Author: Dr Bhaskar Das

We think we’ve asked this question in the past, but it needed to be asked again. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the September 20 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q: In many ways the composition of the new Advertising Club mancom indicates the way the wind is blowing in the world of marketing services and advertising. So, would you say: it’s goodbye to the creative folk in adland?

A: I think as a journalist your interpretation has validity but you are reading too much between the lines. Though the President would be in a better position to respond to your queries but as a professional and as a practitioner in the Ad Club, I would present the point of view that the institution has on the subject. See, every president has a vision about the Advertising Club, how it’s going to function, what will keep the provenance of the brand at a high level and how it impacts the advertising and marketing fraternity. The new composition of the Ad Club mancom is interesting in the context of the representation various martech practitioners and professionals who would be able to accentuate the salience of the Ad Club as a brand. Hence the vision of the president is not to reflecting the changing winds that are blowing in the world of marketing services and advertising. Finally, the members work in the Ad Club as a pro bono initiative and for their passion in serving the community in which they operate and there is no other agenda beyond making that vision of the new President fructified in the right manner

Long question, looooonger answer. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the September 12 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. According to a 2023 Sprout Social study, 42% of marketers plan to stop working in social media within the next two years, many fear a burnout. These are for the US, but things aren’t too different in India. What should be done to buck the trend?

A. I think it is too early to comment on the research and the conclusions derived therein. There are a few issues connected with such a possibility. The first, one reads continuously about data fudging, the toxicity, the agendaised conversation that affects brand safety and of course the overall media scene is under a lot of volatility because of not only the technological and regulatory reasons, but also viewing habits, consumer behaviour and other ancillary issues. These create a lot of burnout. In fact we are aware about the rightsizing which is a euphemism for termination where leading social media companies are asking for people to leave because of the pressure on the bottomline and of course stockmarket pressures.

So there is burnout among the brand custodians, hence people look for safer shores. Thirdly, the issue of brand safety where your communication is being seen, the ROI calculation that is required for any kind of investment and we are aware of that you can even commit influencers the number of followers on a campaign. People even comment that we can make your campaigns viral, so this has actually made the media subject to a lot of doubts and anxiety.

But at the same time, one cannot deny the advantage of social media in terms of engaging in conversation with your various stakeholders, various addressable markets and of course to keep an eye on consumer sentiment on the brand. But the social listening of the concerned organisation has to be alert about which one is a genuine comment or which one or agendaised communication. It’s a full-time job, because social media to my mind has become a double-edged sword.

While it has a lot of benefits, there are also challenges in terms of the impact it can create through earned media because it’s easier to control paid and own media button but social media and its various other handles that can create a different kind of impact and pressure on the organisation for managing various task holders in terms of a brand’s reputation and and safety. Having said that, I must say that what is happening in the West may take time to happen in our part of the world but there are increasing concerns that are being discussed in the marketing fraternity about the efficacy of social media and whether it is prudent to have a better between various media to ensure that the brand safety is sustained.

We asked him for some tips that would impact our fortunes. Since we would like all to benefit from the lessons from our Wizard with Words, we are sharing them here. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the September 11 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Sir, we celebrated our 12th anniversary on Saturday and have now embarked on our 13th year of operations. How do we ensure the year ahead is lucky for us?

A. Well, I don’t suffer from any syndrome of triskaidekaphobia. So, 12^thor 13^this just a number to me. The future has to be created, it cannot be looked into the past, apart from a few wisdoms one may acquire over a period of time. To me it’s a huge opportunity to take a fresh guard and look into the future. Look at how your addressable markets tastes and preferences are changing. Do you cater to the martech industry, do you cater to the other needs also in terms of of anything that is to do with consumer, anything to do with marketing tools and techniques and of course measurements. So look at that, take a fresh guard and take your organisation to newer heights instead of focusing on numerology.

If I may add, when you cannot change the time, learn to change with the time. That’s the best to be perpetually out of all superstitions.

A straightforward question, and a straightforward response. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the September 4 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Uday Shankar is betting big yet again on cricket by bagging rights for BCCI fixtures for five years. Too much of a gamble, or is this the only way to go for a streaming-led network?

A. Yes, in business you need to bet big of course with its associated risks, but Uday Shankar has a track record of creating magic out of unexpected business opportunities. And with the backing of Viacom and the Reliance group ,I think this should be a gamechanger for Viacom18. Simple hisaab hai: ishq hai toh risk hai… and if there is no risk, there is no gain.

This is not a gamble at all because of the fact that cricket still has a very trustworthy stickiness among audiences and cricket continue to do well. More importantly, the ancillary benefits for the network – whether for streaming or for linear TV would all be beneficial. So net-net, I feel it’s a fantastic decision. It may be too early to guesstimate the possible benefits, but it is definitely a good decision.

Not an easy question to answer in a Q&A series like this, but we asked nevertheless. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the September 5 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Even though streaming has picked up, the large media campaigns are still on linear. Not just in India, but even in markets like the US. As someone who interacts with marketers and media agencies all the time, what do you think will help them (advertisers) make a switch?

A. I mentioned in this column a number of times that in an omnichannel environment why does one think format-centric while communicating given that audiences have different tastes and preferences depending on the age cohort and technological affinity. The key question here is for advertisers is to where the premium audience is going and hence communicating with them. Wherever data is available in public domain helps in determining the ROI before going ahead with the format-led decision. And it has to always be a mix to my mind as there are different types of consumers available in the audience set. I think agencies would play the role of decoding these through deep analytics and better understanding of the consumer’s preferences. Hence there is no requirement of even thinking when things will switch. What is happening in the western world might happen here also with the lag effect. But fundamentally consumers are consumers so they would be experiencing a variety of screens while consuming various forms of content.

So I personally feel that the decision or the decision of the marketers will not switch one way or the other although the skew may be more towards one format than the other depending on the product category.

This was meant to be a googly, which he has responded with care. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the August 31 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Given Uday Shankar taking charge at Viacom 18, a lot of his trusted lieutenants have joined Viacom18. It’s happened in the past as well. Many from BCCL joined DNA when it was set up in 2005. Your views on this trend?

A. I strongly feel that your conviction about an individual joining Viacom18 has resulted in a significant exodus of executives to the new organisation is a sweeping conclusion because the factual data that I have from the public domain does not support the conclusion. Assuming that it happens, you have to accept that it’s not the individual that attracts another senior person to a new organisation. It is the volutional decision of the joinee also. There can be an element of comfort at both levels but there is no guarantee of success as the case of DNA has proved. One must accept that the landscape of any future competitive scenario is not only determined by an individual, but collectively on the response of an organisation to counter any competitive missives.

The kind of exodus that happened at the launch of DNA was quite unprecedented to my mind because of the relevant compulsions at that point of time. The calculation obviously went wrong as the response from the market leader was more on the offensive and the assumption about legacy player couldn’t dance to the new competitive dynamics proved to be wrong. Hence success of an organisation is surely influenced by the leadership, but ultimately it is the team that makes the difference in terms of response to the competitive challenges. So I don’t agree with any migration of unorganised to another as a viable competitive response.

So we thought he would give us a politically correct answer. And tell us that our data is perhaps wrong. But, while he hasn’t taken names, he does some plainspeak here. Enough to make you wonder what he has said? Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the August 30 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Advertising volumes in the television news genre in H1 of 2023 have degrown 6% from 2021. Doesn’t look too good for a sector that expects to make hay with a big election year coming up?

A. I agree with the concern expressed by you in the context of H1 2023 growth of advertising business. But you know it is more a systemic issue as opposed to a specific sectoral issue or a specific issue for a part of the year. I think one has to accept that advertisers are under pressure because of multiple environmental factors and performance-led evaluation of investment has become the order of the day. The media owners have to understand it that they have to get used to an omnichannel environment where an inter-category comparison of delivery would always happen, including individual priorities for particular formats of media depending on the category of business. Media owners need to invest in research, both quantitative and qualitative, and ensure a more customer-centric approach to give assurance to the advertisers about a better value for their investment. I don’t see any major effort in that direction. When the external environment has changed, the practice of media owners continues to follow the same route and same root of promotion. The sales team needs upskilling to understand and internalise the new world order where there must be better understanding what the customers – in this case advertisers – expect from them to deliver. Because advertisers have also a compulsion to deliver to their customer, to their stakeholders to ensure that there is a better business outcome and better customer experience vis-a-vis. Till that  is understood, the volatility of investment in advertising will continue. The advertising and media industries need to come together or work independently to reconstruct their way of viewing the new world order.

Not an easy question to answer given that marketers – unless backed by their Boards or owners – are forever looking at RoIs and data. But it’s good to know viewership numbers rising. Here goes Dr Bhaskar Das in the August 29 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Globally viewership of women’s sport has grown 131%. I’m sure the number is similar for India as well given the low base. Do you see our marketers biting?

A. Your question contains the answer though in the form of a question about women’s sports viewership. There has definitely been a rising interest but there is no use comparing it with our obsession with cricket which controls perhaps more than 80% of the eyeball share and of course monetisation share as well. That women’s IPL has been sponsored already shows that there is rising interest but it’s not yet across the board for all categories of sports.

The major segment of Indian population has been culturally suppressed and economically oppressed and in spite of that we might women have been showing continuous courage and resilience to come up. If you look at other sports categories from various states like Haryana, North East, the rising inspiration level to play on the national and global stage has been rising.

Sponsorship and no sponsorship, there has been obsession of sponsorship about cricket. I’m sure there are many sponsors who would be interested in getting exposed to a de-cluttered environment that where their brand would be more visible compared to being overshadowed in a cluttered environment. This should give encouragement to women and ultimately will result in women empowerment, not as platitudes but as actual performance and actual improvement.

In the Indian context, women’s empowerment is quite often reduced to some platitudes only but the time has come for giving them a real push and I’m sure that once that happens, the viewership would also increase and there will be more interest in terms of monetisation. It is a positive sign and I hope that it happens in this country so that the untapped potential of a major part of Indian population is fully realised.

Welcome back to Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. Apologies for being MIA for a few weeks. But we are back with renewed enthusiasm. Here goes Dr Bhaskar Das for the August 28 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Is there too much being made out on the Air India identity? Do you think it will just grow on us? Like various others have in the past?

A. Frankly speaking, I am not an expert on the re-branding exercise of any brand from creative standpoint but that Air India needs a refurbishment of its perception globally and locally is beyond doubt. The current rendition of the new identity can have multiple viewpoints. Only the future will see if it has worked. Ultimately, the market has to decide if the performance delivery is in sync with the brand’s new commitment. However, it could have been a great opportunity for crowdsourcing or involving the crowd for evolving the creative design… just to create some excitement and awareness. But this is speculative and need not result in the best possible. So best is to wait and watch and as you have mentioned, that even the new identity will grow on us over a period of time. The previous one got enough lead time to develop that affinity and I’m sure with Tatas giving its professional commitment behind the world customer experience, I’m sure some day we shall also appreciate the new design.

It’s too early fall in love on a subjective matter which cannot be deterministic at this juncture.