CMOs opine - Not possible to substitute TV as a primary brand building medium yet
At the TV First conference, a panel of experts from Pidilite, Dabur, Patanjali, FCB Ulka, Kellogg India and UltraTech Cement arrived at a consensus that to achieve scale in India TV is the way to go
Is there a right answer to the question ‘Is TV still the most powerful brand-building medium for marketers?’ asked Saad Khan, National Planning Director, Strategic Planning, FCB Ulka, who chaired the panel discussion yesterday at exchange4media’s TV First conference in Mumbai.
The discussion included panel speakers Sumit Mathur, Director Marketing, Kellogg India; Rajiv Dubey, Head of Media, Dabur; Vivek Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Pidilite; Avinash Kumar, AVP Marketing, Patanjali and Ajay Dang, Joint Executive President & Head – Marketing, UltraTech Cement.
Khan explained how the media landscape has changed over the years in a big way. He spoke of the yesteryears when generations were brought up with only two mediums – television and print. But today there is digital, OTT, augmented reality and more mediums are springing up. “Digital is touching 300 million plus people, TV is reaching 800 million plus people, print is going to millions of households. In this complex scenario and with the availability of multiple mediums, how do you define the role of each medium; how do u manage the marketing mix or media mix?” questioned Khan to the panel members.
It‘s a million dollar question that media planning agencies have been solving quipped Mathur. “The task for us to grow our businesses is to know what is our source of growth, where they are, and how do we reach them in the most cost effective way. I'm a firm believer on reach; delivering more reach in the most cost effective way. To deliver this reach it is the medium that ensures how I can do it within the budget we have. Different brands will different requirements, so what works for them is important to understand,” explains Mathur.
He added, “If we look at pan India scale point of view, we have clearly done a lot of television, and it won’t go away soon. Television will always be the medium that gives the right ROI and right reach; it does come with spillovers and that’s the challenge; that is the role where a lot of good brand managers, good marketers will make the difference. How do you then top that reach in a cost-effective way? This is where digital comes into the picture. Digital will give you incremental reach. So then how do you play the mix to your benefit and the geography you are in and to the life stage your brand is in will have to be taken into consideration.”
Kumar revealed, "I'm not a fan of TV advertising though we did spend a lot on it. Talking about television viewing, whenever there is an ad break you change your channel then how do you know it's hitting the right person/ consumer. The whole game is to reach 780 million people by TV. Today, the world has changed especially when u have 550 million people on high-speed internet, at least in digital I can know how many people I have reached. I know who I’m interacting with.”
Kumar explained how the television is no more the 'idiot box;' and how it has become more intelligent and interactive. “There is no doubt when you are a doing national campaign and brand building, you have to bombard through television but how many people are receptive and how they are going to respond or embrace your brand is going to be a challenge. From tomorrow, February 1, everything will change with the new TRAI guidelines. More than 50 million smart TVs are going to be operational by 2020. When you talk about TV, there is no longer the concept of prime time. In the new world 'My Time' will be the new prime time, it will have nothing to do with time slots,” opined Kumar.
On the other hand, Sharma was firm on the belief that TV is a powerful medium and will remain powerful as you use it; the way marketers will use it will have to change. “Television will give the highest reach even if you want to build a scale brand. But the role of TV will change because other mediums are encroaching into the TV viewing habit, distracted TV viewing. Sole TV viewing is 40 per cent, rest is all family viewing. The reality is that we still have single TV households. Even the youth living in towns 3 and 4 are digitally savvy. The way we use TV will not primarily be the medium to put brand message where you spray and pray and then see if the task is done. There should be a message to create a need,” informed Sharma.
Continued Sharma, “TV has a halo effect on the impact of other media that is digital. An Accenture report says that the ROI of TV is highest followed by paid search, paid search gets positively affected by TV advertising. You can’t walk away from TV advertising. We have observed the branded searches go up dramatically. I don’t think you can build brands only through digital. Digital is a medium of paradoxes, it’s a low attention span medium. But it also happens that if the subject interests you then you get involved and share the video on social media. Television has to be used in conjunction with these mediums in a complementary fashion. And content is going to matter a lot. TV will continue to play a big role in driving brands in the minds of the people. Digital can complement the logical conclusion of closing the sales.”
Dubey exclaimed that no brand in FMCG can be built without TV. “Anything that can provide entertainment to people should be the screen to advertise on. Numbers are in favour of the broadcast medium. In digital, measurability is a big question, nobody shares data hence unless you experience it you cannot put money behind it. There is no model which can tell you the sufficient amount to invest, in TV we have an empirical data. So, in my opinion, I will continue to invest in TV but not ignore digital,” said Dubey.
Dang said, “Digital is the new shiny object. It is hugely overestimated, and yes it is changing the landscape. The core question is has TV's effectiveness gone down? Reach has not gone down, time on TV has gone up, and video content is going up whether you watch it on the idiot box or on mobile doesn’t matter. If you are looking at reach and frequency nothing substitutes TV. Despite digital growing, viewership share is 50 – 55 per cent on TV even now. In defence of TV, completion rates are 100 per cent, you watch an ad on the same parameters that you evaluate the other shiny object.”
He added, “At Ultratech we cannot teach TV consumers how to build their homes or give simple a checklist, that task we do through digital. But from a brand-building perspective TV's effectiveness has not gone down.”
Sharma says effectiveness in TV will have to get down to sharpen mechanisms or complement with other mediums to define effectiveness as ‘am I reaching my audience at that time when he is the in the cycle of thinking about my category or the product’, and that is going to be the name of the game.
Kumar said, “OTT platform has come into play. In India the adoption process is slow, we have been brought up on TV. There is resistance to change. People don’t understand digital well. When I’m talking to a customer I want a grip on the data that I’m getting into, and that data is not available on TV. My expenses for digital space will increase. But you have to have an integrated market plan. TV needs to be supported by digital or else your TV plan will not work anymore. The data, money and the budget are going to shift for sure.”
Mathur believes that if we have our consumer journeys really thought through then this automatically gets solved. “When it comes to driving awareness, driving wide persuasion TV will play a role but to drive advocacy TV can’t do anything; here Twitter and Instagram will work brilliantly for you. As marketers, it is important that we do our homework. The brand's role in a consumer’s life is not just watching a TV ad, he will engage with the brand at different levels, we clearly need to identify the objective at various points,” he explained.
Sharma said mapping the consumer journeys is imperative. “Consumers believe brands less and word of mouth and influencers more. So brands will have to use TV to do general awareness and brand building. But to get them to move from consideration to preference and purchase, you will have to use other mediums, notably digital, to drive influencer marketing. So when experts speak about your brand then people will believe your brand and that is one thing TV cannot do. As marketers as we go into the future, TV will remain the largest and powerful medium but the way we assign objectives to TV versus other media will have to be more granular only then can TV be made more effective,” he asserted.
Khan pointed out that Amazon and Google had to come on TV to advertise and that says a lot about the strength of the medium so does that mean that TV helps you scale up?
Sharma said the fundamental question to ask is whom am I building it for and at what scale? “To achieve scale in India you need television. TV will be a curious mix of content and screen size. It will also become smart now that OTT is there. We as marketers will have to become smarter to see how we integrate our brand messages into OTT without being intrusive,” he explained.
Khan concluded the discussion by stating that both TV and digital are important, and if you want to achieve scale in the country television is the way to go.
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Social Beat wins SEO mandate of Tata CLiQ tag rss
The account was won after a multi-agency pitch
e4m e4m Social Beat has won the SEO mandate for Tata CLiQ, one of the fastest-growing omnichannel marketplace in India. Social Beat has been entrusted with optimizing existing content, as well as launching new, optimized category pages systematically on Tata CLiQ’s platform to scale monthly organic traffic by 2x over the next year. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced by Social Beat’s offices in Mumbai.
Shishir Kataria, Director - Marketing, Tata CLiQ, “Shoppers, e-commerce or otherwise, continue to heavily rely on search and discovery throughout their shopping journey, be it engaging with the latest fashion trends or hunting for the best buys. No wonder a platform's ability to be a part of this journey organically drives significant consideration for it amongst potential shoppers. We, at Tata Cliq, are confident that Social Beat will help us develop and optimise content that is highly discoverable to grow our engagement and revenue. Our goal continues to be to drive more and more shoppers to our platform with optimised and curated products and relevant content.”
Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata CLiQ in their growth journey. We aim to scale traffic to the Tata CLiQ platform manyfold over the next year. Our team of specialised SEO and Content strategists will be working closely to achieve this”
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ShareWill OOH dazzle this festive season?
As the celebrations begin, experts tell us the trends and challenges for the OOH sector this season
Be it the flower-clad taxis in Mumbai for Made in Heaven Season 2 promotion or Zomato’s ‘kheer mangoge kheer denge’ billboards, India's OOH advertising sector has undergone substantial transformation and expansion in the recent years. Even though the medium was severely hit during the pandemic years, it has now managed to rebuild its status. Now, with the onset of the festive season, elections and the cricket world cup, OOH is expected to see more and more advertisers come on board.
Amarjeet Hudda, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media Group, believes most of the clients spend a lot of money during the festive season, especially for Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali, targeting their customers in a festive mood. The categories that spend heavily during these months are Auto, Consumer Durables, Real Estate, Organised retail, and E-commerce.
According to Dipankar Sanyal of Platinum Outdoor, there was a huge surge in the festive season last year, and he expects the same this year too. “Last four to five years have turbulent for outdoor. It was picking up in 2019, but then Covid came and everything went flat for two years,” he mentioned.
According to EY-FICCI’s M&E Report 2023, OOH media grew 86 percent in 2022 to Rs 37 billion. The value includes traditional, transit and digital media, but excludes untracked unorganised OOH media such as wall paintings, billboards, ambient media, storefronts, proxy advertising.
Sharing the brand’s perspective, Shivam Ranjan, Head of Marketing, Motorola-APAC, said, “We are going into this festive season with a strong mix of media, including OOH. Within OOH, we are focusing on digital OOH, due to its capability of programmatic serving, measurability, and near real-time insights that allow us to be agile with the communication and optimisation of our campaigns.”
With urbanisation, improved infrastructure, rising consumerism and an increased spending power, clients' expectations from OOH advertising too have evolved. “The clients expect better ROI on every investment, best in class innovations, tech-led planning and execution. Today, technology plays an important role starting from planning the campaign, to measuring metrics to ROI,” Singh explained.
Another trend that Sanyal has observed is that traditionally advertisers looked at spending on OOH nearly two weeks prior to the festivities, but now, most advertisers have now started advertising a week earlier so that they can get maximum eyeballs. Additionally, the digital OOH advertising (DOOH) has also emerged big. The digital OOH screens increased to around 100,000 and contributed eight percent of total segment revenues.
“Now with digital, there is more space for advertisers to come in one frame. Because of this, you can see it is getting more attractive. The innovations too are coming in at a much lower cost and creating a greater impact,” shared Sanyal.
The only challenge with the medium, according to Ranjan, is OOH being a fragmented industry with lack of measurability and agility. This becomes a serious issue for ROI-centric brands. However, the growth of DOOH, which is dynamic, agile and measurable, is giving marketers the confidence to invest in the medium backed by relevant data and outcomes.
Adding to this, Hudda highlighted that availability of good media spots is the biggest challenge in this season as media assets are limited and demand is very high. Due to the gap in the festive season, many clients are not able to fully optimise their campaigns. Rather sometimes, clients are even compelled to divert their budget which adversely impacts the industry, he shared.
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Banking on positive consumer sentiment: BFSI optimistic on doubling festive AdEx : Cache
Some categories within the sector, however, may spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season
The BFSI sector is expecting a surge in demand for loan during the festive season and is looking at increasing its ad spends to cash in on the celebration spirit. Industry leaders say they are hopeful of witnessing a good growth in the number of applications for auto loan, home loan, credit card and health insurance during October, November and December due to positive consumer sentiment this year. However, though most of the BFSI players are planning to double their advertising budget this time compared to the previous year, there are some who are not investing too heavily on marketing during the festivals as they plan to save the money for the fourth quarter.
According to Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BOB Financial, they witness incremental growth every year during the October-December quarter, and they anticipate an increase in consumer spending as well as new enrolments for cards this year too. “There remains a surge in customer demand for credit during the festive season,” said Singh.
Singh shared that the company is fully geared up for the launch of #FestiveShoppingRewards on all Bank of Baroda credit card variants under the theme ‘Reimagine Festivities’. They would kickstart festive offerings with the start of Navratri.
The festive season does not just see the demand for credit go up, but there is an increase in applications for health and motor insurance too during this time of the year.
Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, BajajCapital Ltd, shared that among insurance products, health insurance and motor insurance reign supreme during festivals. According to Khare, the demand for mutual funds and SIPs too sees a hike.
“Overall, the festive season presents an opportune moment to secure insurance coverage. A plethora of attractive products and services are on offer, with financial institutions extending special discounts and promotions to entice new customers,” said Khare.
The company launched #BlessMeGanesha campaign during Ganesh Chaturthi. “Our goal for this festive season is not only to provide financial solutions but also to create memorable experiences and deepen the connection with our customers,” said Khare.
Though all major sectors spend heavily on advertising during the festive season, within the BFSI sector, some categories spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season.
Explaining the trend, Samir Sethi, Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com, said that the festive season has varying impacts on the BFSI sector. In the banking sector, for instance, the demand for loans surges as many individuals purchase items and undertake home renovations. Conversely, in the insurance category, the festive season doesn't result in significant changes. Instead, the insurance industry experiences its peak season after the festive period, particularly during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
“As the festive season approaches, there is a noticeable increase in car sales though, leading to a surge in the demand for motor insurance. Consequently, we see a significant uptick in the requests for motor insurance policies. During the festive period, there is an upswing in demand for various categories, such as electronics. However, in the insurance sector, this period doesn't significantly affect us, so we don't run specific campaigns targeting festivals. Nevertheless, we do roll out multiple campaigns throughout the year, and some of them may coincide with the festive season,” said Sethi.
According to the TAM AdEx report on BFSI sector across media for H1, the advertising volume of the sector grew on TV, radio and digital, but declined in the print medium. The report indicated that ad impressions on digital saw 91% rise during Jan-Jun '23 over Jan-Jun’22. The increase was 32% for radio and 4% for TV. The ad space of the BFSI sector decreased by 7% in print.
Speaking on media mix, Singh shared that BOB Financial has a good mix of customer segments belonging to Tier I, II and III. So, understanding their needs and preferred form of media channels, the company will reach out to them through relevant media promotions. “For the easy discovery of our offers, we shall have a dedicated offers page with regular promotion of top offers on our social media and other digital channels,” said Singh. Without disclosing the figure, Singh shared that the company’s promotion budget has surely increased from last year and it will be visible through their multi-channel promotional activities.
According to the TAM report, in the BFSI sector, life insurance is the leading category on TV and radio whereas mutual funds is the top category on digital.
Khare highlighted that in recent times, Bajaj Capital has observed a significant growth in audiences on online platforms and the changing preferences of their clientele. “This observation led us to recalibrate our marketing approach, placing a heightened emphasis on digital avenues,” said Khare.
He further added, “Our promotional efforts are primarily digital-focused, accentuating areas like social media engagement, search engine outreach, content-driven marketing, and targeted online advertising. As we approach the festive season, we've fine-tuned our online approach. By harnessing the insights from data analytics, we aim to grasp our clients' needs and inclinations better, ensuring our content is both tailored and pertinent.”
Khare also mentioned that Baja Capital has doubled its advertising budget compared to the previous year.
“This increase in our ad spend signifies our confidence in the opportunities this festive season presents. This impressive surge in our budget allocation underscores our dedication to maximizing the potential of this festive season and driving significant expansion within our business. We firmly believe that this increased investment in advertising will not only elevate our brand presence but also lead to an exceptional uptick in customer engagement and sales.”
For Policybazaar.com, the media strategy primarily involves a blend of television and digital platforms, an approach that has remained consistent in recent years and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
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OMD appoints Dileep Raj Singh as Head of Digital for APAC
Singh will report to Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC
OMD has added a Head of Digital (HOD) to its Asia Pacific (APAC) regional leadership team with the hiring of Dileep Raj Singh.
Singh is a digital native and brings with him a wealth of experience across product, media agency and client side in APAC, North America and the United Kingdom. His last 10 years have been spent building diverse digital marketing teams covering areas like performance marketing, digital media planning, ad/martech, product marketing, branding and measurement.
As HOD, he will accelerate OMD’s digital leadership agenda, rooted in helping clients address their business challenges and digital ambitions. He will be supporting OMD’s local teams in APAC on operational excellence, and digital transformation frameworks and roadmaps; and the development and implementation of our digital leadership agenda. He will also be working hand in hand with both our regional and global networks to initiate complementary workstreams for our clients in APAC.
“We will continue to invest and win in digital as part of our wider goal to be our clients’ most trusted business transformation partner,” said Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC.
“It is our global ambition to continue our leadership position in digital, data and technology. In line with this ambition, we are excited to have Singh come on board the OMD APAC leadership team. His background of agency, in-house and start-up experience position him perfectly to understand and address our clients’ business needs,” added Lee.
“Digital media and access to our audience, as we know it, is changing quite rapidly around us. This puts most of us in a delicate but remarkable position, a position from which we can shape and contribute to conversations about the next evolution of digital media. As we embark on this journey, I want to leverage the strength of the OMD network – people, technology, data, tools and platforms – to help our clients pivot and navigate through all the new and evolved possibilities in digital media. With this, I aim to position OMD as an unrivaled partner for our current and future clients; to dominate and succeed in this incredibly competitive and multifarious digital realm,” said Singh.
Singh will report to Lee, and work closely with the team including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), David McCallen, and Chief Client Officer (CCO), Sadhan Mishra, to drive and support APAC local markets as well as regional clients on digital, data and technology needs.
Mishra was promoted to CCO of OMD APAC recently in June 2023. He will continue to be CEO of OMD Singapore, a position he was promoted into last August. Mishra has been with OMD for over 13 years and in his concurrent new role as CCO, he will focus on key client relationships, understanding their business needs and ensuring we remain a critical partner on their transformation journeys.
McCallen was elevated to the role of CSO of OMD APAC in April 2022, and was previously the CSO of OMD New Zealand for five years where he helped the agency to attain the top place in the market for new business, overall billings and award wins. Since starting in the APAC role, his focus has been on connecting and elevating strategic best practices across the region, building capabilities across a range of strategic outputs, and supporting new business growth both regionally and locally.
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Chandrayaan 3: Brands over the Moon
Some of the best moment marketing posts on India's crucial lunar mission
The nation is in a celebratory mood with its moon mission Chandrayaan 3 making its smooth landing on the lunar surface on the evening of August 23, 2023. The Pragyan rover is in pursuit of discovering water on the moon and is a vital feat for India's ambitious space research.
To celebrate this momentous episode in Indian space research history, netizens have taken to the internet to express their excitement, hopes and fears for the nation's lunar mission. Joining them are brands who have crafted creatives to mark the historic occasion and capture the emotions of the nation who have their eyes set on the moon. Here is our pick of some of the best Chandrayaan 3-moment marketing posts.
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BCCI rakes in Rs 4670 cr in Women's Premier League team auction: Jay Shah 26 Jan
WPL has broken the inaugural auction record of Men's IPL in 2008, tweeted Shah
As expected, Wednesday turned out to be another historic day in Indian women's cricket with BCCI having a windfall gain of Rs 4,600 crores by auctioning five team franchises for the first season, a higher sum compared to what men’s IPL franchises offered to the cricket body during the launch in 2008.
Adani, IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW- GMR cricket and Capri Global have won the bid, BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah shared in a series of tweets, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
The country's top corporates had bid aggressively for the league. Over 16 groups including IPL franchise owners, Adani group, Torrent and Haldiram were believed to be in the fray.
Given the popularity of IPL in India, the event is touted to be a big draw for all stakeholders involved.
The BCCI was reportedly expecting ₹4,000 crore gain through team auction.
It’s noteworthy that Viacom18 has won the Women's IPL media rights for Rs 951 crore for the next five years creating euphoria around the league whose first season will be held in March.
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