We are in the middle of a technological revolution fueled by the broad adoption of internet technology and the active engagement of nearly the entire populace on social media. Companies now recognise that using technology and social media effectively in their research and marketing is a mandatory parameter that ameliorates their ability to survive in the cutthroat world. Customers want brands to engage them across a range of media and devices. Companies must understand how to effectively leverage the power of such platforms to better communicate with their customers, whether on social media or as part of an online marketing research community. 

Delivering on the growth promise can only materialise when there is a complete shift in the previous marketing practices of simple advertisements, billboards, and news articles. Every field is innovating today to stay abreast, and so is marketing. Marketing divisions today must be rewired to focus on speed, teamwork, and client satisfaction. It's not so much about altering what marketing does as it is about changing how it's done. 

Modern marketing enables marketers to drive innovation, enduring business value and stronger consumer engagement in an increasingly dynamic and ultra-connected world. Hence it's key to strengthen the needed modern marketing capabilities and skills that yield customer value and firm value thereby equating to business value. To analyse how the future of India will be effectively shaped by modern marketing, it is important to understand how the pandemic has changed the landscape copiously. Marketers must be faster than ever to pivot at a moment's notice in today's digital and 24/7 media environment. Consumers are busier, more fragmented, and more distracted than ever before, thanks to factors such as working from home and the ever-increasing number of screens, gadgets, and other entertainment alternatives available to millions. 

When I started in the digital segment two decades ago, marketing had still not seen the disruption that a multi-pronged platform can bring. I have worked with several CMOs to weave in the tenets of modern marketing in their practices, and while most have made efforts toward establishing contemporary marketing organisations, a lack of success has disheartened many. Over the years, I've discovered that the main problems are a lack of commitment to the entire set of modifications required and a lack of transparency regarding dependencies. 

Today, modern marketing encapsulates six pillars --- E-commerce, Martech, Brand Safety, Voice & Audio as well as Modern Creativity and Modern Media formats. Organisations like MMA Global have been instrumental in getting business leaders and brains from varied industry arenas to give birth to techniques. 

The transforming path entails a lot. Modern marketing helps firms go from restricted insights and lagging indicators to brand vision and strategy influenced by real-time insights in terms of strategy and insights. It ensures always-on content driven by analytics and data, constantly enriched by AI technologies from periodic and intuition-driven initiatives in the creative and content domain. It uses brand safety to send forth a strong statement about ethics, demonstrating a company's responsible culture. 

Modern marketing moves organisations to quickly iterated activity using unique properties of each channel, coupled to a 360-degree picture of the customer experience, from channel-activation plans handled in silos and optimised episodically in the media and channel activation space. With the way things are moving in India, it won't be long until organisations are built around customer-centricity, with marketing's role in driving growth being increased and that is where modern marketing will be the foundation.

*The author is Country Head at MMA, India chapter of MMA Global