All right, welcome to yet another edition of E4M Presents Thursdays with Infobib, a specially curated series that focuses on various sectors with a core motive to deep dive and understand the latest as far as digital narratives and trends are concerned. Today's theme is decoding the digital influence in auto and consumer durable sectors. And the agenda is that we have a five-side chat followed by a panel discussion. So let me start introducing our first five-side chat that we have the first thing lined up. The topic for this chat is journey from a temperate reality to a modern day experience. And joining the speakers on this panel are Mr. Sumit Asthana, general manager of Samsung SDS and the moderator would be Aravindan Somasundaram Head Solution Consulting Infobib India. Thank you gentlemen for joining us over to you Mr. Somasundaram. Thank you, thank you, Royal. Welcome you all for this wonderful event. Let's begin here. It is rightly said, the more things change, the more they stay the same. This is for our customer. The customer is always right, the customer is the king. These words will always remain true and intact. Even in the digital age, business still needs to do whatever they want or whatever they can to meet customer expectation and foster strong for poor services and lethargic resolution times. If business fails to meet their demand, they could see the disheartened customer jump towards competition. Further, customer today are aware of the hand they have to play in this dynamics. So with so many opinions available, they can afford to demand better services from business. If companies wants to succeed in this environment, they have to not only meet customer demand, but exceed them. However, the customer experience and customer expectations are not the same thing. A great customer experience is the result of useful, easy, and enjoyable customer journey. To discuss this further on how the customer journey and expectations have evolved and changed over a period of time, we have Sumit as Thana, who has technology at Samsung SDS. And let's understand this better with him. Hi, Sumit. Hi, Abhinder. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon, Sumit. Welcome and thank you for joining us. Sure. Thanks for bringing me here. So shall we begin with the fireside chat, Sumit? Let's go ahead. Yeah. It's my first question to you, Sumit. Over the past year, there has been a shift in customer expectation. And as a result, the overall customer experience looks different and got transformed into a whole new world. There is more competition in the marketplace, which means the organization needs to do more to create personalized experience. What, according to you, Sumit, will take to reimagine this customer experience and how can companies become institutionally empathetic so that the customer feels cared for? Okay. So, Abhinder, I mean, see, in India, what consumers really need as far as for me is to have a look and feel of the product what they are buying, whether they are buying like a mobile phone or they want to buy like a car or end of the day, I mean, anything for that matter, right? And well, unfortunately, due to COVID, right, a lot of people are becoming really cautious, to kind of go to the stores and kind of touch, you know, the things in the stores and, you know, they want to be, they really want that experience, you know, just sitting at home, right? And a fantastic thing which I saw in the past, I think a couple of months back, which Chroma, you know, one of the retail stores, right, which has started in India, is giving, you know, the in-store experience while the people are sitting at home. So, I mean, if today I want to buy something, I really don't have to go to the Chroma store. I can just go to their website, I can request that, hey, can you give me a demo or, you know, look and feel of the product, a video call kind of starts and, you know, that look and feel can be given to the customer, the customer can ask questions. The same can be answered by the executive who is in the store and give that in-store experience. Well, that's one, you know, and other things like, you know, maybe the use of, you know, the AR, VR, you know, that can definitely bring in the change in the market trends. Because I personally, if you ask me, I mean, if somebody can give me a look and feel of a product while I'm sitting at home, I really don't want to go outside anywhere. I mean, that's what I can say is can really change, you know, the customer experience in India. Thank you. Thank you, Sumit. So, Sumit, you would agree with me that, you know, communication is hard of human interaction and it can make and break a business. Awesome. But InfoBip, yeah, yeah. But InfoBip, we believe to have a great solution. We need to start with a strong insight about our customer that helps us understand how to communicate with them. Where does you feel that Samsung seen alignment with our belief and keep the pulse of Indian customers? See, InfoBip has been really helpful, you know, in the transformation of what Samsung is in the journey of right now. And over the past year, I mean, past year, yeah, more than a year now, we have this association with InfoBip. And it would really, I would say, you know, when we started WhatsApp, like around 10 months back, around 10 months back, yeah. So it was really a great journey, you know, where InfoBip has not only given us the solution, but has also given us the guidance in terms of how we can make our WhatsApp journey successful. Right, and I'm really thankful, you know, to InfoBip and all the folks involved at that point of time. And also I would like to explore more solutions. I know that InfoBip has some, you know, the R&D team who's kind of working on more solutions. So definitely, you know, I would like to have more association with you guys in terms of what more we can do to bring in our customer experience, which is the most important thing at Samsung. Thanks for the kind words, Samith. Moving on to the next one. So delivering your message to its intended audience is the key essential to effective communication. You would agree with me. How are you delivering this information to those who need it? Especially in the era when customers are becoming more empowered to a selective, because they're selective in their approach. What tools and technologies do you think a B2C brand should use to engage customer with a value and that could add an experience. Where do you feel so, or what do you have to say here? Sure, sure. So I would say, see, from a digital transformation perspective, you know, I mean, that is the most important factor, you know, for our market, for the B2C market, right? To kind of meet the customer's expectation. And given the situation of this pandemic, right? I mean, it really becomes very difficult for enterprises like us to kind of share the information needed, you know, to the consumers, to the customers. So we are really sitting in the digital era, right? I mean, the current era, you know, we can definitely eradicate, you know, the problem of engaging the customer by using the digital mediums and, you know, by SMSs or by using WhatsApp, you know, and looking at the Indian market or the Indian consumers today, Indian consumers is one of the biggest users of WhatsApp, right?  But there are, you know, kind of, at least from a customer service perspective, if we are launching a new product, we can at least, you know, tell the customers or tell to our consumers that, yes, this is the new product, what we are kind of launching in the market. Not kind of offering any discounts and stuff, but again, at least we can share the information, right? And then there are other OTT platforms, right? Which we can use and which can really help us in passing on this information, you know, to the customers. Right, right. So, digital technologies, you know, have enabled completely the new customer journey. Especially the big tech companies and startups today, you know, deploy these technologies, keeping in mind that they would change consumer behavior and continuously increase customer expectation. So according to a research of IDC, what we have seen is, you know, two-third of the CEOs of global 2000 companies will shift their focus from traditional offline strategy to a more modern digital strategies to improve the customer experience before the end of year. With 34% of companies believing that they will fully adopt digital transformation within 12 months or less. So looking into the future as well, what are some of the digital trends that will make an impact in driving seamless experience so the customer feels connected to the brand? Good question. So I would say the very first thing which I would like to say is that, you know, and over the last year, as I've seen our customer service, you know, kind of shifting from voice to kind of the little medians like chat and WhatsApp, I strongly suggest every organization should, you know, adopt WhatsApp as a customer service channels. You know, I mean, this is what I can say, because my, you know, I myself, I might have maybe 100, 100 SMSs, but I might not have more than 10, 100 WhatsApp messages, right?  And kind of out of that 150 times a day or whatever that, let's take an example of 100 times a day, right? 90% of the times person checks, you know, the WhatsApp, right? So that is one thing which definitely I would like to say that, you know, the organization should adopt in terms of customer service, not sales I would say, but at least customer service and, you know, and then other than that, I mean, definitely social listening is very important where we should listen to the customers, right? And then respond to the appreciation, not only to the complaints, but definitely responding to the appreciation as well. So if customer appreciates, let's say I go on Facebook, you know, and kind of appreciate some organization. So I, as a human being, you know, as a human tendency, I would expect that at least I'll get a thank you, right? So that impacts a lot, right? So that is important as well. And then Facebook Messenger is not that kind of popular in India as of now, but looking at the new Facebook strategy, I think they're gonna be promoting Facebook Messenger, you know, strongly as well. So that's the third channel which I would say, you know, which customers should adopt or organizations should adopt rather. Agree, agreed, Sumit. So touching upon the challenges, Sumit, we all know that staying digitally relevant through a seamless omni-channel approach will improve the customer experience.  See, coming from a technology background, I would like to say one thing that the biggest challenge what we see here in this industry is that any industry for that matter is that when we start a journey, right? Some years back, you know, nobody thought that WhatsApp will be that great of a channel, right? Nobody thought that, you know, people would appreciate chatting rather than talking, right?  Nobody would like to chat, right? So that way is in terms of business, I would say. And that's where the challenge kind of started where people have adopted one technology for voice and when they kind of went further into the line, they kind of adopted other technology for chat. Now, WhatsApp coming, you know, the business coming in 2018, they adopted a different technology for that, right? So kind of, you know, giving an omni-channel experience is really important because me as a customer, I would expect that if I called, if I chatted, if I sent a WhatsApp, you know, I am actually, for me, I'm sending it to the same organization, right? So I, the organization should know what I have talked, what I have started and what I'm now, you know, what I'm now doing on a WhatsApp, right? So that is something really important that this is really not an easy challenge to kind of overcome it, but definitely, you know, I mean, we, this is the biggest challenge, different technologies.  So yeah, I mean, this is what I feel is the biggest, is the biggest channel in terms of giving the omni-channel experience. Thanks for sharing the challenge. So one last question from my end, given the time as a circumstances, what is Samsung roadmap on adoption of omni-channel journey? Take this engagement experience to the next level. So would you like to share that? So as I explained, right? One option is if I get, you know, maybe InfoBip can offer me something, you know, if InfoBip can be the integrator of all my channels, that is one option. Then the other thing which I can definitely see as an easier, you know, adoption or it's an easier implementation is that what we do in our customer service is that whether it's a voice call or whether it's WhatsApp, whether the person is kind of walking in the service center, whether the person is chatting with us, our backend remains the same, right? I mean, all the information is getting fed in that backend by all sort of executives, whether it's voice, chat, WhatsApp, service center, anybody for that matter, right? So in our voice, definitely, you know, as soon as the call comes, we kind of pop up the, you know, the backend CRM and that is also something which we are trying to adopt, you know, for the other channels as well. So that at least the customer will get that personalized experience and customers should feel that, yes, I mean, you know, this is the person I'm talking to and he knows what I'm calling about, right? So that definitely, you know, gives a good impact, a very positive impact on the customer experience. Thank you. Thank you, Sumit, for your time. Just to summarize, you know, digital technology has transformed consumer habit, mobile, apps, machine learning, automation, much more has allowed customer to get what they want, what exactly they need at that moment. What more these new digital technologies have caused a small shift in customer expectation, resulting in a new kind of modern bias. Today, the consumer are constantly connected over native apps and aware of what they can do with technology, because of the opportunities that rise from using modern technology, customers often rate organization on their digital customer experience first. So auto and consumer durable enterprises should look at distillation as their core technology, of course, as a core technology as well to provide better customer experience and improve customer engagement. Thank you, Sumit, for joining us and enlightening the event for decoding the digital influence towards auto and consumer durable sector. Thank you all for joining and stay tuned with our next session. Thanks, Sumit. Hashtag digital transformation. Thank you. Mr. Amit Tiwari, Head Marketing Heavals. This is our panel discussion as I stated earlier. Recording the digital influence in auto and consumer durable sector. Thank you, Mr. Tiwari, for joining us. Mr. Anirudh Haldar, Vice President Marketing, Community Photocyclists, Scooters and Corporate Brands, TBS Motors. Welcome, sir. Deva Gosha, Vice President, Anjum, General Manager, Marketing, Honda Cars, India. Shakti Upad, Marketing, here, yeah. And taking this discussion, Mr. Shankar, I am a consumer success. Thanks, Anurheel. Hello. Yeah, thank you. And thank you gentlemen for joining. Hello and welcome to all who have joined us today to discuss decoding the digital influence in the auto and consumer sector. It's a great pleasure to have this panelist for discussing such an important topic. Let me set the context here. The modern buying process has changed. I mean, right from an air conditioner to an automated car, it's something we all know that the consumers take partial decisions, almost partial decisions online and then try to authenticate that decision by visiting the dealers. This has been one trend. The other trend is about interestingly finding some third-party companies coming in play with some e-commerce capabilities and then, you know, fastening with dealers who can offer some kind of great customer experiences. You know, while manufacturers focused more on the only channel experience, we found that a lot of dealers focused on tactical solutions where, you know, they had a lot of data systems integrating with information and creating multiple touchpoints to various digital channels. While the revolution in the automotive industry evidently seen as more on the mobility and the connected services area, the digitally-influenced sales in the consumer-durable sector is expected to grow almost by 500% as per BCG from 2018 to 2023. So for more insights about these data points and as you all will see your customers, the behaviors and experiences you've been having for the last 18 months, if I could say, pre-COVID, COVID and some kind of post-COVID, it will be great to hear from you all on the trends which we will see going forward from now. Let me turn to my questions first and I will probably ask, you know, Shakil to take my first question. Shakil and I just want to focus on the point of segmentation of customers here. In a personal vehicle segment, especially, you know, you have a lot of segmentation of customers which is a very key element for your marketing plans, especially physical as well as digital platforms. First question to you is, is there a major shift in segmentation in work from home in the new norm? And also, mobility is looked at more as a safety today that compared to convenience or luxury. And if yes, how do you see the plan and the approach for personal vehicle manufacturers like you changing going forward? All right, so thank you, Shankar and good evening everyone and thank you for having me here. So let me break down the question into three small parts and I'll be quick in answering them. The first part, Shankar, is that do we share? Do we see a change from a shared mobility towards a personal mobility platform with work from home and with the fears of pandemic, COVID, et cetera? Simple answer to this is yes. However, at this stage, it is very difficult to put a number to the size of the segment and whether this trend is the whole. Why I so easily said yes is because there are two data points which are currently available with a significant drop of almost 80% in commercial vehicle registration and sales. There's a very significant drop in the sharing platform bookings. At the same time, after the lockdown got over, there's almost a 15% jump in personal or personal vehicle registration. So clearly there is a demand in the market. There are people who need a vehicle for personal use and in spite of a journal economic slowdown they are willing to spend money. So the demand exists clearly. The second part of your question is this. Do we see a significant shift away from say luxury feature variants more towards utility and safety? Let me start with the easy broad answer. It is no. To support this data point, we launched our most popular model that is fifth variant in July and almost 55% of the sales in the city have come from the top end of the segment which is significantly higher than our previous launch. So clearly the customer is giving equal importance to his bells and whistles. 50% sales are coming from automatic. So no there is at least in Honda's case no major shift towards lower brand or the lower variants within the brand mix. And it kind of holds true for other models also. If we look at city, the major success stories of course have been the compact SUVs. Shakti is here from Kia. I'm sure he will be able to say this. Hi Shakti, long time, in more detail. But the fact that Kia, Kretta were able to sell a million million and a half price point in such large number shows that the industry is also not shying away from spending money and moving towards security. Third part probably the most interesting quickly where do we see growth or what can we do as an industry to look at this shift from shared mobility to personal mobility. So the shared mobility segment actually is at least on a very broad level in two parts. The first part, people who moved to a shared platform because of convenience, you know, parking hassles the managing your driver, cost of maintaining, et cetera, et cetera. So they could have afforded a car, probably already had a car, but you know, they felt confident because of the availability of the shared platform to utilize it. The second segment in that is more nor generation. You may call them X, Y, Z generation, but the fact is these are the people who do not want to invest significantly in an asset. They see this as a dead investment. They just want to use, paper users. So as far as the first segment is concerned, I think their fear largely rose from the safety viewpoint and convenience. Industry rose to the question. I think everybody, including Honda, launched an online booking and buying service. We launched Honda from home and it got available traction. We, almost 2% of our bookings are not being directly dispatched from, which is an eye-opener for us. And I think... I get your point. So I understand that, you know, and I hope, and I hope that whatever you told us in terms of spending, it's not pent up and it is something which is an ongoing thing. There is a market, there is a market for maybe which is not only for safety and convenience because of pandemic, but it is more of a preference choice and I think I take that point and the shift from shared to a personal mobility kind of an option. Moving ahead, you know, but obviously, you know, another discussion for these model and the XYZ generation would require a differentiation, but take a point. Moving ahead, you know, I would request Deba to join us. You know, you're from consumer durable industry and I wanted to understand from you on a holistic communication perspective. How is Vultas creating a holistic communication life cycle by integrating channels, content, marketing around the customer from an engagement perspective where, you know, you've seen that, you know, the physical engagement had taken a lot of it during the last one year. Okay, thank you for that question. And allow me to put Vultas in the perspective first. Sure. That's a picture I always make as a marketer. So we are a 60-year-old brand and we started their conditioning business in this country in 1954. And since then, there has been no looking back. And today we lead industry in the cooling space. We not only sell air conditioners, we also sell air coolers and commercial products and recently they also launched a wide range of appliances under the Vultas Beko brand name. So I am saying this is because of the fact that taking a cue from what Shakil mentioned in the previous conversation, segmentation. For us, we have to cut across segments, right? And for us, we need to talk to house fires, we need to talk to a house mail, we need to talk to children. So that makes tasks much more wider for us. So keeping in mind our portfolio products which we have and which my friend Amit and also share subsequently, this portfolio has to get it to a larger cross-section of consumers. And that's where we have to cut across genders, we cut across age, cut across SEC. And that's when engagement becomes very critical because how do we engage with such a huge cross-section of consumers? So looking at, we took a look at last year and bring them in the peak of lockdown and immediate after lockdown. We looked at our media agencies, there's a harvest groups meaningful branch survey which brought out very good insights for us. 61% of consumers were looking at brands to tell them how to use the appliances in the middle of a lockdown, middle of a pandemic. Okay, so that was very interesting because instead of pushing propositions, features, we thought let's be simple and let's teach our consumers how to use their appliances because they were looking for help. And that's when data and content came in for us. We used the data of a consumer base and we created meaningful content for our consumers in the middle of lockdown and also when unlocks started happening last year. And that helped us to engage in a relevant manner. We didn't push down things on their throat. And that's when it started. And we saw a huge amount of engagement, meaningful engagement, taking place in all our social handles and that helped us to stay relevant to the consumers mind. We created DIY videos which was, how to service your air conditioners, how to service your appliances at home. And that was very meaningful to the consumers. Later on when the festivals came up, we saw that there's some barriers to adopting categories. There was a pent up demand, there was a replacement demand but how do you ensure that consumers still come on board? So that's when we created content around consumer offers, EMI schemes, extended warranties that helped us to stay relevant to the consumer. So a mix of data and meaningful content, content helped us to stay relevant and stay engaged with the consumers. This year, I think it should carry on. Data, content, search and social will be our focus areas for 2021 as we move along. Thanks, thanks there for the answer and just excuse me in case if you hear a little bit of background noise, sometimes you've gone to virtual and working from home, sometimes you carry these kind of things as answers, please excuse me on that. My next question is to Anirudh and probably we'll carry from the point where Shakil left the personal mobility space. In the pandemic, especially we saw an increased demand for personal mobility and India being India and we know the tubular space is just so huge and that is one of the major mode of private transport. How has TVS motor engaged with consumers during this period especially when you know that the walk-ins are going to be far and few in the dealership segment and with that, have you seen a change in the buying process, especially in your segment? Good afternoon, thank you. And Sankar, that's a very interesting question. So as I get into that, let me just say that I think we are going to be looking at a new normal nature of time very soon and the BC would be before COVID, this would be during COVID and hopefully very soon we will be in after COVID. While we are in the DC or the during COVID portion, we might be making a lot of projections on what after COVID will look like and a lot of that learning comes from what we experienced. Some of the things that would probably stay and a lot of behavior that we adopted in this period was a reaction of fear, was a reaction of caution, the reaction of safety. Hopefully some of them will maintain but some of them will kind of fall away. Why did some of these changes come? So as you mentioned personal mobility became about safety. Mass transit or the public transport system at that point in time had to shut down but essential services needed to carry on. And at that point in time, two wheelers became a very, very critical dimension of it. And I'm very tempted to take their bus leave and kind of give you an unknown of the portfolio of TVS but much to say we have something playing in the rural market, urban market, scooters and motorcycles. So we really saw demand into play across the various categories. Very interestingly, the rural market because just the mask on this shutdown, there was a livelihood requirement. We saw the first upsurge that came in there. What we're seeing later on as we move along is that add-on vehicles started becoming important. So in urban centers, you may have had a car, you may have had one, two wheeler and the family the requirement for the second two wheeler was coming on because you had individual mobility needs. So personal mobility did not, which was earlier almost defined like that of a family was becoming very isentering. So when I go to what happens to my spouse, how is he or she going to this thing? All that interplay started coming in. So the demand nature started evolving. And staying true to the topic of the day in how the digital interface kind of helped in that period is that initially we got into doing service videos, according to how to care for your vehicle when it is not mobile for a long time. But we realized as we quickly moved along that while there was initial uptick in that what the consumer was really looking at was to say, how am I going to be taking care of going forward and to give a true sense of that individual mobility gives you this chance of social distancing, et cetera, being safe and you really need that solution. So those kind of stories and content started playing out we far better. We did our piece and booking online and we got a fair amount of traction on that. But I still think there's a long way to go before that becomes really the mainstay. But interestingly, a trend that was always there which is that you had to have seen or research some of it online. The proportion of informed consumers walking into the showroom that really lead forward. So earlier when you had 40 to 50% of people who were informed when they walked in that number jumped to 70, 80 in respect to the kind of market that you're looking at. So the role of the dealership change from information to validation, from providing, solving the information gap to solving the assurance gap. So really the role at the dealership, role at the frontline evolved and hence the kind of retail aids that we needed to provide them to help them the consumer journey that also went through its change and digitization. So I think it's still very early days and to your earlier question and segmentation that you had asked very interestingly, I refer back that post COVID, there will be a whole different segmentation that will even so we will wait for the after COVID to see how that kind of shapes up. But it's interesting times ahead. Yeah, absolutely. And I think I will save some time for a question which probably talks about the AC which you mentioned and, but taking a point from you which you mentioned and I think that is more relevant for my question to Amit where you mentioned about informed customer and Amit, you know, havens for me personally or for any consumer for that matter operates in a category where touch and feel is so important, right? I mean, that's an area where you operate. And as a brand, how was your customer engagement involved in this scenario where, as I mentioned, I know the decisions partially if I have to put it that way are made online and the assurance which the word he used is even at the store or at the retailer. Give me some insight on that. So hi, Shankar, good evening everyone. I think everybody has talked about their particular experience and Shankar, as you rightly mentioned, if you would see how does, I will operate, we operate around 32 categories. So even a pre-preparation of home and the final preparation of home that we actually use everything in every socket you have something or the other that can be offered even the socket can be offered from what the Havelson actually put it. Partially your right Shankar in terms of that you require touch and feel but actually today what happens is consumer is much more informed that you actually think of. And I always believe in the fact that consumer is at least 10 steps more than all the marketers in whichever categories that you're actually operating today. So what are we trying to fulfill? We are just trying to fulfill as an enabler to give him what he wants. All information what he needs he already trying to assimilate irrespective whether you are not providing somebody else to do it. What we have learned and what we thought of doing it in last couple of months is we actually focus on one particular science of marketing or science of entire social is is about Netrography. How does the Netrography actually talks about each and every touch point of a consumer? How it is actually behaving not only from aspect of social listening but also a very, very unbiased approach of what does consumer feel about. And that particular science has made us today it is just a playbook for us even for going for the next particular 10 months or 20 months of going forward. We have a basics in place, not today. We know that it is not about only a pent-up demand on this is this is a combination of future as well as present needs that are actually moving for it. Coming to the touch points that you talk about today but what we are actually trying to fulfill is just trying to be as an enabler if you really let's say in a water purifier as a category if you want somebody to have a service we will help you out in terms of either through a virtual call or through a video call or WhatsApp call may you may not be having a direct access to the call center because call center is not operating things are not moving across but we can reach out to you whatever form and format to look for. If you see largely most of the around 85% of the business on the consumer appliances as well as the entire consumer durable runs on a very traditional format dealer distributor retailer where the trust is not in terms of who is selling the trust is how are you actually selling this guy will give you a trust the dealer will give you a trust by the I'm sitting here in terms of whatever the need is required that we've actually tried to fulfill by generating leads to those particular proposition we created a concept called O2O which is online to offline so we were creating and generating leads for all our dealer and distributors they were actually fulfilling that order because for example if Shankal is an XYZ part of the country and he wants a requirement for an AC how would that be fulfilled so we'll show him three options he can buy the same price he can actually go and the dealer can deliver and fulfill that entire particular order the idea is if at this particular point of time if you can actually engage a part of your particular consumer journey I think you're actually winning a consumer in much way also what I heard from most of the other panelists I don't know Rohail can actually comment I don't know how these two animals of consumer durable and auto can come together I couldn't make it out since the day the I think the info bib and Rohail can actually find out but the larger pieces digital is no more a medium and that's how I've been telling it is a part of life for anyone if me as a consumer for you and from a six year old to a 60 year old everybody thinks that it is part of life today irrespective of whatever journeys that you actually bring in that is how the evolution is happening thanks yeah I think you've accelerated the point of saying that you know so the last point which you made that it is part of the life I think the opinion is that it has not accelerated much more than what it was yeah and that acceleration brings in a lot of new dimensions to marketing and sales and to the point where you say how consumer durable and auto can go together I'm sure it is not going together that acceleration at least but for the part of discussion yes we're trying to bring it together and thanks for that answer Amit moving ahead you know coming to Shakti and I think very interestingly I want to ask you you know and you know probably you were exactly born kind of you know busy and you know you were during the covid is where you were established in your place and then now you have a position to take so I'm referring to your last 18 months you know I understand you came around 19 August during that period and you know it's been three launches after that and so my question more is you know to understand how have you been recording your customer feedback which is a very very key element right for you to you launch yourself and you want to know how your customers are reacting to it and the time of that feedback capturing period was so tricky isn't it so I just want to understand how did you manage to get your voice of customer and really understand what went well for you and what is that you can do considering the times where you were in the market thanks for an amazing question Shankar hi everyone, good evening actually as you pointed out we are the youngest on the panel in terms of all the brands who are present here but we have seen the three parts of life like when we started it was everything was going smooth we were doing great in 2019 we were happy that okay we have we have been getting a little bit of success immediately then COVID happened and now here we are in terms of all these three eras as Anirudh mentioned we have launched three products now as all of us know KIA has been a very late entrant in Indian automobile industry it was quite a big challenge and it actually became an opportunity for us the answer to your question goes real back when we started planning how to bring the brand in India the entire KIA product portfolio the brand positioning was decided and designed keeping the new age consumer in mind and since beginning through our interesting narrative that we had for the brand you know the Tiger, the Astronaut, the Badass, the Celtos we have been taking a very different take with the consumers now what that brings us to is that today consumer is more friendly than us than anyone else the best part of the new age consumer the person that I am talking to as a plan is that he loves to express and he talks back and this is definitely a goal now being in a high involvement category every emoji, every comment or every interaction that he does on my channels is an opportunity for me and we started doing the activities much before Celtos launch for example when Celtos was launched in August 2019 we were busy building the brand since October 2018 and since then we have been speaking to the consumers in a very positive way the first part was to get this entire following of the new age consumers to listen to them and then to come back with the product and the overall brand promise for example Celtos was Bible online from day one even when we were looking at in the booking period we were Bible online from day one bringing this brought us to the second phase when we were planning for Sonnet and exactly at that point in time COVID happened but as I said going back to the entire philosophy how we have cleared up for the market we realized that work from home was actually buy from and that was something which was a boon for us with the core key engaging and digital first approach that Kia has had we have been striking a chord with the new age consumer so that he is the most vocal with us for example the entire Sonnet launch was conceptualized and it was done in the COVID period but on day one we got more than 6500 online bookings so in a way I would say COVID was a boon for us it brought us even closer to the consumer coming to the third part of your question we are saying how much is it important to catch the trend and ensure positive VOC as a brand I would say Kia has not catch the trend we have been creating a trend and we have been ensuring a positive VOC even before the trend catches up for example during COVID while everyone was silent mood was not good everyone was worrying Kia came up with a campaign which made people just to sit back and relax we said we did not even advertise our products we had launched Carnival in which there was a new commercial where the main product goes as far as to meet his girlfriend on a beach we just reversed the TVC back and we see Rewind Kia now that is the part of the work here because it is Kulukia as well so Rewind Kia and then we said you stay back stay relaxed at the back of it we launched programs which were giving people wellness ideas which were letting them do the best with their cars which were stationary and that is how we even managed to come closer to the consumer but yes we have been recording the feedback at each and every moment and we have been putting it in our products in the way they communicate I think you answered my question and I think my focus on that question was more understanding where you were born digitally and it helped you capturing those information but these were tough times to actually assess customer behaviour because there were no normal times that we gave differently and we heard that from all of you I think with such a large panel I can only afford having one more question but I am going to toss up a question with each one of you a same question and your quick opinion on that while there are trends I believe you touched upon some of the trends which will continue, some are irreversible trends some trends started before COVID which probably would give it to your digital adoptions and things like that but the major question still remains is we keep talking about a rural market which is much bigger in India that's a market which everyone wants to chase but bringing digital to rural market and that's where my question is do you see an ecosystem which is digitally equipped ready for you to bring desperate systems and functions within your organisations to connect with or probably create a customer engagement hub and connect with new customers customer relationships digitally connect customers, track customer behaviours put in a lot of those AIs and analytics so what I am trying to ask you is do you see an ecosystem which is ready where you can now scale up to rural markets and make it a little big because it is digital now I will start with Amit So Shankar, two parts to the question First is we already have a real time marketing centre which actually takes care about the entire ecosystem of all the consumers and customers that we actually talk about both B2B and B2C and it's a very very fairly large structure and unstructured data that we actually evaluate and do it Going to rural I think there is no option and I think you should go and if you see the trends, what is there during the COVID also when the lockdown was starting the first particular market that had actually started moving are all the markets which are already semi urban and rural markets to it it is not a matter of infrastructure it is also a matter of what is the level of interest that you can actually able to suffice what category you can actually move it to and what is the power of the product and what is the pricing that you can actually go for so I think it's not a matter of in terms of it's a huge market people have already explored that market obviously one size doesn't fit for all so what are we doing for the urban market we definitely have to come up with a new particular strategy for going forward and a lot of insights which other particular brands are doing because your insights will help you in terms of driving in those particular markets that's my answer to it Amit you are saying that the ecosystem is in place it's your project how you want to drive that perfect your thought just before I get on to that I can't resist answering Amit Ji's earlier question why auto and consumer are durable together so I have a product that plugs into the wall charges on electricity and runs fine that is as the appliance I get to the previous IC that's exactly what the steam probably uses a havel socket while it's at it so we are very very much close at it tomorrow than anything at least by that at least there's some particular monotony break-in has happened to the entire it looks like a so serious discussion at least we are trying to change the policies for India for consumer delivery of automobile so I'm thankful I'm glad at least I'm able to make that difference to the entire communication today thanks Anitha for participating in that coming back to the question that you talked about the rural market I think the rural market is already digital it's we were catching up to it from a content perspective enabling transactions that's a separate that doesn't mean they are not digital they are consuming content they are consuming content in rows there are already enough number of platforms out there which is servicing them are we transaction ready are we willing to completely complete the end-to-end transaction maybe not but are we transaction ready in urban centers also I don't think you are 100% there but good to say that you already see I mean examples like Shakthi with care which is very strongly on the digital we have a couple of products which are in our mind digital first where our campaigns rarely go on TV for that we have booking engines which are working online TVSI, Q, Ben talk these are all working online bulk of our business on that comes in are we transaction ready I think we can do better on getting transaction ready there are regulatory environments that prevent us to do that 100% and there are others but at some point in time that is enablement even after you enable that even after for example faction went online people would still want to walk in and check out the size of it and then go back and order it online the act of shopping, the experience of shopping is still something you can't take away so I think we have to be very careful in what we provide and what we take away and while you are transaction ready we do not really take away the joy of bringing home your next appliance, vehicle, car I think it's an intrinsic part of that you are bringing in something like that which will send the mail and we should be very careful in protecting that alright so we are ready with digital ecosystem consumers are digitally equipped but transactionally is what we are looking at as a space to be enabled let me turn to your views on this from a consumer great we have since a short of time I will just sum it up quickly I think our category is already there 45% of the durable business is already there in tier 2, 3, 4 towns so we are selling there already and the consumers are already there who are adopting us what is more challenging for us is how do we engage with our trade partners in these towns because that's how we want to digitize ourselves because we have a multi-level channel of distribution right so we don't reach out to consumer from our own exclusive brand stores which automobile companies do so we have to depend on a multi-level channel of distribution and that's how we have to engage with our sub-dealers also to ensure that they reach out to their consumers and to the day that's an important priority for us secondly in terms of driving generic demand for new categories we all know refrigerator sells in a cooler cell in upcountry towns but what we didn't know was dishwashers which we launched last year 40% of our sales came from upcountry towns amazing so we never knew that consumers are open for new technology new offerings and that's where we triggered demand so it's important to align with your trade partners whatever you do at least they are able to fulfill that that's my take on upcountry priorities I think along with transactionally enable you also to also be digitally to get those probably it is very interconnected with the transaction point which Anurad mentioned Shakti, your point and then I'll come to Shakil on basically looking at the digital ecosystem readiness I'll be I'll be very quick to answer in the interest of time but I cannot resist this small chat between Anurad and Amit that I was listening so Shankar you have the bridge between consumer durables and automobiles here in your panel earlier I've been the consumer durables for 8 years selling televisions and now being with Kiya I just bought a couple of cars also that's good so all I can talk about is the as a brand we are fairly new in terms of penetration we are in the penetration mode but what I can tell you is that India is not digital ready or the penetration is lower at the in some of the suburbs or when we say upcountry that is something that I see is a mix a little bit because for example in Kiya we have we have launched a service app through which you can book the service from your home the driver will come pick up your car he will take it back and as he is going you can even watch your car going on the map then he services this the service estimate comes on your app you approve it, you reject it, you change then you pay on the app and then the car is delivered to your home back I'll be delighted to tell you that more than 90% of the services that we are doing in Kiya that are being done digitally and the kind of traction that we are getting from non metro towns that's amazing that's the artistic that I will keep sure Shakil from you and then I can probably take one more audience question I think we have 4 minutes sure so very quickly I think very interesting perspectives in terms of infrastructure I think everybody is ready I don't see a divide in ruler and urban, it depends totally upon the infrastructure and data is in one place what are you going to do about it so in our case very quickly my focus at least in how can I utilize my existing customers and the prospects make them talk to each other and let my existing customers convert the prospects that is the data point and the digitization that I am looking for including my existing customers any use cases this is my focus okay so use cases transaction, trade readiness probably consumers are far ahead in terms of consumption of digital mode these are some of the things which probably are there and I think from a year down the line a conversation like this would probably be talking about how the new use cases are building from these tools and technologies or the availability of resources I have a question from the audience and I think the question is more related with the consumer durable kind of scenario so I think Amit and Dev both can come in in case we have time, the question is it is mentioning about digital transformation and social listening I think Sumit mentioned during his conversation I think Amit also mentioned about it, so Amit you can take it first about digital transformation and social listening are any of your segments using the programmatic marketing or advertising techniques based on user behavior for your brands in social media, so it is basically talking about user behavior getting used for marketing in social media So just to answer on this Shankar I think today most of the digital planning happens primarily on programmatic and you can see a lot of different results but the caveat it also depends upon category to category and what is the objective that you are actually trying to do for example in a category again like a water purifier versus an AC the objective is very very different yes there are on the basis of behavior you do programmatic by and it is very very relevant today it helps a lot of things in that thereby if you want to add something on this No you are bang on, programmatic is actually a staple diet for us now because it is going to be there for some time so if you want to devise your plans and your digital plans it has to be embedded in without saying So thanks for Shreyas Ranjim for asking this question I think you got an agreement from the panelists that yes it is the key area of focus I think that just brings to time I was wondering if I have five of you how am I going to manage it but thank you so much for actually supporting me on that and I think I just quickly summarize very interesting thoughts which came across from shared to personal probably consumption is there but we need more transaction and development trade, digitally born businesses and some interesting connects and collaboration between consumer durable and auto industry for the event companies to know that this is their mistake so really appreciate your thoughts and time gentlemen thank you so much and I hand it over to you Thank you so much everyone and we hope to and thank you for everyone who asked the question of the audience and we'll come right next week and see you soon on InfoBip before and present InfoBip Thursdays with InfoBip and a new topic thank you again for your time


Good morning and welcome to the week ahead video with me David Madden. Today's date is Friday the 25th of October 2019 and the time has just gone 1140 British summer time and look ahead to next week Which is Monday the 28th of October on to Friday the 1st of November If we're gonna take a look at what's going on in the last two sessions It's very clear that the big issues of Brexit and US China trade have been very much in play So the move this this week in relation to Brexit as obviously be dragging on A lot of the gains that were made recently on the hopes that some sort of deal Will be approved and get passed Are still largely there we saw during the week how boss Johnson essentially got you know approval in principle for The deal that he brokered with the European Union, but Things didn't go according to plan for Boris after per our prime minister Johnson as MPs them effective voted down They can a shortened timeline that mr. Johnson was looking to actually get it all things wrapped up by so the still talk All the of an election I referred from the EU this morning. They are going to be having a meeting in relation to the granting an extension You know, it's economically advantageous for both sides to avoid a no deal Brexit So it's probably likely that the European Union will grant an extension Also in relation to British politics. We heard yesterday The Prime Minister Johnson set out his plans to hold a general election on the 12th of December Not long after those plans were set out the leader of the opposition. Mr. Jeremy Corbyn Quickly said he would not support a general election unless Mr. Johnson took the option of no deal off the table and let's face it Boris Johnson is highly unlikely to Take to remove the no the option from the table So we could be kind of in this kind of Brexit limbo or as I wrote on a morning note The UK could be the departure lounge of the EU for some time That's been going on and it's just because of the almost kind of fatigue We have seen a bit of a weakness in European equity markets today But keep in mind I will be taking a look at some of the big markets But keep in mind we know a lot of the gains that have been made in the last 10 days have largely been obtained Turning our attention to the US China trade situation We heard yesterday from China who said that they're willing to buy 20 billion dollars worth of US agricultural goods at year One should the US sign up for a partial trade trade trade deal phase one of it Relation to Mr. Pence the vice president of the US. He was speaking about China yesterday and he said that If the if China can drop their kind of unfair quote, you know, quote-unquote unfair Treatment of the US relations trade. They could then like to begin a new trading relationship Mr. Pence also kind of called out China's Criticized China's behavior in relation to the handy of Hong Kong. So he's firm enough on China By the same time he also said he doesn't he doesn't want the US to decouple from China So as far as Mr. Pence goes, it was one of his probably was one of his more kind of measured updates But you know, taking a firm line by the same time he's showing He's showing that he is what wanting to get progress the relationship and essentially while the language is somewhat Constructive and considerate I suspect, you know equity markets in the US are gonna hang around these levels And we're probably not gonna have any kind of major sharp move to the downside at least driven by the US China trade relationship the earnings story could be something very different Turning our attention to next week. What's it like out for next week in relation to the Big issues of next week. The US back in the next week is the going to be the non-farm payrolls The last month's payrolls figures Word were overly overall reasonably good But given that we've seen some kind of weakness in the public opponent Absolutely kind of the recent ISM reports We could see a softer We could see a lower towards 100,000 or maybe some 100,000 in terms of the headline figure bearing in mind last month last month's report showed that on a yearly basis average earnings in the US Cooled from 3.2% to 2.9% which is a cut to be above inflation So workers are getting a real a real increase in wages, but at the same time It's it is a bit worrying because you know when workers earn more than tend to spend more Also in relation to to next week. We have huge third quarter US GDP and we also have a Interest rate decision from the Fed of Reserve. So In relation to the in relation to the growth figure That's obviously gonna be can be closely watched as is the update from the from the Fed of Reserve in recent weeks, you know, we have heard a lot of a lot of a Lot of kind of moving away From chatter about the possibility of the Fed cutting rates I you know my view is that all employment in the US is at a 50 year low Granted ways are coming down a bit, but they're still well above inflation So I think, you know, we have you've had a couple of interest rate cuts in the last number of months Do we really need a third in fairly quick succession? Looking out ahead to next week also what do you have to watch out for we have the manufacturing PMR reports Coming off for me about the final manufacturing reports coming off in a number of countries This week we saw the flash report from Germany and from France now there were particularly impressive that the French one was showing Minimal growth the German one showed a slight improvement from the dreadful figures of the previous month, which were a 10 year low That's how that's going to be very much in focus Also, it was worth keeping eye on the we got a couple of interest rate A couple of center bank meeting next week as well in addition to the Fed We have the Bank of Japan or the Bank of Canada in relation to earnings. We've third quarter figures from HSBC Keep in mind this week we've heard only the last week for the likes of Barquese and Roebuck in Scotland have fairly sizable Writedowns and approbations in relation to this setting of PPI so keep an eye for that in relation to HSBC Also HSBC driver a lot of their funds from the Far East so the situation in Hong Kong or the general economic cooling of mainland China Could impact their business BP have third quarter numbers out That's obviously going to be focused. It must have been going on in the oil market recently We have third quarter figures from Lloyd's as I mentioned keep an eye on Lloyd's as I mentioned in relation to this setting of PPI That's likely to come back and hold Lloyd's because they've been there the worst the worst culprit for it and in terms of kind of you know big Big US companies to discuss a fourth quarter figures from Apple and third quarter figures from Facebook What I'll do now is take a quick look at some of the major markets and see how things are performed I mentioned at the very beginning of this video how we you know We were a bit lower today as far as European equity markets are looking at but by and large the gains We've racked up most that you know at the last week or so have been very much have largely been maintained So I'm taking a look at the price action on the footsteps under it here We've been pressing we've been pushing higher since the at the beginning of the month We're back above the treaty moving average the spread line here, which comes into play at 72 73 We're back above that. We're not too far away from this yellow line here They want to move the average fact is acting kind of as resistant at the moment and that comes into play in around 7335 and if you do have a break above that it could take us back up towards this zone here in a 7,440 or perhaps up to 7,470 so that's all up Around kind of 74 40 74 70 could be the next area of resistance to keep an eye for If in their hands the market does manage to turn over itself So what could be found from this blue line here the fifth of the moving average at 7,235 Notice how it nicely acted at resistance on a few occasions not a lot ago So it could be and if a metric has been important in the past It makes it more likely it will be so in the future although there are no guard eats But even still a bit below it could find support from the kind of 72 the zone 7,000 to two of the zone down around here I take a look at what's going on and the tax and the tax is in better shape than its British counterpart So as only yesterday we are level on the tax last seen In June last year so really give indication if I'm bullish things are going in the tax But so the trains the wider trend has been very much to the upside currently training in around 1150 if you drive on higher from here We could be looking at targeting the biggest psychological Number of 13,000 and if you go beyond that similar in around again at 13,200 could then be targeted But whatever is ever so slightly concerning as that but first of all the rate at which the market rose between Early October and now it's fairly steep So maybe we could see a bit of a bit of a slow down in the rate at which is increasing Not say that a massive, you know turn around, but we could see a slow down in the get upward trajectory But it's what is slightly concerning is that first of all the kind of the long wick on this camp here So this then also small bit of a decision, you know, you would really be looking to Base your trading idea solely on that but if you take a look at the MACD indicator the MACD histogram down here We can see that it's been actually cooling off and tapering off ever so slightly all the while the market itself is pushing higher And we have that kind of diversity between the two Where the the actual markets pushing higher, but yet it's pushing higher on a smaller increases We're seeing a slight decline in the positive momentum. It could be a sign that we The buyers who are still in control could be running a little bit of steam and we could see a bit of a pullback So we might love to kind of head back down towards this is all down around here 12,660 or 12,600 be something consolidation in those areas before so we could see them again in the near term Take a look now at what's going on over on the S&P 500 the big US market US markets are in very good shape in comparison to the European equivalents Take a look here from August onwards. You've seen a lovely series of the lows have all been higher So I love you see series of higher lows You know we're expecting that up the S&P 500 to open north of 3,000 You know volatility has been low But we're still very much in the upper trend if you depress on higher from here We could really try getting the recent highs in September of 2022 I think I'll be on that the old-time eyes of say in around 3,000 because a 28 that could be could be a could be on the horizon, but similar though to the What we saw the DAX The markets are pushing higher, but we're seeing a cooling off in positive momentum So it could be a bit of a sign that we might be due for a bit of a pullback And that should that be the case you could be lucky any back down towards this song down around here 2,970 or perhaps this blue line here the 50 moving average which acted nicely a support and resistance Not an hour ago. I like comes to the play And that price comes to the play in 2005 257 and lastly we talk about the British pound We'll have a look at the pound versus the US dollar So obviously all this talk of either be between both Johnson's getting a deal that's tired of an extension If you saw a major move to the upside recently in the British pound sterling against US dollar hit a level It believes a five-month high I never last seen in May. So things are looking really bullish Above the tour to move the average, but it's a bit concerning that the market has actually moved up at this rate We could see a bit of a pullback The market seems to be turning, you know, I couldn't really get a decent move Apologies couldn't get ready a decent move north of the one spot 30 zone So we are seeing a better move to the downside Pals of momentum is a is a is a is a decline We could see the market drift back towards this red line here the turn of the moving average in at one spot 27s 15 or even out towards kind of 126 zone But they've got a wider theme is to very much a play and a break a solid break a decent break north of one spot 30 Could take us up towards the April highs of one spot 31 78 Well, thank you for listening and please tune in next week. Thank you very much. I've been Dave Madden


Your next bet for rookie of the year goes to the Steelers running back. Najee Harris at 13 to one. Why do you believe this rookie is going to be one of the better players in the NFL this year on such a veteran roster? Yeah. Well, exactly. You hit it on the head there, right? Veteran roster. But I think that kind of helps Najee as he comes into the system. I mean, this offense was very dynamic in 2020 with what they were doing. I know people want to sleep on Ben Roffless burger area. I think me and you have talked about this Steelers offense and I feel like it's wheels up again. They got a new OC there in Matt Canada coming in who's not going to have the predictable offense like Randy Finster was having. This is going to be fun to see. And when you're looking at, you know, first of all, this position running back when we're talking about MVP, you know, that's quarterback position or quarterbacks have that under wraps. But when we're talking about offense, rookie of the year, I think four out of the last 11 times it's gone to a running back. So if Najee can keep this up or keep the hype up, I guess, and going and Ben Roffless burger is already talking about how he loves the kid. I know they've been working out a ton together. So he's going to have ample opportunities in this offense in the red zone, especially we know Mike Tomlin loves his bell cow backs. I think that they're going to be using Najee full systems go when it comes to the 2021 season. And when you're getting him at these odds, they, they actually were like 15 to one, I believe, right around the time of just after the draft and it's just moved a little bit. So we can still take advantage of what he's coming in at at 13 to one. And I think, you know, he has to be the favorite of the non-signal callers to win this award here. Harris is slated as the number one running back on this depth chart for the Pittsburgh Steelers plus Harris led all of college football last year with 26 rushing touchdowns.


Thanks for checking out this unboxing video. I am very late to the game with doing a lot of these mystery minis. I'm not going to do a whole lot of mystery minis honestly, but horror, if anyone really knows me, I am big, big, big into horror. So the horror mystery minis look very awesome to me. You know, obviously a lot of the films I'm into, so it'd be cool to have these little figures that represent a lot of these awesome films that I'm into. So the mystery mini horror grouping is really cool to me. I don't really care for a lot of the other ones. Sci-Fi is like half and half for me because it has some horror-ish stuff in there, like Predator, Alien, stuff like that, and Godzilla, which is awesome, and maybe a few others here or there. But horror is mainly it. Like I said, I'm late to the game though, so I missed the first series, I missed the second series, and I've just about missed the third series because I'm so late to the game, but I was able to find some after looking many, many places at a game stop near me. I purchased the rest of them. It was nine, so yeah. First off, very sorry about all the glare right here. It's from the computer screen. I thought about just taking all the cellophane off beforehand so it wouldn't be there, but then I was like, I know there are people who actually like the sound of the cellophane coming off, so I'll leave it for that reason and just apologize. So sorry for all this glare right here, which sucks, but it'll be gone soon. I'm going to break this up into two videos just to kind of prolong things. Instead of doing nine on one video, which would be super long, I just want to do five and four, so let's start with four just to wet our appetites, and then we'll do five after that. So there's some really cool ones in this series three. Actually, I don't think there are any that I'd be super disappointed about getting, but there are certainly ones that I definitely want. And if you're not very familiar with Mystery Minis, the way they break it down is they have a bunch that are certain chances of getting them. There are some that are one-in-six, some are one-in-12, some one-in-36, one-in-24, one-in-72. So there are really rare ones, and then there are ones that are super common. If I get any duplicates, I have things to do with those. I can have one at the house, one at my office on my desk, and then if I get more duplicates, I can give them to friends, or trade with friends, whatever. So just to give you a look at the back, which you can see there, let me make sure I get rid of... Well actually, something I'm going to be opening these, so you can get a better look and take the solvent off one of them, so the glare won't be as bad, and then you can look and see. So you can see there's a lot of interesting ones there. I'm sorry, my hands are a little shaky, that's my central tremor. Yes, it's a thing. So anyway, what I want the most, it's not super rare, but what I want the most out of this is a Jack Torrance from The Shining, because love, love, love, love The Shining like crazy. There are also the Grady twins in here, but they're one-in-36, so I'm assuming that won't happen. Much better chance of Jack Torrance. Also Alex from Clockwork Orange would be great. The Slimer is really cool from Ghostbusters, Super Rare Freddy, one-in-72, so anyway. I'd be happy with pretty much anything, but I'll do a guess when I open these up. So I'm going to do four right now, five next video. Get this open, take a guess, got the bag out. It feels like this person is holding an axe. So either, actually it feels like it's Jack Torrance to be honest. If the very first one I open is Jack Torrance, then I will be happy and it won't really matter what's in the rest of them, because that would just be bonus in my opinion. So let's check it out. Hell yeah, Jack Torrance. God, they look so good too. Look at this. They're kind of good they look. Jack Torrance, man. I guess, if I hold it in this hand, I can get it closer to you. Jack Torrance. From the shining, holding his axe, God, I love it, it's so great. It doesn't stand up. That's, oh, yes he does. With enough stability, when you put him down, he will stand up, so that's good. Very good. So he was a one-in-12, so, you know, not Super Rare, but not one of the one-in-sixes. Jack Torrance, yes. I'm excited. Just pop open another one. All right, like I said, everything from here is a gravy. I'd take two Jack Torrances, to be honest. I have one at home, one at the office. I'm down with that. Ooh, okay. Hands out. It seems like this could be the Wolfman, because it seems like his hands are out in this kind of motion, although it could also be Adam from Beetlejuice, but no. I really think it's got to be the Wolfman, which is one-in-six. Yeah. Wolfman, one-in-six. That's cool, too. If you like universal monsters, especially, see, there you go. Wolfman coming for you. It's cute. It's cool. I mean, it looks nice. I'm fine with that. I don't want a whole lot of those. I would be fine with a duplicate of Wolfman, but nothing past that. I'll just leave this one. So two there. Let's go for the third. Sometimes these tops are tough. I'm just throwing everything on the floor like a slob. Deal with it later. Oh, this one's big. This has got to be Bruce the Shark. Yeah, definitely Bruce the Shark from Jaws, and he even has the canister in his hand that would be shot and make him explode. This is a cool one, too. This is big. God, it's way big. If you can see, look at that. Look at Bruce coming at you. It looks good. It looks really good. If I turn it this way, you can get a better look at the tank in his mouth. Yep. So cool. Bruce is nice. I like Bruce. There you go, buddy. Next to the Wolfman. And then I'm just doing one more for this video, and then I'll do the five in the next video, which I may not put out same day. I may wait like a few days or a bunch of days. I don't know. But it ain't great. All right. Don't have any duplicates yet. That's good. Although, we got enough to go that it could definitely happen. What is this? What is this? This could be Slimer. It's got kind of a weird... Oh, it's got like a long body. It feels like the dress at the bottom. I think it's Elvira is what that feels like, which is cool. Elvira's cool. She's one and six, so she's an easy one. Oh, just so you know, Bruce, the shark was also one and six. And like I said, Wolfman was one and six. So the only one that isn't one and six that we're getting at the moment is Jack Tornswitch. Finally. Yep, Elvira. She looks even better than I thought she would, too. The paint jobs on these are nice. These are good paint jobs. There you go, Elvira. Hands on her hips. Looking very vampy. And horrific. Elvira, and she stands with no problem, too, which is nice. So, okay. So that's the first four. So that was just a little bit of a tease to keep you guys interested. So we'll do the five in the next video. So stay tuned. Hopefully we get some awesome stuff. I'm going to record it right now, basically. So they'll still be hanging out. So anyway, hopefully we get something more rare. What do I really want going forward? Knowing we already have Alex from Clockwork Orange would be awesome. Emotep from the original, The Mummy. Another universal monster. Looks really good. The Grady Twins, obviously, but they're so rare. Jason looks good. Freddie looks good. Reagan for that, from the Exorcist. I mean, kind of anything. Patrick from American Psycho. Really anything. So anyway. All right. So check out the next video coming up in some days probably. Check you later. And Keep it Brutal. I always say that now. Keep it Brutal.


Key Ways To Motivate Students From Young Learners To Adults As we all know, motivation is a core aspect of teaching and learning a language. Lack of motivation is perhaps the biggest obstacle that we face as students and teachers. If a student lacks motivation, he or she will not pay attention in the class or will simply find it boring. At the same time if a teacher lacks motivation to teach he or she will be unable to attract students attention and give them all they need. Let us be honest and say that intelligent students are those, who always eagerly attend class and enjoy the process. Here we need a highly motivated teacher who is willing help them. In this article I divide students into several categories because different situations require different approaches. How To Motivate Young Learners First, we should be patient, have a lot of energy, and be positive all the time. They should feel relaxed, so that they can trust the teacher. Being friendly and sensitive to them is important. Let them experiment with language, do not overcorrect. We should use more activities and useful games because they help students to get away from daily problems and direct their energy in the right direction. Be creative and encourage students with small prizes. It really motivates them to compete and focus on self-development. Make them want to study and come to class by providing satisfaction. Make lessons challenging, but within reach fun at the same time. At this age, students could lack of motivation for lots of reasons. Parents push them to study, they are bored, the teacher is boring, they have problems out of the classroom and come to class in a bad mood, they are afraid, they have a lot of pressure etc. Our job, as good teachers, is to provide them with a good atmosphere and let them feel comfortable to learn in your class. If the class is big, they can make friends with the other kids and help each other to make the process much interesting. Helping Teenagers To Get Engaged In Classes The hardest age to motivate as they are going through many changes. To motivate teenage students you should become their good friend. Ask them about their life, give them suggestions if they ask you to, listen to them. Let them open their hearts to you. Lessons should contain topics that are interesting to them, favorite singers, actors, interests in sport, future career, etc show them that you are interested in their interests and they will study hard. They could lack motivation at this age, because parents, society do not understand them, so they need a friend, which could be you. We should try to persuade them that studying language is cool, and they will have many opportunities, if they are able to speak English such as travel, study abroad, make new friends and find a good job in the future. Understanding the Motivations Of Adult Students The most motivated category is adults. Mostly because they choose to study and they pay for their classes. However, their reasons for learning English can be different, business, job, migration, language itself. To motivate them, we should be careful, sometimes adults are afraid to do something new, because they think it could make them lose face. We should try to persuade them that there is nothing scary in making mistakes, for this is the way we learn. Mostly such learners come to class after work, they are tired and have low energy. We need to cheer them up, make more conversations in English and show them how they can make progress. Attract their interest with worksheets, pair work, group work, activities, etc in class, they should feel relaxed, not like they are sitting in a cubicle. To sum up, we can see that motivation is extremely important because it helps our students to believe in their own strength and enjoy the studying process. Good teachers will be able to find an approach suitable to every student. Learn how to motivate your students with a Tesla course today. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today.


Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here. And I would like to thank Rick Bardet and Anna Hausen for inviting me to deliver this introductory keynote and join the Urban Age Conference family. I would like also to state that the views and opinions expressed in this presentation are my own and do not reflect the official policy opposition of the United Nations. Africa is the youngest region in the world with a population of 420 million aged between 15 and 35 in 2015 and estimated to rise to 830 million by 2050. It is also the continent with the fastest urbanization rate. Experts estimate that African urban population will increase threefold over the next 50 years. African cities are disproportionately young with a median age of African city dwellers estimated to be 20 in 2012. This youthfulness makes Africans' urban landscape unique as the young navigate, interpret, and negotiate their space in the city. But the transitions of young Africans to adulthood have become increasingly uncertain. A growing number of young women and men, both educated and non-educated, find themselves unemployed or underemployed and must improvise livelihoods in the margins of dominant social and economic urban frameworks. In this presentation, I'll develop four main arguments. First, the vast majority of young people in African cities are living in what I refer to as weighthood, a prolonged, difficult, and dynamic transition into adulthood. I'll discuss weighthood and the ways in which it is manifested in African cities. Second, young people are responding to the pressures of weighthood in multiple ways. Central here is that young lack basic opportunities to thrive. The realities of their daily lives expose the gap between the promise of fairness and prosperity and their existence of marginalization and lack of opportunities. But young Africans are not simply waiting for better days. They are creatively fashioning new ways of being and surviving in the cities. Third, the young are not indifferent to what is happening around them. They have been moving from dispersed and unstructured interventions into more organized political and social protests. While some of these protests have been able to overthrow long-standing leaders, systemic transformation takes time, and major challenges arise as young activists struggle to translate the social and political grievances of the protest movement into a broader political agenda. Fourth, but not least, I argue that young Africans are increasingly engaging themselves in the development and governments of their cities as entrepreneurs, workers, and activists. But the critical question is how to harness the energy and the creativity of the youth to advance the new urban agenda for Africa. I'll start with weighthood. Weighthood is a portmanteau of the word weight and the suffix hood, meaning waiting for adulthood. It constitutes a liminal space in which young people are largely excluded from major socioeconomic institutions and political processes. Whatever their class background, many youths have no secure jobs and cannot afford to establish families and set up their own households. Lige, which means in wall-off, the most widely spoken language in Senegal, means work, is celebrated as an important marker of adulthood. The ability to work and provide for themselves and others defines a person's self-worth and position in the family and the community. Yet, the majority of young people in Senegal and elsewhere in Africa are unable to attend the sense of dignity embedded in the notion of Lige. Joel, a young Mozambican man, shared the following with me. Before our fathers went to work in the mines in South Africa and came home with enough money to pay Lobolo or bride wealth for a girl, build a house, and start a family, end of quote. Indeed, as Joel points out, becoming a labor migrant in South Africa constituted the right of passage into adulthood, as jobs in the mines helped young Mozambican men to become husbands, fathers, and providers for their families, and in turn, allowed young women to become wives, mothers, and homemakers. Today, however, African societies no longer offer reliable pathways into adulthood. Traditional ones have broken down, and new models are yet to be developed. In Liberia and Sierra Leone, for example, the term youth man describes the large number of unemployed 35-year-olds and older who are still struggling to attain social adulthood. The experience of weighthood among young people differs by gender, class, and level of education. Although young women are becoming better educated and have always engaged in productive labor alongside household chores, in many contexts, marriage and motherhood are still important markers of adulthood. Middle-class youths with stronger socioeconomic connections and political connections may experience weighthood differently. And also, we have graduate unemployment and underemployment, which is a very strong problem in the continent. Many young people see weighthood as stemming from national and global policies that have failed to reduce poverty and promote broadly distributed economic growth. Despite the difficulties, young Africans are not merely sitting and waiting for their situation to change of its own accord. Weighthood is propelling them to be creative and to improvise livelihoods outside of dominant economic and familial frameworks. From interviews with young people, in my book, The Time of Youth, I describe the extemporaneous and precarious nature of their lives in weighthood. Young Mozambicans use the Portuguese expression desenrascara vida, or to hick out a living. Young Senegalese and Tunisians use the French word de brouillage, making do. And young South Africans said, we are just getting by. The idea of desenrascara vida, de brouillage, or just getting by situates the weighthood experience in the realm of improvisation, of making it up as you go along and entails a conscious effort to assess challenges and possibilities. Young Africans in weighthood are creating new dynamic sides for inventiveness and survival in the margins of society. This is the experience of many young women and men who engage in street vending, cross-border trading, and smuggling, those who migrate illegally within the continent or to Europe. And those who end up in criminal networks as swindlers, traffickers, gangsters, and fighters. Young women and men often see little option but to also use their sexuality as means of gaining a livelihood. They engage in intimate and often exploitative relationships with wealthy and powerful men and women, commonly known as sugar deadies and sugar mamas, for money, gifts, and access to fashionable goods. Some young people become entrepreneurs in the informal economy by taking up activities such as repairing electronic devices, making and marketing clothes and jewelry, and doing hair and nails. Others are creating new artistic forms and musical performance, making graffiti, painting murals, writing blogs, and becoming savvy internet users. But weighthood also represents a period of political marginalization, which deprives young people from the space of political engagement, liberty of expression, and other civil liberties. Young people often complain about political repression and social injustice, humiliation and loss of freedom and dignity. Youth have always been involved in processes of social change by fashioning the spaces within which they try to get by and assert their rights. Assef Bayat calls these dispersed actions as non-movements, described as quiet and an assuming daily struggles outside formal institutional channels in which ordinary activities blend with political activism. Indeed, in everyday life, young women and men engage in civil society associations, in popular culture, in debates through cyber-social networks, and in political demonstrations. If we pay careful attention to the lyrics of their songs, the verses of their poems, the scripts of their plays, and the discourses and images on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Twitter, we will uncover a very strong social critique. However, over the past few years, young people have been moving from this moderate encroachment on public space to an open and more vociferous takeover of the national political stage, questioning their weight-weight status and demanding better lives. In Tunisia and Egypt, for example, in 2011, young people took to the streets to articulate grievances ranging from unemployment, corruption, and denial of civil liberty. In Dakar, rallying around the Yan Amar movement, Senegalese youth voted massively to remove Abdulai Wad in the 2012 elections. Similarly, in Burkina Faso, in 2015, Le Balais citoyen, or the citizen's broom, led thousands of young Burkinabi in street demonstrations against the government, driving Blaise Kampaori out after 27 years in power. Also in 2015, South Africa University students protested against fee increases and for the decolonization and transformation of the educational system. Youth protests took place in many other countries in the continent and continue to be a common occurrence in our political and social lives. Yet, despite the successful protests, young Africans have not seen fundamental changes in their socioeconomic and political conditions. For example, young Egyptians and Tunisians are deeply dissatisfied with the post-protest status quo. Many activists all over the continent realize that translating a protest movement into an ongoing political presence that can shape public policies and effect transformational change constitutes an immense challenge. Notwithstanding, young people continue to engage in civil society associations and other platforms for collective action at various levels, both in the real and cyber worlds. The linguistic creativity of the youth is shaping African cities today as they adopt fluid, homegrown language to express ideas and experiences specific to their emerging urban culture. These new linguistic forms provide young with images and conceptions of themselves, both individually and collectively, and of the realities that surround them. And I give an example. For example, in Maputo, all the drug dealers neighborhoods are commonly known amongst young people as Colombia, for example. Social movements by young urbanites articulate discursively and in political practice the anguish of spatial marginality with concerns of social inequality, racism, and quest for justice. Their location and relationship to cityscapes both lived and imagined becomes a strategic terrain for contestation and political protest, highlighting contemporary geographies of exclusion, segregation, and poverty. The young are also expressing themselves and transforming urban landscapes using graffiti and other forms of street art. Young Africans are already redefining the new urban agenda or the new urban space as entrepreneurs, workers, and activists in areas as diverse as the environment, ICTs, public health, human rights, and the like. They are beginning to use their voices and energy to engage in the formulation of public policies and programs that directly impact on their lives. In Zimbabwe, the Girl Child Network is a volunteer youth organization established by young women and provides much needed psychosocial support to child marriage victims, teenage mothers, and sexually abused girls. In Cote d'Ivoire, a network of youth civil society leaders has been engaging the parliament to discuss youth needs and youth policies. In Nigeria, youth activists have lobbied senators to support HIV, AIDS, stigma builds, and there are many other examples, but I'd like to finish with three fundamental questions. How can these positive experiences be mainstreamed and replicated? How to engage youth at various levels in meaningful participatory governance and budgeting for policies and programs that matter to them? How to strengthen youth contributions towards the new urban agenda for Africa and the creation of a new urban, African urbanity? And I thank you very much.