Old world all about storytelling, new world all about tech: Ravi Santhanam, HDFC Bank

Marketing has always been about connecting with consumers, but the way we define success has changed dramatically over the years. Earlier it used to be about generating demand, but today it’s also about fulfilling demand with the help of hyper-personalisation and real-time engagement. At the dentsu-e4m Digital Advertising Report 2025 launch, HDFC Bank’s Ravi Santhanam started his presentation with a thought-provoking question: “What defines marketing success in today’s connected world?”

He continued, “The old world is all about storytelling and the new world is all about tech. That’s the big difference between the marketing eras. When we started working maybe 30 years ago, we were told the job of marketing was to generate demand. That’s where it stopped. Today, the job of marketing is not only to generate demand but also to fulfil that demand. It’s the big difference we are seeing because of technology.” 

However, technology has also brought with it uncertainty. On one hand, it’s accelerating innovation. On the other hand, there is a fear of losing jobs because of automation. He further elaborated on the transformative impact of technology, including hyper-personalisation and omnichannel experiences. 

“For monetisation of traffic, you need the eyeballs to come onto the screen. But imagine if I have an agentic Gen AI that I can instruct to complete tasks, what will happen to those eyeballs? What will happen to the people designing these interfaces?” he questioned.

Technology is reshaping industries like advertising, filmmaking, music, and education, fundamentally altering consumer behaviour. However, history has shown that with every technological advancement, whether it was the steam engine, electricity, motor cars, or now Gen AI, certain elements remain constant. These include excitement, greed, scepticism, and fear, he explained. 

He continued explaining: As marketers, the challenge lies in understanding these common factors and leveraging technology while maintaining human oversight. The intersection of consumer behaviour, technological advancements, and societal shifts places marketers on the edge. How do we bridge these forces to deliver seamless experiences?

“Consumers are demanding hyper-personalisation, which means the silos within our organisations will not work. Your call centre is different, your digital experience team is different, your customer experience team is different, and the process team is different. That's not going to work anymore,” he added. 

If personalisation is the future, technology can be an enabler. Programmatic trading revolutionised revenue generation, and now programmatic marketing is taking centre stage. In a cookie-less world, leveraging first-party data becomes crucial. Marketers must build data strategies that enable hyper-personalised content, services, and products.

While automation will replace many tasks, creativity and the human need for novelty remain irreplaceable. “You might use tech. You might use changing consumer behaviour to serve them differently. But the need to have creative work is constant, as well as the need to have novelty in what we do,” Santhanam explained.