Ranjoy Dey is the Head of Digital at Havas Media India, an integrated communications agency with digital at its core.

An MBA having about 19 years of experience he has worked in the digital marketing and strategy domain with Ignitee Digital where he was COO and VP Digital Business  at Digitas India, before joining Havas Media.

Seasoned across industry and category his portfolio includes LGE, Emirates, Sun Pharma, The Indian Hotels, Voltas, Philips, Nestle, Samsung, Reckitt Benckiser, Dabur, ITC, JK Tyre, Axis Bank, SanDisk, Airtel, Pizza Hut Delivery, amongst others. His works have won several National and International awards at the PMAA, MAA Globes, Abbys and DMA.

In this exclusive interview with Ratnika Swami for India Digital Review, Ranjoy talks about how digital marketing has evolved in India, online strategies to optimize ROI on campaigns, and the various challenges faced by clients and agencies. Excerpts:

Q. With outcome-based campaigns and algorithm-based decisions, how is the role of digital marketers evolving? Where do you think it will move to in the coming years?

The role of today's digital marketer is becoming more complex. Algorithms are generating visibility into consumer insights. Behavioural inputs are coming out of campaigns real time, and consumers are expressing feedback 24x7 on social media, and its spreading as well as getting picked up quickly. In this scenario, marketers must focus on analytics as a critical tool and build a system of continuous monitoring and learning. These inputs must form the base of all future communication and media strategies, and maybe in the long run, the formation of a thriving real-time interactive CRM system.

Q. What are the biggest challenges you face, especially in being able to optimally tap into the digital medium? 

Right at this moment, quality resources that are constantly updated on the dynamic systems in the digital medium are scarce. That is definitely posing a challenge to keep pace with the ever-growing needs & complexity.

Q. What are the most important things you keep in mind while planning to buy inventory for a digital campaign?

Inventory buying has transformed into audience-based more than site-based, and so the established metrics are also evolving. RTB & Programmatic systems have changed the way we look at media planning. It’s not inventory buying; it’s more important to understand the consumer journey & behaviour on digital.

Q. What measures do you take to ensure that you deliver highly effective digital plans? How does programmatic buying or any other tech tool impact your job?

Technology is a great leveller. It has forced intuitive decision-making in a media plan to a more scientific approach, where DSS outputs are richer and quite specific. As a result, KPI setting for measuring effectiveness has almost become an extension of the insight-data, and therefore effective. We are using our proprietary Programmatic tool & DSS to great effect with our clients to improve efficiency & deliver "real" results.

Q. How do you maximise online conversions for a digital campaign?

The parameters of what constitute a “conversion” differ from categories & clients - as not every business is online. For each category & client, the business needs define the KPIs of the media plan.

The continuous evolvement of technology is providing opportunities to customize specific ways to reach conversion for individual & divergent business needs. Once a need is set, utilization of the right tool & planning methodology will deliver maximum impact.

Q. What tips would you offer to digital advertisers?

1. Be flexible to pilot new technologies & channels. In this dynamic environment, there is no single "proven" way.

2. Start investing in analytics, through tools, resources, and your agencies.

3. Use the insights to not only plan future media strategies, but also to develop communication, creative and content.

Q. What are the main takeaways from this job? Does your experience help you plan for a performance campaign which is result/outcome oriented? If yes, could you please share a couple of instances?

The experience really does not matter. The pace of technology is furious, and consumer exploration & adoption of latest platforms is making the playing ground completely uneven and non-linear. It’s more of continuous learning and exploration that is making the industry so exciting & creative.

For example, for a high-end beauty product brand targeting SEC A+ young women, instead of applying the usual paid & earned routes of a performance campaign strategy, we conceptualized & implemented a shared media route that gave us access to speciality content - which in turn is attracting & engaging this discerning audience.

Again, in another case for a telecom brand, through technology innovation, we have been able to track audience exposed to an ad on TV, re-target this audience on their smart phones, and drive conversion to last-mile e-commerce.

Q. Are there any industry trends and technologies that you find exciting right now that might help your clients?

Mobile app analytics platforms are evolving rapidly, and in the new age app economy, monitoring consumer behaviour on the mobile app is not only becoming critical for the marketplace brand but also these insights can be extremely useful for brands, like an FMCG brand for instance. All consumer product brands now need to also focus on e-tail branding & merchandising; similar to what they did with retail branding & merchandising in the offline economy.

Q. Despite its growing popularity, social media continues to be tricky for media planners and brands. What are your views on social media engagement and what key parameters or criteria do you look at when planning to tap social media?

Social media on one hand is providing the best avenues of consumer targeting options for the marketer, basis specific demographics & psychos. On the other hand, effective content marketing is creating credibility & trust of the consumers - which in turn, is improving the efficiency of paid media deployed by the brand.

Q. What issues or challenges are your clients facing right now?

1. Understanding what's relevant and prioritizing the same in the most dynamic marketing environment.

2. Identifying the right partner who not only can conceptualize but also has the right tolls & resources to execute and analyze.

Q. Could you mention some recent campaigns that you found noteworthy? And what do you think makes them stand out?

The recent award-winning campaign for Halonix demonstrates the value of shared media where multiple partners came together with the brand utilizing their best capabilities, and also demonstrates the growing integration between paid, owned & earned media in today's non-linear consumption of brand messaging by the consumers.

Q. Going forward, how do you think will the relationships with publishers, brands or other players in the digital ecosystem hold sway for Havas Media?

The relationships are becoming more demanding, at the same time, fulfilling. Havas Media is increasingly practising technology-based solutions that are creating an edge for the brands we partner with. Also, our integrated media approach with the "digital at core" philosophy is constantly encouraging us to look at publishers & partners who are keeping pace with the times with innovations & solutions that can become a game changer. Overall, the market dynamics are keeping us on our toes and that's what we are enjoying the most.