Watch Hemant Arora on MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast
Listen to Hemant Arora on MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast
This episode of our award-winning series MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast features Hemant Arora, Vice President and Global Head of Truecaller’s Ads business, and it amounts to a masterclass in growth — built around a shift that sits at the heart of modern marketing: the move from inferring what a consumer might want to asking that consumer directly, and acting on what they choose to share.
Hemant’s career runs across two and a half decades of advertising and technology — The Times of India, Discovery Networks, NDTV, Dainik Bhaskar, a return to Times as head of television sales, and five years at TikTok before he joined Truecaller in January 2025. At Truecaller, that spectrum of consumer, media and platform experience comes together in Truecaller Pulse.
He explains what Truecaller Pulse actually is, why he calls it a philosophy before a product, how it captures declared intent at the after-call moment, how those answers are turned into dynamically served creatives in real time, and how the resulting intelligence stack compounds over campaigns rather than expiring with one.
He also pushes back on the language of the trade — consumers are not data points, and no one wants to be called a target — argues that curiosity about a consumer is a responsibility rather than a right, and explains why Truecaller actively discourages brands that want a single, quick activation.
The timing is hard to ignore. India’s festive quarter is the one window in which discovery, consideration and purchase collapse into a few frantic weeks, media rates peak, and a wasted impression costs a brand more than it will at any other point in the year. This episode examines what Truecaller Pulse brings to exactly that setting — declared choices gathered at a moment of attention rather than distraction, creatives served dynamically against those choices in real time, and reach that runs well past the metros into the towns where festive demand actually lives. It also looks at what survives the season: the intelligence a brand keeps after the last offer has lapsed, and the discipline of building consumer understanding as an asset rather than renting it one campaign at a time.
Along the way he sets out the scale behind it: more than half a billion users globally, around 350 million monthly active users in India, 60 billion-plus calls processed every day and close to 6 billion ad impressions served daily. Watch. Listen. Read. Revel.
Why this episode matters
This conversation reframes a debate the advertising industry has been having with itself for years. Instead of arguing about how much better inference can get, it asks a simpler question: what happens when the consumer is given the means to say what they want, at a moment when they are paying attention, and at a scale large enough to matter? For a marketer heading into a festive quarter, that is not a philosophical question — it decides how much of a peak-rate budget lands on someone who was never going to buy. And past the season, the answer connects consumer research to media activation, ties efficiency to respect, and makes consumer understanding an asset a brand builds rather than a report it buys.
10 Big Ideas from this episode
1. Hemant Arora on why Truecaller Pulse is a philosophy before it is a product
Why a tool built around consumer choice answers the marketer’s oldest question: how do I understand the person I am selling to, while I grow my base?
2. Why inferred intent takes marketing only so far
How signals can place a consumer squarely in the right demographic and still be entirely wrong about what that consumer actually wants.
3. Hemant Arora on the vegetarian who kept being served chicken soup
How one wrong assumption exposes the true cost of inference — in wasted impressions, and in the goodwill of the consumer receiving them.
4. Why the after-call moment is a moment of intent, not entertainment
Why a call begins with intent and ends in action, and what that sequence makes possible that an entertainment feed cannot.
5. Hemant Arora on the three steps: ask, activate, learn
How consumer answers become dynamically served creatives within the same campaign, and then settle into a lasting intelligence stack.
6. Why understanding a consumer cannot be a one-campaign exercise
Why Truecaller turns away brands seeking a single quick activation, and builds Pulse as a strategic core muscle instead.
7. Marketing is probabilistic, and consumers are not data points
Why the day marketing becomes fully deterministic is the day data replaces understanding — and why no one wants to be called a target.
8. Hemant Arora on curiosity as a responsibility, not a right
Why loyalty has to be earned daily, and why that obligation falls on the publisher as squarely as it falls on the brand.
9. Every campaign should build two assets, not one
Why customer growth and customer understanding should both come out of the same spend, and what it costs a brand when only one does.
10. Hemant Arora on scale, context and participation
How 60 billion calls processed and close to 6 billion impressions served each day give declared intent the reach to change outcomes.
In this episode
- Hemant Arora’s journey across Indian media, television, technology and platforms
- Truecaller today: global and India scale, stickiness, and a safety-first purpose
- What Truecaller Pulse is, and why it is described as a philosophy
- Inferred intent versus declared intent, and the limits of signals
- How Pulse works: asking, dynamic real-time activation, and the intelligence loop
- The after-call moment, trust, and the context it creates for a question
- Pulse Signals, Pulse Insights and Pulse Trends
- Why Pulse is built as a long-term muscle rather than a one-campaign tool
- Consumer growth and consumer understanding as the two assets of every campaign
The Podcast Conversation: Hemant Arora of Truecaller
Below is the transcript of my conversation with Hemant Arora, Vice President and Global Head of Truecaller’s Ads business, on MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast. Only line breaks, thematic subheads and the lightest touch-up of filler words have been added.
Marketing is supposed to be probabilistic. The day it becomes deterministic, we’ll end up using data as the key cornerstone of the entire profession rather than understanding of the consumer: Hemant Arora
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Any figures, organisational details or time-sensitive references in this conversation should be read in the context of the recording and publication date shown on the live episode page.)
Opening, and Hemant Arora’s career across media, television and technology
Pavan: Hello and welcome to MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m your host and friend Pavan R Chawla, founder editor of mediabrief.com.
What if advertising could not only reach consumers, but also learn directly from them what they choose to share? That is the thinking behind Truecaller Pulse, Truecaller’s new media solution, and I believe Truecaller Pulse is an excellent, exceptional way to give your marketing a distinctive, strong and result-oriented edge.
So, to tell you about it, and how it could help you, I am delighted that my guest today is Hemant Arora, Vice President and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. Hemant, welcome to MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. Thank you ever so much for your time today.
Hemant: Thank you for having me here.
Pavan: Hemant, I’m looking forward to our conversation, so without further ado — it’s the oldest cliché in all these presentation things [laughter] — let’s begin.
Hemant: Absolutely.
Pavan: So, Hemant, walk me quickly across your career and experience milestones, please. How many years, which companies, and what roles? One minute. Your time starts now.
Hemant: Wow. [Laughter] All right, okay, I am already on a speed test, so here we go.
I’ve spent more than two and a half decades now in the field of advertising and technology. I’ve been fascinated with the technology part of the business, the way it makes advertising so much more relevant.
Part of the journey has been in some amazing consumer-facing brands, across Times of India, of course — that was my starting ground. That was the university for media, and the biggest B-school that you could ever go to when it comes to media, and I was fortunate to start my career there.
And then, along the journey, there were some brilliant media houses that I worked for: Discovery Networks, NDTV, Dainik Bhaskar — which was an amazing experience of understanding what India is in the real sense, outside of—
Pavan: With Girish.
Hemant: —with Girish and Sudhir. Then I went back to Times, and was the head of sales for the TV channels this time.
Pavan: Okay.
Hemant: Then it was TikTok for about five years, the last five years, till about January of 2025, which is when I joined Truecaller. I’ve been here since then.
Pavan: Wonderful, wonderful. Wonderful spectrum of companies.
Truecaller today: half a billion users, and a safety-first purpose
Pavan: Hemant, give me a quick bird’s-eye view of Truecaller today — overall, globally, in India. And just how big is Truecaller in India now? One minute.
Hemant: First, let me very quickly give you a segue from the last question. There was something very attractive about Truecaller when I first interacted with it, right? And—
Pavan: Okay.
Hemant: —Truecaller actually occupies a very beautiful place. It’s utilitarian in its nature, but at the same time it shares a very intimate relationship with millions of consumers right now across the world. And that’s what attracted me to the purpose of Truecaller, and to joining this company. Beautiful company.
Bird’s-eye view of Truecaller, very quickly: we are more than half a billion users across the world as of now. Every week, we add about a million new users who join us organically.
Our purpose is very simple: keep everybody safe while they’re communicating, provide them the efficiency that today’s time demands, and continue focusing on just making sure that everybody is safe, and communicating efficiently.
Pavan: How big is Truecaller in India?
Hemant: In India, our scale is massive. We are about 350 million MAUs, with close to about 80% stickiness of the daily active users. Our app is opened at least 16 to 20 times on a daily basis by every single user who is over here.
And as I said, that is sitting on top of a very strong purpose, which is actually just giving back to consumers and making sure that they’re absolutely safe.
Pavan: Lovely. Truecaller truly respects and helps enhance privacy and protection, and therefore is perhaps every government worldwide’s answer to the prayer of keep our consumers protected and safe.
What Truecaller Pulse is — a philosophy before a product
Pavan: Okay, let’s talk about Truecaller Pulse, Hemant — what it is, and why it matters. I want to focus on Truecaller Pulse today. You could talk to me about so many companies you’ve worked in and so much that you’ve done, but let’s keep it focused, because I honestly want to get a deep dive on Truecaller for all our viewers.
Hemant: [Laughs]
Pavan: You created Truecaller Pulse very recently. Simply put, what is Truecaller Pulse? Give me a two-sentence overview of what it offers, and how, specifically and uniquely, it will help marketers today. Then we’ll go into the deeper dive of all those aspects that you have in mind. So — bird’s-eye view.
Hemant: Absolutely. If you ask me what Truecaller Pulse is — Truecaller Pulse is a philosophy more than a product.
It’s a layer which allows the marketeers to do what they have always wanted to do, probably more deeply. So it’s a complimentary tool to the desires of every single marketeer: how do I understand my consumer while I’m expanding my customer base?
Pavan: Wonderful. And then the benefits of that whole process will help the marketing get more impactful and impressive. So we’ll talk about that.
Hemant: Absolutely.
Inferred intent, declared intent, and the limits of signals
Pavan: Hemant, let’s now look even more closely, as I promised, at Truecaller Pulse. Take each aspect one by one, like a quick, simple walk-through. What marketer problem, specifically, is Truecaller Pulse designed to solve?
Hemant: Let me take a step back and talk a little bit more about Truecaller Pulse. What are you looking at? You’re looking at something which is called technology, which is supposed to enable a lot of things at scale—
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: —in a very convenient manner.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: So when we were working on Truecaller Pulse, that was the entire philosophy. Is there a way that we can actually provide the consumer’s choice, and the interaction between the consumer’s choice and the marketeers — or the people who are looking at marketing to those consumers — in a constant loop, where activation and intelligence are an inherent and intrinsic part of the entire process?
Pavan: Every marketer today talks about intent, right? And many stop at inferring intent from whatever digital signals are available. Intent samajh mein aa gaya, thoda bahut infer kar liya ki kya mil raha hai, kya nahi hai, from whatever signals I have — which everybody else also perhaps has. Is that enough?
Hemant: Marketing is supposed to be probabilistic. The day it becomes deterministic, I think we’ll probably end up using data as the key cornerstone of the entire profession rather than understanding of the consumer. I think there is a very clear distinction out there, right?
Pavan: Correct.
Hemant: So the root thing over here is not the signals. The main point, or the topic that we are trying to address at any point in time, from the publisher’s side or from the marketing side, is this: how do I understand my consumer better? How do I understand them in a personalised way? How do I make so much more out of that data which is given?
Because obviously consumers are not data points, right — they are human beings, and each one of them wants the respect for their individual choice.
And I think bringing that all together really answers the question of intent, to declared intent, to inference, to deterministic tools. All of this is part of the journey. The main part is that my consumer has a choice. How do I provide that tool to the consumer to be able to exercise that choice?
Pavan: But is just inferring intent enough?
Hemant: I think inferring intent is quite useful, but what if you could actually get confirmed, declared signals—
Pavan: Exactly.
Hemant: —from the consumers directly? And that’s what Truecaller Pulse is all about.
Pavan: Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
How Truecaller Pulse works: ask, activate, learn
Pavan: How does Truecaller Pulse capture declared intent from consumers?
Hemant: I’ll walk you through the entire process. It’s actually quite simple.
Pavan: Please.
Hemant: It combines the ability of being able to ask the consumers directly, through an experiential advertising format on Truecaller itself — Truecaller’s after-call moment. We are able to ask the consumers what exactly their choices are, in terms of a specific set of questions which are asked.
Now this could be in terms of a product launch, or a deeper category specificity. For example, I’m launching a soap: which fragrance do you like? And people have those preferences, right — whether I like rose, or whether I like a sandalwood fragrance. That’s the first step of the entire Truecaller Pulse exercise.
Once the choices come in, on a live basis, we are able to serve creatives dynamically — dynamically serve the ads back to the consumers. It’s a very simple process, right? You said, “Hey, between all the soups, I like sweet corn,” and the next thing that you see is really the ad for sweet corn, which is coming as per your choice, from the brand which is trying to market it to you. So there is activation, as the second step.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: And I think that’s not enough. The beauty about Truecaller Pulse is that while we are going through the loop between taking the declared intent and turning that into a real-time activation, we are also able to constantly build the intelligence loop.
So that tomorrow, when you’re again looking at doing a similar kind of exercise, you already have some of those choices sitting in front of you, for every single consumer across this 500 million user base. Now all of this is gathered in an intelligence stack, which is constantly given back to the marketeers or advertisers over a period of time.
Let me add one thing over here.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: When you’re working on Truecaller Pulse — and as I started off by saying, more than an ad product it is a philosophy — it really starts by saying, “I want to understand my consumer.” Now, understanding my consumer is not a one-day, one-product-launch job at any point in time.
So what we have deliberately built Truecaller Pulse around is this: while it gives you immediate results in terms of the choices that come back to you, the intelligence stack takes a longer time. So we built Truecaller Pulse as a strategic core muscle for any of the advertisers who are looking at understanding their consumers much more deeply.
Why understanding a consumer is not a one-campaign job
Pavan: Excellent. So marketers would do best to actually not just switch it on for a bit and then get out.
Hemant: No, it’s not a short-term product. In fact, we discourage any of the brands who come across and say, “Hey, let’s do it for one activation and one quick understanding.” You can’t understand your consumers that way.
Consumers are like — as we kept saying as we grew up — we have to court the consumers, we have to woo the consumers, we have to earn their loyalty. Which means that I have to be curious every single day about you.
Pavan: Lovely. About you.
Hemant: And that’s where it starts: I have to be curious. It is not a right, it is a responsibility—
Pavan: Well said.
Hemant: —which comes back on both sides: one, the marketeers, and secondly, the publishers themselves.
I have to be curious every single day about you. It’s not a right, but a responsibility: Hemant Arora
Pavan: Yes.
Hemant: Are we able to provide — because we’re sitting at an intersection of three very interesting things: you have advertising, you have technology, and you have a very interesting, unique relationship with the consumers. How do we bring that all together?
Pavan: Excellent.
Hemant: How do we make it easy for all three of them? Now, Truecaller Pulse, when it was being formed, actually went through our entire filter.
First, from a purpose point of view: is it safe? Are we still communicating as per our purpose? Am I being intrusive, or am I just creating a very simple bridge which already exists, now enabled by a beautifully powerful tool called Truecaller?
Secondly, is it good for advertisers? Yes, it enables them so much more. And third: is it good for our consumers? Well, not necessarily in that chronological order, but you get my point. Anything which is to be created, which has to add value, has to work across all three pillars in an equal way.
Pavan: Yes.
Hemant: And Truecaller Pulse ticked that.
Pavan: You spoke about it being useful for advertisers, helping consumers. So the important thing here is that it is actually the intelligence that you gather which helps everyone. You reach consumers in a non-invasive, gentle-nudge kind of a way, get—
Hemant: We’re simply asking you.
Pavan: Yes.
Hemant: We’re simply asking you, “Hey, what do you want?”
Pavan: Okay.
Hemant: “And how can I deliver, because now I know what you want? And how can I do it again and again, because now I understand you better every single time I serve you something?”
Pulse Signals, Pulse Insights and Pulse Trends
Pavan: Excellent. So do you want to define this, or tell me what the different kinds of intelligence or outputs are that Truecaller Pulse gives a marketer?
Hemant: Well, we have had a couple of cases in terms of who’s really using Truecaller Pulse.
Pavan: Mm — you have Pulse Signals, Pulse Insights, Pulse Trends.
Hemant: Absolutely. Those are sub-stacks that you can create for a specific usage.
Pavan: Okay, so go back to the start of your response. Sorry, I just butted in.
Hemant: No, no, absolutely not — thank you for bringing those out. These are other tools which come along with Truecaller Pulse, and those are sub-stacks of anything that you want to use.
So Pulse Trends will give you what we are seeing at a broader category level, while the Pulse Insights are specifically tailored to you, coming back to you on a monthly basis or periodic basis, saying, “Hey, this is all we gathered in terms of the intelligence that is coming back from consumers directly — make the best use of it.” So that’s how it works.
But going back to your question, at a baseline level, I would say great marketing creates two pieces, or two assets: one is growing the customer base, and the other one is understanding my consumer better, right?
Pavan: Okay.
Hemant: So it really starts from there. What kind of intelligence is totally dependent on what marketeers are looking at asking the consumers. Obviously we are not looking at personal data or personal questions over here. This is more in terms of your choice, in terms of how you’re looking at consuming the product.
The vegetarian who kept being served a chicken soup ad
Hemant: I’ll give you a simple example, if it makes sense over here. I do get served, on numerous q-commerce sites, an ad for a chicken dish — specifically, let’s say, chicken soup.
Now look at it this way: from a demographic point of view, I probably am the right kind of consumer. I spend a lot, I spend frequently, I like the efficiency of q-commerce, and I like the idea of having a very easy way of being able to purchase at any point in time in the world.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: And I’m sure all of those signals infer me as somebody who would be the most logical person who should be served a chicken soup ad. The only difference is that I’m a vegetarian.
Pavan: Oh, boy.
Hemant: So it’s something as basic as that. From an overall point of view, I can gather enough data to be able to infer that you are the right kind of demography. But on the other side, from a declared intent point of view — and now here I say, “Hey, you know what, I love your soups, but can you serve me vegetarian?”
Look at the cost of impressions that we are saving. Look at the efficiency of marketing—
From an overall point of view, I can gather enough data to infer that you are the right kind of demography. The only difference is that I’m a vegetarian: Hemant Arora
Pavan: Mm. It’s not a spray-and-pray kind of nonsense.
Hemant: It’s not spray and pray with data. It—
Pavan: And it also infuriates consumers who are vegetarians, getting a chicken soup ad.
Hemant: That is absolutely right. You earn my loyalty when I understand, and when I know, that you are trying to understand me better.
How the intelligence makes the advertising work harder
Pavan: That in fact answers my next question [laughter], which is: how does Pulse use that intelligence to make advertising much more effective? It all begins with the emotional association or connect — the fact that, okay, you know what I want—
Hemant: Yeah.
Pavan: —without my realising that you are reading me and feeding me stuff.
Hemant: Yeah, and it’s not very different from the basic principles of marketing, right? This is exactly what everybody — and I respect the profession of marketing only because of the fact that it started by saying, “I want to understand my customer better.”
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: “I want to access my customer faster. They should have accessibility to whatever I’m trying to sell. And I should be able to talk to them in their language.” This is what Truecaller Pulse is.
You start by asking the questions to understand the consumer’s choice. You are able to activate in real time. You’re able to gather their understanding — not for once. The reason for creating that intelligence stack is only this: how should I keep learning more and more about you—
Pavan: Exactly.
Hemant: —so that I keep serving you? It’s not about one product launch. Tomorrow, I may be launching another product, another variant of the same brand. What do I know about you, so that I can serve you better?
Pavan: Wonderful. And that answers my next question, which is: how can marketers use Pulse for targeting, campaign planning and message relevance? [laughter]
Hemant: No, no, it’s a very valid question.
Pavan: Yeah, yeah.
Hemant: Let me just bring it in, in terms of how it really, really works. It’s a plug-in.
So, for example, you’re looking at a branding activity. This can come before the branding activity, where you are understanding your consumer in a much better way, and thereby customising your entire branding campaign — from the perspective of the ads that you’re serving, to the understanding that you want to create.
Pavan: Right, right.
Hemant: This comes before and after performance, and during the entire loop in terms of the ads.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: Now I am serving you something which is far better targeted, but it is also constantly trying to understand. So now imagine — you have got data—
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: —and you have got a beautiful understanding of the consumer, creating this intersection. This is magic. This is what we have always wanted to gather.
Pavan: Mm. Absolutely, absolutely.
Bringing consumer research and media activation together at the after-call moment
Pavan: When we were speaking just before we started shooting [laughs], you told me that Truecaller Pulse brings consumer research and media activation closer together. How does that work for a marketer in practice?
Hemant: I think the third part, which is the bridge, is that first of all you have to have the right kind of moment and context. Moment and context together, to be able to bring these two pieces together.
And from a utilitarian perspective, what Truecaller does is create a very intimate moment with the consumer, probably at a subconscious level. You’re not effectively going across and looking for entertainment inside an app. You start with an intent.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: You pick up the phone, make a call, and you follow that call with an action.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: I mean, if you just think about it, this is exactly a process of meaning.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: Now, of course, the functional part is the after-call screen, but the part where you do things is the after-call moment. Now I’ve finished my call — either I received it, or I called up somebody — the post-call moment is where action begins.
After every call — I mean, you go back in time, after every single call — or rather, let me start by saying, there was always intent before a call, and there was always some kind of action after the call: whether it was an emotional transaction, or a value-based transaction, or a commercial transaction, if you want to go deeper.
Pavan: Mm. After the call. Yes, [unclear], excellent.
Hemant: So this bridging of what research does, and—
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: —how the marketer uses it—
Pavan: How the marketer uses it.
Hemant: —first of all starts with this unique, intimate moment that Truecaller is able to create with the consumers, in a very beautiful environment called trust. This is where it begins, right?
Pavan: Wonderful, wonderful.
Hemant: Now the second part, as I said: at any point in time, when we are looking at creating products, ad products or tools, they are designed on the basis of technology. What technology gives us is the enablement for anybody to be able to use that tool very effectively.
So over here, marketeers simply give us a brief. We actually take a lot of time to understand the brief. That probably is the longest time. This is the discovery phase. We spend almost two, three weeks just to distil down the brief — not in a short-term way, but trying to understand the long-term objectives and the immediate short-term implications. That’s where it really, really starts.
After that, the designing of the formats, in terms of how the consumers will receive these questions. Again, you can’t just ask a question — you have to give it to them in their experience. So there are multiple formats which are again consumer-oriented, to be able to get them to answer the question in the right kind of frame of mind, which also helps us ensure that the signals, or the intelligence that we’re gathering back, is absolutely pure in the process.
Pavan: Wonderful, wonderful.
Hemant: And from there, this is where the magic begins. The minute you have that loop going on, you are able to serve the ads on a real-time basis, dynamically, as per the choices that you have gathered from the consumers.
Pavan: Wonderful, wonderful.
Hemant: And then you think about the intelligence loop that comes in.
Pavan: That loop continues.
Hemant: So you do not have to sit down and follow all of these steps on your own. Everything is managed by the tool called Truecaller Pulse. So it’s kind of complimentary.
The two assets every campaign should create
Pavan: Hemant, you also told me, just now in our show, that every campaign should create two assets: consumer growth and consumer understanding. So how does Pulse help marketers achieve both? What I’m asking you, in effect, is to summarise all that you’ve told me [laughter] in about three sentences.
Hemant: [Laughs] The point is that that is exactly what Truecaller Pulse does, in summary.
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: It provides the ability to the marketeers to be able to understand their consumers much better — not once, but continuously, because—
Pavan: Wonderful, wonderful.
Hemant: —the beauty about Truecaller Pulse is the simplicity. Truecaller is able to do it, as I said, because of the unique relationship that it shares with the consumers, at an intimate moment, at scale.
Pavan: And which is why, going through all that you told us, every marketer must ensure that they don’t just think of Truecaller Pulse as something that’s just momentary, for one campaign — because the intelligence loop also is invaluable.
Hemant: Absolutely, there is long-term value. The cost of acquiring a new customer, versus having the same consumers come back to you again and again—
Pavan: And look at the scale at which you’re operating.
Hemant: And look at the scale. But more than that, I think at a spiritual level, marketing begins by saying, “I want to understand you better, because I have to serve you better.”
At a spiritual level, marketing begins by saying, I want to understand you better, because I have to serve you better: Hemant Arora
Quickfire: intent, scale and the shift from guessing to asking
Pavan: This is MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla. With me is Hemant Arora, VP and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. Hemant, why Truecaller Pulse for marketers in India?
Hemant: I think Truecaller Pulse is a global launch, but specifically for India, or for any other market, it’s one tool which allows you, or enables you, to capture exactly what you have wanted to capture at any point in time — which is declared intent from the consumers.
Pavan: This is MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla. With me is Hemant Arora, VP and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. Hemant, everybody speaks about the importance of intent. How does Truecaller Pulse truly help deploy intent strategically, for better advertising outcomes?
Hemant: Pavan ji, Truecaller Pulse is a tool that allows marketeers to ask the questions to the consumers directly, at scale, at unique moments; activate those choices immediately, on a real-time basis, through dynamic creative serving; and finally gather the intelligence, which goes into a loop of understanding them again and again, and not only once.
Pavan: Excellent.
Pavan: This is MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla. With me is Hemant Arora, VP and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. What does Truecaller Pulse provide that you believe other audience intelligence and ad tech solutions do not?
Hemant: It is the difference between the inferred versus declared intent from the consumer, at scale.
It is the difference between the inferred versus declared intent from the consumer, at scale: Hemant Arora
Pavan: This is MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla. With me is Hemant Arora, VP and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. Hemant, how does the Truecaller Pulse ecosystem help marketers make the shift from guessing to asking?
Hemant: I think there are two very, very interesting answers to this. First of all, it’s a simple journey: that from being probabilistic, inferred, I’d rather ask you directly, and understand you much better.
Capturing the consumer intent through declared choices — the right is exactly where it should be. That I should have my choice, and I should be able to pass it back to people who are looking at selling me a product, a brand experience, or anything.
The second part is getting the consumers to feel like consumers, rather than just targets. I don’t want to be called a target [laughter]. I’m a consumer. I’d rather be treated as a human being, not just another data point. I think Truecaller Pulse brings that out in a beautiful manner.
Pavan: And human philosophy, I think, is ingrained in it.
Pavan: This is MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla. With me is Hemant Arora, VP and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. How does Truecaller Pulse help marketers operate at massive scale?
Hemant: See, I’ll just talk about scale in terms of numbers, and you can, in this case, infer from that. [Laughter] One is, there are 60 billion-plus calls which we process every single day through our systems.
Pavan: Truecaller, yes.
Hemant: Truecaller. On the advertising side, we serve close to about 6 billion impressions every single day. That’s a fairly sizable scale, and I think that’s what brings the entire context of Truecaller Pulse so much more real.
One is scale, the second is the enablement in terms of participation, and third is the context. You bring these three together, you have got the best marketing tool which is available.
Pavan: Excellent. And all of that is rounded up by the sheer size of the user base. Fantastic.
Pavan: This is MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla. With me is Hemant Arora, VP and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. Hemant, how does the direct intelligence loop of Truecaller Pulse help strengthen the impact of advertising?
Hemant: So let me start by a very basic definition: intelligence itself means continuous learning. Right? It is not one-time learning. One-time learning is, “Okay, I like you and I want to know you, but just once.” How would you feel?
Pavan: Mm.
Hemant: Intelligence — the entire process of intelligence, and if you go back and just read the entire concept of intelligence — it is based on continuous learning.
I think that pretty much answers the question. The reason for providing that loop is that we should be able to build this, as I said, as a strategic core muscle—
Pavan: Correct.
Hemant: —for all our advertisers, where they want to understand their consumers, but continuously.
Pavan: This is MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla. With me is Hemant Arora, VP and Global Head, Truecaller Ads business. Hemant, how does Truecaller Pulse ultimately impact the business for a marketer?
Hemant: This is what I have always wanted to do as a marketeer. How do I understand my consumer? How do I serve them as per their declared choices? How do I do it without incurring massive costs, at scale? How do I do it in real time? So, Pavan ji, this is exactly how Truecaller Pulse works.
Hemant Arora on MVP and MediaBrief
Pavan: Wow, Hemant, I enjoyed my chat with you, and I’m sure all our audiences too will benefit a great deal from what you’ve shared today. What did you think of your chat with me on MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast?
Hemant: Pavan ji, I think this is probably one of the best sessions, or best interactions, that I have had. We almost did the Truecaller Pulse on me, by asking me the right questions [laughter] — very incisive, very precise. Thank you so much. It’s been a huge learning for me, just trying to answer those questions for you.
Pavan: No, no, thank you. You’ve given us a lot of insights, and really very beneficial, I’m sure, for everyone — starting with me, because I always learn when I have my interactions with wonderful leaders like yourself.
Pavan: And what do you think of the kind of content and initiatives that mediabrief.com creates every day for professionals and the ecosystem?
Hemant: I think MediaBrief is leading something which is very differentiated. It is not news, but it is really what do you make out of what you’re hearing around you. So I’ve seen MediaBrief very constructively participating in ensuring that we are taking this industry forward, and not just reporting from where it is. So, thank you so much for that.
Pavan: Thank you, you’re very kind. Thank you very, very much indeed for this very rewarding conversation. It was a pleasure to have you with me on MVP The Master’s Voice.
Hemant: Likewise, thank you so much, and I’m sure MVP is the voice to listen to. Thank you.
Pavan: Thank you.
Pavan: So that was Hemant Arora of Truecaller, helping us understand a fascinating new shift in advertising: from only trying to infer what consumers might want, to also understanding what consumers actually choose to tell brands about their intent to buy — and how Truecaller Pulse is looking to turn that declared intent into consumer intelligence, smarter audience activation, and ultimately, more effective advertising.
Thank you very much for your time, for joining me on MVP The Master’s Voice Podcast. I’m Pavan R Chawla, founder editor of mediabrief.com. Until next time, stay informed, stay curious, keep learning, and make the best advertising decisions. Thank you for watching.
About MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast
MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast is MediaBrief.com’s award-winning flagship series of in-depth conversations with leaders shaping media, advertising, marketing, communications, technology, business and society. Hosted by Pavan R Chawla, Founder-Editor of MediaBrief.com, the series captures experience, insight and leadership thinking as enduring knowledge.
The show is on YouTube and top global podcast directories across India and the world. It is listed on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, JioSaavn Podcasts, Gaana, Amazon Prime Music, TuneIn, Alexa, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Overcast, Castro, PocketCast, Podcast Addict, and Castbox. Just click on any of the directories, and you will be taken to MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast there for expert conversations with MVPs.
