In the 1st Part, the author pointed out some challenges that lie in the digital advertising eco-system in India. The 2nd Part speaks of some more:
Both clients and agencies seem to love ‘Virals’ and Facebook applications. However when you see the top applications the world over,not a single Facebook application for an Indian corporate is among the top 100.Few of our ‘virals’ have achieved over 0.5 million unique views. This after the fact that we are among the top 3 countries on Facebook and online video consumption on sites like You Tube and Facebook is significantly increasing.
The reason for this dichotomy? Too many to get into in this article but the bottom-line is we should stop selling something when we can’t do a good job on it ; or if we really want to do a good job put experts beyond multimedia specialists and techies .Those who understand why a ‘viral’ is a verb and not a noun (i.e. you can’t make a viral, you help something go ‘viral’) More time is today spent on creating something which is visually appealing or cute then understanding whether it’s something which consumers will be really enthusiastic about thus use and spread!
• Digital is not a silo:
Pick up any consumer segment including the most evolved internet users like teens. They of course spend time online but it’s not that their lives are restricted to it. They interact with friends in school and college, hang out in cafes and malls, talk on the phone, text, watch TV and even pick up a magazine on and off. However when we work on a digital campaign it’s as if a consumer exists in silos we talk about how to pull him/her towards our platform from a Yahoo or Facebook but hardly on how to integrate the other touch points across his life on different mediums . This integration is not about giving a URL in an OOH property or at the end of a TVC but giving him a solid reason to visit or be part of an online property integrating with what he finds important, what is relevant to him/her.
This can be done by people who understand both branding and digital; unfortunately the market seems to have less of both.
• The supply side problem:
The demand for skilled digital professionals is growing and it’s across various roles and industries from digital, mainline and PR agencies to digital product companies to brand and marketing managers. Most of us also agree that it’s a vast, rapidly evolving medium.
Yet there are hardly any decent full-fledged digital media courses in India!
Having spent the last 8-10 months teaching and interacting with students and administration across institutes I have realized that
1. The students are more than interested.
2. The administration by and large is open to having such courses.
3. The challenge lies in guiding them and teaching them the right skillsets.
The only ones who can do the latter is people from the industry who understand what the medium requires and where it’s heading. Unfortunately rather than build a talent pool which would be useful to all of us, very few of us are making the effort and prefer to leave it in the hands of hacks like the one mentioned earlier.
• Where is the case study?
Clients allocates budgets based on value derived from a medium .How many digital campaigns have really moved the needle for brands? How many digital campaigns would most of your friends or relatives from a non advertising marketing background be aware of and really find interesting?
Despite all the noise about the medium we haven’t yet got the great Indian digital case study .We have moved from being a token presence to a necessary component in the plan but far from really moving the needle on a business. Ironic for a medium which can be targeted, cost efficient, evolved to various levels and customized.
At the end of the day we are responsible for the medium we market and sell. It’s not that a lot us don’t realize the challenges but it seems easier to fit the system than to stand out and risk upsetting the fast moving and growing apple cart.
The change needs to come from top down where agencies and clients alike need to start evaluating how and where they are using the medium, right from Branding to Sales to Market Research and even HR rather than just spend the 5-7% of the total budget.
Open to your viewpoints and all constructive criticism.
Saurabh Parmar is the CEO of Brandlogist Communications and is also a visiting faculty for Digital Marketing at IIMC,9.9 SOC, PRCIMS.
