Despite digital’s obvious growth, there is still a lot of juice left in TV: Shashi Sinha

The recently held e4m Confluence 'Media Investments Summit 2022' saw a venerable gathering of media and advertising industry veterans and business leaders. Among the many illuminating sessions held during the day was a Fireside Chat featuring Shashi Sinha, CEO, MediaBrands, India, in conversation with Naziya Alvi Rahman, Editor, exchange4media.

It was only apt that Sinha with his more than three decades of expertise in the industry would be speaking on - ‘Future starts today: Building the agency of tomorrow’.

Noting that he represented both traditional and digital media concerns, Sinha began the discussion by recounting some recent industry figures that he couldn’t reconcile. “While undoubtedly digital has been performing exceedingly strongly, there was a recent report, which noted that in the UK (which is supposed to be the world’s most evolved digital market), TV numbers were at 70% compared to digital’s 30%, which doesn’t seem to add up according to other market reports,” he said, observing that every company had its own methodology when it came to measuring numbers so as to show the best outcomes.

“Every channel can’t be number 1, even if 15 of them are saying that they are. They all use different time slots and other measurements, so it becomes very hard to value something exactly. I will say, despite digital’s obvious growth, there is still a lot of juice left in TV. It’s fashionable to say digital has gone ahead, but I’m old fashioned so I’ll still stick up for TV,” he quipped, while agreeing with Rahman that the issue of measuring data had become very difficult.

Stating that, in all seriousness, some concrete steps needed to be taken to address the issues of disparate ratings, the MRUCI Chairman said, “Whether it is the sample sizes, the technology and methodology being used, these will be long haul processes. I think all of us involved in this want to make a positive difference. So cross-media measurement, in terms of qualitative and quantitative meters which can be used on a large scale and ramped up economically. But it will take time,” said Sinha.

Addressing the new breed of media consultancies that have come up, Sinha said that while the A&M ecosystem had completely changed, agencies were still very much on top of the food chain as others couldn’t hope to compete with the sheer volume of creative and commercial output that agencies put out and the kinds of margins they commanded.

Commenting that while there was much change and transformation in the industry, Sinha concluded “As long as there are passionate people in the business, who aren’t just seeing it as a meal ticket, they’ll be able to keep up with any changes or challenges that come up in the future. This business is here to stay and is not going anywhere. As long as you can balance the pains (whether it’s the long working hours or tight deadlines) with the fun and your passion, it’s all good.”