On 24 February 2011, Mindshare and Brand Equity teamed up to present an event that discussed three of the most important words for brands in the coming decade: Innovation, Involvement and Investment. Tagged as MI-3, Mindshare Brand Equity Compass 2011 brought together some of the most cutting-edge professionals from leading companies in India.

The event began with the Chairman's Address, where D Shivakumar, Vice-President and Managing Director, Nokia India, outlined the next decade in marketing, primarily speaking on India's growth, and Indian consumers becoming younger and richer. He also pointed out that Indian women would become a key piece of the spending pie, with working women becoming a larger demographic.

The keynote address was given by Dominic Proctor, CEO, Mindshare Worldwide. He further elaborated on Shivakumar's sentiments regarding the three keywords addressed at the conference: Innovation, Involvement and Investment. To elaborate his point, he used some great examples: Dell's turning around the public's negative sentiment towards them online and the success of Quaker Oats in India through a key insight derived straight from the consumer's mouth.

During the first panel discussion---featuring Hemant Sachdev (Joint Managing Director, Microsoft), Hari V. Krishnan (Country Manager, LinkedIn India), Porus Munshi (Founder, Making Breakthroughs Happen), and Venky Mysore (CEO, Kolkata Knight Riders)---Chandramouli Venkatesan (Executive Director, Cadbury India Ltd) steered the conversation around the topic of disruptive innovation.

In the second panel discussion, Damini Kumari (ET Now) moderated a panel comprising Krishnan Ganesh (Founder & Chairman, TutorVista.com), Maitri Kumar (Head-Marketing, HSBC India), Marcel Parker (Chairman, IKYA Global) discussing how the culture of innovation can be set up within companies.

The third panel discussion addressed a topic close to our own hearts: Brand and consumer involvement, where Amit Dutta (Founder and Managing Director, Luxury Hues Consultancy Services India Pvt Ltd), Viral Oza (Head-Activation, Media & Online Marketing, Nokia India), Vishal Mirchandani (President, Prozone Enterprises Pvt Ltd), Vinita Bangard (CEO, Krossover Entertainment) and Ajay Kakar (CMO, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group) presented some interesting ideas and ways to involve the consumer in brand development.

We spoke to Mr Shivakumar about involving consumers in the creative process. He said, "I think involving them is good, but don't use them as a substitute for your own judgment. You cannot outsource your strategy. Keeping it open and inviting their comments and participation is very different from abdicating your [strategic decisions] to them."

However, he went on to advocate the idea of involving consumers, saying, "I think involving them in innovation is very good, because this is what many people have done for many years, especially leading-edge consumers." He also pointed out the importance of finding such leading-edge consumers online: "They're more active on social media; because they're innovative, by definition they're picking innovative ways to communicate."

Maitri Kumar was a little more careful about involving consumers in the creative process, stating that there would be good ideas, mediocre ideas and bad ideas. However, she still felt that it was the way to go, because "it's only an evolved consumer who'll participate at this stage."

The last discussion was intended, and executed, as a "verbal jugalbandi" by moderator Vikram Sakhuja (CEO South Asia, Group M). It featured a panel of colourful speakers with equally colourful opinions on understanding and determining the role of investment, made up by the likes of R Balki (Chairman and CCO, Lowe), Meenakshi Madhvani (Managing Partner, Spatial Access), Shankar Narayan (CFO, BCCL) and Sanjay Behl (CEO, Reliance DTH and IPTV).

Mr Shivakumar summed up the entire conference in his closing remarks, reiterating points made through the day: Innovations need to be impactful, game changing and redefining; Deep-rooted consumer involvement helps; and, good ideas will always get investment.

The latter, boldly stated by R Balki, is what drives us at BrandPotion, in the hope that we can help brands find that good idea, and with the help of a creative advertiser, a tactical marketer and a foresighted CFO, turn that good idea into an absolutely phenomenal one.