, executed over 40+ projects. The company gives ideas with a proof of concept and not only, evidence of air (which we all know exists). And by all accounts, this is just the start for Virtual Pebbles. “We super-serve some companies who need, think, sell niche, and we love serving those companies who would like to be a niche in the market,”shares Tarun. Some of the specialized services that Virtual Pebbles provides its clientele are: 01 02 Digital Branding: • Brand Identity / Logo Design • Trade Show Display Design • Collateral Development • Package Design • Billboards, Kiosks • Signs, Flyers, Menus • Banners, Display Ads • Infographics, Magazines • Direct Mail Campaigns • Digital White Papers • Professional Photography 03 Digital Marketing: • Strategy and Consulting – Digital Presence, Marketing plans quarter wise with Targets aligned with sales team and objectives with Content & Channel Planning. This will include Media Planning & Buying • Content Research – Researched and aggregated content • Vlogging – Scripted • Remarketing Direct • Lead Generation – Google Search, Instagram, Facebook, Emailers • Email Marketing – 4 to 30 emails per month • Drip Email Marketing Campaigns • Search Engine Optimization – 9 Month program with Mutually Agreed Targetted keywords for inbound business messages and Acquisition • Pay Per Click Campaigns – Social, Professional and Video Media Platforms Instagram Campaigns: 04 Digital Advertising: • Content Research • Creative Content planning and creation • 100+ Creative Visuals per year – Interactive content with new strategies and payments linked. • Billboards, Kiosks • Signs, Flyers, Menus • Banners, Display Ads • Professional Photography • Media Planning & Buying

15. 05 06 Vlogging Services: • Script Formation • Location planning • Shoot planning • Video Shoot / Live Shoot • Motion Graphics Planning and Production • Postproduction Marketing Video Production and Photography: • Professional Photography • Video Shoot / Live Shoot • Motion Graphics Planning and Production 08 07 Branding the Czar: 09 • BRANDING THE CZAR! Making of an influencer (Bundled Plan) Digital presence • Domain registration and hosting • Securing the content • Media Planning and Buying • Professional Photography • Instagram Campaigning • Facebook and YouTube Campaigning • Lead Generation – Google Search, Instagram, Facebook, Emailers • Search Engine Optimization – 9 Month program with Mutually Agreed Targeted keywords for inbound business messages and acquisition • Pay Per Click Campaigns – Social, Professional and Video Media Platforms Technology + Marketing Activation: E-commerce Design and Software Development: • Landing Page Optimization • Microsite Development • Website Design & Development • E-Commerce Web Design • Website Content/Copy Redesign • .NET, MVC, Angular, Core PHP, WordPress, Wo- Commerce • E-Commerce Web Design • Website Content / Copy Redesign

16. “We made the most of what the pandemic had to offer our customers and us. Sure, there were limitations, and everyone was busy adjusting to the new normal, but we tried our best to cope up with the digital world’s ‘new normal’, and we sure did a great job on that,”says the team of Virtual Pebbles. India has many digital marketing companies along with digital advertising agencies and freelancers who are working fantastically for many Indian businesses and for companies overseas too. “ This is precisely where Virtual Pebbles steps in. It is by far, the strongest in Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab with few pockets of Maharashtra as - the only technology-driven digital marketing company with a great sense of how marketing strategies on digital platforms can be activated by using technology and not just releasing content to get inbound leads and inquiries. A true digital transformation company. “ CHANGE IS A PRIVILEGE; IT IS WHAT YOU DO WITH IT THAT MATTERS. WITH THE FORCED CHANGE THAT WAS FACED BY THE COMPANY, THEY BELIEVE THAT THEY MADE THEIR WAY THROUGH IT WITH NOTHING BUT GRACE AND POSITIVE AGGRESSION The business environment and technology are reshaping the industry as well as marketing skills, which is making all and everyone reconsider the ongoing evolution in business. The future of digital marketing and digital advertising is going to be challenging in terms of skills, competition, techniques, results, etc., but the team is ready for it. “We have been successfully serving our customers and we wish to continue doing so,”states Tarun. As stated above, the Covid-19 pandemic has created havoc nationwide but also given a big boost to the industries related to the digital and the internet world, despite their shortcomings and limitations. As a result, digital marketing agencies are going to grow rapidly in 2021. It is a proven fact that connecting potential customers online has been effective and less expensive than conventional methods. “2021 is going to be enormously huge for our Vlogging platforms ‘tera mera uska’ (teramerauska.com) and Content Cafe (brandingmarketingcafe.com),” explains Tarun. While the marketing trends in 2020 have already brought some heads- up of hot new channels and interesting tactics, Virtual Pebbles have already adopted that ‘new normal’ of the web-world. Digital marketing usually makes a strong brand and business presence in the online world. It also gives equal opportunities to small and big businesses to advertise their service/products. Change is a privilege; it is what you do with it that matters. With the forced change that was faced by the company, it believes that the team has made their way through it with nothing but grace and positive aggression. So, if you get disillusioned with the same old techniques or realise most of the marketing firms are not up to the job, give Virtual Pebbles a call, and ready yourself for a whole new experience.

19. Stay in the known. Subscribe to CIOLOOK Get CIOLOOK Magazine in print, and digital on www.ciolookindia.com JANUARY 5 Digital Marketing COMPANIES 202 1 I N D I A THE BEST OF MARKETING INSIGHTS DIGITAL MARKETING VS TRADITIONAL MARKETING – WHICH ONE IS THE WINNER? RECOMMENDED MARKETING DYNAMICS DYNAMICS OF INDIAN DIGITAL MARKETING SPACE Tarun Gurwara Founder VIRTUAL PEBBLES The Trendsetters in Digital Marketing

20. ALVI WEB TECH Delivering Result-Driven SEO Services T he current era of digitalization has dominated almost every sector and driven every business to go online. Every company is striving to increase their brand awareness, build relationships with prospective clients, and position themselves as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in their field through digital ways. ALVI Web Tech is one of the best SEO companies in India and our goal is to provide the best digital marketing services and improve the overall growth of clients’ business in the online marketing world. We provide all the services that drive great results for your website. Recognized as one of the most successful SEO companies to drive traffic and contribute to the growth of businesses. We are the most sought after for all types of digital marketing and SEO rank boosting services. The ultimate goal is to stay ahead of the curve. This is where SEO comes into the picture. Considering this significant contribution of SEO and other aspects of digital marketing, a leading company, ALVI Web Tech was incepted with its comprehensive services, to aid businesses in boosting more visibility of their website, business conversion, continuous engagement and brand awareness. Let’s discover the inspiring journey of the company from its Founder and CEO, Nadeem Sabugar in his own words: After completing my computer engineering in 2013, I stepped up into the real world to find a job. It’s quite challenging to get a job as a fresher as everybody knows and I had given many interviews for on-field and off-field opportunities, but unfortunately couldn’t find one. Under the hood, we offer Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, technical SEO, web page optimization and PPC campaign services for all types of websites across business niches. Our offerings also include Link Building, Guest Posting, Application Marketing, Content Marketing & Writing, Local SEO, WordPress Web Development, Online Reputation Repair, and Strategy & Analytics Consulting. With our industry-recognized SEO efforts businesses can be assured to stay always ahead of the competition and get top search ranks for their target search terms. We know what it takes to deliver top search ranks for their website. Our experience in digital marketing goes back to the early age of web and social media and this gives us a clear edge over most of our competitors. We help business brands meeting online challenges of reaching customers with our expertise is driven value-for-money custom digital campaigns and business-focused SEO. So, in order to incur my expenses, I joined a call center and did the job for 3 months. Meanwhile, I also started learning about SEO and other stuff. After gaining the knowledge of SEO, I went for an interview and got selected on the basis of my knowledge. My journey started as a fresher towards the end of 2013 and within four years, I became a team leader. As I was very curious to do something new by myself, I decided to start my own company. I took the risk and left my job on immediate base. This is when I founded ALVI Web Tech in 2018. We have proven expertise and a robust portfolio of clients who have been benefited with our services. We offer highly customized and business-focused SEO services for client websites across niches. The journey of ALVI Web Tech started in a rental space and within 2 years we had our own office, and a well settled business. It’s been more than 6 years since I am in the SEO field and I really enjoy what I do. At ALVI Web Tech, we believe in contributing to the business dynamics of our client with a committed objective. We ensure making a broad difference to the outcome of their website traffic and business conversion with our 18 JANUARY 2021

21. RECOMMENDED Digital Marketing COMPANIES THE BEST OF customized and highly business focused SEO campaign and digital marketing initiatives. We set achievable expectations to fulfill our commitment to creating value with our SEO marketing for customers. Our SEO campaign is custom designed for each and every website to suit its specific traffic needs and to meet the business conversion objective. We not only ensure doing the right things following the standard SEO practices and using best SEO tools, but we also come up with custom SEO plans for each website depending on the business dynamics and goals. From addressing the technical limitations of our customers’ website such as page speed, interlinking contents and other on-page issues to boosting their domain and page authority through quality inbound links, relevant guest post-publications, social bookmarking and social media posts and optimization, we leverage our expertise in all avenues to boost their website rank and traffic. We leave no stones unturned to ensure their steady growth in page rank for their website. Nadeem Sabugar Founder and CEO “ We set achievable expectations to fulll our commitment to creating value with our SEO marketing for customers “ As per the Advertising & Marketing field, the knowledge of search engines and latest developments are necessary to be know, because results depend on the knowledge you have. We consistently review our IT strategy alongside business strategy in every quarter. This helps us determine how technology is helping and drives growth. We keep updating our work strategy, gain knowledge of the field, and stay focused on clients’ ROI. Nadeem was recently awarded Indian Achievers Award 2020 for the Emerging Company - Best Digital Marketing Company in India, Gujarat. We believe that if we work on client satisfaction and get positive responses, only then can we sustain in the future. 19 JANUARY 2021

22. vs DIGITAL MARKETING 20 JANUARY 2021

23. vs TRADITIONAL Marketing Insights MARKETING WHICH ONE IS THE WINNER? 21 JANUARY 2021

24. I white, as long as it catches mice’! n the end, what matters are the results. To put it in the words of the Paramount Leader of China, Deng Xiaoping ‘it doesn’t matter if the cat is black or dated which meant there was a time lag between ideation, creation, and final installation. As for the result of campaigns, they took months of waiting, watching, and collating to know if the target had been met. Given the gap in communication at every stage, changing ideas en-route was not a possibility at all. Calculating ROIs of marketing campaigns was a matter of months. Also, the concept of CRM meant paper registers full of client details or at best excel sheets (d- base till a while back) in unconnected computers which had to be physically collated. The mice for marketers paradoxically are clients who from time immemorial into the present, have always been those who remain difficult to please, but without whose presence a marketer does not go far. So much for client servicing, the field has undergone humongous changes, more so in the last decade. What has caused the change has been the increasing digitization of communication, more so in the field of marketing and client communication. As a matter of fact, communication the world over has undergone a complete make over in the last two decades. Where it is most visible and has brought most change continues in the field of marketing. Time did not mean much then as competition was less. Everybody had a share of the pie. And everyone was happy. The present Papers these days are anathema. And so too canvas, paint and every other thing which is physical, needs storage and must be worked upon using bare hands. It is the ‘yug’ of digitization with machines doing everything- in time even deciding what to show to whom, when and in what quantities. These days everything must have a reason to be done. And the base of everything is data which gives information in the form of ideas, trends, predictions, thoughts, perceptions, and everything that may influence a buyer’s decision-making capabilities. Data today comes in the form of even a thought- courtesy technologies like NLP which read even into the nuances of messages on digital medias to glean the current scenario to suggest the right messages and strategies. Data today is like the air around us. It is collected in various ways, only one of which could be the written words on various gadgets. Sound, voices, and commands too are being turned into data, besides those coming from sources including IoT and Edge computing. The past Imagine a time when there were no smart-phones and no internet. These were before the times of the Gen Z or Millennials. Paper, canvas, and everything physical ruled. Marketing campaigns took weeks if not months to formulate and roll-out, given that even communication was paper-based making them slow but quite sure. Obviously, there was not anything in the nature of “personalized communication” other than stuff in the letter box which were few and far between. By the way, in countries where postage cards were a rage, you did have them sent by companies reminding you of the latter’s existence and likely new product. You could not ever compare features or get reviews- that’s till digitization happened. But that’s for latter. The other way to market were huge billboards either on top of buildings or such strategic location including balloons, festoons, standees and so on. Everything was 22 JANUARY 2021

26. Consulting A One-stop-shop for all your Digital Marketing Needs I n the following interview with CIO Look India, Avinash Chandra, the Founder and CEO of BrandloomConsulting shares his take on the booming scope of digital marketing and how his firm is leveraging every opportunity there is to carve its niche. Below are the highlights of the interview: Give our readers a brief overview of BrandLoom, its vision, and its journey since inception Since its inception in 2015, BrandLoom has emerged as one Avinash Chandra Founder & CEO 24 JANUARY 2021

27. RECOMMENDED Digital Marketing COMPANIES THE BEST OF of India’s most trusted digital marketing and branding companies. We aim to help our clients grow sustainably and ethically. Our vision is to establish our company as the go- to name in our field and keep exploring newer avenues to offer innovative solutions to our clients. whole, we have to upgrade our systems and ways of doing business. In my opinion, businesses that cannot adapt to this environment will become unviable in the long run. As an experienced leader, according to you, how necessary is it to align one’s business with the latest technological developments? BrandLoom has been working with brands from various industries like healthcare, apparels, F&B, farming, FMCG, education and more. Some of our clients have been- Wipro, Tata, Jubilant Indus-tries, Groversons, Hero Cycles, etc. Being the head of a digital marketing company and having headed the marketing departments of various MNCs before that- I can say with certainty that if you cannot align your business with the latest technological developments, you will suffer. What makes BrandLoom a preferred choice over its competition? What makes BrandLoom stand out is our unique branding- ecommerce approach. Our digital marketing services help us establish brands. We understand the brand first, and then deploy our digital marketing services to create a self- sustaining ecosystem that help establish and grow a brand in the long run. Technology is affecting the ways customers are finding, testing, and interacting with brands and products. Their expectations are different, and the market has also changed today because the internet has changed everything. You have to adopt relevant technologies to do and manage your business, design new products, interact with customers and grow your business. If you do not change with time, time will march on leaving you behind. As a branding agency, we specialize in finding a brand's market niche, designing its visual branding aspects and strategic branding for the long term. The strategies we design to build a brand are all based on data, focused on ROI and are tailor-made for each client. We always insist on sustainable strategies, which helps our clients thrive in the long-term. What have you envisioned for your company to sustain its competency in the future? Definitely, as a team, we have envisioned a future where we become the go-to name in our field. In our field, we must stay on top of technological advances and we have aimed to adopt more agile methods in handling our projects. To ensure that a brand grows sustainably, we deploy a host of digital marketing services ranging from SEO, content marketing to social media marketing, website development, logo designing, email marketing, online PR, video marketing, graphic designing and more. This, of course, means we are paying attention to remote collaboration. Another reason for going agile is that we want to build a team with the best talents. We do not want a physical location to be a hindrance to that and it helps increase employee satisfaction. We are happy to say that our clients have been reaping the benefits of our solutions and are growing organically. Being at a leadership position of your company, what is your opinion on the impact of the current pandemic on the Indian business ecosystem? We are also a women-friendly company: the majority of our employees are women. In our experience, if women are offered a working environment which allows them to have a better work-life balance, they can contribute their best. Companies that are not women-friendly lose out on tapping a vast reservoir of talent to their detriment. We never want to be like them. The pandemic has affected India's business ecosystem severely. India has been getting back on its feet, slowly but steadily. However, many businesses are finding it difficult to step up because they are not yet prepared for the digital era. We want to grow pan-India, that these are some things we feel will sustain our competency in the long-term. If the pandemic has shown us something, it is that businesses have to go digital if they want to survive. If the Indian business sector has to step into the new age, as a 25 JANUARY 2021

28. RECOMMENDED Digital Marketing COMPANIES THE BEST OF FLUODIGITAL Mastering the Art of Creating Strategies from Consumer Data Analysis A end conversions to the clients. Stack of Offerings FLUODIGITAL has currently divided the teams into two major verticals i.e. Performance marketing and quantitative research. For performance marketing, it directly works with SME’s, Funded startups and chooses its clients onthe basis of the nature of the industry and their need. The company believes in building long term relationships. Rather than focusing only on retainers, it chases the consistent result. Whereas, for research-based products the firm directly works with creative agencies in which it gives them insights on different parameters. bunch of ingenious minds of the marketing world came together to form a marketing agency named as FLUODIGITAL that works on providing high FLUODIGITAL is data driven performance marketing and research firm. The firm currently works with a very limited set of clients, as it believes in giving quality output to its clients. A Strategist Behind Inception At the helm of the FLUODIGITAL is its Founder and Director, Rahul K. Soni. Having 15 years of experience into digital media, he has strong understanding of Technical, strategies and coding. He is a PGP in Mass Media from Welingkars Institute of Management. He holds a Certification of Google Marketing Solutions and keen of learning data mining solutions. More than 15 years in the industry, he has worked with some of the leading brands like YES BANK, REDDIF and IBM and is now working on developing his own product in data mining. After working with brands and agencies throughout his tenure, he identified few gaps and thus wanted to start on own. He found two major problems - not putting many efforts in researching and identifying the audience with a strong data points based on the cohorts. For agencies, the company provides services such as Audience Segmentation, Creative Testing, Path to Purchase Analysis, Media Planning and Buying, Campaign Analysis, and Brand Tracking. For brands and publishers, its services differ so as to include Customer Segmentation, New Product Development, Market Intelligence, Social Media Strategy, Budget Allocation, Brand Tracking, Campaign Analytics and In-house Media Planning. Shedding Light on the Effects of Pandemic In the opinion of Rahul, pandemic has increased the digital adoption in the country and tremendous opportunities for all size of media agencies. His team has seen little drop in the media budgets at the start of the pandemic but after that it has tremendously increased. His team shares some of the data point it found during the research- Rahul spent 5 years with Rediff.com and he realized tremendous scope in data analysis and how businesses can drive value from it. FLUODIGITAL started its journey in 2017 but the company was incepted in mid-2018. Then one day he decided to quit his job and asked for a financial support from his brother and in return made him investor and mentor in the company. That moment marked the start of a roller coaster ride. Initially, he didn’t have any clients nor any projects and stayed with zero revenue for first 6 months. Eventually, he got his first client. After lockdown occurred, everything changed and after few months he found the company in stronger position as it took its own time to grow while focusing on client ROI and building processes with a focused attention to limited set of clients. • Increased openness to new digital offerings introduced during the pan-demic (84.8%) • Increased value placed on digital experiences (83.8%) • Greater acknowledgment of companies’ attempts to “do good” (79.1%) • Lower likelihood to buy (67.2%) • New customers have attracted to their products and services (65.4%) 26 JANUARY 2021

29. Rahul K. Soni Founder and Director 27 JANUARY 2021

30. consumer insights“ Prioritizing on the strong BRAND-CUSTOMER relationship, we operate on our grounds of continuously working with the brand gaining and updating “ Inculcating Customer-First Strategy According to Rahul, today, customers expect relevant content in relation to what they’re doing anytime, anywhere in the format and in the device of their choice. It's their journey that dictates the strategy of marketing companies. In order to keep up with this new kind of “always-connected” customer, those companies must embrace technology to deliver an unmatched customer experience. Fortunately, putting the customer first is already at the center of many organizations’ strategy. With the same strategy, FLUODIGITAL has scaled up. A Top-notch Product in Progress Rahul believes that competency brings the innovation in you and always prompt you to give your best. To sustain the competency, FLUODIGITAL is building a product which is currently its service right now. The company aims to automate the entire process of research in order to simplify it and give dashboard access to its clients, so they won’t need to rely on the company for the data or having an inhouse resource work for them full time. As a result, FLUODIGITAL will get a chance to focus on other areas of businesses. As a data driven agency, the team at FLUODIGITAL understands the importance of data in the marketing and how to use it in a right way and thus, it is consistently adding best in class data analysts and data miners for the same. 28 JANUARY 2021

32. T countries of the world were ships, India could be counted to be a gargantuan crude-oil carrier which never looked its part but did its job surprisingly well, despite its apparent shortcoming. And like a big, big ship, India too takes incredibly long to take a turn! But when it does, the world follows because it is where the markets are, and an incredibly large one at 1.32 billion. here was a time not too long back when India meant the back and beyond of the world. Nothing worked or was ever expected to. Not even digital marketing. But if the In the world of Digital Marketing too, India is taking a turn, thankfully in the right direction, at the right speed. There are dynamics to this form of marketing that is slowly but surely appearing before everyone, be it the buyers or the marketers or the myriad entities in between. 1. The trickle-down effect is now being felt by those at the bottom of the barrel There was a time not too long in the past when digital marketing was considered a new fad, something akin to fashion that would disappear in sometime. But like Levis Strauss’s Jeans, in India it seems to be 30 JANUARY 2021

33. Marketing Dynamics Dynamics of the Indian DIGITAL MARKETING Space making major inroads in every sector right from veggie sellers to sellers of specialized goods and service. With Digital Marketing experts appearing out of every nook and corner, and crack in the cement, competition has resulted in prices for services dropping so low that even the man on the street is now contemplating getting an account on LinkedIn if not on Facebook and Twitter! As for businesses, there is no dearth of local and national platforms that can be approached for a small sum to sell on a national level. 2.eCommerce is bringing the real change India’s mainstay when it comes to business, specifically trading is small enterprise. These typically consist of a family which doubles up as owners and workers. Thoughts driven towards growth and marketing seldom find much traction. Over the years these small traders and businesses have been used quite effectively by FMCGs to sell their wares. Beyond that, there has hardly been any growth. That was the state till eCommerce companies including Amazon and Flipkart and Snapdeal came about. With everything from marketing to CRM and logistics being handled by the latter, small businesses in India have suddenly discovered a healthy way to do business with the minimum of investment. As for eCommerce, its entire existence depends upon digital marketing! 3. India is going back to being vernac and regional and in some cases, very city and locality-specific Two hundred years of British rule and seven hundred others covered India with cultures which were alien to it but had to be endured for survival. With things settling down over the last 70+ years, India is back to being 31 JANUARY 2021

34. regional in its language, culture, foods, and expressions which can be seen in the way business in each state wants to promote its product/services using a mix of English, Hindi (to an extent) and the local language. This brings to fore the need for local language speakers and writers, as also those who can express and market in these languages. For those from other parts, this aspect continues to be a challenge worth exploring. to buy and sell, and are the ones driving the entire Indian Digital Marketing Space. Being oblivious to the concept of saving, hoarding, holding back, buying less and all that the two generations before them did, they look at the future without the coloured glasses of the past, and as marketers are out to create ways and means to market that may seem very radical to the previous generations. Things including drop shipping, influencers, online reviews etc do seem to be the handiwork of those who are not hamstrung with the views of the past. 4.India's Digital Marketing Space is completely driven by the mobile phone revolution It’s said that India missed the PC revolution by miles but made up with the smartphone! Being the biggest such market for feature-rich budget mobile phones, Indian consumers across the country are today firmly in the net of multiple digital marketers who use every available opportunity, platform and app to attract the mobile user to buy the products and services. Very less of this buying happens on other gadgets including PCs and tablets given that they are difficult to carry around and have limited use as compared to the ubiquitous smart phones. In fact, in order to make it convenient for mobile users, the better and more evolved marketers are now designing interfaces and features that take care of the limited screen space of a smart phone. 7. The concept of content creation is surely catching up Faasos & Behrouz, Oreo, Flipkart, and Vogue. These aren’t simply branding tactics that are doing well and have an appeal and a standing in the market. They are brands that have used the concept of content right up to the hilt. For example, Behrouz Biryani. It speaks of biryani in its heady days in the Arabic context and links it to the present where the taste apparently reflects its origins. Oreo brought about the concept of showing how biscuits can be eaten differently- dunked in milk after licking the cream and so on. Flipkart’s imaginative use of children as adults making buying decisions and enjoying (or regretting) their decisions has touched a chord in many hearts. Vogue on its part has actress Madhuri Dixit-Nene speaking about women’s issues including cruelty and violence. And all of them are successful as their content has spoken for them! Others will surely follow given that markets in India continue to grow. 5.India's Digital Marketing Space has very city and locality-specific apps and services that's a hybrid of bigger services What started as features meant for bigger digital marketers is now slowly tricking down to the smaller ones. Apps were once the calling card for bigger entities including the likes of Amazon and Flipkart. But like always, marketers’ need saw to it that the technology went viral to be picked up by all those who thought it was useful and interesting. Today, even small traders and local aggregators are using apps with advanced features meant for their clients who in most cases are in their immediate vicinity. 8. Modes of input are changing Whether we do anything or not, we certainly do one thing- generate data by the millions. Fed thru AI- assisted systems big data is transforming the way machines henceforth shall respond to commands. What it means is that machines get inputs from varied experiences and sources that go towards formulating and fine-tuning marketing pitches in unimaginable ways. Today, the standard input means are keyboards and voice commands (to Alexa, Siri and others in the game). Tomorrow, AI could even pick-up from unsaid cues and start to promote. In India this is an interesting though challenging possibility given that we are a hotch-potch of languages and cultures where nothing remains certain beyond certain geographical areas. But India IS going that way for sure and going BIG TIME! Aligned to Google Maps and other such service providers, local businesses have started to create and promote apps that provide information on everything from hotels and eating places to schools, parking- spaces, hotels and hospitals, schools and the likes. 6.India's Digital Marketing Space is essentially driven by Gen Z which does not take much from the previous generations Millennial and Gen Z i.e., those born between 1997 and 2012-15 are the ones most likely to use digital means 32 JANUARY 2021

38. Mahima Chawla Founder and CEO “ We focus on building effective relationships between the clients and the customers that result in higher revenues, enhanced credibility, and an increase in overall reputation “ 36 JANUARY 2021

39. RECOMMENDED Digital Marketing COMPANIES THE BEST OF Whisperers of the Digital Era T in these modern times, it has become practically impossible to survive in this mobile and internet age without seeing the effects of digitization on how we live, how we consume information, and how we do business. When it comes to business, irrespective of its size it is impossible for it to succeed without digital marketing services. Without the best and current digital marketing strategy, a business may end up losing to its opponents. But WebHooters, the digital marketing agency, has got you covered at that front. he past three decades has seen the soft evolution of marketing, as it tried to keep up and contend with leaps in technology and our relation to it. And now mid-scale businesses or start-ups who want to be more digitally focused while creating a marketing strategy. WebHooters started out as a small team with one singular idea; to have a creative outlook on digital marketing. Since the company’s inception, they have worked hard towards achieving their goals and now they are providing their clients with the creative outlook that they deserve and the digital strategies that best suit their business goals. The company has worked with companies locally and internationally and covered a large market segment. As they stay up to date with what is happening in the digital world at any point of time, they are continually monitoring digital trends and techniques. They achieve that by positioning digital visibility for stellar brands with imaginative flair and turning these magnificent online numbers into profits. WebHooters the digital marketing agency, works in a digital shell to shape its clients’ businesses on various online platforms. Armed with the best digital marketing solutions, the company focuses on capturing the present virtual audiences and attracting new customers by positioning digital visibility for stellar brands with an imaginative flair. Foundation WebHooters came into action back in 2015 with the vision to contemplate digital foundation in a brand-new light. The WebHooters team is formed together with the mission to captivate, retain, and transform the ideally aimed market sector for their clients by shaping their business online. With a team that acts as an assortment of high creativity, originality, and innovative spirit, they are dedicated to bringing forth the best digital solutions to modern-day marketing. As a digital marketing agency, WebHooters has managed to stay extremely focused on the objective of capturing the essence of digital in a never-seen-before way. It has not always been easy, especially since there has been a sprout of digital marketing agencies in the last couple of years. The competition is tough. However, the company always manages to give their best to each client that they have. “We keep creativity at our heart for every project and we proceed while keeping the best interests of our clients in our minds,” says Mahima Chawla, the Founder and CEO of WebHooters. From Creativity to Care From SEO to content creation, and website development to email blasts, WebHooters has done it all. WebHooters’ services are of top-notch quality while simultaneously being cost-effective. This works best for “What we ultimately aim for in all our projects is to create 37 JANUARY 2021

40. As the digital space is growing, the audience’s attention is decreasing. A brand has three seconds to get their message across to the viewers. WebHooters’ creativity and expertise help in this case where the team brings their individual specialities together to provide the clients with the best of all worlds. a definitive business branding to build the reputation of our clients in the digital space,” states the team of WebHooters. As an agency, and as individuals, the team at WebHooters is highly experienced when it comes to presenting traditional brand communications in a relevant and fashionable way. The Times They Are A-changing…. WebHooters has always been upfront about adapting to the latest tools and techniques of digital marketing. As a team, they are deeply passionate about the developments that are taking place in the digital marketing front. Since the very beginning, the company has been creatively driven while simultaneously being involved in the technological transformations in the field. Speaking of services, the company offers a bouquet of them. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a crucial key to digital marketing that basically sets the foundation of a digital marketing strategy. The SEO team at WebHooters conducts detailed research on the keywords that are persistent within the industry and that list is updated regularly during the time spend working on a client’s project. Then there’s content marketing, which is also an extremely important part of a well-defined digital marketing campaign. Content marketing generates credibility and builds brand loyalty. The content team at WebHooters are a creative bunch of people who are continually working towards creating the best content suitable for the clients. Every piece of content is well-researched, unique, and helps achieve the main business objectives of clients. “All the work we do happens in the digital space, collaborating with various departments and still having the opportunity for individual ideas and implementations,” shares the team of WebHooters. The team at WebHooters concentrates on the most basic requirement while developing and implementing a digital marketing strategy- the product. “We can’t market the product if we don’t understand the product. So, while an understanding of the industry is necessary, the understanding of the product is even more crucial. We want to create an effective digital marketing campaign for our clients which yields results. In order to do that, we dive deep into the subject, which is the product or service we are trying to sell.” Social media and content marketing goes together as the content is the brand’s message and social media is the platform where they communicate the message. “Brand deals and influencer sponsorships are new methods of marketing that we are currently seeing in social media and WebHooters indulge in those specifications to help our clients reach their target audience,” informs Mahima. The next thing is creating good content. With the desire to keep clients visible amongst the multitude of content, the content team at WebHooters is constantly monitoring the trending topics in the digital space. So, the team designs the most relevant and trendy content that suits the client and the industry they belong to. This is what WebHooters plan on doing continually in the long run because it understands how important content is in a digital marketing campaign. As a digital marketing agency, it also has experts in website development and logo designing. A well-designed logo that resonates with the brand’s culture is the first, and arguably the most important step towards building brand identity., The website also has to be immaculate and representative of a brand’s values, mission, and vision. WebHooters helps its clients achieve that aesthetically. They have a great team of graphic designers and developers at WebHooters who understand the brand and then give it a rightful space in the digital world. To sustain competency for the near future, WebHooters will encourage all team members to gain deeper knowledge in their existing forte and simultaneously work on developing new skills. “We want to present the best digital solutions for our clients, and we will continue putting maximum efforts in delivering on our promise. Nothing is more important to us than the satisfaction of our clients,” concludes Mahima. At last, there’s email marketing. Email marketing has been gaining more popularity recently. When it comes to email, the message must be specific and direct to retain the attention of the reader. “There needs to be a point of communication and we help our clients bring that point up in a creative manner,” explains Mahima. 38 JANUARY 2021