Welcome to AME's exclusive interview series shining a spotlight on the celebrated AME Awards Grand Jury. These seasoned strategists, with their wealth of experience and keen insights, form the backbone of the AME Awards judging panel. Award-winners themselves, they are are known for consistently delivering creative and strategic campaigns that move the needle for global brands. Join us as we explore the intersection of creativity, strategy, and effectiveness that defines the excellence celebrated by the AME Awards.

2024 AME Grand Jury member Rohit Arora brings over two decades of strategic expertise to the AME jury panel.  Rohit has held leadership roles with WPP agencies & Liwa. In his current role at Viola Communications, he’s leading the integrated practice. Rohit has earned several industry recognitions and is also an avid writer of opinion pieces, whitepapers, and creative reviews published by WARC, Campaign Middle East, Campaign Asia, Luxury Daily and Brandchannel.

In the interview below Rohit shares his strategic perspective on future-forward trends for 2024, what he's looking for in award-winning creative and effective work, how brands are communicating their values and societal contributions within their marketing strategies,how media marketing changed the way brands engage with consumers and much more.

AME Awards: Why are effectiveness competitions like the AME Awards important?

Rohit Arora: Effectiveness awards form the bedrock of our creative business. They not only serve as the most credible measure of our work's value, demonstrating how creative excellence propels business success, but also gently remind us that creativity is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

AME Awards: As a creative strategist, what stand-out attributes do you recognize in award-winning creative effective advertising?

Rohit Arora: Meeting marketing objectives is a standard, a norm. The real question is 1) how you influenced the culture, 2) how you added meaningful impact to people’s lives, thereby 3) drove the business results, and 4) huge bonus points if you raised our industry standards.

AME Awards: What future-forward trends and innovations are brands embracing for 2024?

Rohit Arora: I’m expecting 1) unexpectedness with AI & personalization, 2) immersive brand experiences with a lot more interactive content with AR, interactive phygital screens & conversational chatbots, 3) strengthening of sustainability & social impact campaigns, 4) video marketing will continue to dominate, 5) less formulatic influencer marketing (hopefully)
 

AME Awards: How has the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence impacted the effectiveness of advertising campaigns?

Rohit Arora: Data analytics & AI drive DCO (Dynamic Creative Optimization), paving the way for highly targeted, personalized campaigns, increasing the likelihood of engagement & conversions. Programmatic advertising is now a standard & is seamlessly facilitated by AI. The continuous improvement of AI-powered chatbots is enhancing real-time interactions. While AI contributes significantly to fraud prevention, there's still more needed. SaaS products like Brand Guardian ensure D&I compliance in content. Overall, these advancements offer great opportunities for productivity & marketing effectiveness.
 

AME Awards: How are emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and interactive content shaping the landscape of advertising effectiveness?

Rohit Arora: Immersive & interactive experiences, with their captivating appeal & novelty with each evolution, are fueled by FOMO - much like the initial hype around the Metaverse until it relatively subsided. Of course, there’s a brighter side when considering interactive & virtual product experiences, such as the integration of phygital elements in fashion stores, virtual spaces in real estate, or innovations like Mercedes-Benz's AR Owner's Manual & IKEA Place app. Additionally, there’s an opportunity for immersive storytelling like Daily 360 of The New York Times. All of this showcases the diverse & compelling possibilities.

AME Awards: In what ways are brands incorporating augmented reality and virtual try-on experiences in their advertising to enhance the online shopping journey? Can you share examples of successful campaigns that used AR or virtual try-ons to drive consumer engagement and conversion?

Rohit Arora: To add to the list of examples above are Zara’s Shop the Look,  Tiffany’s Engagement Ring Finder app, Adidas' AR Shoe App, L'Oréal's Makeup Genius App & not to forget the metaverse created by so many brands.

AME Awards: With an increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility, how do brands effectively communicate their values and societal contributions in their marketing strategies?

Rohit Arora: The elephant in the room is authenticity, transparency, and genuine commitment. Brands that are selfless rather than self-serving, exhibit a long-term commitment instead of a one-off stunt, engage in act-vertising beyond advertising, and embed these values within the brand’s DNA rather than relying solely on a great creative idea and execution, are the ones that garner brand love.
 

AME Awards: In terms of conversational marketing, how do you develop and implement strategies that leverage AI-driven interactions to enhance the customer experience?

Rohit Arora: Although I'm not an expert in this subject, I've noticed progress among the brands around me. However, I believe there's a significant opportunity to enhance these further. From my personal experience, Siri and Google Voice Search are performing well, signaling the potential for improvement in other applications. There’s a need for a human-AI collab. Period.

AME Awards: How have brands adapted in the realm of mobile gaming? How do you design advertisements that encourage user engagement and interaction rather than passive viewing?

Rohit Arora: The standout examples that come to mind are McDonald's Unbranded Menu and KFC’s Shift + K + F + C cheat code for hunger. Although not strictly 'mobile' gaming, they serve as excellent illustrations of creative possibilities. The more native we get, the better. The mobile gaming example that stands out is Pokémon GO, of course.

AME Awards: What interactive elements or gamification strategies have you found to be effective in capturing and retaining the audience's interest within mobile gaming environments?

Rohit Arora: While not an expert in the field, in my humble observation, games that tend to resonate more with the human aspect by—being native, mixing technologies like Pokémon GO's use of AR, incorporating limited-time events, offering customization options, featuring leaderboards, etc.—tend to resonate more.

AME Awards:  How have brands adapted their advertising strategies to capitalize on the growing trend of e-commerce and direct-to-consumer models?

Rohit Arora: Brands are strategically investing in their own ecosystems through proprietary apps, moving away from sole reliance on e-commerce aggregators. This offers them personalized user experiences, allowing brands to directly engage with customers, build their loyalty programs, & own valuable data insights to serve them better. Beyond better margins, this is helping brands gain control over content, presentation, and customer relationships, reducing dependence on third-party aggregators. This affords brands adaptability and flexibility in a dynamic market but also integrates online and offline experiences for a proper omnichannel brand journey/experience. Several SaaS solutions are enabling this without a heavy-duty investment.

AME Awards:  How has media marketing changed the way brands engage with consumers? Are there standout brands who are excelling at skillfully reaching consumers in their own personal lane of interest?

Rohit Arora: I see a lot of personalization, e.g., Spotify’s personalized playlists and data-driven recommendations to cater to individual musical tastes. The use of DCO is another manifestation. I also see brands pushed to have a bigger POV to have active conversations beyond their products/services, e.g., Dove with Real Beauty, Red Bull with extreme sports, etc. Authenticity is the key.
 

AME Awards: What brands are effectively integrating themselves successfully into the metaverse, and what do those brands offer the consumer?

Rohit Arora: I think there are better experts than me to answer this from their experience :)