ad:tech 2015 | Mobile to grow more industry stalwarts predict !

And the most awaited Digital Marketing & Advertising Conference and Exhibition, ad:tech 2015 finally kick started in Gurgaon’s Leela Ambience Hotels. With more than 4000 marketing, technology and media communications professionals, 110 odd speakers and over 70 companies attending the first day of the event, ad:tech 2015 sees  an substantial  increase in  participation this year.

The event opened up with Rahul Welde’s, Vice President (media) for Asia, Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Russia at Unilever Asia Pvt Ltd, session on ‘Crafting brands for life in a connected world’.

He said, “We are a consumer first company and believe in catering to the needs and demands of the consumers in all possible ways. Consumer response plays an important role in our strategy building process.”

Today the dynamics of marketing and advertising have changed drastically , he also emphasised on the fact that digital plays a major role in their communication strategy. He said, “We have been using digital quite extensively and  like every year we will be increasing our digital ad-spends this year too because consumers are using and accepting this medium very quickly. But India is still growing and learning.”

He also mentioned that to aggregate the same, Partnerships and Mobile will play an important role. “We will be looking at strengthening mobile too within our communication strategy. When I say partnerships, I mean using platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter etc to enable engagement and strengthen the reach of our brand.”

Citing an example of Kankhajura Tesan, he said, “This initiative was launched in Bihar and became one of the most famous media channel in Bihar. This is not only an award winning initiative but also helped us building necessary reach and enable strong mobile penetration.”

He also mentioned that Kankhajura Tesan became one of the largest media channel in a year of its launch and today it has been expanded to other markets too.  He said, “From last couple of years we started focusing on mobile as a core medium and have been trying to strengthen the same year on year. Mobile has been growing at the rate of 100 percent every year and will soon be a way forward for all the brands.”

While concluding his session, Welde said, “What is the matter of concern is the way the brands make use of each and every advertising/marketing medium. We need to understand the changing dynamics of marketing and how new media and new mediums are emerging and aggregating different forms of advertising and marketing. Mobile is set to grow and evolve more in the coming years.” 

Though Welde’s session saw a full pack house, the next key note session welcomed Gowthaman Ragothaman, Chief Operating Officer, Group M who delivered key insights on Trends shaping the media industry. Though the session was supposed to be addressed by Rob Norman, Chief Digital Officer, GroupM but unfortunately he could not make it.

A strong believer of “We don’t have our business, if we do not mind our client’s business”,  Gowthaman Ragothaman  popularly known as G’man in the advertising/media world, opened his session with stating three forces of technology which are Layers, Devices and Consumers. He said, “At the foundation level layers comprises of utility, simplicity and virility. Today businesses are built on search, social and sharing. Consumer Surplus has been driving businesses. Brands have been using social media and digital platforms quite extensively which is adding value to their ecosystem.” 

He referred today’s communication strategies as a walled garden and consumer surplus today is 500 Billion USD which is growing at the rate of 20 to 25 percent every year. He said, “It is important to control the consumer through right communication strategy otherwise the chances of consumer shifting his/her focus are quite high.”

For G’man his clients are at the centre of all things, as without them he believes they have no reason to exist in the first place. Passionate about preparing the business for the future in the ever changing marketing ecosystem, he firmly believes in driving accountability for marketing return on investment in all efforts from Mindshare. He said, “It is important to drive the client’s core thought in an innovative way. There is so much data flooded in the market which has kind of created an adaptive layer among the consumers.”

According to him, today the emerging services are Analytics, Digital, Big Data, E-Commerce, Mobile Marketing, Emerging Class Consumer Activation and B2B services for all the clients across Asia Pacific. He stated, “Programmatic buying is one of the most important communication tactics and is slowly and steadily be growing significantly in the market. Not only that but recommendation engines like Netflix etc will also lead the marketing as it enables consumers to choose as per their own choice thus giving brands an opportunity to target the right set of audiences.”

He believes that Digital media revenues will continue to grow in the coming years too. He said, “Another emerging trend is the native advertising which is desire of brands and publishers for proximity. It is quite important for all the brands.”

He mentioned that today content is being consumed through various platforms and medium hence there has been a decline in consumption of content through print medium but again if the medium will used effectively Print media can contribute a lot in terms of reach for a brand. 

Moving on the most interesting and on-going topic, Devices and the use of same, Gman said, “Brands need to design and create apps very carefully as the consumers are really choosy about downloading an app on their mobiles. He said, “As we grow and get evolved, large part of the population will move beyond just referring facebook. We cannot deny the fact that mobile has spread the internet everywhere and to the smallest of the areas.”

He believes that the number of smart phones will increase going further down the line and will also do better than the growth of 3G and 4G. He said, “Mobile has been a key growth driver for a lot of industries including e-commerce. Consumers will continue to be elusive thus utilizing the journey of consumer’s is the key focus for all the agencies.”

He also mentioned that E-commerce is going to be big year on year. He said, “58 percent of all e-commerce business is derived from mobile and next 5 years will see a lot of dynamical changes in the e-commerce industry.” 

Last but not the least, Keynote Discussion of the Day 1 was on ‘Do we need to reinvent the agency model in the emerging technology driven social era?’

The panelist include Mandeep Malhotra Executive Director, DDB Mudra Group and President & Head, DDB MudraMax–OOH, Retail & Experiential; Ajit Verghese MD, Asia Pacific Maxus; Anisha Motwani Director and Chief Marketing Officer, Max Life Insurance; Ashish Bhasin Chairman & CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia and Mohit Ganju SVP, IndusInd Bank. The session was moderated by Manish Vij Founder, Smile Vun Group.

Manish Vij opened the session with asking what needs to be improved going further down the line…As Max Life insurance spends enormously well on digital, so on asking Anisha Motwani, are they utilizing every resource in an optimum way, she said, “We have different agencies for different roles. Every agency has their key understanding of the market.”

Ashish Bhasin said, “I do not think so there is a need to re-invent the agency model but there needs to a key focus on digital agencies. The agency needs to be super specialist these days.” Ajit Verghese believes that agencies need to help the clients evolve to understand the evolution of mediums.

Well, the keynote sessions were quite insightful  and the days to come  will surely have a lot more in store. Watch this space for more…..