Sachin Modi, Co-Founder and CEO of VHub.ai, writes on invitation and exclusively for our special series BRIEF24.
Learnings and achievements from 2023; Inspiration for 2024
2023 saw the advent of technologies like ChatGPT which has impacted almost every sector and Digital Marketing has also not remained untouched.Then there are other technologies in Generative AI which help in creating content or dubbing content from one language to another.
There are many use cases of these technologies which marketers are rapidly adopting like AI generated text can be used in blog posts, social media posts or to create Ad copies. It saves people a lot of time and increases the productivity of employees. AI can also generate high quality images and videos which can be used for running Ads.
AI helps in SEO by discovering the right keywords and tailoring content for websites and blogs around the right keywords. Though AI is making people productive, there is major concern if it makes certain roles obsolete and it replaces employees.
Another trend that we notice in marketing is that Digital Ad Spends as percentage of total Ad Spends has increased from 23% to 55% in the last 5 years and the trend is expected to continue where Digital Ads take more than 70% of the Ad spend share in the next five years.
Having a strong digital presence on social media platforms and Digital Marketing is becoming more and more important for brands which mostly comprises running Google search Ads and Youtube and Instagram Ads. Programmatic advertising is also seeing a rise and takes a significant share of the marketing spend of companies.
My year-end analysis of 2023: Though the number of creators on social media platforms are exponentially increasing, the marketing spend on Influencers is still less than 5% of the total Ad spend share.
The reason for this being the offline and manual nature of running Influencer Marketing campaigns, also the lack of analytics and ROI tracking tools for it. That is where with our vHub.ai platform we are bringing automation and the same level of intelligence which supports Digital Marketing to Influencer Marketing as well.
With our platform we are solving major bottlenecks in Influencer Marketing by providing detailed analytics of Influencers audiences’ and ROI tracking. Solving these concerns are important if Influencer Marketing has to become mainstream in the industry.
Success stories from 2023: During the course of the past year our team has had conversations with marketing teams of over hundred brands and thousands of creators. After these interactions we strongly feel the need for the platform that we are building.
Marketers instinctively feel that right partnerships with creators can help build awareness about their brand and increase their sales but due to lack of tools in this space they are unable to execute the right strategy for Influencer Marketing.
On the other hand there are thousands of creators looking to create a sustainable income for themselves from the online community they have created.
The way our platform has taken shape in the last year has been a standout, we have created an Influencer discovery engine and a marketplace for smooth partnerships between brands and creators.
We have worked with more than 40 brands in the last year and have seen more than 30K influencers signing up on the platform. Now the vHub.ai platform and our team is ready to onboard hundreds of more brands to help them with Influencer Marketing.
Learnings and realizations from 2023: I have worked as a data scientist in the rapidly growing field of AI for the past 8 years. Experts believe that a significant portion of blue-collar jobs and even more creative and intuitive white collar work might become obsolete or atleast transformed to a great extent.
We can see that with technologies like Chat GPT. That is a significant concern as it can lead to large scale unemployment but there is another side to AI where it can open up newer opportunities for people and creative work.
For Instance at vHub.ai we are using AI to profile the audience of influencers and bridging the technological gap between brands and influencers so that thousands of creators across the country and globally can easily find relevant opportunities to monetize their skills and talent.
2023 highlights and takeaways: Being a first time entrepreneur, the last year has been the one with the steepest learning curve. The amount of personal and professional growth I have seen in just the last one year has been more than I have experienced in my career as an employee. Being from a technical background, It has been an immense learning experience interacting with people from different walks of life.
With technology becoming an integral part of every industry, digital marketing has become a perfect blend of art and science. The backend of digital marketing is completely driven by AI, data and hardcore mathematics whereas the user experience is on the entertaining and artistic side. Interacting with thousands of creators and marketers and getting to know about their profession and craft has been a humbling and a learning experience.
I believe that entrepreneurship is the career of this decade where one needs to be a polymath and learn about various different fields to bring different aspects together, synthesise and create something new.
Looking at 2024: In the marketing industry, Influencer Marketing is the key thing to watch out for in 2024. With platforms like vHub.ai, Influencer Marketing can become mainstream in the coming years. Influencer Marketing is definitely going to become more streamlined and creators will have more opportunities to monetize their talent and online community that they have created.
Some advice: My message to all the professionals who are entering the field of AI or digital marketing would be keep yourself updated with the latest advancements in your respective fields because these industries are rapidly evolving.
The things you might have studied in your college might be irrelevant or obsolete to what is being practised in the industry. There are numerous good online courses and certifications that you can take to upskill or reskill yourself to be at par with the latest developments in the field.
The field of Digital Marketing includes performance marketing and programmatic advertising which heavily rely on AI and data analytics. Having some knowledge of AI and data analytics can go a long way in this profession.
My Mantra for 2024: Domain knowledge is very important but execution is the key for a startup.
My personal favorites from 2023
Campaign I liked in 2023: We worked with an Edtech company this year where career/education Influencers drove significant engagement and traffic to their courses.
A book I liked in 2023: AI and the Future of Power by Rajiv Malhotra has been one of the best books I have read. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the geopolitical significance of AI and how it is the most disruptive technology than any other technological disruption mankind has witnessed before.
A show/movie that I liked in 2023: Podcasts by Nikhil Kamath on his youtube channel have been very educational.
My 2023 hobby-career connection: Reading has always been my hobby which helps me acquire knowledge about different fields.
