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How Zoho Cracked Global Markets with 3 Iconic Campaigns | Prime Venture Partners Podcast

• Prime Venture Partners: Early Stage VC Fund

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What happens when creativity meets sharp market insight?

In this episode, Raffic Aslam (ex-Creative Director at Zoho) breaks down the 3 campaigns that defined Zoho’s global marketing playbook:

1️⃣UAE VAT Campaign – A masterclass in cultural targeting that unlocked a new market via a single character: Kutty, the Malayali accountant.
2️⃣ Made in India for the World – A bold declaration of Indian innovation for a global SaaS audience.
3️⃣Super Bowl Ads – Frugal but fierce, this campaign helped Zoho stand out in a sea of enterprise giants.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction

02:15 – The birth of the Zoho logo

06:30 – Why simplicity & color made the logo unforgettable

08:37 – Branding vs. Performance Marketing

14:25 – Campaign 1: UAE VAT Campaign – Meet “Kutty”

20:45 – Lessons from targeting expat accountants

23:02 – Campaign 2: Made in India, Made for the World

27:00 – Building pride in Indian-built software

30:55 – Campaign 3: Zoho’s Super Bowl Ad Strategy

35:10 – How Zoho kept it frugal but memorable

38:00 – Branding advice for SaaS founders

41:20 – Final takeaways for startup marketers

💡 Top Takeaways for Founders & Marketers:
✔️ Go deep, not broad: Hyperlocal targeting can unlock massive markets
✔️ Your logo is a strategy: Visual identity drives brand recall & lowers CAC
✔️ Brand building ≠ media spend: Authentic storytelling beats big budgets

🔔 Subscribe to Prime Podcasts for more insights

🎙 Hosted by Jerome Manuel, Head of Community at PrimeVP

📌 Follow us:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/primevp
Twitter: https://twitter.com/primevp_in
Website: https://primevp.in

#Zoho #SaaSMarketing #StartupBranding #IndianStartups #MarketingStrategy #B2BMarketing #MadeInIndia #SuperBowlAds #FrugalMarketing #GrowthMindset #PrimeVenturePartnersPodcast

Speaker 1:

Zoho was actually an idea of one of our engineers. You can miss anything, but not Zoho logo. He said this is the logo I'm proposing for Zoho. He said go ahead. It took maybe 15 seconds for him to decide a logo for a global brand. That's how Zoho logo was born. Zoho was nobody in that region. This is the backstory. Out of that, 60% 50% are Indians and in that 50% 40% are Malayalis. It was recorded in the ARMM studio in Los Angeles. How did this Super Bowl thing happen? We never pressed any of the algorithms. An outdoor spot outside the airport costs you 5 lakhs. A spot inside the airport will cost you 25 lakhs, but this inside out costs you just 1 lakh. Competition wearing a suit? Okay, and you'll find you know one booth where people will be signing black kurtas. Like who are they? We took pride in you know, celebrating our you know culture and roots. Okay.

Speaker 2:

Hi, welcome to the Prime Venture Partners podcast. This is your host, Jerome Manuel. Today, we have with us Rafiq Aslam, an exemplar leader from Zoho. Hi, welcome to the Prime Venture Partners podcast. This is your host, Jerome Manuel. Today, we have with us Rafiq Aslam, an exemplar leader from Zoho. So Rafiq has been part of Zoho's magnanimous journey, helping it grow from a small engineering company to a global tech brand serving 100 million users in over 180 countries. So he was responsible for global branding. He managed 50 plus Zoho websites and worked with a global team executing digital campaigns that have possibly appealed and transformed the brand and also a lot of Indians across the country. Start with this question about help us visualize what Zoho looked like in 2004 and maybe some key milestones across these 21 years of journey with Zoho.

Speaker 1:

Sure, zoho was not Zoho when we started. It was called as Advanet. So the company was Advanet and we had a small what I call as a good on structure tucked into an interior part of Chennai. It's called Velachery and we were into networking management systems. We were building network management applications and we were doing pretty good. We had only ManageEngine brand then. We never had Zoho.

Speaker 1:

Zoho was actually an idea of one of our engineers who, actually out of curiosity and experimentation, he went on and built a word processor application which is Zoho Rater, which we still have now. Another engineer did an online planner tool which is called Zoho Planner. That was happening in parallel and I was part of Zoho Creator, which was called as App Creator, which is a low-code platform and back then there was no terminology or jargon of no-code platform. It was an online database platform where people can drag and drop fields and build their own custom applications. So the core USP was how can we make a business user to build custom applications on their own? So I was leading the UX team for Zoho Creator and, out of curiosity, I started creating logo for App Creator. Even App Creator was not part of Zoho then. It was all happening inside the company. There are a lot of ideas germing inside the company, a lot of ideas evolving. In one corner, we were building App Creator. In another corner, people were building Zoho Writer and Planet For AppCreator.

Speaker 1:

I had this idea of building blocks. It's a process of building something With blocks. You can create a home With blocks. You can create a ladder With blocks. You can create anything. It also has a playful character to it, right so, which actually resonates with Zoho creator, which is actually letting people to build custom applications easily. Zoho had a four letter. Okay, naturally, I had to bring in another fourth cube, rgby, which was primary colors. Okay, that's how Zoho logo was born. And I had to show it to Sridhar, and Sridhar was in Pantry and my manager and we both went to Sridhar in Pantry. I just showed him okay, sridhar, this is a logo I'm proposing for Zoho. He said go ahead. That was. That was the decision. Like. It took maybe, you know, maybe 15 seconds for him to decide.

Speaker 2:

You know, a logo for a global brand, that's all got it, so I think I'd like to double click on the logo part of it, okay so essentially the logo we're all seeing of multicolored ZOHO, something which you created and got an approval in the pantry like in a couple of minutes, absolutely right. So maybe we'll kind of ask you to kind of explain what were you thinking when you were creating this logo. I think there is red in the first. Maybe we'll hear it from you rgby, it's rgby.

Speaker 1:

No, this was not initially created for zoho. It was created for app creator. Okay, which is so great. Now, okay, so zoho is a no, uh, application building platform, right, low code platform. So it was actually built, designed for that thing, okay, so when we had this idea, we just now played it without thinking too much okay, so that time, what was it called?

Speaker 2:

like? How did it translate to zoho? That's what I'm saying. Like. When did the name zoho come? How did this logo?

Speaker 1:

go. All this was happening in parallel, like no writer was no happening in parallel. Planner was happening. A planner and crm was actually happening in parallel. Creator was happening in parallel. We also had a no parallel. We also had Zoho Mail, which is Zoho virtual office. So all these experiments were happening in parallel.

Speaker 1:

And then, I don't know how it came to me, I started to design logo and it was applied through all the products. You can miss anything but not Zoho logo, even if it is pasted along all our competitions, even if it's just no 20 pixel by 20 pixel, you can. That logo stood out. It has no four primary class. Nobody could know miss that logo. Okay, and that also actually helped us in a way to know bring down our no marketing, no cost, okay. So when, when someone actually spending for more frequencies, buying more frequencies, I bought bought less frequencies on media and even the ad recall logo actually helped us create a good ad recall and another important strategy this was a serious idea not to confuse with a product, because we are building a product like crazy.

Speaker 1:

Every month we had a new product. He said let's keep all the product name simple. I mean people should actually know identify uh product usage or product you know by by its name. Okay, if it is a crm, just name it as those here. Okay, if it is you know mail, just may name it as over mail. If it is no email marketing, just name it as over campaigns. Okay. So everything was a suffix of Zoho, zoho Mail, zoho CRM, zoho, whatever. We had 20 products back then. So when we started doing branding activities, even for one product for example, zoho Books first thing people saw was Zoho. And if you had a Zoho CRM campaign running in parallel the product marketing campaign running in parallel people would have already seen Zoho in a massive airport billboards. I have seen this logo. I've heard you go somewhere. That's a kind of familiarity. That logo actually helped us build in the market.

Speaker 2:

Got it Because you're also a UI UX designer. So you're saying the reason for possible attraction or even this familiarity with the logo is the usage of the primary colors? Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And also the shapes. What is one thing that is actually stopping someone using a software or digitizing their software? It's not lack of knowledge, it's just the complexity of the product. The aversion towards a software is the complexity. The moment you see something playful see logo, branding, ad is the first interaction any customer or consumer will have with your product. The moment you see a logo which is simple, which is playful right, it actually opens the first door. Okay, for example, when we did Zoho Books campaign in 2017 for GSD, okay, I mean, we had Tally, who is a veteran in this market, right, but we stood out. We stood out. And an interesting point is that when we were actually running a Zoho Books campaign, our sign-ups increased for Zoho CRM.

Speaker 2:

How does it happen? That will help.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's a spillover effect, right. So whenever people saw Zoho Books I mean Zoho Books on any of the you know medium okay, they would visit zohocom and there they will see you know zoho crm and all other products. That's one way of introducing all of all our products, okay, and if someone has seen zoho books ad, ad in outdoor and if they encounter any of zoho crm no performance, you know marketing, you know display, also youtube, or if they attend any event they could relate oh, I saw you there, I saw you there, right. So logo is the first impression, right, got it?

Speaker 2:

Got it Nice. I think that is lesson number one for all startup founders Make it very simple and playful. I think that is my takeaway, because most of our target audience are startup founders and, specifically, I think this episode will be very useful for B2B SaaS founders, right? In that case, what are the building blocks for founders who are building brand and marketing? Right? I think that will be really effective to hear are most misunderstood or indispensable aspect of a business by branding.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't mean that you have to do an ad campaign, you have to take a full page ad New York Times or Times of India or do an airport ad. It's not that. Branding is that to tell to the market who you are, how unique you are among your competition, and if you have a point of view on your market, on your audience, how are you communicating that to the conviction? That's that is branding. For me, okay, it doesn't have. It is not about no advertising, it's not about no buying media. That's the second part, the simplification strategy. Okay, branding is identifying who you are and why did you know, start this business and what is the, what is the value that you have, what is the commitment that you're giving to customers? Are you sticking those, sticking to those you know convictions? Right, that is branding got it.

Speaker 2:

So, first is, who are you say, let's say, the founders of Identified? Who are they?

Speaker 1:

Then what happens after? Okay, now the thing is that, see, generally no, you start with the story. Every startup company has a about us. No story, right, why they started, okay, but down the line, if you take two years, I mean, the journey, the origin and the pathway they are taking is totally different. But that shouldn't be the case.

Speaker 1:

I'm saying, if you want to say that, if you're entering into a market where people are using a software which is bloated, or if you're entering into a market where the software is complex or it's highly priced and you have a point of view saying that, okay, I can offer this same product, same stuff at a very, very nominal price and I'm going to make it super easy to use, if that is your conviction, you should stick to it for five years, 10 years, and your communication should reflect that. It's not that suddenly you take a turn and talk about no performance and no powerful features in AI. That can happen. But your core differentiating factor is how simplified your software is. Among the other competitions Simplification or whatever it could be it is that.

Speaker 2:

Got it. So, one, first identify who they are. Two, and also sticking to what their core differentiation is Exactly. Now they have both these pieces going on. So how do they take and what are the various other blocks? Say, for example, they're a B2B SaaS startup. What else should they be thinking about? For example, if they think this is my online presence, this is how I want to reach customers? What? How should they go about thinking it?

Speaker 1:

So that's what I'm trying to understand, or rather, how did Joe go about thinking? Maybe we can take lessons from that? The thing is that now we never got into branding until 2014. That's already 15 years Past 15 years. We focus only on product marketing, okay, we never even thought about investing in branding. Okay.

Speaker 1:

But after a point like all this, in the 15 years we focusing on paid marketing, which is primarily adverts, then we started realizing that this is not a sustainable marketing channel for us, because every keyword cost is going high. Every day, you see a new competition entering into the market and they are bidding for your brand keyword. You have to outbid them to, even for users to land for you know for, for users to land on your website for your own keyword. Now, how you know? Crazy, that is right, okay. So we thought now maybe we should build, you know, parallel, you know, sustainable channel which can actually help us to know uh, you know, amplify our know awareness. Okay, and still still bring down the costing. I would say that post-branding campaigns, our marketing spenders significantly drop. The assumption is that once you start doing branding campaigns, your costs will shoot up. That's not the case. Once you have effective branding campaigns run and considering the market we are into in sas, you don't have to launch a branding campaign every quarter or every month like fmcg, right, okay, because every month, addition has not, additions are not made for buying a software. Nobody thinks of no software. Nobody wakes up, no think of no, I'm going to buy your software, right, you should first understand that, okay. Then you find a seasonality when, which season, which month? Now people, people are actually purchasing your software. Okay, just three months before that can create a buzz. Can you create awareness? Okay, and then post that. Can you continue your performance marketing, right?

Speaker 1:

Another mistake I found in the market, say from the young startups as that, okay, not being startups who found in the market. Say from the young startups as that, okay, not young startups who are in the growth stage, okay, either they have performance campaigns on or they do branding campaign. They pause their performance campaign and they launch a branding campaign, which is the biggest mistake, because branding campaigns cannot give you instant results. It takes time and most of the branding campaigns will have, will not have a strong call to action, shouldn't have a strong call to action.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the moment you spend millions of dollars on a branding campaigns and if you expect to know some the branding campaign to give you results, it's not give. Okay. You should have your performance marketing campaign run in parallel at the background so that when the same person encounters your branding campaign in some channel maybe on youtube, maybe on tv or outdoor airport, okay and when he's actually looking for your industry article, reading the industry article when your performance marketing ad campaign displays, that's when you can convert them Right. So these are some of the things that probably I would suggest startups to use.

Speaker 2:

Got it, I think, very valuable insights. I think one core piece which came out is keep your performance marketing on even while you're running brand campaigns, because it has to kind of coincide. Only when it coincides it yields very high. So I think that is a very nice segment to understand. Because you spoke about campaigns, let's do specific two case studies from Zoho's history. Let's use these campaigns to understand what all went behind. What are some very good best practices that possibly founders can take from it? So I think the first one we'll start with. Do you have a choice?

Speaker 1:

I have a choice, made in India, made for the world and the Super Bowl piece, you can start with whichever you prefer. Okay, no, I have another choice. Okay, okay. Do you want me to know?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, which one is?

Speaker 1:

it. So this is about now. Vat campaign Now. Vat campaign Okay.

Speaker 2:

Kutty. Where's Kutty? Hello Kutty. What happened to the cash flow statement I had asked for, sir?

Speaker 3:

you haven't received it yet.

Speaker 2:

One minute, sir. Yes, boss.

Speaker 1:

Patti, aren't we supposed?

Speaker 2:

to file for the VAT returns today.

Speaker 3:

Just submitted the water returns for the VAT returns today. Just submitted the VAT returns.

Speaker 4:

Sorry. Vat returns. Stay on top of your accounts, no matter where you are Introducing Zoho Books, the VAT-ready accounting software for all your financial needs. Start your free trial today.

Speaker 1:

So this was just a year after Zoho Books GST campaign was launched. Zoho Books GST campaign was a tremendous success for us in India and with that excitement, this came and we all pumped up let's do the same thing in Dubai also. Whatever we have done in India, let's do that in Dubai. Even Shridhar was all pumped up. I think we should create a big awareness and a big impact in this market. Whatever we have done in India, let's do that in Dubai. Even Sridhar was all pumped up. I think we should create a big awareness and big impact in this market. Go all over. This was his brief.

Speaker 1:

I went to Dubai and then, in 2017, we never had an office in Dubai. Zoho was nobody in that region. This is the back story. I went there, I did a market study. I met a lot of media you know publications just to gather information. What happens one? Okay, I came back.

Speaker 1:

Okay, me and you know my you know a teammate, harish, who is a media planner. Okay, we were just discussing, like, how to go about, you know, in this region, because dubai is just one-tenth of you know, uh, chennai, not even india, just chennai. Okay, and you know, the media expense are, you know three times you know than new york. Okay, so you cannot spend, you know, as as much as you are spending in new york, and with the lesser you know size of chennai. Okay, the audience is small but still you have to create an impact, because Dubai is a strategically hub for all the Middle East and also hub for Europe in some region. And VAT was being launched in Dubai first, and soon Bahrain and other countries were supposed to follow. So we want to utilize this opportunity and create an impact, that's for sure. But then I somehow never felt that we should go all out and spend millions of dollars, that's for sure. But then we I, I some of never felt that we should go all out and spend millions of dollars. That doesn't make sense because at the end of the day, you have to know get your returns back right. So we were just not brainstorming and we got to one point saying that, okay, let's find the. We just did a pie chart this was a brainstorming session and we found out that 60% of Dubai population are expats and out of that 60%, 50% are Indians and in that 50%, 40% are Malayalees. This is one side. On the other side, we just started digging the accountant community. Who are the accountants in that region? In that, more than 60% are Malayalis and the rest 20% are Gujaratis. So if you target Indians, I think the job is done.

Speaker 1:

But initially Sridhar wanted to create awareness among the sheikhs, emiratis. Everything or all the arabs, okay, they're super expensive. So instead of targeting the entire audience, we just targeted indian okay, indian accountants okay, which actually created a very good impact. And it's been almost seven years now. Even the local team says that okay, they are finding it difficult to know. Erase the image that Zoho is not just accounting software. Zoho is more than accounting software. We just did one campaign. So this is how you can view your insights or create a campaign based on your audience insights. Another interesting thing is that if you see the creative, the main character is Kutty, who is a Malayali. So the moment someone sees that, they resonate with the character and they find out Zohar is an Indian company and the decision maker is an accountant and, of course, his boss is an Emirati and no CEO will get into no decision making of accounting software. Accounting is the least thing any CEO would get into, so whatever accountant is suggesting, he'll just go ahead. So we got a tremendous success for this campaign.

Speaker 2:

I think this is phenomenal, because you identified who the user is, who the decision maker is, and just took them and put them in the campaign.

Speaker 1:

Simple, that's all the campaign. Simple, that's all. It is Simple, simple. And another thing I want to say is I mean, can you expect this level of you know what to say deep research from an external team, external agencies, right, unless until you're part of you know the product team team, unless you're part of, now the whole, you know company's culture of no frugal spending. Okay, do you think even you can come up with this? Imagine this brief was given, you know, to an agency from said to go all out and do no big in dubai. Imagine what kind of no bill they would have no charge for. No, see that, okay, simple got it.

Speaker 2:

I think this is a classic case study. Uh, very, very interesting, right, and so, basically, this became viral amongst Malayali accountants.

Speaker 1:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

And that's what spread the word. And maybe just to kind of close the story, what is Zoho's presence in Dubai, the Middle East today?

Speaker 1:

Now I think the Middle East is the fastest growing region for Zoho.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and most of it is attributed to this campaign, would you say?

Speaker 1:

that I wouldn't say I think. No, we have, we are doing. You know much, you know a lot of. You know activities in the Middle East, okay, but the starting point was that campaign. So in fact, give us media, because we never even had a phone, we never had a phone number. Like I said, who are you like? No, how can I trust you if you make a payment?

Speaker 2:

I had to make advance payment to buy a spot in TVs got it and so you're saying this ad kind of moved the needle and changed yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely any quick story on that, like how that changed any?

Speaker 1:

inside, in fact, like now, we never had a partner, also for Zoho books, okay, and now this campaign actually helped us build a partner ecosystem First, even before setting up an office. Their partner ecosystem for books and a lot of no integration, no partners, implementation partners and stuff. I would say no, this is starting point for setting up an office.

Speaker 2:

That's a great example of how one campaign opened up an entire market. Yeah, yeah, and also like with significant background research.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I am also see, I am also talking to a lot of founders are actually approaching me saying that, okay, we are good in this region and we want to, you know, launch in that region. Can you help us out? I mean, this could be one of you know, one of you know, just know your audience, like know, know whom you're talking to and just know, just hit that know where, where they can resonate. Right, be precise, don't go broad. Be precise.

Speaker 2:

Perfect. I think that leads us to the next case. Which one would you like to?

Speaker 1:

go.

Speaker 3:

Made in India, made in India, yeah, yeah perfect look around you different things, born out of truth and beauty, of simple ideals. Ideals of honesty, ideals of passion. Ideals of honesty, ideals of passion timeless crossmanship of inspiration in action. It is the product of the hands, but even more a creation of the mind Software, the ultimate product of the mind. It's our craft, our identity, inspired by simplicity, designed to make things work for you. Zoho, made in India.

Speaker 1:

Made for the world. Until 2013, we never focused on branding at all. We were just focusing on performance marketing. And one fine day, sridhar called me and said Rafiq, we want to set up a branding team. You head this branding team. That's another story. And then I called, I insisted Sridhar to write the about us page, because I believe that about us page should come from a man who has built the organization.

Speaker 1:

You can get a content writer to write about a space, but I want that about a space should sound authentic. Every line, every word should have this authenticity, and that can come only from the founder. He said he took a few months, but finally he gave me a content In that he had a line saying that software is a craft. That hit me, because I've never read such a line, because software is something more tangible. You give input, you take output. There's no emotion there, right, but craft is so emotional, right, it can move you, it can do whatever, you know wonders, magic to you, right? But here is a man like who has actually compared to you know polar opposites, okay, that that that stayed back in me, in my mind, and then, in 2013 end, I guess okay, I, I'm in the us, okay, and I and I had written two to three scripts for the US region. Us was the primary market for us.

Speaker 1:

Then I was about to narrate those stories he said abruptly, stopped me and said okay, excuse me, rafiq, let's do something in India. I asked what let's do, our first TV campaign in India. I said are you serious, rida? Because India was now our 10th market, not even in under 5. If we are to do a launch TV campaign, it should be from India. And then we had Raju Begesna also, who heads a US office. So he was actually planning a first flagship Zoholics event in Bangalore in 2014.

Speaker 1:

And in that he had a presentation theme Made in India, made for the World. Okay. So he says, why can't we do something in this theme Made in India, made for the World? And then this line out of nowhere stuck me Okay, software is a crack Made in India, made for the World. Let's do something around this. She said, yeah, this is a good idea, just go ahead. I said if this is the theme that you want to go, I want to make it as authentic as possible. I will not cast any models. I'll bring in all the craftsmen from all around India. I'm going to feature it. He said do whatever you want. That's it.

Speaker 1:

The point that we wanted to communicate through this campaign is that, just like how Goldsmith is actually putting his heart and soul into his craft, just how Cobbler is actually putting his heart and soul into his craft, it's the same emotion that we are putting into our software. Nothing big, nothing less. If you actually go back and see the ad now, we have actually used a visual language, which was the idea of a cinematographer, deepak Bhagwan. I still owe him a big thanks. So we were actually in the briefing session. I was actually showing Swades. So this is my favourite movie.

Speaker 1:

There is one particular scene which is still my favourite scene, when Shah Rukh Khan is actually going to visit Kaveramma. In a train scene there's a child who actually sells a tea for 25 paisa. That's a simple scene. The camera will be at a normal camera and by the moment Shah Rukh Khan sips in, he has a tear. All this emotion. That's okay, but if he goes back to NASA when he recalls the same scene, the camera will be like this the kid will be looking up saying that I need help. You are there, come save me. Shah Rukh Khan is bigger than the child. Okay, I said, like, can you do something with this scene, deepak? Like no. So then he just tested it. Okay, see, then let's have an eye-level framing, like, be it goldsmith, be it cobbler. Everybody will be framed at the eye-level saying that, okay, we are just like them. We are just like them, we are just like no, goldsmith, we are just like, no, a cobbler. Okay, we are not neither big, neither no, neither no, we are looking you down. Okay, so, as software engineer or designer, or a marketer, a sales you know sales guy from it guy is just like no, any other craftsman, no, that is. That is putting his heart and soul and we actually, you know, built in a beautiful carnatic, you know music, into the ad.

Speaker 1:

And now the decision was about who to bring in for the voiceover. Again, I had a strong conviction it has to be authentic. I mean, I don't want to have any voiceover artist, I don't want any fake expression. It has to sound authentic, then who it should be. It has to sound authentic, then who it should be. And there are a lot of names, and out of, suddenly, shekhar Kapoor was sparked and he was the only director who had made it really big in Hollywood. He was also made name for the world product. Then I found this contact and had a conversation. He was very excited. He already was following the thing he was actually, you know, a fan of. You know see this philosophy, yeah, great. And we got him, you know, on board. It was recorded here. I'm in studio in Los Angeles. So there are nostalgia about this campaign.

Speaker 2:

This is such a lovely story. I think it's very beautiful, like connecting the craftsman word from the founder to actual crafts people and their craft and how software is a craft, and like, specifically from Made in India Made for the World, and how Shekhar Kapoor kind of falls into all this. I think it's a lovely story. Thank you for sharing. It's beautiful. So I think that brings us to the next campaign. Thank you.

Speaker 3:

With over 40 fully integrated applications, you won't be able to contain your excitement either. From just a dollar a day per employee, run your entire business with Zoho One, the operating system for business.

Speaker 2:

So now we've looked at the UAE, now we've looked at Made in India, made for the World. And how did this Super Bowl thing happen? Because it's possibly the most sought-after thing in the world for advertising and marketing, right? How did this happen?

Speaker 1:

Would love to know. Yeah, sure, now, when, uh, she asked me to know, head the branding or creative team, okay, I asked him, like, what is your vision or what is the goal that you're setting it for me? He just randomly said, okay, I want to know, run zoho ad in superbowl someday. And I didn't know what super bowl was. Then, okay, I had to know, google it to find out a super bowl. Okay, again, this stayed back in my mind. Okay, I made up okay, one day, one day, I'm going to run zoho ad in super bowl, okay, and then see it's. See, uh, super bowl ad is super expensive. No, uh, 10 second cost you a few million dollars.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I don't think, you know, even if she did this, I would be, you know, running an ad at that cost. Okay, but somehow I wanted to break into that and you know, just make sure that you know Zoho is there in that. You know, in that whole Super Bowls and stuff, okay, considering our audience set, considering our edition makers okay, people are already moved from plugged into an OTT platform. Okay, most of the audience are actually consuming content on OTT platform. Okay, and if this costs a few millions, this costs only thousands and I bought 25 spots 25 spots for few thousand dollars and I ran 25 spots on a single day, on a final Super Bowl day, and there were a lot of Indians who actually watched that campaign. They even tweeted saying that they feel really proud to see an Indian brand doing a Super Bowl ad. Okay, and I didn't tell it to Shweta. I showed the tweet to him. I said when did you do this? He said I did this.

Speaker 2:

So Got it so just to kind of understand, right, because A there are OTT and D2H platforms, so you pushed the ad onto the OTT platforms.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And this 25 slots are available only Only Okay and like, how did you find this out? Like, maybe it's interesting just like no.

Speaker 1:

I'm a firm believer that no marketing shouldn't be outsourced. Marketing is a very core part of organized success, just like your engineering, just like your security and compliance, or sales. Marketing should be a core part as soon as I started this is again a realization of our Median Made World campaign. When we launched this campaign in 2014,. Okay, everybody you know loved the campaign, but who was saw? But in the event Zoalex event, which was, you know, a few weeks after launch of the campaign nobody saw the campaign.

Speaker 1:

I went and asked the people, like you know, did you see the ad? No, when was it? Did you play it in ADTV? Yes, I played in RaniTown ADTV. Did you do RaniTown TimeSong? Yes, I did it, but they never saw the ad. That's when I realized that, okay, there should be some strategy to actually distribute your creative, and that is what media planning is all about. Media planning is all about picking a time slot which is relevant for your audience, picking a program that's actually relevant for your audience, picking a program that's actually relevant for your audience and just playing your ad. That's when I got into different people and hired a media planner and similarly, we hired another media planner in the US. So this was actually this know, this Super Bowl, you know, media was actually brought through our own employee, us employee.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I think this is like possibly an unknown piece to a lot of founders and entrepreneurs, right? So can you tell us a little more about media planning? What does a media planner do? And maybe a little more insight, because you've worked in this space?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Because the first time you did didn't see enough eyeballs and then you figured the distribution is through this media planning. How does one go about media planning and what does a media planner?

Speaker 1:

do so? Media planners basically is to put out a chart. How can you distribute your creative? Or even to step further, what is the goal of this campaign? Whom are we targeting? That is the first step, and media planners actually come back with the plan saying that these are the touch points that probably we can actually use to communicate this message for this particular audience. It's not necessary that every ad campaign should have a TV. Every campaign should have an outdoor. Every campaign should have an airport. That's not necessary. Okay, a campaign, a communication, can have a TV plus digital. A campaign can have an outdoor plus digital. A campaign can have an airport plus digital or TV. Whatever this combination, it all depends on what is that you want to communicate. That is primary. Media planners' job is to first chart out a plan. What are the channels that we are picking up for this campaign to get across the message for the particular audience?

Speaker 1:

Step two is that negotiating with the media houses, buying media directly. This is another important thing that we did, which actually helped us know bring down the cost significantly. Generally, how this happens is this is generally outsourced. Okay, an agency would actually charge, you know, anywhere from seven to eight, ten percent on the media spend. Suppose you are now spending a million dollars. You can, you can calculate 10 or 7 percent right up front. So we are saving 10 percent up upfront, okay, and we are actually paying now our talent based on, based on our savings, okay, it's not extra, okay, or we can put back that money and buy more inventories, okay. So so thing is that when we, when we start negotiating with the media houses directly, we build a relationship with them, we build a long listen relationship with them, and and media houses are that know they open up no prime, you know, premium inventories on only to the key clients, okay, and and we also do a bulk buying. Now, we also do a yearly long bulk buying based on relationship. Okay, these are some of the tactics that we know apply in various regions, okay, and and being a global brand, okay, we can, we can talk, and we have no data or insights of various regions.

Speaker 1:

Suppose, if someone is actually coming from dubai and saying that, okay, it costs you this much, my next question is that new york has this footfall. Okay, why are charging this for foot this much footfall? I say no, no, this will not work in Dubai. And my next question will be like okay, tell me one thing. My target audience wakes up at 7 pm. Okay, gender is. Most of the decision makers are male. Okay, 60 to 70%. Till now, of course, the female decision makers. That segment is growing, but till now, male audience are predominantly edition makers.

Speaker 1:

If it is a male, he gets up at whatever time. He brush up, maybe hits the gym and reads a newspaper, or maybe scrims through his iPad to consume, and maybe either he takes public transport or a cab to an office. He does his work and takes his lunch and gets back home again he chills by consuming some TV content and goes to bed. Now, tell me, is this behavior different from Dubai or is the company doing something differently? No, pretty much. If you are doing B2B, the media consumption behavior or the audience behavior is same, okay, the only thing is that maybe, maybe he might be reading he'll be reading times of india here. He might be reading, you know, gulf news there, right, or he might be taking you know, uh, he might. He might have a no driver here. He might be driving his own car there. So those subtle differences that that we would make.

Speaker 1:

Another important thing is when you are doing a global brand and buying a media inventory from a central team, buying and out doing creative from central thing, you will have full control over the entire media, entire communication, okay. So when you have full control on what goes out, what should be the communication and who should be seeing your communication and which placements, that's when you get full control over what goes out and you can also bring in efficiency down. Let me give you one very good example. Pretty much no I I see that no, most of the companies know who are doing. You know digital marketing. Okay, they do auto placements. Or whenever I know someone is doing YouTube or no campaign, they do auto placements. Auto placements that you feed in your audience and of a profile in the system algorithm will run out speed or run your ad to Homer. It takes it is good in some way.

Speaker 1:

But context matters. In which context your target audience is seeing your ad is very, very important. He might be your target audience, but what if a B2B ad is surfaced when he's actually watching a song? What if it is actually consumed when he's actually playing a game? He might be a target audience, but the context is missed, right, so the the probability of for him to take an action is is missed, okay, so you may not be able to convert that user, you may not be able to bring that user to know to your website.

Speaker 1:

So instead, what we do is we never trust any of the algorithms. We have prepared a manual database where we pick no audiences, audience profiles. We also handpick no placements, like with YouTube channels, on genre ways. If it is news, we have no news no channels. If it is no tech publication, we have tech publications. If it is no general, no channels. If it is no tech publication, we have tech publications. If it is no general, no sports, like that entertainment. We have no full plan. It's manually done. It's very cumbersome, it's a long process, but if you get this done, you will have full control and then, when the same audience is actually browsing your internet, when he sees your ad, the chance of him getting conversion is higher.

Speaker 2:

This is like extremely nuanced but very valuable insight, for even like an independent creator, for example. Yeah, yeah yeah, and specifically for founders, early stage who don't have enough budgets. I think that's very valuable, like a little more understanding for me. I had bunch of questions.

Speaker 2:

My response was so deep right yeah, because I had like several questions across, uh, but I think one thing, yes, one thing I'd like to double click is so you specifically said negotiating at media houses. Right, like, uh, I mean, maybe for the audience, how much does it cost for an ad, maybe across the day? Maybe morning is a particular price in the afternoon and evening, like, just give us a little insight on that it depends on the medium.

Speaker 1:

Which medium do you want to know?

Speaker 2:

like maybe, like what are the various mediums right?

Speaker 1:

like maybe whatever mediums hall was packed. Okay, I picked a no spot order like no. I negotiated, saying that, okay, I want my ad to be run just before the moving movie get started or after interval, just before the movie gets started. I paid a premium price there, but that premium price is one-tenth of what I would pay for Starplus and still you get that confined attention with that sound, with that experience. So these are some of the very unorthodox what we have done.

Speaker 1:

An outdoor spot outside the airport costs you 5 lakhs. A spot inside the airport will cost you 25 lakhs, but this in fact had cost you just 1 lakh. Same audience traveling to the same road, traveling to the same airport and sitting inside the airplane. Now, if you see, he might miss your outdoor, he might miss your airport ad because he's checking his boarding passes or time and all, but he cannot miss an ad which is pasted on the right in front of his scene. And you'll be traveling two hours or four hours and you don't have anything to do. But just look at the ad. Do you think an agency will recommend this kind of properties? No, and our sas ecosystem or founders think that, okay, uh, ad advertising is expensive. It is, but there are also creative ways of no no, placing your ads right god.

Speaker 2:

I think this is a wonderful example Just the airport piece right. So as preparation for this podcast, I was because I personally really like Zoho and the value prop it has, like India first building from India for the world. I was randomly talking to people I know and asking them what are some words that come to your mind when, like when, I say Zoho? So, very interestingly, what popped up is enterprise software, but from India. Some folks said person from Chennai, the person who's wearing like a vesti right.

Speaker 2:

And I think they said like from tattoo in village in a cycle. That was something which came up and that's something which stuck with me also and maybe like you've played some part in it or like a critical piece in it, like. So any any insight on that and let the relevance kind of there's a backstory to it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, back in 2014, when we uh launched made in a made for the world campaign, and that's when we also had our flagship as all. It's a event plan, okay, and Sridhar was, you know, was was doing keynote. Okay, then I had to, you know, design a costume. Okay, design, you know what he should be or the entire team should be wearing, okay. So somehow I had this feeling that, okay, when you are seeing me in a mate for the world, okay, when you are, when you, you know, showing or celebrating craftsmen and we are showing, you know, you're talking about heart and soul and passion, passionate and all. Okay, you cannot spoil that with actually wearing a T-shirt, a Nike T-shirt or Levi's jeans. Okay, you cannot talk about Made in India and wear something else. Right, I thought it has to be very Indian. Then I said let's do something very Indianish. And that's when we designed a kurta, black kurta, linen kurta. I gave it to Sridhar and he said what is it? I said, if you are making an authentic story, if you are making a presentation, I think you should be wearing this. Okay, and again, as with any other campaigns, we had resistance internally Saying that, okay, we are looking like that. We are looking like politicians. We are looking at who is who is actually wearing. You know, it company or software company, all this stuff like okay, so no, if you know making authentic points with them, I am made for the world. I'm really proud of you know, my indianness, my origin, my, my roots. I think this is the this thing we should do. Okay, out of resistance, you know, somehow, like everybody, you know, uh, you know, use that, okay. And then again audience was shocked to see, like you imagine, a company who is actually competing against Google and Microsoft and whatnot. And they come to see a man who is wearing a kurta and dhoti and talking about technology and performance and scalability and whatnot, and he fought up with Rajiv Vigasana, who was actually talking about what's next and stuff like that. Okay, there's some mismatch between what they are saying and how they are looking. And that become a hit. Right, see, these guys look like any of us, but they are talking something else, right, okay, so that actually resonate with the audience so well, okay. And then it become a hit. Now. It became a hit internally also and past that event. Wherever we went, our salespeople and everybody started wearing this for the events. If you walk into any of the events and you'll have all the competition wearing suit and you will find one booth where people will be standing black kurthas. Who are they? And then they start discovering they are from India, they are from Chennai, they have an office in Tengasi, so it all started connecting. So most people wouldn't have discovered they have an office in Tengasi, so it all started connecting. Okay, so most people wouldn't have discovered Zoho through Made in a Mate for the World, but they might have discovered Zoho through Kurta.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and even the goodies that we gave at our events were handmade. We had a team of artists in our team Okay, in my team, very talented artists. Okay, we have a team of artists artists in our team okay, in my team, very talented artists. Okay, I got them to do, you know, handmade artwork like Kalamkari art and traditional art all oil paintings, acrylic and stuff like that. We printed that on notebook, which was handmade paper. We also had neem pencil okay, in that.

Speaker 1:

And every book carried a no artist name okay, we took pride in no celebrating our no culture and roots okay, and we gave that to no people. Okay, people were actually smelling the neem pencil at the event. So what I'm trying to say is that, okay, this whole thing of no authenticity was actually viewed around all our no communications In ad, in our presence, in our communications, in our presentations, in our goodies, everything and this also started bringing in change internally. I think I would suggest every entrepreneur to be as authentic as possible and, if possible, if you have any story of your roots, like if you are from Jharkhand, or if you are from nasik, or if you are from no arsikere, which is no, uh, okay, just try to know, actually bring out that essence in in somehow.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and be proud of your no or your origin or your roots, that's all that's a beautiful message, and and that leads me to the founder of Zoho itself, right, because you've closely worked with him, like I find him to be an icon.

Speaker 2:

I kind of look at his writing and then his videos and interviews, because you've worked so closely with him. He's a national icon, so we'd love to know any specific things you picked up from his leadership, something that stays with you, which might be inspiring for our founders and entrepreneurs, who are kind of watching.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. There are a lot of things you know very inspiring or very what to say inspiring about Sridhar Vembu. One thing is that you know he's neutral to success and failure. He doesn't, you know, overreact to any success. He doesn't overreact to failures also, he's just neutral. That's something I would like to know him from him.

Speaker 1:

Another thing is the trust he places on people. See, I was just a designer in the company. I don't know how he picked up and how he trusted me to give this kind of role. Of course there was a progressive way, but somehow he identifies talent and, irrespective of whether he has an experience or not, or whether he's a man or a girl or whoever it is, he just goes ahead, that's all. And he's very approachable. If you have an idea, you can just pick up on a call and you can speak to him. He conducts open house every week, every Friday, and the kind of questions he answers. I mean I still remember do a CEO of such a big company should answer this? He still answers that. So he's one of those kind of person, got it?

Speaker 2:

So I think it was such a great learning experience for me personally to know the insights behind what led to Zoho becoming such a global brand Like I think some core pieces were authenticity, make it simple, make it playful and serve the customer in all forms and fashion and be very efficient in cost, and it was such a delight talking to you. Thank you so much, rafiq, and we're really having. It was a big pleasure having you.

Speaker 1:

My pleasure too, Tehran. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 4:

Dear listeners, thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast app for free and you'll be the first one to know when new episodes are available. Just search for Prime Venture Partners Podcast in Apple Podcast, spotify, castbox or however. You get your podcasts, then hit subscribe and if you have enjoyed the show, we would be really grateful if you leave us a review on Apple Podcast. To read the full transcript, find the link in the show. We would be really grateful if you leave us a review on Apple podcast. To read the full transcript, find the link in the show notes.