Category: DAS KA DUM

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Q: Facebook and Google corner most of the digital adspends in India. What do you think can our homegrown giants do to capture some of those revenues?

A: To my mind it would be a wild goose chase to even aspire to get some share or % of their revenue in the near- or medium-term. But in the first place, why does one aspire for so?

Instead isn’t it a better idea to focus on one’s core and unique niche to serve one’s addressable market and monetise that. Because of the advantage of one-to-one interactive marketspace, it is possible to showcase the quality and quantity of engagement with the audience and justify the ROI of partner involvements. I am sure the cost structure of these niche players would be far less than the tech giants and the personalised and exploratory partnership would be preferred by clients.

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Q: Many consumers still find advertising as intrusive rather than adding value. Is there a way in which they can be found to be adding value to the lives of people?

A: In an AVOD-skewed marketplace as in India, advertising intrusiveness in content space is an ipso facto reality. The audience may not like it but they usually don’t mind when media marketeers get the content subsidised.

Adding value to the lives of people through communication is easier said than done. It’s more a creative challenge where a communication needs to be integrated within the content architecture without vampiring the content integrity. But this demands more collaborative relationship between the brand owner and the media owner. A pretty tricky space! Finally, what will be good for the audience need not converge with pure play brand communication to increase the AIDA model.

Key to terms used in response:

AVOD: Advertising-based Video on Demand

AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire (or Decision) and Action

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Q: Your view on the advertising of the various political parties that you have seen so far?

A: I have seen some ads but can’t claim to have seen them all. I feel creative articulation of the communication is a subsequent action post the unique value proposition of a product (read party). Having said that, the fundamentals that guide advertising for all consumer products are applicable for political ads as well. For instance do the ads from various parties/leaders communicate the USP of their unique offerings or do they just highlight the inadequacies of the other parties? What I would like to see happening is the resolve to to mitigate the unarticulated expectations of the teeming millions and not necessarily of the top 5% of the economic strata. The communications should deliver the promise to positively change the current state of affairs during the next five years.

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Q: It took a social media activist Food Pharmer to get a popular ‘health drink’ to reduce its sugar content. There are many others brands and genres who are also in the eye of a possible storm. With an ad revenue-dependant legacy media not asking the right questions, do you think it’s left to independents to make life safer for you and me?

A: Unfortunate! In spite of all homilies about customer-centricity and superordinate mission and vision statement, an individual takes initiative to most the myth.  You are correct in your observation about the collective dereliction of responsibilities to pinpoint such factual inexactitides.

In a social media-dominated post-truth world, consumers are, more often than not, passive recipients of agendised content. Since shallow is the new depth, no one has time to deep-dive to explore what is truth. All of us are victims of word peddlers and content gimmicks. We have no time to pause and examine.

Hence, some individuals take the trouble to expose such purveyors of camouflaged truth, ignoring what is good for consumers.

The reality is what the Bard said:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

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Q: According to a survey, around 46.5% marketers feel that marketing is seen by businesses as a cost first and foremost. Only 32% think marketing is seen as an investment and is completely understood by the company. Unfortunate? What would you say is the scene in India?

A: The answer is obvious ie it’s an investment. It’s too elementary to aver that:

Marketing builds long term value,

Marketing reinforces Brand Equity,

Marketing differentiates one brand from the other (one business from another),

Marketing drives revenue growth,

Marketing builds customer loyalty.

Etc Etc.

Practitioners on the ground would know these from both academic and practical  point of view. But whenever the operating environment changes, for both macro and micro reasons. Then monthly and quarterly results dominate organisational thinking- perhaps justifiably. Don’t forget that dictum: Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity. And Cash is Reality

Hence answer to your question is: yes marketing is certainly an investment, but it has to be moderated in sync with operating environment of an organisation.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q: From May 23, Bark Air, a flight service for dogs and their owners, is set to launch in the United States. Do you think it should launch in India as well?

A: Launching a flight for dogs/ pets/ furry friends is certainly a great/ pawsitive initiative but I can imagine that it can’t be availed of by the hoi polloi. I am sure that the entry barrier (read hefty fare) for availing of such a privilege would be pretty high.

The concerned airlines can’t be a regular fleet operator,  as economies of scale would not permit the cost of operating such services. Besides, the decision to fly pets has to be followed by other concurrent facilities. A regular and large fleet operator usually can’t afford to offer such facilities, especially in the Indian context. While I shall personally welcome such a step in India, my business instincts can’t reconcile many questions that crop up in my mind. Business can’t be run by emotions but it needs cold shower of logic and economic prudence.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q: Goafest in Mumbai is like having Cannes Lions in Mumbai. Yes, the sun, sea and the beaches are there, but the x factor? Your sentiments as the fest gets to Mumbai?

A: Someone mentioned that we were living in a container culture. We focus more on the container and not on the content. Your question reminds me of the same in the context of Goafest being held in Mumbai.

There was a situational imperative for taking such a call by the two leading Industry Bodies — The Advertising Club and the Advertising Agencies Association of India  –who have been organising the festival for many years. So, there is not an iota of doubt about the quality of the programme being compromised. The venue is different. It is better than not maintaining the continuity of the event due to date-specific macro-environment reasons.

I am excited as I shall continue to experience the high octane cognitive environment, combined with a complementary fun-filled engagement, besides networking with industry friends.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q: Just a random question. No context to anything, definitely  not one of the IPL teams. If a newly appointed CEO performs badly do you continue with him/her, or replace and bring back the old, popular leader?

A: I understand a coincidental drift in your question. As they say in the movies, the character in the movie is purely fictional. Evaluation of performance in corporate sector is done over a period of time (usually three to five years), subject to any other exceptional circumstances. Secondly, there is no set pattern (precedence-wise) of corporate response to sub-optimal performance of a leader (read CEO). A leader like Bob Iger or Howard Schulz or Sam Altman have been called back , but they are exceptions to the practice and in most cases, this is not generally done. So, it’s not a one-trick pony situation. More often than not, a new leader is selected, either from inside or outside, for the job and the displaced leader is not necessarily called back.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q: Earlier it was just the ads, but now with social media offering an easy platform for advertising, do you think there should be a check on creation of harmful stereotypes and unrealistic beauty and fitness standards?

A: That social media in all its hues are used as a platform for advertising/ communication/ paid media / native content (whichever you may mention) us a given in the new digital world. And with generative Ai , the dimensions of their variety of reach, engagement have reached a different stratosphere. Checking the veracity/ distortions of facts has been a challenge for all marketers.

Hence, ideally there must be a check to the same to protect the interest of citizens/ consumers. But how to execute it is a million-dollar question. ASCI does a good job and has also begun to do work in the digital/social media, and with influencers. There is need to crack deep fakes and agendised promotions. I do hope that collective wisdom will find a way to keep a check in collaboration with the government.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q: IPL 2024 is becoming a plundering platform for batters? Enjoyable or do you prefer a more balanced contest of batter and bowler?

A: I completely agree with you. There has to be some intense competition where bowlers and batters should have a see-saw combat. I am not denying that in some of the high scoring matches, the match had gone down to the wire. But in most of the matches, it’s pretty frustrating for the bowlers. If pitches and rules of the game are fair to promoting the game per se (to remain competitive in global cricket) and to the players (both batters and bowlers) , even spectators would enjoy it more.

I know it’s easier said than done. But as fans of the game, we may be irrationally demanding.

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q: In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, what is the role for traditional, mainstream media can play?

A: I think the media’s role doesn’t change. What changes is the context of the country, society, culture and the environment in which media operates.

Traditional media comes in the form of text, audio, video and experiential formats but in format-agnostic ways. And why has this happened? Because the audiences have been consuming in format-neutral way too, albeit at a different pace of adoption.

At a macro level, the role of media continues to mirror society, inform, educate and entertain audience responsibly. Since the same is quite often evaluated through the subjective prism of beholders, it is difficult to maintain uniform standards across formats of delivery. More often than not, it is left to the discretion of individual stakeholders depending on the imperatives of the relevant time.