MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has rolled out a fused TV + Web Optimiser across its entire organisation in India. It will allow the media planners at SMG to evaluate plans fluidly between TV and digital.

This optimiser will sit within the planning tool Target Audience Reach Delivery Inventory Investment System (TARDIIS) suite. SMG India has been using the TARDIIS TV optimiser since 2006.

This new optimiser runs on the local Television Audience Measurement (TAM) and Web Audience Measurement (WAM) datasets.

SMG India CEO Malli CR said, "One senses that the growth of spends on digital should be faster than otherwise. There are several vehicles in digital whose reach is substantial and yet inertia and a lack of currency prevent investments. With this Optimiser, a planner can seamlessly build plan options between TV and digital. Does taking 10 per cent of the budget from TV and putting on to digital build better incremental reach? A planner would be able to do this on an on-going basis and raise the quality of the conversation between planners and brand managers.

Every client‘s biggest complaint is about how plans for different target audiences look the same. This product is one of several things that will help change that. We have been testing the product internally since March and are seeing paradigm changing results. For a female, 25-44 SEC A plan, the percentage of investment on digital can quadruple. A lot of decision making in media happens through heuristics (thumb rules), and one needs new currencies to break out of the inertia of old thumb rules."

Malli feels that one of the biggest challenges in digital is increasing the share of spends of FMCG. "Our experience on TARDIIS Web + TV from other markets on FMCG clients has shown that it can lead to a totally different worldview on digital and increase spends substantially. TARDIIS Web + TV is one of the first tools with scale in this market that can accelerate digital spends and investments," he added.