Industry Watch - part 1

By Ninad Tatke.

Reference website: Agency FAQS (some matter is directly from the website) - this blogpost is for educational purpose only and I do not claim the ownership of the content.

• Advertising through Mobile. It looked an very effective and convenient way of reaching out to the consumer. However privacy issues crept up and the enthusiasm went down. Now these same consumers are online through mobile. These consumers were never online before. Its right time for advertisers to start thinking about ways to add value to these consumers. If you know any methods, do let me know. We can brain storm together.
• A classical perception of a brand is that it builds trust and reassurance. Now we see a new trend. Brands which are already existing are supporting a new brand and giving it credibility. (Brand power). It is a way of making money by helping others make money.
• Can digital distribution get money for broadcasters - Addressability provides transparency on who is watching and what is being viewed which, in turn, enables sharing what the viewer pays with the various stakeholders -- producer, broadcaster, platform, owner of the medium, and the government. Addressability provides a unified view of the viewer to all stakeholders across the chain. They can then distribute what is paid by the viewer in proportion to their contribution.

Addressability, facilitated by digitisation, will increase subscription revenue. Addressable digitalisation, achieved by a mandated CAS, will lead to an increase in subscription revenue for broadcasters and improve their quality of content.

• "Consumers respect advertising only if it's relevant": Laura Desmond.

• Q. While we talk about the integration of media and creative, we see many specialist agencies operating independently. What's the future?

  Laura Desmond: Yes, there will be integration, but in a different way. Some 15-20 years ago, the business revolved around creative messaging, and the full-service model stacked from the creative at heart, while today is the period of fragmentation and specialization.
  
  For a while we will continue to see fragmentation, but integration has to happen, though the question is when and how -- whether it will be integrated around messaging again or something new.
  
  We might even see specialist agencies re-integrating to achieve scale, which is important to compete.
  
  The digitisation of content and media is creating a neutral-screen approach, which will allow content, conversation and community to go across all platforms.
  
  To generate conversation and build communities, one has to integrate with the paid media. Today, the media business is primarily paid media. But one has to build capabilities in owned and earned media as well, in order to compete with paid media in future. That implies that we'll have to think about integrating all those specialist fragmented entities, because global companies will have to integrate paid, owned and earned assets a lot faster and strategically.

  Q. Who will take a lead in the integration - will it be media agencies?

  Laura Desmond: I think the media agencies of five years ago or even today won't be able to do that; it's the media agencies of the future that will do that. And that's one of the reasons why we had put together our own mission two years ago to reinvent our agencies.
  
  Media agencies have a better chance than other verticals, as they pursue more of the consumer centric upstream strategic role, versus the agencies who are over-focused on trading and commoditising the market.
  
  However, I don't believe even for a moment that the media agencies can execute all of it. But its role as an architect with the client -- to shape and stitch things together and find the right partners to execute -- is something media agencies can achieve.

  “Tablets can redefine the mobile advertising space”

  Q. What's the problem with mobile advertising - is it the content or the device?

  Laura Desmond: I don't think anyone has cracked the code for mobile advertising anywhere. The reason why people are desperate to figure it out is that mobile penetration is higher than any other screen in the world.
  
  The encouraging part is that the numbers for smart phones is growing, and it will solve a lot of the problems. Advertisers will now be able to experiment with the new technology and bandwidth.
  
  Mobile advertising has to be more about point in time and immediacy. Retailers, quick service restaurants, movie studios and theatres are trying to figure that out, because all these are impulse purchase and decision, so point in time matters for them.
  
  Another interesting thing to watch out for is what tablets do to mobile advertising space. Because they are going to give a new definition of what mobile is. Mobility will expand beyond the present realms of mobile phones, because the kind of marketing you can do on tablets is very different.

  Q. Marketers often make this mistake of treating the entire mobile population in homogeneity without any segmentation. Shouldn't that change?

  Laura Desmond: Yes! Just like the Internet, mobile opportunity lies in segmenting the audiences -- where they are, what they are doing, what they are surfing and then sending specific messaging to them.
  
  We do have the data to do so; it's just that the companies don't know how to make it operational. We need to build the pipeline from the carrier data to the client data to media data, so that we can follow that right path.

  Q. What's going to help grow OOH in India? Will it be the infrastructure that is developing in many cities in India?

  Laura Desmond: The growth for OOH will come about when the network becomes digital. There is tremendous creativity there. If you remember the movie, Minority Report, there was a scene where different OOH signs were served up for individuals who were passing by. I know it sounds far-fetched, but it will happen one day. Because the idea to be able to serve content based on the relevant audience is there, and the personalization of that is just about technology.
  
  Ravi Kiran: What we have seen so far in out of home in India is at a rudimentary stage. What we are doing right now is find walls and hang hoardings on them. Ninety-nine per cent of it is static, but the combination of new technology would bring in transformational change in OOH.
  
  Most of us haven't even started thinking on this; we are at a stage where the US was some 30-40 years back, like how do I measure how many people are passing by or how many are watching my sign.
  
  I think in the next 8-10 years, this medium -- when combined with the latest technology and the spaces where people are around -- will grow at a better pace than what we have grown in the last 40 years.

  Q. Today's consumers are bombarded with advertising messages every moment in their lives. How long can this go on?

  Laura Desmond: Yes, you are correct. Here is the interesting thing: a consumer knows they are going to see advertising messages everyday. If given a relevant choice of messaging (and we have done some research here), they would love to see that.
  
  Like for a large family, an SUV ad is more relevant than a two-door sports car. In the future, advertising can earn more respect, provided it becomes more relevant and contextually targeted.

  Q. Why are media agencies more quantitative driven than qualitative?

  Ravi Kiran: To be able to compare things, one has to have numbers. It's not the red versus yellow debate, as both are qualitative names; as opposed to 2 versus 4, which has a different meaning. So, I don't think quantitative data analysis or measurement would go out of fashion. 
  
  
  By Ninad Tatke