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  • GUEST COLUMN: How Artificial Intelligence is transforming the world of digital marketing

    GUEST COLUMN: How Artificial Intelligence is transforming the world of digital marketing

    Mumbai: From Siri to Tesla Car, and Google AI to Alexa, Artificial Intelligence is now impacting every aspect of our lives. It is designed and programmed in a way to mimic and think like a human being. With data as the new oil in the marketing world, intelligence will be needed to derive meaningful insights to improve the marketing mix.

    With the vast potential of collecting, analysing, applying, and learning data, artificial intelligence is transforming the digital strategies of various sectors. With its advancement, it is also impacting and dominating the world of digital marketing.

    We all know digital marketing uses online platforms to advertise products and services of the brand. A study conducted by Salesforce revealed that almost 51 per cent of marketers are already using AI, as of 2018. But, after the pandemic, customers, as well as businesses, took the digital way resulting in an unprecedented surge in the way people experience the digital ecosystem, where our lives had literally moved online.

    Here are some insights on how AI is playing a pivotal role in the field of digital marketing:

    Customer Insights Integration

    Customer insight integration basically refers to the analysis of customer behaviour. Insights in this perspective refer to the metrics that show, how well a certain content is performing. For example: On LinkedIn, when one uploads an image/video, AI immediately scans the image for nudity/sensitive content and rejects or removes it from the timeline. Alternatively, if your status has more comments on a particular post, the algorithm amplifies it to the second and third network of users. On another popular digital platform, Spotify, the app recommends playlists based on the user’s choices. A similar algorithm is deployed by Amazon when you see recommended products based on your past purchase. Most popular digital platforms, through AI, are able to paint a virtual personality of the user, based on past behaviour and actions online.

    Real-Time Tracking

    Artificial intelligence also allows real-time tracking and lets the marketers know how a certain post is performing in an instant. For marketers, this means faster A/B testing of content, better analysis, and swift deployment of better strategies to produce more content of what’s working.

    Enhances Customer Experience

    Artificial Intelligence uses the theory of machine learning to study its user. They observe the pattern of the user’s choices by monitoring what s/he likes or dislikes. After observing the patterns, they show content to users according to their preferences and likes. This makes marketing virtually personalised and the user engages more with the content as per his/her preference, stimulating dopamine. And it’s not rocket science to note that a happy user is most likely to buy a product or service.

    Chatbot

    Chatbots are designed in such a way that it can stimulate human conversation with the help of pre-defined texts and sentences. With the introduction of AI in digital marketing, it has enhanced the customer experience by providing them 24×7 customer care services. A study conducted on American Businesses and Customers who have used chatbots revealed that 64 per cent of Americans agreed on the availability of chatbots 24×7, on any day as its best feature 24×7. An erstwhile long content that had a dedicated FAQ page has now turned into an interactive session where the bot addresses your most common concerns and directs you to a human when needed.

    Email marketing

    AI can also help email marketers reach the right customers at the right time, ensuring that messaging is relevant, engaging, and more likely to convert. It can also allow you to better analyse what types of messaging, subject lines, design, and images get the best results. With Artificial Intelligence, it has become a lot easier to send the customer personalised emails. 

    With data-driven marketing strategies ruling the roost, Artificial Intelligence is the hero that ‘makes sense of the data, analyses the data, creating a virtual persona of the intended audiences, and predicts ‘better’ strategies to target them. And this is probably just the start of how AI will transform the face of marketing as we know it.

    (Nikhil Sharda is EVP – creative & digital communications at Scroll Mantra. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • GroupM India elevates Atique Kazi to president – data, performance and digital products

    GroupM India elevates Atique Kazi to president – data, performance and digital products

    Mumbai: GroupM India, WPP’s media investment group, Friday elevated Atique Kazi to president – Data, Performance and Digital Products, with effect from 2 August. 

    Kazi will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office and report to GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar and Xaxis APAC CEO Arshan Saha. He will also be joining the conglomerate’s executive committee, the company said in a statement.

    Kazi has been a part of the GroupM family since 2013. He was integral in launching Xaxis in India before moving to Singapore to take over a regional role. He established the agency’s AI-enabled influencer marketing solution, INCA across 10 key markets.

    In his new role, Atique will continue to build on the brand’s best practices and technologies across the fields of data analytics, deep learning, process mining, performance marketing and business intelligence to create efficient, fast, and scalable value-added processes, it further said.

    Welcoming Kazi on board, Prasanth Kumar said, “At GroupM our focus is to continue evolving by offering flexible, scalable and innovative solutions. Atique joining the core team at GroupM India is the reflection of our commitment towards offering digital solutions that can create great value-add for brands in this ever-evolving market. I look forward to working closely with Atique and I am confident that he will continue to grow our digital offerings. His expertise of aiming at innovation and providing value-propositions will be key towards Digital Transformation of our clients and partners.”

    Arshan Saha said, “The scale and speed of digital transformation and the fact that India as a market has demonstrated its leadership in this area means that we need to have our best talent to fulfil this demand. Atique is one of our very best with a proven track record locally and most recently regionally in APAC where he launched and scaled GroupM’s Influencer and content arm – INCA.  Having worked with Atique for over 8 years, I can attest to his leadership, curiosity, knowledge and drive which are invaluable in defining and determining client success.”

    Before joining GroupM Kazi was a part of Yahoo! in London heading planning and strategy for emerging markets in EMEA. His career pedigree also spans The Economist, The Times Group, JVC etc over the past 18+ years.

    On his new role, Kazi said, “I am excited by this role given the scale of the opportunity to drive further growth within GroupM. I strongly believe that digital acceleration provides agility to organizations. With the support of better data, analysis, innovation, stronger performance, and result orientation we can better respond to brand challenges and accelerate their transformation journeys and help them achieve faster business outcomes. India is a market of opportunities and by leveraging GroupM’s digital expertise we can redefine the ecosystem.”

  • Kantar brings in Chris Jansen as group CEO

    MUMBAI: Data and media company Kantar has announced the appointment of Chris Jansen as group chief executive officer, effective 1 November. He is currently CEO at Cognita, a global schools group.

    Jansen joins Kantar with more than 20 years of leadership experience in the services sector, ranging from brand building to service delivery transformation, alongside a background in classic FMCG marketing, and an established track record of managing private equity-owned businesses.

    Welcoming Jansen on board, Kantar chairman Adam Crozier said, “Chris’ track record of building great companies, as well as his entrepreneurial and competitive spirit, further strengthens the leadership team we have been building over the past 18 months. Chris is a highly people-centric leader who understands the importance a strong culture plays in delivering outstanding results. As we continue on our transformation journey at Kantar and build on our recent business momentum, his leadership will be instrumental in fulfilling the ambition that we have for Kantar.”

    Jansen has previously served in various leadership roles, and board positions at both British Gas and British Airways. He led the Automobile Association (AA) to a stock market flotation in 2014.

    Kantar’s newly appointed CEO said, “Kantar is rightly regarded as a world leader in data and insights-led consultancy and has an outstanding reputation with its clients. This is a result of having outstanding people, and I am really looking forward to working very closely with the Kantar team. We have an exciting future ahead, as we continue to embrace advanced analytics and the latest technology in order to better serve our clients.”

  • Wondrlab ropes in Bilal Ansari as lead-data

    New Delhi: Wondrlab strengthened its senior leadership team on Tuesday with the appointment of Bilal Ansari as lead-data. He will report to Wondrlab, co-founder and managing partner, content platform, Rakesh Hinduja.

    Ansari comes with expertise in data analysis for business and brand solutions –social listening, online reputation management, social media analytics, website analysis, consumer behaviour analysis, consumer journey mapping, and how learnings from these sources add value to brand and business strategy.

    Prior to this, he was working with TikTok–ByteDance as the content solutions manager. He has also worked with Digitas India, where he worked on brands such as Spotify, Nivea, Jeep, Philip Morris International, and Zee5.

    “Data is the focal point of every solution we execute at Wondrlab. However, the expertise for it isn’t easy to come by, and we are glad we have found the right fit in Bilal. His knowledge comes together at the holy trinity of data, analytics, and consumer behaviour, making his expertise quintessential to our platform-first approach. We look forward to an exciting partnership with him on all our key clients,” said Wondrlab co-founder and managing partner, content platform, Rakesh Hinduja.

    “The opportunity to set up a data-led practice from scratch posed an interesting challenge. Add to that, I get to do it at an exciting platform-first startup-like Wondrlab, making the challenge all the more fascinating. I am looking forward to working with the team, most of whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past, and bringing this to life,” said Ansari on his new role.

  • ZEE ropes in Nitin Mittal as president – technology & data

    ZEE ropes in Nitin Mittal as president – technology & data

    Mumbai: Leading media conglomerate Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEE) on Tuesday appointed Nitin Mittal as president – technology & data.

    Prior to joining ZEE, Mittal was the founder CEO & board member for SOLV, a company focused on creating an open platform for B2B commerce, credit, payment, logistics and skilled workforce for the SME segment in India. At Zee, he will lead strategic initiatives in Tech, Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) and Digital across the company to support the ZEE 4.0 transformation, said the company on Tuesday.

    The announcement is part of the media conglomerate’s strategic plans to support its digital pivot, drive exponential growth across digital platforms and fortify the broader transformation it has embarked on, in line with the ZEE 4.0 approach.

    “We have taken concerted efforts and reworked our digital strategy in order to build robust digital assets to enhance the user experience. We are taking concrete steps to further upgrade our technological capabilities, and I am sure with Nitin’s expertise, we will enhance the value proposition of our digital products to create consumer delight,” said ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, MD & CEO, Punit Goenka.

    The transformation process aims at creating a digitally adept, data first company that will be a leader, in all formats of content consumption, both linear and digital, across India and key international markets.

    Mittal will also lead the engineering team and work closely with president – digital businesses & platforms, Amit Goenka to enhance the customer experience across ZEE5 and support the growth plans of the OTT Platform in India and across the world.

    “The pace of technology-led innovation in the media and entertainment ecosystem is rapidly rising, and a strong blend of technology, data and talent are the critical determinants to succeed in this space. I am glad to welcome Nitin Mittal to our leadership team to drive the digital transformation journey of ZEE 4.0 forward,” said ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, president – digital businesses & platforms, Amit Goenka.

    Commenting on his new role, Mittal said, “My job at ZEE is to worry about technology in the future. If you want to have a great future you have to start thinking about it in the present, because when the future’s here, you won’t have the time. (Brockman 2003). I’m committed to helping our clients and various teams’ professional dreams come true. As an organization we aim to create an environment that sparks innovation. I will do my best to support and implement the great ideas the teams come up with.”

    Mittal has two decades of experience, during which he has worked with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to build the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) framework for the country and with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on reframing the Aadhar platform to drive the exponential growth of its coverage in India. He was also associated with Standard Chartered, IBM, TESCO, BNY Mellon, Wipro and the Future Group in the past.

  • Sonali Malaviya appointed as managing director Essence India

    Sonali Malaviya appointed as managing director Essence India

    MUMBAI: Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM on Thursday announced the appointment of Sonali Malaviya as the agency’s managing director for India.

    Malviya will be responsible for leading continued client-centric innovation in data, analytics and technology, as well as business growth and company culture for the agency in the market. Based out of Delhi, she will report to Essence APAC CEO, T. Gangadhar and GroupM South Asia CEO, Prasanth Kumar. She will join Essence’s APAC leadership team and GroupM India’s executive committee as part of her role. Meanwhile, Anand Chakravarthy, previously managing director for Essence India, has moved on from the agency to pursue new opportunities.

    Joining Essence in 2018, Malaviya most recently led the agency’s Google business in India and Southeast Asia as senior vice president, client services. Previously, she served as chief operating officer at Colorbar Cosmetics and country marketing lead at Twitter in India. With over 20 years of industry experience, she has also held senior roles at Mindshare, PHD, Roy Morgan Research and MediaCom in India, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

    “Sonali comes with rich experience in management, marketing and media across industries and markets, as well as a deep understanding of Essence’s business, work, people and culture. In addition to building strong, collaborative partnerships with clients and employees alike, she is an advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. India continues to be a priority for Essence in APAC and globally, and with Sonali at the helm, I am very excited about our next phase of growth and development in the market,” said Essence APAC CEO, T. Gangadhar. “We would also like to thank Anand for his efforts in helping to establish our business in India over the last three years. We greatly appreciate his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”

    “We are glad to see Sonali take over the role of Essence India managing director. With her background and significant achievements, she will add to the capabilities of Essence and work with our teams to improve the client experience. As we continue to develop leaders internally, Sonali is also part of our growing pool of talent taking on various leadership roles across GroupM India. I look forward to working with Sonali and leveraging her expertise,” said GroupM South Asia CEO, Prasanth Kumar.

    “I am truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead Essence in India. Over the past three years, I have witnessed and been part of our incredible growth story in this market, and am very proud of what our agency, clients and employees have achieved together. I am looking forward to partnering with our highly talented teams and leveraging our industry-leading capabilities to help even more brands in India achieve data-driven growth and transformation, as well as valuable connections with consumers,” said Malaviya.

  • Mediabrands launches Mediabrands Content Studio in India

    Mediabrands launches Mediabrands Content Studio in India

    Mumbai: Mediabrands on Monday announced the launch of Mediabrands Content Studio (MBCS) to focus on creating content strategies for its clients in India. MBCS is a data-driven content practice which is built on the intelligence and insight that media provides, about which content can connects brands with people in the most compelling and personalized way.

    It will focus on three emerging categories: branded content opportunities with media partners, digital content that drives performance and engagement, and brand-fuelled long and short-form original content. Globally, MBCS was launched in November 2020.

    Over the years, Mediabrands India has built a strong presence in the content space, backed by creativity, data, and innovation. Its content division has been integrated with MBCS India, which will soon announce its leadership and structure.

    “The launch of MBCS in India reinforces Mediabrands India’s commitment to offering cutting-edge, new, and innovative content models for its clients. MBCS will bring together our content tools and capabilities from around the world and add the power of data and media expertise to create content experiences to grow brands”, said Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha. “I am confident, the team will build MBCS through data-fuelled creative and media expertise and set a gold standard in this space.”

    Recently, MBCS had announced an exclusive production partnership with VICE Media, which will gain further momentum in India, with the official launch of the division.

  • What BARC’s temporary cessation of news channel ratings means for all

    What BARC’s temporary cessation of news channel ratings means for all

    MUMBAI: With all the hullabaloo around the news TV space and allegations of rigging flying thick and fast, the viewership monitor BARC has decided to take a breather as far publishing of  weekly ratings of the purveyors of news is concerned. This temporay cessation  could impact the overall industry – especially advertisers and those involved in the news business. More so because advertisers and agencies will not have access to the de facto ratings cuurrency that allows them to price the air time and TV spots they buy from the news channels.  

    The committee has shared its point of view on why it has taken such a step. Excerpts:-

    Why has BARC India taken the step of not reporting news channels? 

    In the light of the recent developments, the BARC board has proposed that its technical  committee (Tech Comm) review and augment the current standards of measuring  and reporting the data of niche genres, to improve their statistical robustness and to  and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes.  This exercise would cover all Hindi, regional, English news and business news channels  with immediate effect.  

    Therefore, starting with the ‘News Genre,’ BARC will cease publishing the weekly  individual ratings for news channels during the exercise. This exercise is expected to  take around eight to 12 weeks including validation and testing under the supervision of  BARCs TechComm. The monitoring service will continue to release weekly audience estimates for the  news genre by state and language. 

    Which genres will be affected by this change?  

    The decision will initially impact all Hindi, regional, English news and business news  broadcasters. BARC will continue to provide estimates for the overall news genre  every week by state and language.  

    For how long will the data not be available for news channels?  

    The BARC TechCom  will revisit the rule sets of niche genres to improve their  statistical robustness and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating  the panel homes. Starting with the news genre, BARC would stop declaring the individual  channel ratings for news channels while this reworking of the rule sets is being done.  This exercise would take around eight to 12 weeks including validation and testing under the  TechComm’s supervision. BARC will keep its stakeholders updated as it  augments these processes.  

    Which data and analysis will not be possible or will not be available because of the withholding of ratings? 

    The withholding of ratings will, inter -alia, will lead to non – availability of the following  viewership variables for impacted channels: 
    • Impressions  
    • Daily reach  
    • Average Time Spent (ATS)  
    • Cumulative reach  
    • Rating % 

    Since these variables will not be available, analysis such as viewer movement and  behavioural track analysis will not be possible.  

    However, the above details will be available at a genre level.  

    Will BARC be collecting and processing data for impacted channels during  this period? Will the individual channel data be released post this period?  
    BARC will continue to collect and process data for the impacted channels. BARC’s TechComm  will advise a protocol for release of individual channel data,  post its work on niche channels.  

    Will playout data be collected during this period for the impacted  channels? 

    Yes, playout data will be collected for the impacted channels during this period. 

    Will Spot Trek service be impacted due to this withholding of ratings?  

    BARC will continue to confirm spot – related data to its Spot Trek subscribers.  There will be no impact on the Spot Trek service.  

    Are the numbers released by BARC inclusive of the impacted news  channels?  

    The data for news channels will still be included in the audience estimates for  aggregate such as total TV. It is only the audience estimates for the individual  channels that will be masked. 

    What data will be reported for the impacted news channels?  

    BARC will continue to release audience estimates for the overall news genre every  week by state and language. However, channel–wise data will not be released.  

    I am not a news channel. Why has my data been withheld?  

    Individual news channels audience estimates will not be reported. The genre  classification is determined by “Policy for Genre Classification of TV Channels” as last  updated in September 2019 and as updated on the BARC website. This classification is  updated on a quarterly basis.  

    As per the BARC policy on genre classification, a TV channel is classified as a news  channel, when more than 60 per cent of the TV Channel content for a given week averaged  across a calendar quarter from 6:00 Hrs. – 26:00 Hrs. consists of news and news- related  content. 

    Are genres other than news genres also going to be impacted?  

    The BARC TechComm will review and augment the current  standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres, to improve their  statistical robustness and to and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of  infiltrating the panel homes. 

  • Ipsos India appoints Raja Bunet as COO

    Ipsos India appoints Raja Bunet as COO

    KOLKATA: Ipsos India has appointed Raja Bunet as chief operations officer, for leading contactless data collection operations, with immediate effect.

    “Covid19 hampered our fieldwork operations due to lockdowns and restrictions, considering, face-to-face data collection accounts for almost 99 per cent of our fieldwork. And with woes of the virus far from over, we’ve majorly overhauled and launched our suite of contactless data collection solutions for clients to give them an edge in speed, quality and timely insights. And Raja Bunet from our top leadership team will be spearheading our contactless data collection operations with immediate effect. He will be designated chief operations officer,” Ipsos India CEO Amit Adarkar said.

    “Ipsos India has always been at the forefront of client centricity and innovation, and I’m pleased

    to announce  that we are redrawing our strategy and infusing newer techniques in providing

    clients with a large portfolio of tech-savvy, contactless data collection techniques and aligning

    and customizing them to client requirements and exigencies. Bunet will be structuring his teams

    for execution, of online and telephonic,” Adarkar added.

    Contactless data collection techniques will supplement F2F data collection. In order to

    overhaul the Operations and to put it on the grid,  Bunet will be working jointly with Pratim

    Thakurta (face-to-face, field operations head), in drafting the blueprint for Operations.

     Bunet has about two decades’ experience in market research and has held a number of top-level positions in Ipsos India – from head of customer loyalty, to head of mobile research, etc; and his work experience has straddled sectors and categories. He is an alumnus of IILM, Delhi.   

    “In the last few months, we’ve been working on operationalizing our arsenal of contactless data

    collection methodologies and are now focusing on building best-in-class processes to achieve

    operational excellence,” Bunet commented.

  • What’s Employee Monitoring Software and How Can

    What’s Employee Monitoring Software and How Can

    It Help Your Business?

    Since more and more business processes are being performed digitally, an increasing number of managers and business owners are looking for ways in which they can oversee these processes. Lately, a popular trend has been to use a tool known as employee monitoring software for precisely this purpose.

    You might have heard about this technology before, but if you haven’t used it yourself, it might be hard to comprehend what benefits it can bring to your company and, consequently, why it’s grown so much in popularity over the recent years.

    In this text, we’ll be discussing what exactly employee monitoring software is and how it works, as well as what benefits this system can bring to your business. After you’ve learned more, maybe you’ll even discover that implementing computer monitoring software could be a viable option for your company as well.

    What Is Employees Monitoring Software Exactly?

    Employee monitoring system is a business program that you install on every corporate computer you wish to track. Then, it automatically collects certain kinds of data from those computers, which you can access through a manager dashboard. The implementation is a very simple download-and-install process, and you can keep all the data on a secure cloud, or, if you wish, on the servers on your own premises.

    Employee monitoring software is pretty intuitive to use – it’s not made exclusively for those who are fluent in technology. You get graphs, timelines, statistics and other types of reports which reflect your employees’ performance at work.

    So, what kind of data does this software collect?

    The basic functionality is tracking which apps your workers are usings and which websites they’re visiting, and for how long. This gives you greater control over how your company’s time and resources are used. But there are almost necessarily other features that build up on this, so let’s mention a few of those too.

    Some platforms give you the functionality of time tracker software – you can measure time on different tasks, project duration, keep track of the budget and billable hours, and so on. This work time track feature is very useful is you want more in-depth analysis on your work on various projects or if you want to provide proof of work for your clients.

    Next, we have some advanced features of screen monitoring software, most notable of which are screenshots and keystroke logger. While the first one can be triggered manually or automatically, the second one is a bit more intrusive in terms of taking employees’ privacy into account.

    And finally, we’ll just mention productivity features, since they’re arguably one of the most useful functionalities of this software if performance improvement is what you’re looking for. These include active versus idle time, productivity reports and trends, daily timelines and biorhythms, etc.

    What Are the Benefits of Employee Monitoring Software?

    There are many ways in which this system can help your company move forward, grow and be more efficient. It all depends on what kind of business problems you wish to solve with it. Here, we’ll mention three broad categories of benefits that this software can provide.

    The first one is increased control over your employees’ digital activities. Just the fact that you can see what each of them is doing in real time and as historical data records can give you some sort of security that the time they spend working is really spent on the activities that provide value for your business. This software can also track attendance, which is one more thing that you can have more control over.

    Secondly, screenshots and other monitoring features can be used as an additional layer of data security. Even though it won’t be able to prevent a breach, it’s quite effective in discouraging malicious behavior, and can also be used as a tool during the investigation process.

    And finally, there are possible productivity improvements resulting from the analysis of employees’ performance with all the productivity stats and features we’ve mentioned earlier. Basically, if you know how to use these insights right, you’ll get to enjoy more efficient and less distracted teams.

    Conclusion

    All in all, as we’ve seen, employee monitoring software can be a pretty useful tool in many aspects. Improving your employees’ performance, increasing asset control and protecting your data are just some of the reasons why this system is so popular today and might be worth considering.