The afternoon session at the Digital Marketing Conference (DMC) 2007, had three panel discussions with speakers bringing the creative aspect of the medium, brand building and promotional marketing under the scanner.

The second panel discussion of the day on ‘Creativity: Is it an impediment to the digital medium?’ had senior ad professionals like Leo Burnett’s K V Shridhar and Lowe’s Priti Nair joining Chaya Brian Carvalho, CEO and MD, BC Web Wise, and Vivek Bhargava, Founder and MD, Communicate 2. Ranjan Kapur, Country Manager, WPP India, moderated the session.

Speaking about creativity in the medium, Sridhar held that only unique ideas can help distinguish content. He said, “In the next level of this medium, advertisers will use consumer created content like blogs and amateur videos more.” Citing some of examples of brands that creatively used the digital medium, he pointed out Bar.com and the online game ‘Second Life’. Agreeing with him, Nair also cited the Indian example of Sunsilk Gang of Girls, saying, “We need to know how to use the medium.”

While Carvalho explained the 5 ‘I’s of Internet as Individualistic, Infinite, Impulsive, Interactive, and Informative, Bhargava talked about the different definitions of creativity. Kapur observed that ‘Video Mail’ would be the next big thing in the space.

Neville Taraporewalla moderated the next discussion on ‘Brand Building: How far can digital medium take you?’. The dais was taken by HUL’s Rahul Welde; Group M’s Vikram Sakhuja; Pearl Uppal from Yahoo! India; Sharat Jain, CEO, Dentsu Media Palette; and, Lenovo’s Rahul Agarwal.

Elaborating on the success of Sunsilk Gang of Girls, Welde said, “Consumers have taken over the site completely and we are sure that we don’t have to advertise it again -- we will let it grow on its own.” Explaining the media buyer’s perspective of the medium, Sakhuja, observed, “It can go to 3-4 per cent of the advertising budget by the year 2010.” Meanwhile, Jain stressed on the need to concentrate on content to build a brand.

In the final discussion of the day, ‘Promotional Marketing: Is digital medium breeding ground of new ideas?’, the panellists discussed how promotional marketing has changed due to Internet and mobile, and the next big opportunities in the space. The session, moderated by R Sundar, President, Times Business Solutions, had ICICI’s Naren Chandra and Rathish Nair from Interactive Avenues amongst others.

In a nutshell, the IAMAI organised DMC 2007 saw industry experts from various fields of internet, mobile, advertising and marketing space present their views on the emerging medium. The medium will grow but the big question really is if it will grow as per industry expectations.