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Overheard at VMF: 10 Things I Learned From the Marketing Pros

By Anushka Pandit

Overheard at VMF: 10 Things I Learned From the Marketing Pros

From data unification to emotional retention, Vibe Marketing Technology Fest spotlighted trends shaping the future of marketing, and how to action them.

We’ve read about all kinds of brand campaigns and case studies in the martech landscape but to hear directly from the experts on stage is a different and unique experience. 

At the Vibe Marketing Technology Fest, martech leaders from brands around the globe stirred up riveting conversations around what’s keeping marketers on their toes. 

Across AI and retail media, all the way to visual branding and interactive search, each marketer had something for the attendees to take away. Here are ten learnings from the event that every marketer needs to know;

1 | App Design Must Provide Clarity in Less Than Three Seconds

In his session Sustained Engagement: Keeping Audiences Hooked Beyond the First Click, Aleksandar Derbogosijan, Creative Director & Brand Architect at instashop emphasises the motto: ‘Don’t design to impress. Design to convert.’ 

“When it comes to performance, you must lead with functionality first. Functional design should be invisible – if users notice the design, it’s probably in their way. In our designs, every visual, every banner, every asset—has less than three seconds to prove its worth,” said Derbogosijan.

2 | Unified Data – Not a Luxury But a Necessity

Sriniwas Sharma, Assistant General Manager – Growth at Aster Pharmacy, doubled down on the blueprint for moving from fragmented data to focused revenue. 

“Unified data is no more a luxury – it is a necessity. Red flags for identifying fragmented data include treating online and offline customers differently; data leakage, which includes duplicated or anonymous profiles; and finally, data that is unusable because it came in variable formats that don’t offer any meaningful insights,” said Sharma.

3 | Tech is Only Half the Story

Anupama Gupta, Director of CRM & Loyalty at ADCOOP.COM, shared an anecdote from her early days as a young professional about being in a room with retail leads, where all the chat was about “margins, sales and spreadsheets.” Using examples like Tesco and Kroger, she spoke with the leads about customer-centricity, which was just starting as a martech trend back then. Customer KPIs, data and analytics had started being prioritised and Gupta emphasised, back then, how the world was evolving.

“Tech is only half the story. It’s the mindset change that needs to happen. Getting the right data privacy, opt-ins, and the essentials—yes, those are the fundamentals. But get the buy-in from everyone, and make sure they are all speaking the right and same language,” added Gupta.

4 | Conversational Technology Enhances Shopper Conversions

Hugh Kimber, General Manager at Bloomreach, emphasised having a conversational interface as one of the primary ways to keep a customer engaged. Citing it as a relatively new technology and something the industry is moving towards, he presented a case study where 50% of the brands offered a conversational interface and the other 50% did not. 

“The end result—any one that had a conversation had a nearly 40% increase in revenue. Additionally, close to 30% had a lower exit rate,” he said.

5 | The Future of Personalisation is Using Real-time Data as Triggers

Mustafa Bohra, Associate Director – Martech and Analytics at Careem, said a brand’s relationship with their customer must get deeper as they spend more time with the brand. 

“From cold start to using historical data, and moving to adding more real time intent for triggers based on what you know about their past buying behaviour,” said Bohra.

6 | Solve Unification Challenges to Make Integration Easier

Pravin Kumar, Global Head of Digital & Ecommerce at Dabur International, explained that depending on the nature of your business, you may have shorter customer journeys, and data that comes from online and offline, like in the case of the FMCG sector. 

Don’t try to ask for everything at one go; it may alienate customers. Solve your unification issues and make sure automation is integrated so your systems are talking to each other,” said Kumar. He shared an example of how a marketing team was sending promotions right when a customer service ticket was open — “that’s bad timing, and could make a bad situation worse.”

7 | Don’t Let Big Plans Paralyse the Need of the Hour

Santadip Roy, Regional Managing Director at Magna Global, emphasised that AI is going to move fast and brands need to be already on their way. This means, getting your data house in order, for instance. 

“Start somewhere, start now. AI is going to add sophistication to your stack but it will not solve old or legacy challenges. Start now and then look at scaling up. Don’t let big plans paralyse your progress. AI is going to move fast and you need to already be on your way.”

8 | Retail Media, the 3rd Wave of Digital Ads

Sohail Nawaz MBE, Head of Retail Media at Landmark Group, gave a recap of the three waves of digital advertising; the first being that of search ads, second with the social ads, and the third which is dominating the current era – retail media. But here’s what’s interesting; the third wave of digital advertising is also the third wave of AI (Agentic AI), and that of data monetisation.  

To elaborate further on what he called the ‘triple’ third wave, Nawaz presented on screen a video of his AI counterpart, Sonny—an AI trend being utilised a lot in the entertainment industry these days.

9 | Retail Media Networks Offer Value to Non-Retail Brands

Taking the example of an online marketplace giant, Oliver White, Group Executive Director Commerce (Middle East & Asia) at MCN Middle East Communications Network, explained how a brand could earn space on the digital shelf by understanding profitable habits like good content in the form of rich product descriptions, decent pricing, etc. 

However, for brands that are new in the market or a brand that has exhausted their organic channel, retail media is a great tool to leverage.  “Because, you can buy the space on the digital shelf before you can earn it,” said White.

10 | People Crave Connection, Not Just Transactions

In his session, Designing Spotify-Inspired Journeys That Win Hearts,

Marwen Ben Messaoud, Director of Growth – MEA and South Asia at Spotify, reminded that traditional retention strategies, proven and effective, have brought us far, but there is something still missing—”people want connection, and not just transactions. They want to feel valued, have meaningful relationships.”

The takeaway, he emphasised, is that brands must design for moments that matter. Three key principles to achieve this are :emotions create memories; connection drives loyalty; expectations are fueled by the fear of missing out (FOMO), he added.

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