Personalization at scale, creatives in minutes: Marketing leaders unpack AI's new role in brand building
At The Visionaries, leaders from Nestlé India, Zepto, McCain Retail, Jaquar & Company and Versuni shared how they use AI to drive brand relevance: personalisation, contextual creatives, connected appliances, offline-online insight loops, dealer intelligence and rapid experiments.
If you're a creative, this isn't theory. It's a faster brief-to-execution loop, smarter targeting, and more shots on goal-without bloating cost.
Nestlé India: Keep legacy alive without getting stuck in nostalgia
Varun Sethuraman, Head of Marketing Communications, put it simply: legacy is a word, not a limit. AI is now embedded in every conversation, enabling Maggi-like personalization at scale across old and new lines.
- Use AI to spot micro-segments and keep messaging personal, not generic.
- Adapt global content to local context while protecting brand essence.
- Extend brand codes into new categories (Purina as "Maggi for pets") with consistent creative principles.
Zepto: Creatives in minutes, ideas live the same day
Chandan Mendiratta, CBO, said speed defines quick commerce-and AI delivers it. "We can get creatives in minutes." The team personalizes the app experience and builds hyperlocal ads down to the pin code.
- Spin up city-wise and pin-code-level variants instantly.
- Personalize in-app visuals and offers based on habits and past orders.
- Test multiple ideas at once-no more waiting on long stress tests.
- Plan for real-time relevance. Calendar moments like Valentine's Day become live creative canvases.
McCain Retail: Offline insights, online precision
Aditya Krishna, Director - Sales and Marketing, shared how retail and restaurant data reveal why people actually buy. Families stock up on Sunday afternoons; fries in metros are largely functional. AI connects the occasion with the emotion and turns it into targeted creative.
- Translate store and restaurant signals into sharper briefs and hooks.
- Focus on penetration over frequency-explain category relevance first.
- Remember: AI is only as good as the brief. Clarity in inputs equals clarity in outputs.
Jaquar & Company: Structured paths and dealer intelligence
Sandeep Shukla, VP & Head - Marketing Communications, noted this is a guidance-heavy category. With 50 lakh monthly site visits, AI builds clear flows: users answer a few questions (size, budget, style) and get 2D/3D drawings plus a mapped dealer.
- Design guided paths that reduce confusion and increase intent.
- Turn content into configurations (2D/3D) that people can act on.
- Use AI agents to analyze dealer-customer chats and surface friction points for faster fixes.
Versuni (Philips, Preethi): AI accelerates the basics-relevance, promise, consistency
CMO Pooja Baid made a key point: fundamentals haven't changed. AI just compresses time across research, creation and delivery. Not every appliance is about utility-air fryers ride on design and rising disposable income.
- Track shifting habits and build products and narratives that fit them.
- Ensure connected and voice-enabled devices integrate without friction; feed usage data back into product and creative.
- Keep brand promise consistent across touchpoints while evolving the expression.
What this means for creatives
- Start with sharper briefs. Define the occasion, the emotion and the conversion moment.
- Ship variants, fast. City, pin code, micro-cohort. Let the market pick winners.
- Build a modular creative system. Swap headlines, visuals and offers without reinventing the base.
- Tie offline signals (store spikes, dayparts, weather) to real-time ad triggers.
- Design guided paths, not dead-end pages. Ask 3-5 questions, deliver a configuration, map to the nearest seller.
- Close the loop with partners. Mine dealer/retailer conversations for objections and rewrite your ads to answer them.
- Use connected-device data to inform storytelling. Show how people actually use the product.
- Measure relevance over reach. Small, right-message cohorts beat broad, forgettable media.
Further reading and tools
- Research on personalization's impact on growth
- AI courses by job role (for creatives and marketers)
- A curated list of AI tools for copywriting
Bottom line for creatives: treat AI as your speed layer and signal engine. Keep the craft, ship more tests, and let data sharpen the next version.
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