Cut through the noise to get the marketing message across: Decode from industry leaders

Exchange4Media Leadership Meet at the JW Marriott Mumbai, from left to right: Tanvi Sethia Bapna, Advertising Sales Manager, Taboola; Sneha Gupta, Director- Brand & Agency, Taboola; Harpreet Singh, Publisher account director- India & South East Asia, Taboola; Bharat Arora, Country Manager-India, Taboola; Chintan Soni, Vice President- Digital, Madison World; Paras Mehta, Business Head, Matterkind; Chanan Fogel, VP-APAC, Taboola; Sairam Ranganathan, Nation Head- Digital Services, Wavemaker India;  Uday Mohan, President & Chief Client Officer, Havas Media Group; Naziya Alvi Rahman, Editor, exchange4media; Vinod Thadani, Chief Digital Growth Officer- Dentsu International & Chief Executive Officer, iprospect; Jai Lala, CEO, Zenith- ROI Agency; Dimpy Yadav, General Manager, Xaxis India; Ajay Mehta, Senior Vice President, Mindshare; and  Anisha Iyer, CEO, OMD

exchange4media, in association with Taboola, hosted a roundtable titled ‘Cutting through the noise to achieve clarity in uncertain times: Perspective from marketing executives’

The world of marketing is faced with new challenges time and again. The fast-paced domain is constantly changing, forcing brands to rethink existing strategies and come up with newer and innovative ways to reach out to consumers. On Friday, some of the leading names in the industry came together for a roundtable in an effort to unpack and better understand the challenges thrown at the marketing fraternity in these uncertain times. The roundtable was organised by exchange4media in association with Taboola.

The session opened with Chanan Fogel, Taboola APAC VP, sharing how Taboola is navigating the digital economy. “We live in an attention economy. We all recognize and understand it and are focused on trying to get that attention and engage with our users,” said Fogel.  

Talking about the future of marketing, Fogel discussed the patterns across the world and opined that uncertain times are beginning to appear in India as well. In the course of the discussion, he brought up issues that are crucial to agencies, amongst many, the value of vernacular. "We've heard that the next 100 million users will come from the vernacular space. I am eager to both share with you and hear your ideas on how advertising and marketers are reaching out to these audiences," he said.

Fogel also shared how Taboola captures users and engages with them in the open web space. “In the case of the Indian market, we are very happy to share that we now have full coverage of the open web space. For marketers in India ,this means that Taboola is able to cater to all marketing  needs across languages and platforms,  through the entire digital economy,” noted Fogel. 

“When we think about the open web, we also need to think about personalization. We are promoting the conversation that one size does not fit all and introducing personalization across all pages, even home pages, since what's right for one user isn’t certainly right for the other. Our business is built on a personalization engine that absorbs signals from across the internet, what users are doing, and then engaging with users by personalizing content recommendations,” he mentioned. 

Sharing his views on the biggest challenges faced by marketers in these uncertain times, Lala CEO, Zenith- ROI Agency opined that there were multiple issues and that Covid pandemic is now an old phenomena. 

“The first challenge that marketers face is the mismatch of demand and supply. The second is the impact on managerial efficiency since marketers have to be active every time lockdown opens up. And the third challenge is the boom of ecommerce and digital,” explained Lala. 

Adding to Lala’s opinion, Soni Vice President- Digital, Madison World mentioned that challenges also depend on what task one is chasing. “In marketing, challenges vary if one is chasing top of the funnel or the bottom of the funnel,” she mentioned.

Explaining how the digital transformation that took place during the pandemic has impacted marketing, Thadani Chief Digital Growth Officer- Dentsu International & Chief Executive Officer, iprospect shared, “It wasn’t just a media transformation, but a digital transformation. Certain clients and categories grew during that period. When it comes to the bottom of the funnel or sales, people couldn't go offline, hence, e-commerce in India grew to a larger extent.”   

The panellists then moved the discussion to another important aspect: measurement. 

According to Mehta , Senior Vice President, Mindshare some partners are very robust when it comes to their measurement model. “The conversation has shifted to cost per acquisition (CPA). Some short video platforms, upfront in conversation, don’t come and show us the platform and tell us about the media metrics and reach; they instead show us the impact.”

Adding to Mehta’s comment, Yadav General Manager, Xaxis India shared that when it comes to measurement, clients are digging deeper. “I also see a lot of horizontal action happening. Just not digging deeper in terms of understanding cost per acquisition or the last mile, but also understanding insights on the consumers. The measurement game is not just outcomes anymore, it's going beyond and talking about campaign optimizations.”

The industry leaders also discussed the right marketing mix to capture Gen Z’s attention and how agencies are planning beyond the search and social strategy. 

It's slightly complicated when it comes to Gen Z, quipped Lala. “We have to think right from the content because Gen Z questions everything and they don’t get fooled by any marketing gimmick. Therefore a lot of brands are changing their core. They want to engage with them in their language. And how you address them is the way forward,” he explained.  

Mohan President & Chief Client Officer, Havas Media Group stated that the challenge with catering to Gen Z is that it is tough to forecast. "We're attempting to establish a Gen Z panel across the country and offices. The problem is that their focus shifts. And we're trying to figure out what's in and how to connect with them in their language through this panel. The content must also be interactive and entertaining. Listening to Generation Z is critical."

The discussed then shifted to the importance of vernacular reach and the approach to achieving that reach. 

Ranganathan Nation Head- Digital Services, Wavemaker India opined that there was always a premiumness attached to English, but it has now become outdated in the past five years. “We have premium brands who are advertising in vernacular languages appealing to their audiences. The big shift will have to happen when you have the content ecosystem being ready to cater to regional markets. I think marketers are ready but there is a supply challenge that exists.”

Furthermore,  Mehta, Business Head, Matterkind stated that CPA or anything related to sales is vital, but where would the growth come from? “The metro will continue to develop and spend, but it (growth) will come primarily from tier II and tier III cities. As a result, it's critical to reach out to them, and this is where the vernacular comes in.” 

According to Fogel, they have seen compounded growth of approximately 400% QnQ in vernacular readership across Taboola’s network. “This is not just confined to India in local consumption. The opportunity size is massive. The brand safety measures are there, the audiences are there, the diversity of supply is there but how do we better package the opportunity and sell it to the client? That's where we all have challenge and opportunity”

Another relevant topic that came forth during the discussion was the shift towards programmatic advertising and how brands are profiting from it. 

It was a major topic of conversation eight years ago, according to Iyer CEO, OMD, but not now. It's just that we need to be more appreciative of technology's power, he mentioned.

“The reason why programmatic will continue to evolve is because unlike old ad server time, today ad service is commoditized,” said Paras Mehta. “There are new technologies coming in and most of them are ready to plug in the so-called programmatic channel and that makes it relevant every passing day,” concluded Mehta.