ITV

Tag: Facebook India

  • India’s 400 mn smartphones generate 80% data traffic: FB’s Umang Bedi

    MUMBAI: India has 400 million smart phones that account for 80 per cent of internet data traffic at present and when many non-feature phones will start getting replaced or include features facilitating internet access, it will change the way how data is accessed, according to Facebook managing director, India & South Asia, Umang Bedi.

    Speaking at the IAMAI event here on Tuesday, Bedi, while highlighting how over a decade back (united) Reliance brought in revolution in India by introducing cheap mobile handsets and competitive plans for consumers, said the launch of Jio service by Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries earlier this year is bringing about a similar revolution by employing disruptive marketing tactics and pricing that is again changing the way India consumes data.

    Bedi, who was speaking extempore at the event, said there are three Indias that needs watching and from where growth likely to come.

    The first India, he mentioned, is the one that subscribes to books on e-retailers like Amazon, shops on Flipkart and rides on Ola cabs rides, which is similar to what is happening in the West. According to Bedi, India today is a growing digital market registering a 35 per cent growth worth USD 1.8-2.8 billion.

    The second India, according to Bedi, is the mass India that lives in tier 2 and 3 cities /towns where people have money and aspirations but no access to affordable Internet. And, the third India comprises about 25 million people living in rural areas for whom new solutions and methods to reach them are needed. Reason: It’s this huge mass that will become a big consuming market in near future.

    As disruption seemed to be the underlying theme of the digital economy, Bedi dwelt on the disrupters theory, fathered by Clayton Christensen, saying disruption is happening in the digital sector and it’s being done by the likes of Amazon (from selling books to etailing electronics appliances, smart phones, etc) and Uber.

    Pointing out that Amazon and Uber were the “biggest disrupters” in today’s world, Bedi also issued a warning to all marketers saying that unless business people remained “humble”, they themselves may find disrupted.

  • Facebook exec: Created ‘Bandstand’ — fun place to go live to celebs

    Facebook exec: Created ‘Bandstand’ — fun place to go live to celebs

    MUMBAI: Facebook India has launched FB Bandstand, an integrated space that combines art with technical support to facilitate Facebook live interaction more authentic.

    FB Bandstand is a brand new space for celebs to engage live with their fans.

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Facebook media partnership head Saurabh Doshi shared, “When people come to the office, we don’t have much of fun elements here, hence we wanted to give more fun and cool place to go live to celebs. That’s how the idea of creating FB Bandstand came about.”

    “Artists and celebrities from across the world and India are using Facebook live to connect with their fans, interact and engage in real time in an authentic and refreshing way. FB Bandstand is a unique space for talent to be able to go live easily in a creative and fun way when they visit FB office in Mumbai. We hope to get to view many fun and memorable moments created at FB Bandstand, he added.

    The platform is open for celebs from all walks of life. They can have interaction with their fans, movie promotion, movie review or a short comedy film.

    The room, FB Bandstand, has been designed keeping in mind the creativity, imagination and craftsmanship of local artistes, which is reflected in each wall which have its own independent theme, thus also attempting to provide a variety of shoot backgrounds.

    The first wall that greets the eye is the ‘Garden Wall’ and captures the scenery of a garden with a rolling view of the outdoors created through a layered style of depth painting. Combined with other 3D elements, it provides the subject a calm, easy going and candid ambiance, that one normally experiences while being in the lap of nature.

    The second wall is ‘Origami Art Wall’, which has interconnected floral patterns interspersed with small origami pyramids that give the impression of golden sun light reflecting on them.

    The third wall opposite to this is the ‘String Art Wall’ that shows a colourful burst of musical and other audio-visual instruments flowing across frames, depicting how the experiences created by them are seamlessly available across mediums, for people to enjoy.

    Whether one is a movie-star, a sportsperson, an artiste, a musician or a journalist – celebrities and public figures have come to truly enjoy using Facebook live as a way to interact authentically with their fans. Facebook live has been the focal point of many conversations lately and we wanted to go a step further by providing a space where public figures could go live easily and experience the goodness of Facebook live as an interactive video format in a fun and refreshing way. The streaming feature of Facebook live encourages #nofilter spontaneity with which viewers can enjoy real-time not just as spectators, but as a truly engaged audience adding their comments to the conversation or asking questions and even emoting along the stream’s timeline using the reaction buttons.

    Apart from providing ample choice of backgrounds, the focus is also to make available a simple array of equipment that allows one to explore various audio-visual formats of live – from a simple camera phone to a multi-camera set-up that can be accessed easily. There is also a choice of various musical instruments and other props for artistes to use.

  • MAM 2016: When marketing, advertising hopped on to Digital India

    MAM 2016: When marketing, advertising hopped on to Digital India

    ‘Live streaming’, ‘Video on demand’, ‘data crunching’, ‘branded content’, ‘geo-targeting’, ‘digital measurement’, ‘native advertising’, ‘programmatic’, ‘digitisation’, ‘demonetisation’….2016 has generated enough buzzwords for the Indian marketer. So much so that it is hard to place one’s finger on that one thing that defined 2016’s marketing trends. Whatever be that theme, 2016 was definitely a year of disruption.

    Certainly it was disruptions galore. Disruption in how the audience consumes content (Hotstar, Netflix anyone?); disruption in how TV is viewed with major push towards digitisation; disruption in what content advertisers pay for (HUL’s Brooke Bond Red Label and the Six Pack Band, Tata Tiago driving TVF’s Tripling); disruption in media planning and buying (Amagi’s Mix); disruption in how we use money (payment banks and e-wallets) and finally disruption in pricing.

    One prime differentiator for brands this year was pricing or even no- pricing! The year started with the popular debate on Net Neutrality sparked by Airtel Zero and Facebook’s internet.org. Both had ambitious plans to provide internet across India at zero cost to preferential consumers. These projects couldn’t take off without blessings from TRAI, but differential pricing was also a major weapon used by OTT players in their race to be India’s primary SVOD service.

    Not to mention Baba Ramdev-pioneered Patanjali Ayurveda that gave global and incumbent Indian FMCG giants sleepless nights with its highly competitive pricing, even taking over other major advertiser by setting aside Rs 300 crore or Rs. 3 billion in ad spends. The nationalistic flavour that dominated the year further added to the brand’s marketing success.

    Patanjali wasn’t the only brand that cashed in on India’s new found nationalism in 2016. Another good example is Bajaj V, Bajaj Automobile’s latest launch in the 150 cc category, a part of steel used in which came from the now-decommissioned Indian navy’s warship INS Vikrant. The long-running and innovative marketing campaign, conceptualised and experimented with long-form content by Leo Burnett, picked up several medals in this year’s awards season.

    Nationalism aside, one of the major disruptors that the Indian marketers had to keep up with in 2016 was the Indian government itself. With some 60-odd policy changes throughout the year across various sectors, with remarkable execution time, the government kept the nation — and the markers — on their toes. Demonetisation of high value currency notes being the latest. While one would expect government and its departments to take several months to act on a single policy change, the PM Modi-led government remained exceptionally pro- active throughout 2016 — some critics dubbed it extremely destructive, but that’s another story — including the Star-Up India initiative that would further pump out a new breed of digital brands by 2017.

    ‘Marketing isn’t magic. There is science to it.’ This famous quote by Hubspot’s social media scientist and award winning marketer Dan Zarrella was felt strongly in 2016. Marketing in India saw a major facelift with increasing stress on technology. Whether it was the rise of messenger apps over social media, FB opening its door to easy and convenient live streaming, chat bots fronting the direct marketing initiatives by new age services, drones becoming the messengers of communication, media agencies putting more emphasis on data procurement and trend mapping through new tools, or AR/VR changing the ball game altogether…. ‘martech’ has taken a leap of faith worth a few decades in just a year. And for once, India wasn’t lagging at the tail end of this disruption. In some cases it was actually in the eye of the storm.

    Social media and technology giant Facebook recently announced India as its second most important market after the US and has in fact invested heavily in several India- only initiatives for both its users and brands. The result is that several brands, which were solely dependent on YouTube for the ‘digital video’ aspect of their marketing mix are now taking Facebook seriously. Although YouTube remains the market leader in digital video ad spends, 2016 Facebook has drawn significant attention from brands thanks to the advanced targeting options and different format options it offers with its video service (360 degree, live video, etc). Given the major setbacks that Facebook faced in this market, first with internet.org and then its mistake with measurement figures, this positive acceptance by brands was a major plus.

    2016 also saw several major Indian brands dabbling in Virtual Reality. Tata Motor’s virtual desk drive through mass distributed Google cardboards is a classic example. While innovations brought freshness in the sector, it has only set the stage for a more substantial use of VR/AR for marketing in 2017.

    When it comes to the start-ups and e-commerce world, the general trend was that of austerity. With cash crunch in the investment world and investors asking to recheck acquisition costs and several start-ups nearing their re-evaluation period, many companies saw themselves moving from GMVs to NPS to measure their value. With their burn rates going down, ecommerce giants couldn’t continue their marketing blitzkrieg as they did in 2015.

    While 2016 remained loyal to the ad spend estimates, third quarter saw a major fall in advertising spends across mediums following marketing budget cuts in major FMCG brands in the aftermath of demonetisation. Advertising was the first sector to be impacted due to this government move. Though the effect was felt across the whole medium, cut in television advertising spends accounted to almost Rs 600 crore (Rs. 6 billion) — some estimates put it as high as 2500 crore or Rs 250 billion. Print and out of home were the second most impacted segments. At the cost of over-generalising, the industry has seen a drop of almost 25 per cent in advertising spends in the current quarter. Advertising is also likely to be the last sector to return to normalcy as long as brands continue to treat it as expenditure and not an investment.

    Though comparatively digital advertising suffered less due to demonetisation, the digital video saw a major setback, while SEO and other forms of digital advertising managed to stay afloat. Nonetheless, it is imperative that most major agencies would revise their advertising forecast for 2016- 2017 estimates factoring in demonetisation.

    It goes without saying that digital became one of the primary mediums of advertising for brands in 2016 with traditional agencies planning major account with the ‘digital first’ as a concept. The rapidly growing digital advertising spends got a major boost as social media planning became a buzzword. Industry experts and senior planners are hopeful that this trend will continue through 2017 with the availability of cheaper and faster data across India. The ongoing dialogue of a cashless economy saw digital brands such as payment banks and e-wallets emerge as a major spender. The government’s push towards cashless transaction of money is most likely to give rise to a new breed of digital brands, which is good news for the digital advertising world.

    However, television continued to be the most preferred medium; especially with brands going after maximum reach and engagement. Television in India proved its efficiency as an advertising medium, thus ruling ad spends. But, major media management agencies such as GroupM and Dentsu Aegis Network are moving towards ‘video planning and buying’. Being platform-agnostic is the way forward.

    Overall, 2016 started with a good pace but slowed down for the advertising world towards the second quarter. The industry took a major hit in the third quarter and is yet to recover from the demon(etisation) bit. While media gurus are bullish on long-term effects of demonetisation, they don’t have high hopes of the industry returning to normalcy anytime before the end of the financial year.

    While the advertising world awaits ‘achhe din’ (a period of prosperity) in 2017, it bid adieu to 2016, the year when marketing and advertising leap-frogged into ‘Digital India’.

  • MAM 2016: When marketing, advertising hopped on to Digital India

    MAM 2016: When marketing, advertising hopped on to Digital India

    ‘Live streaming’, ‘Video on demand’, ‘data crunching’, ‘branded content’, ‘geo-targeting’, ‘digital measurement’, ‘native advertising’, ‘programmatic’, ‘digitisation’, ‘demonetisation’….2016 has generated enough buzzwords for the Indian marketer. So much so that it is hard to place one’s finger on that one thing that defined 2016’s marketing trends. Whatever be that theme, 2016 was definitely a year of disruption.

    Certainly it was disruptions galore. Disruption in how the audience consumes content (Hotstar, Netflix anyone?); disruption in how TV is viewed with major push towards digitisation; disruption in what content advertisers pay for (HUL’s Brooke Bond Red Label and the Six Pack Band, Tata Tiago driving TVF’s Tripling); disruption in media planning and buying (Amagi’s Mix); disruption in how we use money (payment banks and e-wallets) and finally disruption in pricing.

    One prime differentiator for brands this year was pricing or even no- pricing! The year started with the popular debate on Net Neutrality sparked by Airtel Zero and Facebook’s internet.org. Both had ambitious plans to provide internet across India at zero cost to preferential consumers. These projects couldn’t take off without blessings from TRAI, but differential pricing was also a major weapon used by OTT players in their race to be India’s primary SVOD service.

    Not to mention Baba Ramdev-pioneered Patanjali Ayurveda that gave global and incumbent Indian FMCG giants sleepless nights with its highly competitive pricing, even taking over other major advertiser by setting aside Rs 300 crore or Rs. 3 billion in ad spends. The nationalistic flavour that dominated the year further added to the brand’s marketing success.

    Patanjali wasn’t the only brand that cashed in on India’s new found nationalism in 2016. Another good example is Bajaj V, Bajaj Automobile’s latest launch in the 150 cc category, a part of steel used in which came from the now-decommissioned Indian navy’s warship INS Vikrant. The long-running and innovative marketing campaign, conceptualised and experimented with long-form content by Leo Burnett, picked up several medals in this year’s awards season.

    Nationalism aside, one of the major disruptors that the Indian marketers had to keep up with in 2016 was the Indian government itself. With some 60-odd policy changes throughout the year across various sectors, with remarkable execution time, the government kept the nation — and the markers — on their toes. Demonetisation of high value currency notes being the latest. While one would expect government and its departments to take several months to act on a single policy change, the PM Modi-led government remained exceptionally pro- active throughout 2016 — some critics dubbed it extremely destructive, but that’s another story — including the Star-Up India initiative that would further pump out a new breed of digital brands by 2017.

    ‘Marketing isn’t magic. There is science to it.’ This famous quote by Hubspot’s social media scientist and award winning marketer Dan Zarrella was felt strongly in 2016. Marketing in India saw a major facelift with increasing stress on technology. Whether it was the rise of messenger apps over social media, FB opening its door to easy and convenient live streaming, chat bots fronting the direct marketing initiatives by new age services, drones becoming the messengers of communication, media agencies putting more emphasis on data procurement and trend mapping through new tools, or AR/VR changing the ball game altogether…. ‘martech’ has taken a leap of faith worth a few decades in just a year. And for once, India wasn’t lagging at the tail end of this disruption. In some cases it was actually in the eye of the storm.

    Social media and technology giant Facebook recently announced India as its second most important market after the US and has in fact invested heavily in several India- only initiatives for both its users and brands. The result is that several brands, which were solely dependent on YouTube for the ‘digital video’ aspect of their marketing mix are now taking Facebook seriously. Although YouTube remains the market leader in digital video ad spends, 2016 Facebook has drawn significant attention from brands thanks to the advanced targeting options and different format options it offers with its video service (360 degree, live video, etc). Given the major setbacks that Facebook faced in this market, first with internet.org and then its mistake with measurement figures, this positive acceptance by brands was a major plus.

    2016 also saw several major Indian brands dabbling in Virtual Reality. Tata Motor’s virtual desk drive through mass distributed Google cardboards is a classic example. While innovations brought freshness in the sector, it has only set the stage for a more substantial use of VR/AR for marketing in 2017.

    When it comes to the start-ups and e-commerce world, the general trend was that of austerity. With cash crunch in the investment world and investors asking to recheck acquisition costs and several start-ups nearing their re-evaluation period, many companies saw themselves moving from GMVs to NPS to measure their value. With their burn rates going down, ecommerce giants couldn’t continue their marketing blitzkrieg as they did in 2015.

    While 2016 remained loyal to the ad spend estimates, third quarter saw a major fall in advertising spends across mediums following marketing budget cuts in major FMCG brands in the aftermath of demonetisation. Advertising was the first sector to be impacted due to this government move. Though the effect was felt across the whole medium, cut in television advertising spends accounted to almost Rs 600 crore (Rs. 6 billion) — some estimates put it as high as 2500 crore or Rs 250 billion. Print and out of home were the second most impacted segments. At the cost of over-generalising, the industry has seen a drop of almost 25 per cent in advertising spends in the current quarter. Advertising is also likely to be the last sector to return to normalcy as long as brands continue to treat it as expenditure and not an investment.

    Though comparatively digital advertising suffered less due to demonetisation, the digital video saw a major setback, while SEO and other forms of digital advertising managed to stay afloat. Nonetheless, it is imperative that most major agencies would revise their advertising forecast for 2016- 2017 estimates factoring in demonetisation.

    It goes without saying that digital became one of the primary mediums of advertising for brands in 2016 with traditional agencies planning major account with the ‘digital first’ as a concept. The rapidly growing digital advertising spends got a major boost as social media planning became a buzzword. Industry experts and senior planners are hopeful that this trend will continue through 2017 with the availability of cheaper and faster data across India. The ongoing dialogue of a cashless economy saw digital brands such as payment banks and e-wallets emerge as a major spender. The government’s push towards cashless transaction of money is most likely to give rise to a new breed of digital brands, which is good news for the digital advertising world.

    However, television continued to be the most preferred medium; especially with brands going after maximum reach and engagement. Television in India proved its efficiency as an advertising medium, thus ruling ad spends. But, major media management agencies such as GroupM and Dentsu Aegis Network are moving towards ‘video planning and buying’. Being platform-agnostic is the way forward.

    Overall, 2016 started with a good pace but slowed down for the advertising world towards the second quarter. The industry took a major hit in the third quarter and is yet to recover from the demon(etisation) bit. While media gurus are bullish on long-term effects of demonetisation, they don’t have high hopes of the industry returning to normalcy anytime before the end of the financial year.

    While the advertising world awaits ‘achhe din’ (a period of prosperity) in 2017, it bid adieu to 2016, the year when marketing and advertising leap-frogged into ‘Digital India’.

  • FB targets next billion Indians with local content and Express Wifi

    FB targets next billion Indians with local content and Express Wifi

    MUMBAI: Like Google, Facebook understands that in order to increase their market share of the digital ad pie, it is crucial to target the next billion users. And hence a strong strategy is needed for its India operations. The next billion users on the platform are what will drive its business, both in terms of scale of operation and revenues.

    Facebook is committed to this endeavour, says its south Asia and India managing director Umang Bedi and has taken major steps to keep the platform right, real and relevant for its Indian users.

    India has one of the highest percentages of people accessing Facebook via their mobile phones. Out of the 85 million active monthly users who access the platform from India, 81 million do it through their mobile devices. Nearly 95 per cent of the traffic Facebook gets from India is mobile. Needless to say, Fb has given special care to enhancing user experience in India on Facebook by making the platform functional even under slow internet.

    “For us that is a welcome news. The wider the reach of internet, and mobile, the better we can connect businesses to their right audience,” shared Bedi.

    The company’s flagship project, and perhaps most controversial in the local market, Free Basics, was designed to address the issue of internet penetration in rural India , but failed to move opinion in its favour resulting in its ban by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) earlier this year due to its conflict with principles of net neutrality in the market.

    “Since the government’s mandate, Facebook has ceased all operations of Free Basics and concentrated on other sectors instead,” Bedi gave a short response when quizzed about Free Basics in a recent interview.

    To push forth FB’s internet.org initiative in India, the social media giant has instead launched what it calls ‘Express Wi-Fi’, which too promises to help connect rural India digitally.

    “We have recently piloted Express WiFI that works with telecom operators, internet service providers, and local entrepreneurs to help expand connectivity to underserved locations around the world. We’re currently live in India, and are expanding to other regions soon,” Bedi shared.

    While Bedi doesn’t clarify whether Express WiFi would also follow Free Basic’s principle of zero charges on data, its page on internet.org defines it as “ fast, affordable and reliable internet” hinting that the service will cost users some money, in-line with the TRAI directives.

    Bedi shares that the biggest challenge Facebook faces in penetrating the further into the market is its relevance in India through local content. “Even the international mobile operators association GSMA recognises the single biggest issue of mobile and internet penetration in India is producing relevant local content for the right device in the right format,” shared Bedi. Making the platform available in 12 Indian languages is another step forward in the direction along with promoting content partnerships with several regional players.

  • FB targets next billion Indians with local content and Express Wifi

    FB targets next billion Indians with local content and Express Wifi

    MUMBAI: Like Google, Facebook understands that in order to increase their market share of the digital ad pie, it is crucial to target the next billion users. And hence a strong strategy is needed for its India operations. The next billion users on the platform are what will drive its business, both in terms of scale of operation and revenues.

    Facebook is committed to this endeavour, says its south Asia and India managing director Umang Bedi and has taken major steps to keep the platform right, real and relevant for its Indian users.

    India has one of the highest percentages of people accessing Facebook via their mobile phones. Out of the 85 million active monthly users who access the platform from India, 81 million do it through their mobile devices. Nearly 95 per cent of the traffic Facebook gets from India is mobile. Needless to say, Fb has given special care to enhancing user experience in India on Facebook by making the platform functional even under slow internet.

    “For us that is a welcome news. The wider the reach of internet, and mobile, the better we can connect businesses to their right audience,” shared Bedi.

    The company’s flagship project, and perhaps most controversial in the local market, Free Basics, was designed to address the issue of internet penetration in rural India , but failed to move opinion in its favour resulting in its ban by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) earlier this year due to its conflict with principles of net neutrality in the market.

    “Since the government’s mandate, Facebook has ceased all operations of Free Basics and concentrated on other sectors instead,” Bedi gave a short response when quizzed about Free Basics in a recent interview.

    To push forth FB’s internet.org initiative in India, the social media giant has instead launched what it calls ‘Express Wi-Fi’, which too promises to help connect rural India digitally.

    “We have recently piloted Express WiFI that works with telecom operators, internet service providers, and local entrepreneurs to help expand connectivity to underserved locations around the world. We’re currently live in India, and are expanding to other regions soon,” Bedi shared.

    While Bedi doesn’t clarify whether Express WiFi would also follow Free Basic’s principle of zero charges on data, its page on internet.org defines it as “ fast, affordable and reliable internet” hinting that the service will cost users some money, in-line with the TRAI directives.

    Bedi shares that the biggest challenge Facebook faces in penetrating the further into the market is its relevance in India through local content. “Even the international mobile operators association GSMA recognises the single biggest issue of mobile and internet penetration in India is producing relevant local content for the right device in the right format,” shared Bedi. Making the platform available in 12 Indian languages is another step forward in the direction along with promoting content partnerships with several regional players.

  • Expert-speak on advertising in times of mobile-first consumers

    Expert-speak on advertising in times of mobile-first consumers

    MUMBAI: With Indian government’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes in its second fortnight, there couldn’t have been a better time to discuss how mobile is moving businesses and whether the reality of a cashless economy is still a far-fetched theory.

    In an effort to cash in on the latest buzz words — ‘financial inclusion, ‘digital business’, ‘internet penetration’, ‘digital advertising’, etc. — Facebook recently hosted Mobile Moves Business, an industry event in Mumbai that was designed to bring together businesses, industry experts and marketers to help engage with today’s mobile-first consumers in India.

    Making a bold and future-facing statement, Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia Chairman Ashish Bhasin made it clear that the foundations of present day media planning, which depends primarily on frequencies of views, will be shaken as the lines between mediums start to blur.

    “We make a plan based on an assumption of an X number of times it (a campaign) is viewed on television, but we need to start considering that the same communication may be seen in an another format on an another platform several more number of times,” pointed out Bhasin, adding most market studies predicting digital ad ex to reach 40 per cent of the total pie will be proven wrong. “Digital will command 80 to 100 per cent of the total pie, I feel. Of course, the way we classify digital advertising will also change…TV, radio and even print will all become digital,” he said.

    Along with him on the panel discussing matters digital were Facebook India MD Umang Bedi, Vodafone India marketing SVP Sidharth Banerjee and Snapdeal marketing VP Kanika Kalra.

    Banerjee, who seconded Bhasin’s statement, was of the opinion that India, just like China, will soon reach an inflexion point in smart-phone penetration when that number reached one-third of the total phones in the market.

    “I can see that happening in the next 18 months or so. Getting the communication in mobile right will be the main issue then. What advertisers keep getting wrong is treating mobile (devices) like a separate medium to advertise on,” he said.

    Pointing out that advertisers shouldn’t forget the many India’s within India, Banerjee said, “While we ready ourselves for the digital and cashless India armed with smart-phones, we mustn’t forget about a part of India where features phones will still play an important role and marketers shouldn’t exclude them from their plans.”

    But smart tech and devices also bring along newer problems and challenges. Ad blocking, for example. The high rate of ad blocking in India was also addressed by the panel.

    “As the digital advertising market becomes more mature, the issue of privacy will only become more acute. I believe the way ahead is opt-ins. Let’s face it, users don’t pay for advertisements, so ads will always remain (like) an intrusion, “Bhasin highlighted a valid point, adding, “Going forward, consumers will have a choice to allow certain advertisers to communicate with them. So we marketers need to collectively respect the consumer’s choice. Sooner or later we will have laws concerning it and it is better to prepare for it with best practices in place.”

    Clarifying FB’s position on ad blocking, Bedi said that FB respected its users’ privacy and ensures only relevant sponsored ads reach users. “It isn’t bad but actually good for business as brands can seek out only those consumers who are interested in their communications, leading to higher fulfilment of purchase cycle instead of spraying and praying,” Bedi replied, when asked if the social media giant loses businesses due to ad blocking.

  • Expert-speak on advertising in times of mobile-first consumers

    Expert-speak on advertising in times of mobile-first consumers

    MUMBAI: With Indian government’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes in its second fortnight, there couldn’t have been a better time to discuss how mobile is moving businesses and whether the reality of a cashless economy is still a far-fetched theory.

    In an effort to cash in on the latest buzz words — ‘financial inclusion, ‘digital business’, ‘internet penetration’, ‘digital advertising’, etc. — Facebook recently hosted Mobile Moves Business, an industry event in Mumbai that was designed to bring together businesses, industry experts and marketers to help engage with today’s mobile-first consumers in India.

    Making a bold and future-facing statement, Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia Chairman Ashish Bhasin made it clear that the foundations of present day media planning, which depends primarily on frequencies of views, will be shaken as the lines between mediums start to blur.

    “We make a plan based on an assumption of an X number of times it (a campaign) is viewed on television, but we need to start considering that the same communication may be seen in an another format on an another platform several more number of times,” pointed out Bhasin, adding most market studies predicting digital ad ex to reach 40 per cent of the total pie will be proven wrong. “Digital will command 80 to 100 per cent of the total pie, I feel. Of course, the way we classify digital advertising will also change…TV, radio and even print will all become digital,” he said.

    Along with him on the panel discussing matters digital were Facebook India MD Umang Bedi, Vodafone India marketing SVP Sidharth Banerjee and Snapdeal marketing VP Kanika Kalra.

    Banerjee, who seconded Bhasin’s statement, was of the opinion that India, just like China, will soon reach an inflexion point in smart-phone penetration when that number reached one-third of the total phones in the market.

    “I can see that happening in the next 18 months or so. Getting the communication in mobile right will be the main issue then. What advertisers keep getting wrong is treating mobile (devices) like a separate medium to advertise on,” he said.

    Pointing out that advertisers shouldn’t forget the many India’s within India, Banerjee said, “While we ready ourselves for the digital and cashless India armed with smart-phones, we mustn’t forget about a part of India where features phones will still play an important role and marketers shouldn’t exclude them from their plans.”

    But smart tech and devices also bring along newer problems and challenges. Ad blocking, for example. The high rate of ad blocking in India was also addressed by the panel.

    “As the digital advertising market becomes more mature, the issue of privacy will only become more acute. I believe the way ahead is opt-ins. Let’s face it, users don’t pay for advertisements, so ads will always remain (like) an intrusion, “Bhasin highlighted a valid point, adding, “Going forward, consumers will have a choice to allow certain advertisers to communicate with them. So we marketers need to collectively respect the consumer’s choice. Sooner or later we will have laws concerning it and it is better to prepare for it with best practices in place.”

    Clarifying FB’s position on ad blocking, Bedi said that FB respected its users’ privacy and ensures only relevant sponsored ads reach users. “It isn’t bad but actually good for business as brands can seek out only those consumers who are interested in their communications, leading to higher fulfilment of purchase cycle instead of spraying and praying,” Bedi replied, when asked if the social media giant loses businesses due to ad blocking.

  • How FB is helping brands to grow their biz in India

    How FB is helping brands to grow their biz in India

    GURUGRAM: Between dealing and refining its ad-targeting technology, coming clean about overestimating its video metrics to clients, failing to successfully launch Free Basics in India following ban by TRAI, its most recent tussle with Fake News, and, still doubling its revenues to USD 7.01 billion in its last quarter earnings (Q3) – Facebook has had an eventful year so far – be it globally or in India. How do these ups and down score with its partners and clients in India, Facebook’’s second largest market?

    Acknowledging India’s strategic importance to Facebook’ s overall business, Facebook India and South Asia managing director Umang Bedi reassured that advertisers’ faith in Facebook is going strong, and not without reason.

    Since joining the social media giant’s India team from Adobe Systems in July, the last 100 days have kept Bedi busy, hopping between cities catching up with partners across India.

    In line with its motto of ‘moving businesses’, Bedi cited several examples where Indian brands engaging with consumers on Facebook have seen a measurable difference to its brand outcome as well as sales.

    For example, Mondelez International gained over five points in brand consideration through Facebook’s Reach and Frequency tool, Durex saw a 29 per cent increase in sales during a running campaign on Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook (along with TV), and Garnier saw a 19 per cent increase in sales in a weak market cluster using Facebook Carousel Ads.

    Snapdeal, Tanishq, Adidas, Ola, Yatra.com, were a few other brands of which Facebook helped move business, Bedi cited.

    As to how sales made by these brands could be attributed to ads placed on Facebook, Bedi clarified, “When there is a lift in sales done for a client online, we can easily track whether a consumer who saw its ad on our platform made a purchase or downloaded a certain app. It is a straightforward way keep track of a user across platforms through Software Development Kit (SDK) or pixels. For example, an Ola App will have a FB SDK embedded in its code. When you go offline, or cross media, we depend on our partners like Millward Brown who are known for meta cross-media studies, albeit through a sample-sized user base and campaigns.”

    Based on cross-media meta content measured and studied by Millward Brown in 26 of its campaigns across categories, Facebook managed to add five points to television in audience outcome at one-seventh the cost if same numbers were chased through television. Other measurement services that Facebook uses to procure data and measurement studies for its clients include Nielsen and BARC.

    The company’s impressive Q3 earnings, with a Y-O-Y increase of 16 per cent in revenue speaks volumes of its enormous reach that currently stands at 1.79 billion, off 1.18 billion are daily active users.

    Speaking strictly of the Indian market, Facebook has 166 million monthly active users as of its last quarter reports, of which 159 million access the site through mobile. Similarly, 85 million Indian users access Facebook daily, of which 81 million do it through mobile.

    Do these figures translate into revenues as well for the market? “Facebook India leads the charter among emerging markets when it comes to revenues. We are at par with Asia Pacific earnings, and Asia Pacific is the fastest growing markets for us, and India is a significant contributor to that,” Bedi shared, without putting a figure to its India earnings.

    According to its filings with the Registrar of Companies that was reported earlier this year, Facebook reported a 27 per cent increase in its revenues in India.

    On the flipside, Bedi also made a strong case of Facebook’s contribution to the Indian market to reinforce its positioning as a loved and trusted brand. Citing a Deloitte 2015 report, Bedi shared that Facebook contributes USD 4 billion to the Indan economy and supports 335,000 jobs through its marketing platforms and connectivity efforts.

    “We have generated 2.4 billion interactions between businesses and people in India through two billion small and medium business pages in India. Not to mention, 59 per cent people in India are connected to SMEs through FB.”

    While Facebook is focused on growing the base to reach the next billion new users in India and driving engagement, “everything we do around Facebook in the next five years is all about moving the real world business for our advertisers and partners,” Bedi makes it clear.

    Bedi’s strategy for that is quite simple – grow numbers by driving deep engagement that is augmented by partnerships valued by measured returns.

  • How FB is helping brands to grow their biz in India

    How FB is helping brands to grow their biz in India

    GURUGRAM: Between dealing and refining its ad-targeting technology, coming clean about overestimating its video metrics to clients, failing to successfully launch Free Basics in India following ban by TRAI, its most recent tussle with Fake News, and, still doubling its revenues to USD 7.01 billion in its last quarter earnings (Q3) – Facebook has had an eventful year so far – be it globally or in India. How do these ups and down score with its partners and clients in India, Facebook’’s second largest market?

    Acknowledging India’s strategic importance to Facebook’ s overall business, Facebook India and South Asia managing director Umang Bedi reassured that advertisers’ faith in Facebook is going strong, and not without reason.

    Since joining the social media giant’s India team from Adobe Systems in July, the last 100 days have kept Bedi busy, hopping between cities catching up with partners across India.

    In line with its motto of ‘moving businesses’, Bedi cited several examples where Indian brands engaging with consumers on Facebook have seen a measurable difference to its brand outcome as well as sales.

    For example, Mondelez International gained over five points in brand consideration through Facebook’s Reach and Frequency tool, Durex saw a 29 per cent increase in sales during a running campaign on Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook (along with TV), and Garnier saw a 19 per cent increase in sales in a weak market cluster using Facebook Carousel Ads.

    Snapdeal, Tanishq, Adidas, Ola, Yatra.com, were a few other brands of which Facebook helped move business, Bedi cited.

    As to how sales made by these brands could be attributed to ads placed on Facebook, Bedi clarified, “When there is a lift in sales done for a client online, we can easily track whether a consumer who saw its ad on our platform made a purchase or downloaded a certain app. It is a straightforward way keep track of a user across platforms through Software Development Kit (SDK) or pixels. For example, an Ola App will have a FB SDK embedded in its code. When you go offline, or cross media, we depend on our partners like Millward Brown who are known for meta cross-media studies, albeit through a sample-sized user base and campaigns.”

    Based on cross-media meta content measured and studied by Millward Brown in 26 of its campaigns across categories, Facebook managed to add five points to television in audience outcome at one-seventh the cost if same numbers were chased through television. Other measurement services that Facebook uses to procure data and measurement studies for its clients include Nielsen and BARC.

    The company’s impressive Q3 earnings, with a Y-O-Y increase of 16 per cent in revenue speaks volumes of its enormous reach that currently stands at 1.79 billion, off 1.18 billion are daily active users.

    Speaking strictly of the Indian market, Facebook has 166 million monthly active users as of its last quarter reports, of which 159 million access the site through mobile. Similarly, 85 million Indian users access Facebook daily, of which 81 million do it through mobile.

    Do these figures translate into revenues as well for the market? “Facebook India leads the charter among emerging markets when it comes to revenues. We are at par with Asia Pacific earnings, and Asia Pacific is the fastest growing markets for us, and India is a significant contributor to that,” Bedi shared, without putting a figure to its India earnings.

    According to its filings with the Registrar of Companies that was reported earlier this year, Facebook reported a 27 per cent increase in its revenues in India.

    On the flipside, Bedi also made a strong case of Facebook’s contribution to the Indian market to reinforce its positioning as a loved and trusted brand. Citing a Deloitte 2015 report, Bedi shared that Facebook contributes USD 4 billion to the Indan economy and supports 335,000 jobs through its marketing platforms and connectivity efforts.

    “We have generated 2.4 billion interactions between businesses and people in India through two billion small and medium business pages in India. Not to mention, 59 per cent people in India are connected to SMEs through FB.”

    While Facebook is focused on growing the base to reach the next billion new users in India and driving engagement, “everything we do around Facebook in the next five years is all about moving the real world business for our advertisers and partners,” Bedi makes it clear.

    Bedi’s strategy for that is quite simple – grow numbers by driving deep engagement that is augmented by partnerships valued by measured returns.