Goafest 2013: "Not all digital content is 'share-able'": Roger Mulchandani, Warc

After the organisers lit a lamp and spoke a few words to kick-start the knowledge seminars, Roger Mulchandani, director, Warc Asia-Pacific, a marketing intelligence firm, made a presentation titled 'Seriously Social'. As the name suggests, his talk was about content on social (digital) platforms.

He then enumerated the features that make content shareable. He said that content that breaks rules/taboos, enables users to co-create, uses humour, deploys media surprisingly, advocates a cause, uses celebrities in a quirky manner or helps the consumer save time and money has better share-ability.

Mulchandani also spoke about how some categories do better on social media than others due to inherent differences in both, the nature of the categories and the ways different segments use the digital platform. For instance, the pharma category is one that could do better in its use of digital media, he said.

Mulchandani left the audience with a couple of interesting quotes, the first of which touches upon the 'TV Versus Social' debate. A quote by a senior planner at W+K went: 'TV is more of an 'explainer' medium, where brands can explain the purpose behind their actions and intentions, while digital is a medium for amplifying, sharing and involving.'

Another, by a senior hand at Samsung, said, "Social media is a tactic looking for a strategy."

Mulchandani's own words of wisdom were, "On social media, the consumer is the hero, not the brand."

Warc, for the record, is a marketing intelligence firm with interests in case studies, research papers and academic journals. It has a library of over 30,000 reports to its credit.