13:35 – 14:30 hrs Panel Discussion 2: Prepaid Instruments and Financial Inclusion

* The landscape for prepaid solutions
* Where is innovation happening in prepaid?
* Cash to Cashless Society: Is prepaid the way forward?
* Is Prepaid another tool to drive mass inclusion like BC/BF?
* Will Bank and Non-bank model drive inclusion through prepaid?
* Will prepaid instruments drive inclusion in social space?
* Role of prepaid instruments in giving power to consumers in inclusion

Session Moderator
13:35 – 13:40 hrs Sanjay Aggarwal, General Manager (Operations), IRCTC

13:40 – 14:15 hrs Panel Discussion
Gaurang Shah, Director Prepaid – India & South Asia, VISA
Deval Sheth, Head Strategic Development, Edenred
Sameer Nemavarkar, VP & Head Cards, Axis Bank
Shekher Srivastava, Head Marketing, ItzCash Card

14:15 – 14:25 hrs Q&A Session conducted by Session Moderator

14:25 – 14:30 hrs Summing up by Session Moderator

Below are some of the questions asked by the audience after session 3 and panel’s answer for the same…

Akshay: Using classified ads is a good way to get leads. What are the way to make these ads more effective?
Quality of content, constant updates, contact information, credibility…
Q: Pls give more examples on Guerrilla marketing
A: depends on business to business.

Q: Are we making contents for search engines or for consumers? What about quality of content on classified sites
A: Both are done with an ultimate objective of ensuring that right content reaches right consumer…

Q: (Mr Sehgal) How to use social media for a B2B segment.
A: We run bridge.com People start groups around their area of expertise. This way one can target their target customers.

Q: How does lead dynamics work in Social Media, particularly in connection with shiksha
A:Shiksha itself is becoming a social media site by bringing together experts and students. Its task is to enroll more and more students, institutions and experts.

Q: What are all to keep in mind while hiring SEO agencies?
Objectives and deliverables are to be defined. Also its important to understand basics of SEO oneself.

Keynotes from Amarjit Batra’s (Country Manager, OLX) talk on Social Media Marketing & Local Classified Strategy for SMEs

• Social media has brought back the pre TV and Print media era, where people interact on a one-to-one basis and discuss about what they like and dislike and it is free unlike the traditional media

Some of the free online platforms that SMEs can use for promoting their business are as follows:

1. Free classified sites – There are plenty of free classified sites available in India which can be used to list your business information. They allow free listing, multiple transactions, listing under multiple categories; the ads stay for a longer time as compared to newspaper; allows local listing and selecting your target audience based on region and other criteria; greatly helps in improving the Search Engine Optimisation as these sites are picked up by Google

2. Blogs- These can be used as alternative to a website and should be used to publish regular updates about your companies products and services and activities relating to your business area. They should provide value to the readers. If important that your Blog is named after your organisation; it helps in branding and better people connect

3. Facebook – It allows businesses have to have a page and create groups/communities around your business area and connect with people from around the world. All SMEs should have presence on Facebook and they need to start now, especially SMEs looking to spread outside India 

4. Linkedin – A good platform for Business networking and maintaining contacts that you make. Participation in the discussion forums related to your business area is a good way of showing your subject matter expertise and building trust and credibility with people and companies

5. Online & videos & pictures – Sites like Flickr and You Tube are good platforms to share pictures and videos of your work, achievements and activities. For Instance, an Interior Designer, rather than talking about his/her work, can upload pictures and videos of the work done which would any day be more effective and convincing for your target customers.

• SMEs don’t have to be present and active on all the platforms. If you feel there’s one particular platform which suits your business, use that but use it well
• If you feel you don’t have the knowledge to utilise these platforms, hire professional organisations which work with you to understand your business and create an online presence for you but they can only take you so far; You yourself need to spend sometime online because its your credibility and you are the expert

Amlan Mandal from ask Laila gave an insight into how to go about Social Media and the approach to be taken for effective social media strategy for SMEs.

Here’re some points from his talk

Advantages of Social Media:
Connect with real people, connect with customers in proximity, meaningful conversations, reputation management, Monitor Brand mood (self satisfaction), Respond to complaints, Keyword based against QA, collaboration/partnership

Engage, content, monitor…
How to make social media work?
Make social media profiles exciting by Offers, info on company information, trivia, poll, discussion, public service etc.

A longer content can be split into multiple tweets-facilitating easier content generation.

Monitor-what people say about your brand, encourage customers to express. Do remember that silent customers could be worse than those giving bad opinion..

Engage- respond in time, offer goodies, give a reason to engage, participate in domain forums, dot do in the face marketing.

Optimize: no single bullet for all
Understand what works better, segmentation and timing of consumption are important

Difference between Google vs fb

Correct search queries and funneling

Give it time before starting optimizing

Measure ROI-time spent is imp

Key points:

Chirag Jain: The brand needs to keep the consumer as much as possible. Mobile offers an immediate touchpoint to that medium.

Q1: There are certain projects that attempt to conceal the identity of the consumer.(eg: SMS gupshup) Do you think a time will come when it is possible to completely mask the consumer?

If you are going to take away the identity, you’re taking over the key benefit of the medim itself. I dont think there will be such things will happen unless ther eis enough debate – Chirag Jain, Webaroo

A media channel can help you reach an audience you desire. They dont claim to own the consumer. When they claim ownership, they talk of loyalty. I own loyalty for my platform thast provides group messaging services. (Manoj Dawane, Mauj)

Mobile2Win, Mr. Hiranandani: Who owns the consumers content?

If the operator is willing to pay me a certain fee for the UGC, isnt the content owned by the consumer?

Webaroo: Its like a tolltax you pay when you drive a highway. It just means that you just get back to a certain amount from the toll tax

Mauj: if you are running a service because the operator manages the service, the operator owns it

Stratoshear: Even the hardware providers create content, information, etc, where do they fit in?

Mauj: Nokia’s Ovi, Apples App store, 20% of the handsets last year, were from chinese made handphones. The Nokia, Apple iPhone has just 2-3% market share.The device vendor also is trying to get into the business of contentThe consumer will not be owned by any entity. Operator only provides a way to reach the customer, thats all. The consumer is king.

Q: Because you create the content, do you own the customer?

The operator allows the customer to have the content. There is no one owner. There is a lifecycle that can have different owners at different points in time.