Governance Now holds roundtable on current advertising trends

It is time for the digital media to convert impressions into GRPs (Gross Rating Points) to get measurement numbers. An advertiser is entitled to know the content where their ad is placed.

Discussions along these lines were held during the Governance Now Roundtable on Current Trends in Advertising with advertising industry titans - Shashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India, Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison Media & OOH, and Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP Network. The session was moderated by Governance Now MD Kailashnath Adhikari.

Asked if digital media should go for geo-targeted advertising, Sinha said that unlike TV, Print and outdoor mediums, digital is opaque and based on search, discovery and performance-based marketing.

Pandey further said that the problem was in the entire eco system. In digital, you are not choosing a medium and only choosing a targeted age group or geography.

“This is dangerous for businesses and democracy,” Sinha concurred.

According to Sakhuja, that building blocks of media learnt through media planning should be extended to digital. “In digital we are only talking of impressions, which is another form of GRPs. They are not converting that into GRPs, which is a two-minute job. Reach is given only in terms of percentage and not numbers which will help reach out to both digital and video audience.”  

“The big problem on digital video is that you have a much longer tail than TV, so to build reach on high frequency is very difficult on digital.  As an advertiser, I should be completely entitled to know in which content is my ad placed,” he asserted.

While discussing how a majority of digital AdEx was happening in Google and Meta, and if this would continue, Sinha said in future the market will open up. “As MSMEs grow, growth will happen and automatically monopoly will break.”

Sakhuja felt that currently digital emphasis has been on performance at the cost of branding. “With focus on branding, digital will continue to grow,” he said. He also called for integrated marketing between TV and digital.

“Out of total video, we projected about Rs 30,000 crore for TV advertising and Rs 10,000 crore for video advertising. Today 25 per cent of total video is on digital. Going further, an integrated set-up will be a roll for both and very interesting to watch.” Sakhuja also spoke about having industry-led cross media studies to study the entire digital eco-system, and an industry body-driven audience measurement to make it more democratic.

Asked if viewers still prefer to watch news on TV screens, Pandey said digital platforms like Twitter and Facebook are enablers of news, getting more people to come on TV to watch news. “More and more TV sets are being sold in the country. The signal delivery medium of news consumption is changing, and people are watching live news.” 

Pandey said media owners should invent engaging content in a way that recognizes search media as enablers for people to come to TV. “More and more people are watching TV and news on TV, which is not reflecting in data,” he observed. As a case in point Pandey said there was no state government or political party that was not investing heavily in television. “They are in touch with their voters on a daily basis and know their consumption habits.”

At this point Sakhuja added that credibility and role of news anchors holds the attention of news audience, and said it was time newspapers made heroes out of their editors.

On the issue of major layoffs in e-commerce companies and how the sector contributes to advertising, Sinha said that global headwinds impact can last slightly longer and slow down the inflow of funds.

Sakhuja, however, differed and said they expected funds to keep coming.

According to Pandey, many media companies that witnessed spreadsheet-based business (alluding to e-commerce companies) either no longer exist or have been forced to sell their companies at far cheaper prices than what they could have for otherwise. “We have seen such windfalls every 2 to 3 years. Thankfully, with IBF we have a robust system of getting money on time.”

He further said that as media owners if they feel business is not very sound, they should collect money in advance.

India is in a bright spot despite the global scenario, the experts said, noting that if discretionary spends by consumers rise, barring a few product lines, double-digit growth can be expected in the CPG (consumer packaged goods) category, both in terms of volume and value, across categories, especially food.

Pandey said this year they expect growth in FMCGs, telecom, media companies, advertising, and subdued growth so far in automobile, two-wheeler and small cars, all of which will need advertising.  More foreign investment in real manufacturing sector will lead to growth in advertising, he said. 

Sinha also noted that connected TV will grow and potentially deliver content to a large number of people as brands consider television and print to be trusted mediums that add immense value to advertising.