‘Programmatic gives you the ability to identify audience more sharply’

The recently-held e4m-Xaxis Programmatic Summit created an interactive platform for brands, advertisers, content marketers and MarTech agencies to throw light on the pressing changes and greater effect on the programmatic ecosystem.

One of the interesting several panel discussions was on how can we better optimise and integrate digital media strategy keeping programmatic high priority with the goal to scale the ROI for brands on their media investments in the new multi-channel digital advertising landscape.

Participating in this panel discussion were Ritu Mittal, Head – Marketing and Digital, Bayer Consumer Health India; Daniele Calabrese, Regional Director, Taboola – India and Southeast Asia; Merlin Coutinho, Head Marketing and Brand Solutions, Lemma; and Ankita Jain, Co-founder at Earnly. The session was chaired by Ranjan Mishra, Lead Associate Trading Director, The Trade Desk.

Mittal kick-started the discussion with what programmatic means to her. “To me, programmatic is all about the ability that a marketer has today to reach out to consumers of the brand in a more targeted, relevant and effective manner. There is more data that is available today than it ever was both in terms of what is available and when it is available.”

“The second idea is that you have the ability to identify the audience more sharply. So, all that we talk about in terms of conversion from awareness to trial can be so much more effective just because you are reaching out to a more relevant audience who could be genuinely interested in your brand, in the category, in the needs that you are talking about,” Mittal said.

She further spoke about ‘omnichannel’. “What is it, really? I think it is about identifying what is the journey of your consumer, what is the day of your consumer like, what do they do in their day, which platforms are they interacting with and on those platforms, which ones are relevant to your brand or category, and then be present on them. That is what omnichannel presence is about.”

Coutinho also spoke about the importance of omnichannel. “Advanced omnichannel is talking about platforms like CTV, which are non-traditional in terms of digital. So those are new aspects that are creeping into your omnichannel strategies and they will in the future shape up to a bigger scheme of things in the ecosystem. But when we talk about omnichannel, it’s also your CTV and wearables and other devices that are now part of the ecosystem and are easily accessible through programmatic advertising.”

Jain agreed with Mittal, “It is all about a set of one. So, we used to create user sets and cohorts but I think it is a set of one. Every user is unique, every user you are talking to needs to be addressed in a very different manner, and for that matter programmatic is what helps you in doing that. We work a lot with influencers. So, getting the content generated using the channels of programmatic advertising is something that would make it more relevant and that is what we do for our own brand and also for the brands that we work with because we are on both sides. And on how things are shaping up, I would really say that there are new opportunities that are coming up with the advent of APIs and UIDs. There are a lot of things that are there already in programmatic to actually help us as brands and as clients to navigate our way and reach the consumer and talk to them.” 

The event is co-powered by Scibids while Xapads is the innovation partner. Lemma is the programmatic partner and Aaj Tak is the co-gold partner of the event. Bobble AI is the co-partner of the event.