How to leverage brands for digital advertising

Thirty-nine year-old banking executive Siddharth is planning to buy appliances for his new home. In addition to him finding the customer reviews and ratings for the products online, Siddharth’s wife talks to users and takes their direct, word-of-mouth experiences. Once he has finalised his choices based on utility and popularity, Sidharth goes ahead with purchases. Without fail, he posts a detailed review on the brand portal.

Cross-device, cross-platform

The millennial consumer’s approach to commerce has broadened. Now with multiple feature smart phones, mobile commerce has taken off in a big way – people use their phones to identify and complete purchases, sell, update, communicate, review and document their commerce activities. The ideation and approach to advertising have also changed with the change in consumers’ approach. Though the medium of advertising depends on the context of the business and volume of the reach, email and text/WhatsApp marketing hold high relevance in dispensing extremely valuable information to the consumers.

Supriya Sehgal, co-founder of The Content Lab, a Mumbai-based content studio and digital marketing agency, says WhatsApp’s wide reach can be leveraged well. “Especially, community-driven brands in the clothing and personal/skincare industry have used it brilliantly for immersive content. Bliss Club, a brand of activewear for women rolls out periodic information on their discounts, new styles, etc, on WhatsApp.”

Winning genres

Story-telling with a value-add has proven to be a feasible combination. Though DailyHunt, a news aggregation app across fourteen Indian regional languages leverages its penetration, reach and news category to deliver ads across multiple formats, says Sunil Kumar Mohapatra, Chief Revenue Officer, VerSe Innovation, “The story needs to be layered with performance or frequency call-to-action (CTA) ads to drive resonance among the users and ensure conversions. For video mobile ads that are an important part of the mix, CTA oriented triggers will need to be leveraged with the same audience to drive conversion.”

Ad delivery needs to be 24/7 to adapt to customers’ moods, tastes and preferences. Like news that needs bite-size aggregation to suit fast-track readers who are on the move and timed trend-alerts capture industry-watchers, content needs constant tailoring to suit the varied demand. With hybrid interactions increasing post COVID, current emphasis is on modular - small-size content that is based on these personal, one-to-one interactions either in-person or through text, email or WhatsApp.

Siddharth admits that he consumes information in a staggered manner. His preferences are different for week days and weekends. “I would go through content-based email or text ads while on commute or at the end of the day. Lunchtime is for news alert pop-ups. On Sundays, my focus is on the cutting-edge list I had chosen from the lot. My active buying or selling will start only after the week starts,” says Siddharth.

Making content deliver

“Content is a great lever. But based on market awareness, saliency and adoption, effective creative execution, like DailyHunt’s Har Bhasha campaign across several regional languages helps to strike the right chord with the right user,” says Mohapatra.

“We are a bit overweight on the use of TV. We use digital in a focused manner. Our strategy for Geneo Esekha, an online e-learning platform has been TV + Digital Led, keeping the corresponding data points in mind and our own understanding of what would work in West Bengal where it was executed,” says Arindam Ghosh, vice-president, Schoolnet India, a K-12 focused Edtech App.

“Email is of use to showcase multiple products, especially during festive periods like Diwali. We've noticed a great opening rate for marketplaces and travel brands through email,” says Supriya.

“We target an all-encompassing reach since we are aiming at awareness creation for the brand across all kinds of consumers. Still, there are traditional mediums that hold value, says Kishan Jain, director, Goldmedal Electricals. “Bigger screens translate into better impact. The impact can be attributed to both the creative storytelling and the products that are showcased. A cricket tournament or even a match like an India-Pakistan T20 encounter or a marquee program on television delivers a huge number of eyeballs in a very short time.”

Though multiple-format advertising has almost become a norm now for both big and small brands, ad-tech innovations such as AI and ML algorithms have certainly leveraged the delivery. Proliferation of connected devices has made big data very significant in understanding and profiling customer behaviour and needs. The shift is more pronounced post COVID.

Validating the reach

Even though ads are made with a particular TG in mind, measuring the reach is not easy. Meta and Google do provide a fair amount of filtering options. “Organic reach has shrunk on platforms like Instagram; paid reach can be expanded with corresponding budgets,” says Supriya.

It also depends on the goals of the campaign. For Dailyhunt, brand track, brand lift, store visitors are measures for thematic brand campaigns. For performance-oriented campaigns, user acquisition and deeper engagement metrics are the benchmarks. Goldmedal has an independent media audit firm to analyse the impact and returns on the campaigns.

Schoolnet is making its digital pathways for consumers to both reach them and find what they are looking for quickly. Ad budgets are always limited regardless of the economic climates and the choice of ads/medium needs to help the brand optimize the spending and get better returns for the allocated budget, points out Kishan Jain.

“Our tracking at the moment is restricted to increasing web traffic flows, customer exposure to brand surveys, etc.” DailyHunt makes use of key levers for ad monetization. “Our solution not only solves for brand-based advertising but also performance-based advertising by allowing our advertisers to advertise with us on CPMs, CPIs, CPCs etc. That also speaks for the extensive reach among local language users which enables the perfect delivery mechanism for advertisers to convey their message to the target audience,” explains Mohapatra. Josh leverages third-party tie-ups to ensure ad efficacy.

The idea is to strike a balance between content and ads, without bombarding the users. For Dailyhunt, brand track, brand lift, store visitors are measures for thematic brand campaigns. For performance-oriented campaigns, user acquisition and deeper engagement metrics are the benchmarks. Goldmedal has an independent media audit firm to analyse the impact and returns on the campaigns. Schoolnet is making its digital pathways for consumers to both reach them and find what they are looking for quickly.

Ad budgets are always limited regardless of the economic climates and the choice of ads/medium needs to help the brand optimise the spending and get better returns for the allocated budget, points out Kishan Jain. “Our tracking at the moment is restricted to increasing web traffic flows, customer exposure to brand surveys, etc.”

DailyHunt works with key levers for ad monetisation. “Our solution not only solves for brand-based advertising but also performance-based advertising by allowing our advertisers to advertise with us on CPMs, CPIs, CPCs, etc. That also speaks for the extensive reach among local language users which enables the perfect delivery mechanism for advertisers to convey their message to the target audience,” explains Prashant.

There are also times when the quality of consumer experience takes over the reach. It only benefits the brand more.