Advertising on Twitter isn’t very high in India, but there are people who do rely on it considerably for outreach to a certain set of people. Here’s what Dr Bhaskar Das has to say on the issue in the November 21 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. Many global brands are stopping to advertise on Twitter. Should Indian brands also do the same?
A. The key principles of branding viz brand safety, avoidance of controversial content environment/ disturbing editorial environment/ polarised hate-mongering etc in a platform, are the same all over the world. Hence, if global advertisers are shunning the said social media platform, Indian brands would follow the same trend too, I presume. Advertisers in general prefer, inter alia, reach (amongst relevant audience), cichness of content and audience engagement. A celebratory contextual environment is perceived to be a facilitator for fuelling consumption. Hence a disturbed content environment drives away advertisers. These are early days of Twitter reorganising its content and is in the process of reducing its over-dependence on advertising, but will the organisation be successful in doing so? It’s too early to say.
In India, Twitter reach is small compared to other social media platforms. So advertisers have a lot of options to select. But rumblings of disillusionment about social media in general can be heard in little corners of marketing jungles, though their performance-focused delivery is still one of best for the marketeers. Having said that, ROI may not be the only metric for selection of a platform. There are subjective factors that are taken into account when brand safety becomes paramount. This space is dynamically volatile, and to say the last word on the subject is fraught with flawed assessment.