Part of the blame for the position the industry finds itself in lies with marketers who "don't talk about what they do and why it is valuable," says the Chief Data and Technology Officer of Interpublic Group
Arun Kumar, Chief Data and Technology Officer of Interpublic Group (IPG) believes this is the right time for India as a market
Arun Kumar, Chief Data and Technology Officer of Interpublic Group (IPG), makes a plea to all marketers to stand up and talk about the value of marketing, otherwise, people are "going to dub you ‘the next tobacco’." He elaborates that in a world where data privacy is a concern, marketing is getting a bad name. According to Kumar, advertising is seen as manipulation rather than free speech of a brand. He says a part of the fault is a lot of marketers don’t talk about what they do and why advertising is valuable.
Kumar's role at ad holding company IPG was created back in 2017. He oversees the development and implementation of global product and technology solutions across the network. Kumar's mandate also covers Kinesso and Matterkind, which bring together top talent in data, technology, and addressable activation to deliver data-driven marketing solutions for IPG clients.
During a recent visit to India, Kumar spoke exclusively to Storyboard18 and shared his views on the influence of big tech, data privacy and regulation, and how global marketers view India. He believes this is the right time for India as a market because many global advertisers are starting to see it in the same context they viewed China a few years ago. “I think there is an increased realisation that you have to approach India on India’s terms. I feel this is the time when a lot of solutions can scale because there is a demand for those solutions.”
Edited excerpts.
Q. What are the kind of solutions that a market like India needs?