MxMIndia

Tag: Anurag Gupta

  • Sohail Khan from Columbus India’s Mumbai Office will be spearheading this business

    Columbus India wins digital biz of AIS Glass

    By A Correspondent

     

    Columbus India has been appointed as the digital AOR for AIS Glass. The account was won following a pitch process across all the businesses of AIS Glass including architectural glass, automotive glass, consumer glass, AIS Windows, AIS Glasxperts, AIS Windshield Experts and AIS Car Fit Experts, and will be handled out of the agency’s Mumbai and Gurugram offices. Sohail Khan from Columbus India’s Mumbai Office will be spearheading this relationship along with a multifaceted cross functional team from across regions.

     

    Vikram Khanna

    Commenting on the appointment, Vikram Khanna, COO (Consumer Glass & Architectural Institutional Business), CMO & CIO, Asahi India Glass said: “AIS is India’s leading automotive and building glass company. We are trying to establish direct connect with our consumers in Automotive, Home and building market with our brands – AIS Windshield Experts, AIS Glasxperts and AIS Windows.  A strong agency for the ever-expanding digital space is required to keep us connected with consumers in digital world, and on-boarding Columbus India gives us that confidence to do so. AIS is happy to welcome Columbus India, a part of the Dentsu Aegis group… We have the confidence in this relationship to reach out to our consumers on the digital medium more closely and effectively.”

     

    Nitin Sabharwal

    Added Nitin Sabharwal, COO, Columbus India:“AIS glass is one of our most awesome wins in the recent past as this was one of the last pitches done by our late CEO Anurag Gupta himself and also due to the fact that we are actually helping AIS in their digital transformation across all platforms and digital assets.”

     

     

    Deven Dharamdasani

    Said Deven Dharamdasani, CEO, SVG Media: “It’s a matter of great pride for Columbus India to be the Brand Voice and the communication partner for AIS India. A brand that has been leading for over three decades in the glass industry to have placed their trust in us. We are excited to partner with them in their digital journey and hope to bring in the change in their social media brand communication and engagement with their audiences”.

     

     

  • SVG Media will help increase BirdEye’s global footprint as the leading customer experience platform

    SVG Media to launch BirdEye’s customer experience platform in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    SVG Media has announced a strategic partnership with US-based BirdEye customer experience and business reputation platform in India.

     

    Naveen Gupta

    Said Naveen Gupta, Co-founder and CEO of BirdEye: “We are incredibly excited about this partnership. SVG brings an unparalleled understanding and execution in the Indian market. This is the reason why the majority of the world’s leading companies cherry-pick SVG as their digital partner.”

     

     

    Anurag Gupta

    Added Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Media: “The marketing tangent in India is fast evolving and there is a growing need for effective marketing technologies. The BirdEye product suite serves a holistic and focused approach towards revenue contribution across their implementations. SVG would bring its strategic market understanding and sales expertise to grow the business presence in India. We are very excited to be partnering with BirdEye and are looking forward to improving customer experiences in India.”

     

     

  • As part of the new mandate, the assignment will involve using Columbus India’s expertise in the digital ecosystem

    Columbus Iwins search duties of HDFC Life

    By A Correspondent

     

    Columbus India has been appointed as the search agency for HDFC Life Insurance. The account was won following a multi-agency pitch and will be handled out of the agency’s Mumbai office.

     

    Commenting on the win, Vishal Subharwal, EVP – ecommerce & Digital Marketing, HDFC Life Insurance said: “We are happy to partner with Columbus for both our SEO and SEM accounts. We look forward to working with their team of experts to fortify our market leading position and help grow our revenues at optimal cost in a highly competitive, online market place.”

     

    Added Anurag Gupta, CEO, Columbus India: “It’s an absolute privilege to have won the SEM & SEO directive for a leading brand like HDFC Life Insurance. With this engagement, we will try to ensure that HDFC Life gets the best of Columbus India’s digital solutions and expertise, enabling them to increase their customer base and stay ahead of the competition.”

     

     

  • Columbus India to handle brand’s digital account…

    Carat bags mandate for Behrouz Biryani

    By A Correspondent

     

    Behrouz Biryani, the digital-thus-far biryani brand, has roped in Carat India as its media agency. Carat won the mandate following a multi-agency pitch and will now handle the account from its Mumbai office.

     

    Sagar Kochhar

    Meanwhile, under this new partnership, Columbus India is in-charge of the brand’s digital account. Commenting on the partnership, Sagar Kochhar, Group CMO, Faasos Food Services (FFSPL) said: “Being a digital-only brand, it was important for us to create a campaign highlighting the USP of the brand – i.e the aeons old, authentic Persian recipe, the fine ingredients and a compelling brand story. Meanwhile, when it came to delivering business results, the  objectives were non-negotiable. An infallible media strategy that could connect to our target audience in the most cost effective manner was the need of the hour. Carat’s focused and integrated solutions for our business challenges look seamless to us and we are delighted to have them with us as we embark on this exciting journey ahead.”

     

    Rajni Menon

    Celebrating the win, Rajni Menon, CEO, Carat Media added: “We are extremely delighted to partner with Behrouz Biryani. We are confident in driving strong and positive integrated media strategies to raise brand awareness resulting in positive business results. We are looking forward to this partnership, taking their business to a larger scale.”

     

     

    Anurag Gupta

    Added Anurag Gupta, CEO, Columbus India: “It is very exciting for us to partner with Behrouz Biryani – a leading Cloud Kitchen player. We are looking forward to pushing the envelope on driving digital media efficiencies and delivering unparalleled performance for Behrouz Biryani.”

     

     

  • The account was won following a direct pitch and will be handled out of the agency’s Delhi office

    Snapdeal assigns affiliate marketing duties to Columbus India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Columbus India, the digital agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, has been appointed as the affiliate marketing agency for Snapdeal. The account was won following a direct pitch and will be handled out of the agency’s Delhi office.

     

    As per the mandate, Columbus India will manage Snapdeal’s affiliate marketing programme which includes managing publishers globally. The agency will assign over 10 digital experts across offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and will support Snapdeal in growing its affiliate programme.

     

    Said Anurag Gupta, CEO, Columbus India: “We look forward to this new engagement with Snapdeal and are putting all efforts to make this a success. With our performance marketing capabilities around e-commerce, we are confident of being able to help Snapdeal further strengthen its brand & business by increasing site visits, engagement and conversions.”

     

     

    Added Nitin Sabharwal, CBO, Columbus India: “For ecommerce companies, leveraging the affiliate channel is one of the most cost effective channels to achieve one-to-one performance marketing at scale. We are deploying the best in class solutions for Snapdeal to achieve their goals.

     

     

  • Harish Bahl & Manish Vij exit SVG Media, sell stake to Dentsu Aegis Network which launches Columbus in India

    Win-win for Dentsu & Smile co-founders as…

    L-R: Chirag Shah, Deven Dharamdasani, Ashish Bhasin, Anurag Gupta and Ashwani Mehta

     

    By A Correspondent

    This news could be looked at from two ends. That the Dentsu Aegis Network has completed yet another acquisition and become really big in digital. Or fro the Smile Group point of view, where the co-promoters Harish Bahl and Manish Vij have hit the jackpot yet again after selling Quasar to WPP in 2008. According to some industry estimates, the deal size is in the region of Rs 750 crore.

    So let’s hear it from the DAN pov first:

    Dentsu Aegis Network has announced the acquisition of SVG Media Private Limited, one of the largest independent digital agencies in India. SVG Media will join the network’s Asia Pacific digital marketingagency Columbus and will become SVGColumbus.

     

    Manish Vij (L) Harish Bahl (R)

    Dentsu Aegis Network claims to be currently Google’s largest search partner in India, and the addition of SVG Media will further strengthen the Group’s leading search position in the market. This acquisition will also support Columbus’expansion in Asia Pacific – now in nine markets across the region.

    SVG Media includes the flagship brands DGM, Komli and Seventynine. Founded in 2006, SVG Media comprises over 280 specialists across four major Indian cities Gurgaon, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. It offers diverse digital media competencies including online performance marketing, mobile app distribution, representations, social and web services through its flagship brands. The group has one of the largest client bases in the Indian digital media sector with over 700 monthly active advertiser campaigns locally, as well as international clients in Dubai, Indonesia and China.

    Anurag Gupta,CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, will report to Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia. Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus & DGM, Chirag Shah,CEO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Deven Dharamdasani,COO of SVG Media Mobile & Seventynine, Akshay Mathur, Business Head of Komli, and Ashwani Mehta,Finance Controller,will join the SVG Columbus Managing Board, which will be chaired by Vivek Bhargava, CEO of Performance, Dentsu Aegis Network India.

    Harish Bahl and Manish Vij, founder and co-founder of the Smile Group, will continue to focus on investments through the Smile Group and will no longer act as directors of SVG Media. It has also been agreed that the Smile Group will retain the TyrooTechlabs business.

    Said Ashish Bhasin,Chairman and CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia: “India is a significant market with rapid growth potential in its mobile and performance marketing business, and Dentsu Aegis Network India has a strong track record in the search and performance space to deliver this. Given its capabilities in data led search, performance marketing and mobile,SVG Columbus is ideally positioned to capture the fragmented long tail publisher market in India using technology and data. As a Group we have leading position in digital in India, particularly in search and performance and this gives us a clear leadership position in this area. We will now have over 1,300 digital professionals, accounting for over 35% of our revenues, well ahead of our competitors.”

    On behalf of SVG Columbus management, Anurag Gupta, CEO of SVG Columbus,,said: “We started out as a digital media group more than a decade ago, and for us to join forces with a clear market leader in digital, that is Dentsu Aegis Network, makes perfect sense. Their priority in placing digital at the forefront of their strategy and goals align perfectly with ours. We will continue to scale our offering in performance marketing and serving clients through the network and other agency networks. We are assured of their strong growth momentum, which will enable us to further enhance our scale as a business operationally and geographically. Their unique one P&L model also allows us to be part of that shared vision towards a digital world which will provide us with access to the latest industry technology and talent to deliver the best solutions for our clients.”

    Meanwhile, this is what Messrs Vij and Bahl have to say:

    Manish Vij Co-Founder Smile Group: “We built SVG Media with the philosophy of profitable growth and market leadership. This philosophy is not the most popular in digital industry but has been very gratifying for SVG Media founders and key leadership. We understand that media consumptions habits are changing rapidly therefore will now focus on building the TyrooTech business and other media incubations.”

    Harish Bahl, Founder at Smile Group:“At Smile we are proud to have continuously built successful JV partnerships or exits with large global firms as, Airbnb, Yahoo, WPP Digital, Scan Group-Africa etc. SVG’s market leadership and exit to DAN is another feather in the cap for Smile.  Our strategy of Investing, Building and JVs through one common platform, is uniquely attractive to global unicorns and entrepreneurs and has evolved over years of learnings.  We hope to share few more exciting announcements in 2017.”

     

  • 1600+ delegates attend the two-day India Affiliate Summit

    IAMAI hosts ‘India Affiliate Summit’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Underlying the importance of affiliates in the digital marketing age, Ravi Bansal, Head Traffic and Content, LeEco, said, “Affiliates have the potential to be as big as AdWords or FB, but the only thing stopping is the visibility to the advertisers. The way we have AdExchange, we could have an Affiliate Exchange.” He was participating in a panel discussion on ‘Anatomy of Perfect Affiliate Marketing’ at the India Affiliate Summit, organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), in association with VCommision.

     

    The speakers at the two-day event were unanimous in their views that Affiliate Marketing is a key enabler today. In her address, Parul Bhargava, Co-founder & CEO, vCommission Media, mentioned that the affiliate network has been growing steadily in India despite the fact that it is still at a nascent stage. She underlined the importance of a strategic partnership amongst the various channels such as advertisers, brands, publishers, which could be a win-win for all the stakeholders.

     

    Anurag Gupta

    In his address, Anurag Gupta, Founder & MD, DGM India, said that the advertisers would need to recalibrate their affiliate strategy to derive best mileage out of the Affiliate Channel. This will continue to be one of the most cost effective channels of customer acquisition.”

     

    A whitepaper titled, ‘Affiliate Marketing – What is the big deal’, jointly prepared by IAMAI and Tata Strategic Management Group was also released on Day 1 of the event. Releasing the paper, Sourabh Gupta, Engagement Manager – Technology & Digital, Tata Strategic Management Group, said “Industry often takes a myopic view on affiliate marketing by limiting it to sales. We, at TSMG believe that technology evolution would not only drive but also re-shape affiliate marketing in India. Companies across industries should re-align their conservative outlook towards affiliate marketing thus driving disproportionate results.”

     

    Speaking at the summit, Milind Pathak, Chief Operating Officer, Madhouse India, emphasised that in today’s connected world the modern marketer has to think beyond the obvious. He said: “Affiliate Marketing is not only about getting the downloads; with technology moving towards programmatic, data intelligence and attribution, marketers today can identify the time when a consumer will convert and that to in real time.” Marketers today can take all these innovations, combine them together and create a cracking campaign with effective strategy that will surge brand impact and customer engagement, at the same time driving a defined  outcome, he opined.

     

  • In addition to DTH advertising, SVG media delivers performance, mobile and native advertising to digital marketers

    NetworkPlay wins Airtel Digital TV’s monetization mandate

    By A Correspondent

     

    NetworkPlay, an SVG Media company, announced winning an exclusive mandate from Airtel Digital TV to monetize all their digital advertising inventories. Airtel Digital TV is the DTH arm of leading global telecommunications provider Bharti Airtel. SVG Media is the largest Indian Ad-Tech company with brands like Tyroo, DGM India, Seventy Nine & NetworkPlay in its portfolio.

     

    In addition to DTH advertising, SVG media delivers performance, mobile and native advertising to digital marketers and advertisers and helps leading publishers monetize their digital assets.

     

    Anurag Gupta, India MD, SVG Media said, “NetworkPlay has been working with Airtel DTH since their launch in India. Today, we are extremely delighted to take our relation to the next level with this exclusive partnership, which further strengthens our position in the industry as a leading digital ad-tech company.  NetworkPlay’s technology will help in significantly growing the advertising revenues for Airtel Digital TV.”

     

    “With the increasing penetration of HD technology, coupled with an overall growth in the DTH sector, the business is expected to multiply as more brands have started to explore DTH as a platform to reach out to the television audience”, he further added.

     

  • DGM India is part of SVG Media, the largest Indian digital media network

    DGM India unveils new brand identity

    By A Correspondent

     

    Ad network DGM India signaled a business and organizational reinvention with the unveiling of its new brand identity, underscored by a new logo that signifies growth, network, vibrancy and a strong desire to redefine the boundaries of digital advertising.

     

    DGM India is part of SVG Media, the largest Indian digital media network. SVG media has consolidated the India business of 3 companies – DGM, Tyroo & Network Play into a single unit – DGM. The new brand identity also reflects this consolidation.

     

    DGM India said that it has organized its business into five distinct business verticals, each of which is focusing on cutting-edge innovation strategy for growth. The CPL (cost per lead) vertical caters to the offline businesses and it integrates call center and CRM support with online advertising to deliver hot leads to advertisers. The GoVentures unit has a very sharp focus on giving advertising options to advertisers operating in the newly developing on-demand hyper local services by helping clients source leads through various DGM-owned B2C marketplaces. DGM’s other business verticals are CPS (Cost Per Sale), Display and DTH advertising. The company is also offering videos and content for brand advertisers as part of its Display vertical offerings.

     

    Anurag Gupta

    Anurag Gupta, Founder & MD, DGM India said, “Today’s launch of our new brand identity marks the beginning of the next phase of our journey. With digital advertising as our DNA, we are today ready to push the innovation frontier as we seek to redefine its boundaries whilst operating profitably at a very large scale.”

     

     

    Manish Vij

    Manish Vij, Founder & CEO, SVG Media said, “We see exciting times ahead as we have recently concluded the consolidation of our ad-network business. DGM India’s new brand identity signals our intent to creating and delivering true innovations that will help marketers generate significantly higher ROI on their digital marketing efforts.”

     

  • Aegis' acquisition of Communicate 2 is part of a series of M&As in the Indian digital media space

    Another win-win digital equation

     

    By Johnson Napier and Robin Thomas

     

    ‘By 2015, we want to be the top 3 player in every single sphere we operate in’
     

    What led you to shortlist Communicate2 as the partner of choice?

    Communicate2 is one of the largest and oldest firms in the area of search & performance marketing in India. Vivek Bhargava, as you’d know, is considered to be the guru of search inIndia. He is also one of the guys to be Google-certified and has been in this business since 1997 – a time when the internet and search was in its absolute infancy. In our view, nobody else managed the quality and scale of the business that he has built up, and therefore he was a preferred partner of choice.

     

    The other important reason for choosing Communicate2 was chemistry – Aegis Media has a certain vision and value outlook which is very close to our heart and Communicate2 seemed to have gelled very well with those attributes. There was a lot of comfort on both sides. So these were some of the key reasons for us to choose Communicate2.

     

    Will you be laying enhanced emphasis on Search with the current acquisition…

    The focus is on search because it is one of the fastest growing parts of our business. Clearly, Communiacte2 is the biggest player in the space and now with iProspect and Communicate2 together, we are straight away the number one player of search in India. So that’s how it is placed as of now.

     

    How long has it been since you have been pursuing Communicate2? Did you scan the market for other potential candidates?

    We were working with them about 4-5 years ago, but nothing more came out of that deal. This recent move has been in the works for a few months. Also, we did scan the market as anybody else would and we did have a few names that we shortlisted and we narrowed down to Communicate2.

     

    The deal seems heavy on the investments front. Would you share with us the monetary plans you engaged in towards snapping the agency?

    An agency that is the oldest and has a workforce of more than 130 people is not going to sell out cheap. I cannot disclose the amounts behind the deal, but I can say that it has been fairly priced.

     

    The market has been abuzz with news of big communication houses buying out specialist digital agencies in the recent past. What would you infer of this trend that everybody is taking a liking to?

    I cannot comment about others, but there is a clear strategy that Aegis Media believes in and that is by 2015, we want to be the top three player in every single sphere that we operate in – be it out-of-home, search or digital. As part of our strategy to be in the top 3, the best way of getting there was by partnering with Communicate2 because their expertise, their client base and their search professionals coupled with the iProspect tools and knowledge would be an unbeatable combination.

     

    In an acquisition it is very important that you have to see how the acquisition fits with the plans of your company. So the task of integration becomes key, which is why the quality and type of people and the chemistry become important. So companies that are blindly going out and buying companies will fall flat on their face, but those who are able to acquire and integrate companies and have a great bond with the partners will be successful in the long run.

     

    Globally, digital contributes more than 35 per cent for Aegis Media. What is it that you anticipate from the Indian market post the acquisition of Communicate2?

    We are looking at being the clear No 1. Globally, iProspect is the world’s largest search network, and in India we now become No 1 with this venture. But we want to be No 1 by a long distance. We want to be double the size of the No 2 guy in a few years.

     

    What are the immediate changes that will be seen on ground?

    There is a new office that we are in the process of doing up in Mumbai; their staff will be moving into that new place soon. Likewise the Delhi team too would be amalgamated in our office. With this the entire Aegis Media clients will have benefits from Communicate2 and vice-versa.

     

    As for people, Vivek will be the MD of the new venture. He already has a management team. Of course, as growth happens we will keep recruiting more people. All other aspects remain the same.

     

    The announcement comes just weeks after Dentsu acquired a stake in Aegis Media. Has this deal been inspired from that takeover…

    These things do not happen overnight; it has been ongoing much before that. The two are not related.

     

    Future plans from Aegis Media…

    As I said, we will be the top 3 player in every space that we operate in. In some instances we will do that organically, in others we will do that inorganically – provided we get a good partner. We are not on the lookout as of now but if any new opportunity does come up we will not be turning a blind eye to that.

    No doubt people would talk about the number of medals won and the records that were broken in Olympics 2012; but what it will be most remembered for is the use of digital media, particularly social media. All of the Olympics events are being streamed live on YouTube for the first time; there has been an increase in the number of Facebook users and Twitter accounts and one can even get live news updates online. Even Google has been putting up doodles on its home page, giving users information and updates on the Olympic sport of the day. These are just few signs that digital has arrived.

     

    The past few months have witnessed quite a few mergers and acquisitions in the digital space. Standalone digital agencies, particularly those with over four years of existence, are being acquired by larger advertising networks. Only recently Publicis Groupe has announced the acquisition of Resultrix, a digital marketing agency, with the aim of strengthening Publicis Groupe’s presence in India as well as its digital dominance. Prior to this, JWT, one of the leading advertising agency acquired a majority stake in Hungama Digital Services, the digital and promotions marketing division of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment. Also recently Gruner + Jahr, the publishing division of European media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG, acquired a majority stake in Network play,India’s digital ad network company.

     

    On August 09, the media and digital communications group Aegis Group plc (“Aegis”) announced that it has acquired Communicate 2, a performance marketing and search agency in India.  With this acquisition, Aegis Media becomes one of the strongest agencies in the digital space in India. Communicate 2  will be merged into iProspect India’s existing operations; strengthening its network in key cities across India and providing additional service capabilities for its clients.

     

    Speaking to MxMIndia about his views on the increasing trend of big communication houses buying standalone or specialist digital agencies, Mr Ashish Bhasin, Chairman India & CEO South East Asia, Aegis Media said: “I cannot comment about others, but there is a clear strategy that Aegis Media believes in and that is by 2015, we want to be the top three player in every single sphere that we operate in – be it out-of-home, search or digital. As part of our strategy to be in the top 3, the best way of getting there was by partnering with Communicate2 because their expertise, their client base and their search professionals coupled with the iProspect tools and knowledge would be an unbeatable combination.”

     

    “In an acquisition it is very important that you have to see how the acquisition fits with the plans of your company. So the task of integration becomes key, which is why the quality and type of people and the chemistry become important. So companies that are blindly going out and buying companies will fall flat on their face, but those who are able to acquire and integrate companies and have a great bond with the partners will be successful in the long run,” he added.

     

    Mr Vivek Bhargava, Managing Director, Communicate 2 was of the view that these are signs that digital media has arrived and that even brands have accepted this reality. “Digital marketing in India has now arrived. More promoters and senior management people now believe that digital is a very critical part of their marketing endeavour. So they are spending a lot of time around the medium. About 3-4 years ago we were talking about digital being the future and today digital is now considered as present. Earlier digital used to attract a small budget from marketers, but now they position it as their first priority and question whether they need conventional media or not.Mobilehas given digital three times the reach of television. So I believe digital is going to be the dominant medium in the future.”

     

    MxMIndia also spoke to a few industry players to gauge their take on the recent mergers and acquisitions in the digital space, especially Aegis Media acquiring Communicate2′.

     

    Anurag Gupta

    According to Mr Anurag Gupta, MD, DGM India, it is a win-win situation for Aegis Media and Communicate 2: “Vivek Bhargava has done well for himself, he has created a fairly good outfit and the testimony for this is the fact that it has been acquired. This is a good sign. I believe that this trend will continue – most of the standalone digital agencies will get merged with larger offline agencies. Both search and performance advertising are growing robustly. In fact, a completely new category in digital has emerged in the past one and half years – e-commerce business. They are doing a lot of search and performance advertising, so there is lot of growth.”

     

    Mr Amardeep Singh, Co-Founder and CEO, Interactive Avenues was also of the view that the Aegis acquiring Communicate2 is a win-win situation: “I believe it is a good move for both Aegis Media and Communicate2, as this kind of transaction will help Communicate2 to scale from where they are currently placed. It doesn’t matter whether an agency is part of, or not part of, a larger advertising networking, if it continues to operate as an independent agency despite being owned by a larger network then it retains its identity. Typically, a specialist agency is able to provide a holistic solution to the clients and everything happens in-house for them. What happens is that when an agency offers an offline as well as online service, the focus on digital is lost. A standalone digital agency is able to give its clients that much more focus than an agency which offers both offline and online services.”

     

    So, while the Aegis Media acquiring Communicate 2 is seen as a win-win situation by industry players, it is also believed that this is just the beginning in the digital space.

     

    ‘It was a meeting of the best minds of the world’
     

    The buzz was that you were being hounded by most big communication players in the market for a takeover and now you’ve finally given in to Aegis Media. How would you describe the takeover journey?

    We had the opportunity to talk to every single large player and we found that the way the market is growing, there is going to be a lot of technology components required in it and iProspect globally has the best technology in the world. Also, we are a very dominant agency as far as search and performance marketing is concerned in India while iProspect was the world’s largest search company, so it was a meeting of the best minds of the world. The digital market in India has matured to the level where clients are looking for the best in the world and we felt that with the expertise that iProspect had to offer, it was a perfect solution to offer to our partners. And we endeavour to take decisions for our partners as much as it helps us.

     

    What is your view on big communication players showing sudden interest in digital in India?

    Digital marketing in India has now arrived. More promoters and senior management people now believe that digital is a very critical part of their marketing endeavour. So they are spending a lot of time around the medium. About 3-4 years ago we were talking about digital being the future and today digital is now considered as present. Earlier digital used to attract a small budget from marketers, but now they position it as their first priority and question whether they need conventional media or not.Mobilehas given digital three times the reach of television. So I believe digital is going to be the dominant medium in the future.

     

    What is the value that you’d be leveraging from this partnership?

    Globally if you see, there are clients like GM, Nokia, Philips and others who have operations in 60-70 countries and they are aligned with Aegis Media. I see tremendous opportunities there. As for us, we are a 140-people agency which makes us the largest digital agency in the country. So with the clients we have and with the kind of team we have in the enterprise sector, I see it as a perfect marriage of the two. I see tremendous value in the venture.

     

    How have clients responded to this move of yours?

    I had spoken to clients even before this venture and they seemed pretty positive about it. Also there is no change as such in the team and talent, so there was a comfort level there. Generally they are happy with the merger.

     

    Do you see the gap between digital and advertising being bridged?

    If you ask me the demarcation between digital and conventional media will probably go away. This is going to be an advertising agency and digital is going to be an integral part of the advertising medium, probably the largest. Demarcation is something that we have created for ourselves but it is about giving out advertising solutions.

     
  • dgMatix's proprietary technology is capable of tracking click frauds, measuring campaign performance on various parameters

    DGM India launches dgMatix ad network

    By A Correspondent

     

    DGM India announced the launch of its premium brand ad network – dgMatix, which will utilize DGM’s proprietary technology to deliver impactful and transparent campaigns. dgMatix’s proprietary technology is capable of tracking click frauds, measuring campaign performance on various parameters like creative-wise performance, publisher-wise performance, and so on.

     

    Anurag Gupta, MD, DGM India said: “dgMatix Ad Platform is significantly different from the other platforms available in the Indian market for the advertisers. It uses proprietary JavaScript injection technology to put an ad on the publisher’s website without interfering with the existing ad units or existing design of the website. Additionally, there are no costs for publishers for serving dgMatix ads. The ad units created by dgMatix are additional high impact units on the publisher’s website that is interoperable with multiple platforms like Flash, HTML5. Our technology optimizes the publisher’s inventory and provides maximum eCPM and eCPC”.

     

    dgMatix’s proprietary technology is hosted on the cloud to generate faster response time. The ad server resides on Amazon and the delivery system works from Amazon Cloud Front which allows to automatically route end users to the closest available location, thus ensuring the fastest delivery of ads without any drop outs.

     

    dgMatix is capable of delivering high impact, disruptive units on identified websites along with detailed reporting including IP addresses. dgMatix offers two kinds of solutions to Brand advertisers: Impact & Reach.

     

    dgMatix delivers the following Impact solutions on identified selected tier 1 and tier 2 websites:

    • Brand Box: A high impact slider unit that can play rich media ads to static images. The slider unit delivers phenomenally high CTRs.
    • Brand Bar: dgMatix uses intelligent technology to serve ads in the margin/free space on the left & right side of the website content.
    • Brand Bang: dgMatix offers the highest impact ad options for advertisers viz. site captures/take-overs and high impact flash/HTML5 ad units.

     

    dgMatix delivers the following Reach solutions:

    • dgMatix has a reach of over 30 million Internet users on a monthly basis
    • The exclusive pricing strategy includes charging advertisers on authenticated & verified deliveries as per client’s analytics reports
    • The Pricing models include Cost per visitor, Cost per click, Cost per thousand impressions etc. Detailed during and post-campaign reporting, including IP addresses etc.

     

    DGM India works with over 15,000 websites across India and has delivered measurable results to over 300 blue-chip Indian brands over the past 5 years on a pay-for-performance basis.

     

     

  • Anurag Gupta says he would like to see demand for internet media driving up pricing and a situation where some internet media start selling at premium rates and shed their discount pricing tag.

    The Anchor: Anurag Gupta on 5 things that should change in internet advertising

    By Anurag Gupta

     

    #1 I would like the internet to be regarded as mainstream media, sooner rather than later. It is inevitable that digital advertising will overtake other media like television in revenues. This has already happened in many other countries and I would like this to happen in India as well. Digital advertising today contributes to as little as 3-4 percent of total media spends; I would like this to zoom to double digits over the next two years.

     

    #2 Unfortunately since ‘content’ is easily available online and it is free, we are seeing a huge devaluation of the value of content in the online world. I would like online content to get its due from the advertisers. I would like to see the demand for internet media not only driving up pricing, but also create a situation where some internet media companies start selling at premium rates and shed their discount pricing tag.

     

    #3 Today digital advertising is predominantly sold as ‘performance’ media. I reckon more than 70 percent of all digital advertising happens for performance, and this segment is growing faster than brand advertising spends. While I personally love performance advertising and my company DGM India is at the forefront of delivering ROI to advertisers, I would like to see much more brand budget being allocated to the internet.

     

    #4 The internet is one of the most measurable advertising media. I would definitely like advertisers to be willing to pay for using cutting edge technology that can monitor and measure their internet spends in a better manner which goes beyond just impressions and clicks. For example, I have routinely seen advertisers who spend large amounts on digital advertising using free tools like Google Analytics when it comes to measurement.

     

    #5 I would like to see the emergence of global Indian media companies in the digital space operating at the scales of Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

     

    Anurag Gupta is the Managing Director, DGM India Internet Marketing Pvt Ltd.