Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is extremely bullish about its ad-tech business Airtel Ads which operates in the rapidly growing digital advertising market in India. In a conversation with exchange4media, Airtel Digital CEO Adarsh Nair said Airtel Ads has seen a 200% revenue growth in its first year of operation. Being a strong advocate of user data privacy, Airtel is using deep data science capabilities to ensure high relevance when ads are served.

How important is the Airtel Ads business for Bharti Airtel and what targets has the company set for the advertising business?
Airtel Ads is an upcoming business for Bharti Airtel. It is a significant opportunity because digital advertising today needs a solution that can answer users' concerns around the privacy of their data and yet offer a rational, optimized campaign for brands. We don’t have any targets yet but see this as a billion-dollar opportunity. 

How big is the Airtel Ads business from a revenue perspective and where do you see it three years down the line considering the strong growth in digital ad spending?
We have several growth businesses that are built on Airtel’s core infrastructure and mobility service. Airtel Ads, our Ad-Tech platform, is one of the key digital businesses built within Airtel. Airtel Ads leverages all our digital assets to deliver targeted ads to customers which today has a digital MAU of 184+ million. In its first year, Airtel Ads has achieved 200% revenue growth and we aim to continue to achieve remarkable growth as digital becomes a key area of advertising spend for brands/media agencies in the future.

Digital media makes the second largest contribution of 30% (Rs 21,353 crore) to the Indian advertising industry which stood at Rs 70,715 crore at end of 2021, according to Dentsu’s Digital Advertising in India 2022 report. With digital media growth coupled with the industry need for first-party data platforms coming in, we see Airtel Ads as a billion-dollar business in the making.

Airtel Ads has completed one year since its launch in February 2021. What has been the response from the advertising fraternity?

Airtel Ads has received a very positive response from partner brands. They see a lot of value in our closed ecosystem of channels which ensures fraud-free campaigns and delivers more optimised returns on digital ad spends. How do we do that? Airtel as you know has 350 million mobility customers who come on our network after statutory compliances. This ensures that whoever is on the network is a legitimate user of our products.

These users interact with our products and services on a daily basis. Some use the Wynk music application, some through Xstream to watch movies, and some through the Airtel Thanks application to pay their bills. Since these interactions are also done within our ecosystem we know the usage pattern and can effectively slice the user base into multiple cohorts.

With our algorithm, Airtel Ads then offers brands the ability to reach relevant consumers through multiple formats and create a more personalised advertising experience
Airtel Ads has delivered 1,000+ campaigns across clients spanning 35+ industries. We are enabling brands in achieving better outcomes by instituting transparency in analytics, thereby building their trust in the digital medium. This has translated into 200% revenue growth for Airtel Ads in the first year.  

Airtel Ads claims to allow brands of sizes to curate consent-based and privacy-safe campaigns. How open are customers in giving consent for getting targeted ads?

We are a first-party user platform and strong advocates for user data privacy. Digital advertising today has two significant challenges. One, being lack of trust between the publisher and platform on the user accessing the platform, and Two, being lack of trust between the platform and the user, who feels that they are receiving irrelevant messages.
We believe that the question of trust and privacy in digital advertising is best addressed by a first-party platform such as ours where users are present. We use deep data science capabilities to ensure high relevance when ads are served. This leads to fewer ads for the consumer and separately, brands appreciate the consumer engagement. This also prevents the situation where a multitude of irrelevant ads is served to the consumer creating a sub-optimal experience.

What is the key to running privacy safe campaigns on the internet?

The key here is to build trust in the ecosystem between consumers, Ad Tech platforms, and publishers. Digital platforms need to realize that customer data and attention are prized assets. If consumers feel that their interests are not being served at Platform A, they will shift to platform B in no time. On the publisher side brands, today don’t know who is clicking on their advertisement and what is the value they are getting out of a campaign on a particular platform. This problem is addressed through the deployment of technology such as blockchain which keeps the user data safe while at the same time helps with identifying relevant cohorts. Privacy is a core concern for consumers while a brand wants returns on its spend and transparency from publishers. Combine this with the closed environment of Airtel’s omnichannel ecosystem and we have a secure environment that ensures data safety for users and better targeting for brands.

Airtel has consumers across digital, telecom, and DTH segments, what kind of targeting capabilities does Airtel Ads provide to clients?
Using Airtel’s deep data science capabilities, Airtel Ads allows brands to create high-engagement and high-impact campaigns for the most relevant customer cohorts. This also means that Airtel customers receive only the most relevant brand offerings and not unwanted spam. Airtel Ads offers innovative channels for brands to reach the right audiences.
What truly differentiates Airtel Ads is its razor-sharp focus on quality over quantity and real impact vs vanity metrics. Airtel Ads offers 50+ audience parameters to create custom cohorts.

What kind of reach does Airtel Ads provide to clients and can you provide an overview of the kind of customers that sit on your platforms across age, geography, and psychographics?
Airtel Ads provides brands access to Airtel’s 350+ million customers across various Airtel platforms like Wynk Music, Airtel Thanks App, Xstream Premium, DTH, and SMS. With an ARPU of Rs 178 and avg mobile data usage of 18.8 GB/month, brands recognize the opportunity at hand of connecting with premium customers with Airtel Ads. The audiences are further segmented based on insights into groups like travelers, gamers, online shopping, foodies, and many more to ensure only relevant ads to showcase to customers. Relevance is key to serving a delightful and seamless ad experience.

Bharti Airtel had recently invested in Aqilliz and is looking to invest in blockchain capabilities that address privacy issues. Is blockchain the silver bullet that will help platforms and brands to do targeted advertising?

Blockchain technology is growing, and its applications are expanding across Adtech, the Creator Economy, and Loyalty Programs, among others. The future of the digital economy is already focused on the management of value transfers between brands, platforms, and consumers. The relationship between Airtel and Aqilliz enables this value exchange in the form of consent and provenance to be captured and carried across the digital supply chain.

Sixty-nine percent of firms that spend over $1 million per month on advertising said that at least 20 percent of their budgets were lost to digital ad fraud, according to a survey by Forrester. Blockchain can be used on ad networks to eliminate the middlemen and trace who clicks and interacts with your ad in order to prevent fraud. For media and advertising, blockchain represents an opportunity for a fresh start. It welcomes new initiatives and products with privacy and trust-based approach.

Airtel Ads had recently partnered with PubMatic to provide its premium inventory to the latter's programmatic inventory buyers. What was the idea behind this collaboration and are you open to more such collaborations going forward?
This partnership aims to provide media buyers with a one-of-a-kind opportunity to reach cookie-free audiences on Airtel Ads' mobile app inventory. The collaboration between Airtel Ads and PubMatic recognises their shared mission to create a privacy-compliant, fraud-free supply chain for advertisers and an enhanced user experience for viewers. The partnership will provide advertisers with access to valuable audiences at scale, programmatically, in cookie-free environments, and assures that viewers utilising the Airtel platform only receive relevant brand communications and no spam.