Ankit Desai, Media Head of Marico, one the largest FMCG companies in India, is currently experimenting with some latest AI-tools to optimize his digital ad spends. After all, the FMCG major spends nearly Rs 900 crore in advertising and promotional activities annually, a significant part of which goes for digital marketing. The big festive season (Durga Puja, Diwali and Christmas) which falls in Quarter 3, gets the lion’s share of the ad money. 

Performance AI-tools analyze spends during high-traffic periods, identifies micro trends in every channel, allocate and redistribute bids and budgets to maximize ROI and forecast the most profitable budget pacing strategies for subsequent campaigns, says Desai. 

Another FMCG major Dabur, whose annual ad spends ranges near Rs 650 crore, is also experimenting with a few AI-tools to optimize its digital ad spend, Rajiv Dubey, media head of the company told e4m. 

Dabur and Marico are not alone. Top advertisers from across categories such as CPG, BFSI, e-commerce, consumer durables and tech startups have initiated efforts to cut the ad waste and strengthen their festive campaign offerings with the help of Artificial Intelligence, marketers say. 

Moreover, a Redseer report predicts that the Gross Merchandise Value for the entire festive month (November) of India’s eTailing in 2023 will reach approximately INR 90,000 crores, marking an impressive 18-20% growth compared to the previous year’s festive month sales. 

However, AI media planning will not be limited to the festive season. Cost cutting is a round-the-year affair these days and  campaign optimization is the mantra for every marketer, especially due to consistent global economic headwinds. 

As demand surges, so does the supply. New-age tech firms such as Scibids, Pixis and SkanAI have come up to help media planners to cut the clutter. Their websites claim to have brands like Nestle, Dell, ITC, Swiggy and even media agencies like WPP and GroupM. 

How do these tools work?

These tools learn contextually from historical campaign data, seasonality-based trends, attribution, analytics and live performance data, and continuously adjust marketing strategies in real-time. They work on biddable digital ad spends through programmatic to bring precision into the marketing spends.

Samir Karpe, country head of Scibids, says, "Scibids AI seamlessly integrates with your chosen media buying platform (DSP) and tailors its digital media purchasing strategy using custom bidding algorithms. Prominent brands in various sectors such as CPG, automotive, telecommunications, and hospitality have harnessed this technology to achieve remarkable improvements of up to 70% in media efficiency."

These optimization models continually track search volume indices, audience engagement patterns, and buyer intent to swiftly mitigate abrupt spending fluctuations triggered by unpredictable changes. They autonomously identify and address erroneous spikes on a daily basis, significantly enhancing spending efficiency.