Krishnan, CEO & Director – India, Whisper Media, talks about in-content advertising, its effectiveness, challenges and more Ad-tech company Whisper Media, which helps broadcasters monetise in-content advertising (ICA), sees India as one of the largest growth markets. Currently, the company works with two broadcasters - ZEEL and Star India. It offers 14 channels across Hindi and regional GECs for in-content ad monetisation. In the last 18 months, Whisper Media has done around 100+ campaigns across categories and brands. In an interaction with exchange4media, LS Krishnan, CEO & Director – India, Whisper Media, said that the biggest advantage of in-content advertising is that the clutter level is near zero. That is because, in an episode, only one brand message is carried at a time when the viewer attention is the highest.

He also informed that the effectiveness of ICA campaigns can now be measured under the BARC YUMI tool, similar to TVC ad spots. YUMI Analytics offers a graphical representation of data, conditional formatting of the output, evolution modules in program reports, multi-tasking for multiple data runs, cross-database analysis, and a gamut of advanced formulas. Excerpts: How has the business been for Whisper Media in 2020? The entertainment and advertising industry was definitely affected for a few months when TV productions stalled and the content banks dried up. Besides that, we have been pretty consistent with our brand integrations on various partnered channels. With TV productions resuming almost fully, we are on track with our plans. Also, considering there are a lot of on-shoot production and programming limitations now, Whisper Media has only benefitted with more brands turning to ad-tech solution providers for brand integrations/in-content advertising undertaken digitally. With television continuing to be a preferred source of entertainment, especially during the pandemic when people are spending most of their time at home, brands consistently look at exploring various formats on TV to reach the target audience for message delivery. The variety of content offered on TV is one of the key reasons that keep it successful and relevant at all times; and with the emergence of digital platforms as well, the content landscape is only going to grow hereon.   How important is the Indian market for Whisper Media? In any industry, building volume is hard. India already has the volume and is the largest content production market in the world. As the global leader in efficient content integration, India becomes one of our key markets to build on this diversity and help global as well as domestic brands to establish their presence through content. We have revolutionized the complex product placements and brand integrations which are now delivered in a simplified, fast-paced, scalable, and accountable manner. In India, GEC has about 50% share of viewers, which contributes 70% of TV AdEx. This makes India one of the largest growth markets for Whisper Media where we can assist brands in delivering the message to the right audience and monetise the content for broadcasters, without compromising the viewing experience.   Has in-content advertising as a concept picked up in India? Yes, it is picking up and growing month on month. Brand integrations or in-content advertising have been running for many years in different forms – be it physical product placements or co-sponsoring/co-creating a TV property/show.  With Whisper Media, we are bringing the tech advantage of embedding brand messages post-production. Our workflow has been designed in a way that we take care of the requirements of all stakeholders and deliver value. We believe that measurement of ICA is essential for it to be a choice of advertisers by design and that is the reason for our emphasis on research to demonstrate the effectiveness of ICA in combination with TVC spots to increase the message recall.   Can you tell us how do you integrate brand messaging into content without compromising on the sanctity of content? We digitally embed the advertising communication of brands into the content at the post-production phase, making it the most cost-effective and operationally efficient process for in-content integration. This ensures that the content creation team does not have to worry about changing storylines or accommodating a brand message within the content. We use technology as a solution to seamlessly integrate the brand message within the content. The viewers are engaged in watching their favourite show with utmost attention and involvement, and the brand message appears seamlessly in the same frame without disturbing their viewing experience. This ensures noticeability and recall of the brand message. We adhere to the guidelines, which ensure that the editorial sanctity is maintained.   Compared to normal brand messaging, how effective is ICA for brands? Today, one of the biggest battles that marketers face is how to win against the increasing clutter level. More than 2,500 messages hit an average person on a daily basis. How to communicate with them when their attention level is high? That is the biggest role that ICA plays in the life of a brand or marketer. The clutter level for ICA is near zero. In an episode, we carry only one brand message at a time when the viewer attention is the highest. We say Whisper ICA is uncluttered and unmissable. The effectiveness of ICA campaigns can now be measured under the BARC YUMI tool, similar to TVC ad spots.   How many brand embeds have you executed in India? Since our inception in India, we have executed more than 7000+ brand embeds with more than 60 brands contributing to our growth across our network of channels.   How big is your client base and how many of them are repeat advertisers? This year, we have doubled the business and about 30% of them are repeat clients. Year 2 in India, we see lot more new clients coming on board and experiencing the solution.   How receptive are Indian brands and media planners to ICA? Marketers and planners are always on the lookout for engaging their target audience in a clutter-free environment. The measurability of ICA has been really significant in getting more acceptance from the industry and validating the performance of ICA being an effective form of advertising. Planners and brands can evaluate ICA campaigns by using BARC YUMI analytics for both pre-campaign forecasting and post-campaign analysis. Integration of ICA spot viewership data into their planning tool helps them to evaluate ICA campaigns just like a TV spot campaign. We also provide an eye-tracking study with heat-mapping technology to emphasize the viewer attention on ICA placements in the content. Brand Lift Insight studies measure the effectiveness of ICA to the brand health metrics. With all these measurements in place, the acceptance to our ICA solution is very encouraging.   How many TV broadcast partners do you have? We are currently working with two leading broadcasters - ZEE & Star Network as our partners. We offer 14 channels which include both Hindi and regional general entertainment channels.   Any interesting case study that you would like to share? For the last 18 months, we have done around 100+ campaigns across categories and brands. We conducted some in-depth studies with Kantar on certain campaigns. One of the ITES brands benefited exponential uplift in spontaneous brand recall compared to their TVC only campaign. Eye-tracking studies highlight the fact that ICAs are viewed by more than 85% of the viewers, consistently. A leading mobile brand was able to achieve 10% + incremental reach over and above TVC campaign with the ICA spots in their key markets. A combination of TVC and ICA yields better ROI for campaigns.   What are the challenges being faced in scaling up ICA? Content is the backbone of this business. Not having enough placement opportunities in the content is one of the main challenges in India. Most of the drama series are shot indoors/within a premise which limits the exposures. We are working closely with our broadcast partners on this to ensure the smooth scaling up of opportunities for ICA.   What are the growth plans for 2021? As more and more brands are coming on board, we would like to strengthen our portfolio of channels/markets. This will ensure every brand will have a broader bouquet to choose from as per their target audience and market and thereby increasing our client base. We believe the right team is required to deliver on the vision, hence adding people with pedigree, belief in the offering, and hungry for success. Strengthen the product offering by expanding into OTT space and few more segments which would unveil in Q1 of next year.