Publicis' India arm building its tech muscle to expand offerings; check details here

Publicis Groupe India is adding tech capabilities to its arsenal to tap into the billions of dollars marketers are earmarking for tech spends as brands are increasingly turning to AR, VR and Mixed Reality for their campaigns, according to a top executive. 

“Our clients have been transforming over the past decade. And if we didn’t evolve to partner them in their transformation then someone else would,” Amaresh Godbole, CEO-Digital Technology Business, Publicis Groupe India, told Business Today.  

He added that brands are deploying huge amounts of money towards business and marketing transformation, either in the chief marketing officers (CMOs) kitty, or in partnership with chief data officers (CDOs) or chief information officers (CIOs).  

At the forefront of these changes in branding and marketing spends is the rise of avenues such as creative commerce, social commerce, and live commerce, trends such as personalisation, immersive product experiences, use of creators and influencers, conversational experiences in shopping, among others.  

Godbole, who returned to Publicis in February 2022, says the company’s understanding of clients and their customers differentiates them from traditional IT services companies in delivering creative-technology experiences to support marketing campaigns. “The DNA of IT companies is to think in terms of systems and solutions. Our DNA is to start with the user,” he adds.  

Publicis Groupe India, he said, has been building on the knowledge gained from some of the parent company’s global acquisitions over the past few years such as Sapient, Epsilon, Profitero and Citrus Ads. It is also using AI/ML, Web3, Mixed Reality to build their tech offerings to brands.  

With the festive season overlapping with the recently concluded Cricket World Cup, it was a great opportunity for the tech business to build some unique cricket centric experiences tapping in on fan behaviour, he added. “For instance, for Nissan Motors India, we have built the Nissan Roar AI-powered experience campaign. It lets fans use their mic to roar in support of their team, this is analysed by AI and give a profile and matched with the best Nissan model,” says Godbole, who was head of creative and capability at Google India. He also has a history of over a decade with Publicis Groupe where his last role was CEO, Digitas India.