‘People now buy or boycott brands based on social or political issues’

NEW DELHI: It was a free flow of ideas among top global and Indian marketing minds at the inaugural edition of Star FLOW — The Change Festival held in the capital on March 14 and 15.


An initiative of the Times of India, the first-of-its-kind marketing festival mixed myth-busting panel discussions, insightful workshops and knowledge sharing sessions, and kept participants on the edges of seats for two days.

W Chan Kim, co-director of the INSEAD

Blue Ocean Strategy

Institute, delivered the keynote address by throwing down a challenge to Indian marketers by asking them why India has only seven brands in the 500 Global Best Brands, while China boasted of 120.

At present, 57% of consumers globally are buying or boycotting one or more brands because of their positions on social or political issues, revealed a session ‘The new trust landscape’ by Holly Ransom, CEO of Emergent.

Kim’s address was followed by a panel discussion titled ‘Blurring line between India & Bharat’, during which most speakers, including Girish Agarwaal of

Dainik Bhaskar

group, C K Sharma of DS Group and Rajesh Ramakrishnan, MD of

Perfetti Van Melle

India, agreed that marketers should treat consumers in rural and urban India in a similar manner.

After this session set the tone, leading European humanologist Julia Izmalkowa picked up the pace by peeling away layers of the human mind to prove that most people, including consumers, are liars and what companies must do to look through that. Izmalkowa’s talk was followed by two more panel discussions, ‘Sports & Marketing’ and ‘Is the female consumer being governed by a male agenda’, before co-founder and former design head of Kickstarter, Charles Adler, took the stage to explain why ‘The beginning of every project is like an art project’. The second day of Star FLOW began with Roger Fisk telling the audience that ‘Individuals are organisers that need to be activated’. Fisk, who played a key behind-thescenes role in the back-to-back electoral victories of former US President Barack Obama, explained how a startup mentality by Obama’s team helped the former US president come to power.

Neuroscientist and founder of Lab of Misfits, Beau Lotto was next. He helped marketers in the audience shatter perception of reality with an interactive session titled ‘Why doubt is better than knowing’. While Lotto sowed the seeds of doubt in people’s minds, serial entrepreneur and MIT Media Lab professor Kevin Slavin brought them to life, when he said, algorithms can only be constructive with the use of human loop. His image of a self-driving car trapped by a circle of chalk was unsettling to say the least.

The festival ended on a good note with Rebecca Robins of Interbrand, who spoke about how companies can learn from luxury brands. “Luxury is not a category. It’s space for excellence,” she said.

Star FLOW — The Change Festival, presented by

Star India

& an initiative of the Times of India, was in partnership with Associate Sponsor Dainik Bhaskar, in association with Times Network, Music Entertainment Partner

Radio Mirchi

, Digital Partner Times Internet and Brand Partner Interbrand.

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