HackSeKar: Marketing Hacks win over NCR startups

Viral content, witty listicles, curated articles, and more. Smart negotiations, staying true to your core dream and 'learning' entrepreneurship when required. All this and more from domain experts filled the day for NCR startups that assembled at the newly launched Nowhere terrace brewpub for Marketing Hackday held on June 7.

For the attending crowd, it was a unique experience to engage in a truly informal setting with people who had been there, done it, or at the very least, seen a lot of it. Led by Varun Kapoor, Management Consultant at Adobe, who spoke about digital marketing evolution and its impact on customer experiences. According to Varun, "The current business wave is all about providing superlative brand experiences to customers. Think of any successful brand or a startup, everybody is in the business of providing these meaningful experiences to their users and this has become more important in the new world because your consumers interact with your brand on digital channels. Hence, it is imperative to provide the same consistent experience across every digital touch point".

Rashi Gupta, Marketing Manager of Ola, held stage to talk about Ola's strategy and marketing, and took on a number of questions from the audience on the same.

And for founders who wished they had been prepared better for the startup journey, there was Deepak Pandit from iSeed, the Indian school of entrepreneurship and enterprise development, who held forth on why, and how entrepreneurship could indeed be taught, and entrepreneurs prepared better for the challenges ahead. Ogilvy PR's President Kavita Bhaskaran had everyone enthralled with her anecdotes on PR challenges she had seen founders face, and some great examples of firms who made a success, or mess, out of it.

Adding to the agency perspective was Ritesh Singh, Founder of ARM Digital, with his wen experience of working for large startups like Gionee phones and more.

Among other influencers who helped the audience get a fresh first-hand perspective on the issues that matter was Dheeraj Jain, Investor and Mentor from Redcliffe Capital. Rahul Puri, Head of Alliances at Scoopwhoop, pitched his own perspective on the rise and power of content marketing.

For Yourstory, Prasanna Singh, Director-Sales and Impact, had a simple piece of advice based on his interactions with startups. That in a capital starved market, it is hard enough to stick to your original dream. Don't allow other diversions to burn up your cash, and time. Anurag Batra, Chairman of Businessworld, regaled the audience with his own unique perspective on startups, survival and everything else.

An interesting session titled Jugaad - The true startup way #HACKsekar was appreciated by the audience. Featuring a challenge from Ola to devise a market plan without any budgets to spend, the hackathon saw strong participation, and for the jury, a tough choice to make when it come to the winners. Finally, team 'Designated Drivers' and 'Sale fee' tied for top spot.

The day-long event was sponsored by Adobe, and conducted in partnership with ClickMyDay, Ola Cabs, iSeed, Nowhere Terrace Brewpub & Cafe, and YourStory.