Stop Marketing and Start Engaging with EngageMint 2018!

“ ‘WebEngageX!’ or ‘WebEngagement’? Wait, how about, ‘Engagemeant’. This sounds good and meaningful. What say?”. 

“Yes, it is good. Let’s call it that but, with a twist! Make it ‘EngageMint’ ”

Once we were confident about the name of Asia’s largest retention marketing conference, we went on to finalize the event theme: ‘Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.’ It signifies our small step towards placing customer retention at the core of all business strategies. 

At EngageMint, we strongly believe that by equipping professionals with the right set of tools and strategies, we can initiate a massive shift in the way businesses think about growth, product experiences, customer retention and everything else in between.

With each edition of EngageMint, we intend to institutionalize a space where knowledge is imparted, learnings are exchanged and fresh ideas are born. 

Till date over 200 brands, 300+ marketers, more than 20 speakers have graced the event and established EngageMint’s unique IP focussed squarely on the modern marketer!

Basis the inception, we successfully pulled off our debut EngageMint 2018, Mumbai, centered around retention marketing – a niche unexplored by marketers globally. 

EngageMint 2018, Mumbai 

As the event was our first, it will always be special for us. The response we received was quite overwhelming and rewarding at the same time. 

Take a look at what Mona Gandhi of Airbnb had to say about the event. 

Such positive feedbacks encouraged us to come up with a bigger and better version of EngageMint’s second edition hosted in Bangalore. 

EngageMint 2018, Bangalore

Noted for its thought-leading speakers and forward-thinking lens, this edition’s conference took place on December 6, 2018 and witnessed 3X fun, inspiration, and enthusiasm. 

Attendee breakdown by job function: 

The speakers covered a wide range of topics, including:

• Customer-first approach
• Constructive retention strategies
• Effective product communication
• Indian user behaviour

The Bangalore edition featured a host of masterful sessions by famed industry thought leaders. The result was a well rounded, highly insightful event which was one of its kind, and truly dedicated towards helping marketers learn and grow in their niche. So, we’ve decided to walk you through a brief recap below, starting in chronological order: 

Kunal Shah: Opening Keynote

The founder of CRED — a reward-based credit card bill payment platform, has over 10 years of entrepreneurial experience. He is credited with one of the biggest startup success stories of our time — Freecharge. 

In his keynote speech, Kunal spoke about how one can create a truly great product by closely understanding human psychology. He touched upon certain vital points such as, 

• Why gamification is winning at user engagement
• Trust and Time, 2 currencies in growth
• Consumer obsession and why is it important

A smartphone has killed many products - Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED Share on X

Sachin Uppal: Gaming Your Way To Retention

Sachin has been surfing the waves of growth since quite some time and has seen the rise of Play Games24x7 first hand. He believes that retention is critical for business growth. 

His session was a smorgasbord of different observations and insights about retention marketing. Some key points include:

• Maintaining the balance between acquisition and retention
• Top retention tactics that can be applied to your business
• The secrets behind creating a retention strategy that drives growth + revenue 

User retention was an inherent requirement for the business to survive and so, data-driven retention, measured in value added to revenue, became the core philosophy of growth at Play Games 24x7 - Sachin Uppal, CMO, Play Games24x7 Share on X

Lizzie Chapman: Cashing In On A Customer-First Approach To Drive Growth

Zest Money’s co-founder & CEO, Lizzie, with over 15 years of varied experience in the banking and finance sector globally, has seen it all. She feels that being extremely customer-centric is key to winning the Indian market.

She emphasized on points such as: 

• A/B testing product flows to get the perfect fit
• Thinking like your consumer to grow faster than your competition
• Building something unique, custom-made for Indian fintech market to ensure success

What technology has done to banking is what Amazon has done to bookselling - Lizzie Chapman, Co-founder & CEO, ZestMoney Share on X

Aniketh Jain: Fireside Chat With Kaleyra On Seamless Business Communication

In our Fireside chat segment hosted by Frooters Founder and CEO Ankur Gattani, Aniketh Jain, MD, Kaleyra delved into his experience of solving business communication problems. 

He talks about creating the most effective business communication strategy for different brands by using multiple communication channels along with:

• The growth of modern communication channels like WhatsApp
• Leveraging SMS channel effectively with data intelligence 
• How voice-calling is modernizing by integrating cloud solutions 

Ankur Warikoo: Decoding Indian Consumer Behavior

What works in the west might not work in the north and what works in the north might backfire in the east! Indian market is highly unpredictable and hence we couldn’t think of anyone better to simplify understanding it than the celebrity entrepreneur Ankur Warikoo, co-founder & CEO, Nearbuy.com

Ankur’s session kept all of us glued for a good 30 mins at a stretch where he spoke about:

•  The intersection of time and money affects consumer behavior
•  Navigating cultural differences to avoid creating a bad brand experience
• Analyzing the trust deficit and why it affects user behavior

In India, when you talk about a product it is necessary that you start to understand the context of the consumer which could very well be starting with mistrust - Ankur Warikoo, Co-founder & CEO, Nearbuy.com Share on X

Panel Discussion: The Evolution Of Customer Experiences In Fintech

In this session hosted by Ankur Gattani, Founder & CEO, Frooters, we brought together three of the brightest minds from the Fintech industry in India: 

1. Jonathan Bill, Founder & CEO, CreditMate
2. Nihit Nirmal, Sr. VP & Head of Product & Growth, LendingKart
3. Pravin Jadhav, Whole-time Director, Paytm Money

Panelists: (L-R) Nihit Nirmal, Johnathan Bill, Pravin Jadhav & Ankit Gattani (host)

The hour-long discussion witnesses panelists sharing their experiences of building a Fintech product in India – one of the most exciting and fastest growing global markets. The discussion touched upon many points like:

• Designing the end-to-end customer journey for fintech products in India
• Choosing between pull vs push strategy for getting quality fintech consumers
• Creating a profitable fintech business in India

Masterclass By Rajesh Bysani: Constructing A Powerful Retention Strategy

With an experience of 15years+ in product and marketing domain, Rajesh, CPO, Zoomcar (now Mobile Transformation Lead, Google), is the perfect go-to person when it comes to customer engagement and retention. 

Things we liked the most in this session include:

• Learning by Doing
• Exchange of ideas among participants and the host
• Valuable Product/Marketing insights from Rajesh

It is all about building strong relationships with your customers - Rajesh Bysani, CPO, Zoomcar Share on X

Naman Sarawagi: Psychological Hacks For Effective Product Communication

A serial entrepreneur with a background in product and marketing, Naman’s, founder of refrens.com, passion for understanding nuances of consumer behavior sets him apart as an expert in this domain

Naman’s session on product communication was exceptionally insightful, yet extremely witty. His delightful session included topics like: 

• The 7 sins that every marketer commits to achieve business growth
• Reducing product fear by incorporating predictability
• How to deliver the product’s USP effectively and consistently 

When you combine Greed and Pride, you end up creating magical products - Naman Sarawagi, Founder, Refrens.com Share on X

At WebEngage, we understand the snowball effect customer retention can have on your business goal. Hence in this edition, we decided to felicitate professionals who have transformed the way users experience and interact with their product.

EngageMint Awards

A special segment of the conference, EngageMint Awards is a celebration of professionals who have strategized sustainable growth models by putting their users at the heart of their strategy. 

With this edition, we were excited to bring forth the top three ‘Retentioneers’ from the community chosen by the jury from amidst hundreds of applications. They inspired everyone with their experiments that transformed the way users experience their products, creating lasting brand relationships in the process.

This was a great way to wrap up the conference! With regards to the aftermath of the event, we are eager to share that, the attendees regarded the event as most engaging and an insightful one. This video says it all!

Covered On Social Media

Great Insights from @warikoo about the Indian Consumers and How to Build Trust and Adding Value to the Consumer comes 1st before you start seeing how that shapes in your favor.#EngageMint #WebEngage pic.twitter.com/o8Gci4Sfrw

— Hitesh Kothaari (@hitesh8) December 6, 2018

Thanks, @avlesh & @WebEngage for hosting an amazing event #engagemint.
Loved all the talks – @kunalb11 @NamanSr @warikoo @ChapmanLizzie

— Sushant Kumar (@sushantkr17) December 7, 2018

 

Great day at #EngageMint! So many great people, great content, great ideas!! Loved the opportunity to meet such great leaders @kunalb11 @avlesh @NamanSr @ChapmanLizzie @warikoo Thankyou @WebEngage

— Anurag Pagaria (@ApPagaria) December 7, 2018

 

First conference I have been to in a very long time where I took a lot of notes. True #engagemint
Kudos to @avlesh and team in curating a great learning event. https://t.co/gpQTDFkSGc

— Jonathan Bill (@jonsonbill) December 6, 2018

 

Thank you team @WebEngage @avlesh @P_R_T!! 😊 Awesome day @ #Engagemint Engaging talks by @kunalb11 @warikoo @NamanSr @ChapmanLizzie . Refreshing #marketing insights. Cheers!

— Deepti Kolte (@Deeptikolte) December 6, 2018

 

@WebEngage thank you for the wonderful session at #EngageMint today. It was a delight hearing @kunalb11 , @ChapmanLizzie and meeting the ex-boss @warikoo.

Also it was pleasant to see how @FURLENCO is using its employees in their ad. Took me an hour to recall who the chap was.

— Edwin Daniel (@basicallyacidic) December 6, 2018

 

Absolutely fantastic speech by @warikoo at #EngageMint yesterday! Hats off to team @WebEngage for the fantastic panel selection! pic.twitter.com/FQcO1sdPZE

— Sourav Kundu (@souravify) December 7, 2018

 

Planning an event of such a scale is always daunting. There were lots of valuable takeaways from EngageMint 2018, Bangalore for us as organizers too! We’d like to share a few of EngageMint 2018, Bangalore’s backstage stories and memories coming in straight from the team with you. 

“You won’t believe…we traveled in a TEMPO!” – Swati Singh, Growth Marketer 

“It was fun though! We celebrated my birthday in the tempo. Hahaha, I’ll never forget this one.” – Forum Sheth, Content Marketer

Posers in a tempo: Team EngageMint (L-R) Nikhil R, Vicky Jain, Swati Singh, Tarini Khanna & Forum Sheth 

“Hey, but the cherry on the cake was that printer guy in Mumbai. He backed out from printing our collaterals at the last moment man. And we had to hunt for another one in Bangalore. All this just one day prior to the event!” – Priyam Jha, Content Marketer

“I always knew it was going to be big!” – Vicky Jain, Inbound Marketing Manager

Men of the event: (L-R) Priyam Jha with Avlesh Singh, Co-Founder and CEO, WebEngage

EngageMint 2018, Bangalore did come to a happy end, but the team has even bigger plans for its third edition! EngageMint is all set to return in 2019. Check out all the details of EngageMint 2019, Dubai right away.

Signing off,
Team EngageMint