Broadcast has shifted from one-to-many to many-to-many: Rohit Jawa

At the Indian Digital Marketing Awards, Rohit Jawa, CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever, gave an incisive and realistic speech about the significant transition in marketing from storytelling to signal processing. “I joined HUL as a trainee because I loved marketing,” he said. “But the world of one-to-many broadcast has shifted to many-to-many interaction and it’s only getting faster.”

He stated precisely that we have shifted from a world of massive TV ads to one where content is limitless and attention is scattered. Nowadays, social media accounts have become the channel of communication for the majority of individuals.

With Social media taking up the majority of screen time, data has become instantaneous, and optimizations take place in milliseconds. Algorithms decide what is to be shown. Yet, he stressed, “Machines need human ingenuity. Big ideas are still the heart and soul of great marketing.”

Jawa further pointed out HUL's changing approach, which includes using its Shikhar app to digitize conventional trade, having over 12,000 influencers help reach 6,000–7,000 pin codes, and having the majority of its media be digital. “Its not about one perfect film anymore,” he said. “It’s about thousands of culturally relevant, locally rooted pieces of content.”

He referred to this change as "social-first demand generation," in which companies founded on profound truths emerge in naturally occurring, culturally relevant ways. Jawa underlined that effective marketing is still about concepts that resonate, whether Red Label represents unity or Dove speaks to self-worth.

He concluded, “Marketing fundamentals haven’t changed but the way we bring them alive through tech, content, and culture is constantly evolving.”