By Indrani Sen
ET Brand Equity has listed on August 28 among the most read news of last week an interview of Sir Martin Sorrell by Sarah Vizard which appeared originally in the Marketing Week on August 24. “Sir Martin Sorrell: Brands are starting to question if they have over invested in digital†https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/08/24/sir-martin-sorrell-brands-are-starting-to-question-if-they-have-over-invested-in-digital/. The prophecy of Sir Martin that growth that digital adspend will slow down over the next few years must have caused some worries to the big players in social and digital media in India.
Sir Martin raised a few very pertinent points related to the dependability of digital media. He was quoted by Sarah saying: “We have seen this before in arguments about viewability, ad fraud and measurement issues, not forgetting adblocking. That is where the debate is.†The issue of measurability is complex as initially the advertising industry was lured into trusting Google Analytics and Facebook data almost blindly. The industry had not dealt with real-time data while working with traditional media, so they found Google Analytics as a God’s gift. But with Google changing its algorithm without any explanation and Facebook altering content on people’s newsfeeds, it is not only traditional media who are raising questions about the dependability of digital media, advertisers have also started asking for independent research done by third party which does not have any stake in the digital media.
FICCI KPMG reports on Indian Media and Entertainment Industry have been consistently reporting over the last three years that growth in the industry would be led by the growth in digital media. Our government launching its “Digital India†programme backed by the rapidly growing number of internet users and India becoming the fastest growing smartphone market has added fuel to the fire of their future projections. The two questions which become pertinent now are: (1) will there be independent third party research on consumption of digital media in India and (2) will the ad investment in digital media slowdown in India?
In India, the advertising and media industry have been used to living in a sub-optimal condition of media research data for traditional media. Thanks to IBF’s initiative we seem to have solved the research issues related to broadcast media through BARC. But MRUC is still to put its act together as far the IRS is concerned. So, it is unlikely that our industry will be bothered about not having independent third party research on digital media. It is also doubtful if the industry will be able to raise funds for supporting such third party research on digital media. So we will continue to work happily with Google Analytics and Facebook data.
Similarly, the advertisers are also likely to continue with the present trend of investing in digital media advertising. However, if the multinational organisations receive directives from their head offices/ holding companies to review and slow down their investment in digital and social media then it may be a different story. In the absence of any data on what percentage of the advertising spend on digital media comes from multinational organisations, it is difficult to estimate the extent of slowdown in digital media advertising if the multinationals withdraw or reduce their support.
The interview of Sir Martin has thrown some doubts about the dependability of the digital media for advertising communication and it would be necessary for our industry to take the promises of digital media with a pinch of salt in near future.
Indrani Sen is a media services veteran, having worked with JWT, later Mindshare and then with Emami. In recent years, she is an independent consultant and academic. She is Adjunct Professor in charge of the Media Management programme at the Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune. The views expressed here are her own.