'Agencies will now have to be business-first and not just digital-first’
Vinod Thadani, Chief Digital Officer of Mindshare, talks about his journey at the agency, the digital transformation that is taking place in India, and more
Media agency Mindshare has been an early believer in the power of digital. Realizing the impact that digital would have on the media industry, the agency roped in Vinod Thadani as its Chief Digital Officer in 2014. To scale up its digital practice, the agency has been making significant investments in product, talent, technology, and training.
Six years on, digital has overtaken print to become the second biggest category, after television, in terms of attracting AdEx. The exponential growth in gross ad billing of tech giants Google and Facebook is a testimony to the fact.
exchange4media caught up with Thadani to talk about his journey at Mindshare, the digital transformation that is taking place in India, and how are agencies and brands rising to the digital challenge.
From an agency’s perspective, in the marketing & advertising (M&A) ecosystem, the place of an agency continues to be in the sweet spot where logic and magic comes together, where art and data of the craft collide.
Being an early adapter, where does Mindshare stand as far as the digital media practice is concerned?
Being an early adapter also means that we are constantly learning and exploring new and better ways of working and delivering solutions that drive brand and business growth. We also work closely with media and technology partners, and making digital marketing an essential skill across our business units is very much a part of our culture. It has always been a connected world of platforms, where it is platform first, audience first & privacy first. In fact, as an agency, we play a bigger role in various aspects of a client’s business besides media planning & buying. We have been business first and not just digital first in our approach.
Upskilling talent is the topmost priority because COVID-19 has taught people digital transformation, developing foresight for what consumer behaviour shifts will remain vs. which will revert to a back-to-normal state. We have a perfect opportunity to drive behaviour change, for good in these times. We are industry leading in terms of numbers. But more importantly, we lead and guide the industry in qualitative aspects also (like BAV, etc.) to define value for our clients and industry stakeholders as a whole.
What differentiates digital media planning from traditional media planning?
Fundamentals of planning remain the same (be it digital or other media), the change is in terms of outcomes we chase, be it brand or demand. Digital has added the dimension of real-time data and measurement loops which enables seamless optimization. We need to acknowledge that unlike traditional media, digital is a 360-channel ecosystem in itself. There is a fragmentation of platforms like search, social, video, display, e-commerce - each with its own user experience and ability to nudge consumers deeper into the marketing funnel.
This fragmentation comes with its own unique set of complexities.
E-commerce is becoming a part of people's daily lives. How important is it for marketers and agencies for reaching out to consumers?
Comms/commerce/content is key for connecting with consumers. E-commerce is becoming a high impact growth stream, with India turning the corner from early adoption to massification. This is driven primarily by the growing internet user base, rising wallet share of digital natives, and cheap & ubiquitous data plans. Consumer activation was always there, just that it is more action & demand-oriented media planning & buys and communication. It has grown from small single digits to almost double-digit share for brands. Every brand is trying to increase share in marketplaces, share their overall e-commerce component & possibilities to open D2C channel.
How important is performance marketing in the overall digital marketing ecosystem?
With the advancement in attribution techniques and the way consumer buying behaviour has changed over the last six months or so, everything we do in marketing now is performance marketing. The line between brand campaigns and performance campaigns is diminishing. The pandemic for sure has not only brought the scale in terms of more people buying goods and services online but has also opened more options for consumers now than they ever had. With more buying options, the brand loyalty advantage is at stake and the challenge of customer retention has become much tougher for marketers than earlier. This essentially means that the product, UX, brand, marketing, data, strategy, and performance teams are no more a disjointed unit and are working very closely to both acquire and retain customers.
For a lot of businesses like consumer tech and online services, where their outcome metrics are realized online, for example, online sales, downloads, MAUs, subscriptions, performance marketing takes up more than 90% of their advertising and marketing efforts.
To sum it up, everyone even remotely associated with marketing has to transform into a performance marketer.
Many experts believe that pandemic and the resultant disruption in the economy has been a blessing in disguise for digital? Do you share that view and why?
I agree, there are no more fence-sitters. Now, there is no more ‘why’ since it is all about ‘what’ am I going to do in digital, ‘how’ & ‘when’...with great urgency.
This is happening at two levels:
Brands are venturing into newer product lines that they would not have thought of earlier. For example, alcobev & fragrance companies venturing into the hand sanitizer line or fashion brands making face masks, and so on. There is a disproportionate focus on digital marketing in every sector, be it FMCG, retail, or any other category. Marketing strategies are being relooked at and talent transformation has become the key agenda for every marketer. As far as agencies are concerned, I would rather say there are more advantages than challenges in this new normal. The biggest advantage is having access to a talent pool across the globe since the new normal is all about being location agnostic.
The second advantage is the fact that media agencies will play a bigger role in various aspects of a client’s business besides media planning & buying. Agencies will now have to be “business first” and not just “digital first” in their approach. Upskilling talent should be the topmost priority because COVID 19 has taught people about digital transformation, developing foresight for what consumer behaviour shifts will remain vs. which will revert to a ‘back to normal’ state. The marketing, media and advertising industry has a perfect opportunity to drive behaviour change – for good in these times.
FMCG, which is the biggest advertising category, has been considered a fence-sitter as far as digital is concerned? Have FMCG players joined the digital bandwagon in 2020 in a big way?
Yes, and they are aggressively leading the charge to make up for lost years. Now most of the cutting-edge work in content/commerce will be from our FMCG clients. The question most FMCG brands are asking is not ‘why’ digital, but ‘how’ to master their marketing game on digital. Strong evidence and proof points exist regarding the effectiveness of digital platforms and ad exposures to impact brand metrics and even influence offline sales. We also know of some FMCG brands that are digital-first advertisers where digital takes a disproportionate share of their media investments. Many FMCG advertisers are also exploring D2C as an extended trade channel and driving that with performance marketing.
How big is the SME opportunity on digital? Do you see them as the future growth drivers of digital advertising?
Digital by design capitalizes on longtail- be it in terms of demand or supply. SMEs in fact make up a disproportionate percentage of Google and Facebook’s advertising revenue! We even have independent entrepreneurs and home business owners leveraging digital platforms to scale their business and gain a wider consumer base for their products.
Can you list the top 5 or 10 key digital trends in 2020?
AI to enable a return to contextual targeting
AI to provide new opportunities to find meaningful consumer segments, beyond the cookie
Brands will explore the use of AI in creativity
AI to revolutionize communications planning, especially in low involvement categories
Will digital surpass 2019's ad numbers? What kind of growth do you expect in 2020?
According to industry reports for 2020, this was the year where we forecasted digital will overtake print to take up the second place after TV in terms of ad spending. The consumer shift in behaviour in the new normal has only accelerated this trend, and perhaps digital gained its position even faster than what was predicted.
How important is digital for a media agency from a topline and bottom-line point of view?
I do not think any media agency can ignore or downplay its importance, unless they have been living under a rock! Digital is ubiquitous among consumers and so it is important for marketers and agencies as a channel to connect with consumers. For us, digital is both, core to business as well as innovation-led growth. We have been making consistent and significant investments in terms of product, talent, technology, and training over the last decade. Our streak of winning and managing the digital mandate of 150+ clients is a testimony of that.
Tags : latest-stories Mindshare Digital Marketing Vinod Thadani