Six months of struggle but 6 golden years ahead for digital marketing

Six months of struggle but 6 golden years ahead for digital marketing

Industry experts discuss the future of digital marketing in the new world

digital marketing

NEW DELHI: It has been stressed enough that Covid2019 has come as a catalyst for the digital marketing industry. However, this growth is not going to be visible in the immediate CAGR this year, but instead in the increasing share of the overall advertisers’ marketing pie, noted the eminent panel discussing the widening scope of digital marketing in the new world in an exclusive discussion with Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO and editor in chief Anil Wanvari over a digital webinar.

The panel consisted of Team Pumpkin co-founder and CBO Swati Nathani, Zoo Media and FoxyMoron co-founders Suveer Bajaj and Pratik Gupta, White Rivers Media CEO and co-founder Shrenik Gandhi, iProspect India AVP-strategic solutions Nihal Nambiar and Wavemaker India chief client officer and head--west Shekhar Banerjee.

Nambiar noted, “Digital, in 2020, will definitely not have a similar CAGR of 27 to 30 per cent as it has been recording for the past few years.” But he is looking forward to some positive quarters ahead in terms of brands moving to digital platforms.

Nathani mentioned that the Covid2019 period saw a lot of influx by brands, including the more traditional ones in the digital domain and that will enable the industry to make up for more than what was lost in the past quarter in the coming months.

Gupta insisted that the funnel moving downwards on advertisers who were using all the options that digital provides as a marketing tool was very low earlier and because of the exposure that the advertisers got to the digital realm during Covid2019, this number will now go up quickly.

Gandhi added, “Going ahead, it is six months of struggle for the digital agencies (given the dip on ad expenditure by advertisers) but six golden years ahead.”

The panel also discussed the new trends and technologies that will be dominating the digital marketing domain in the coming years, including blockchain, IoT, and online events.

Speaking about the massive popularity that online events earned during the lockdown, Bajaj quipped, “Obviously there is a cost-reduction of around 65 per cent in taking an event online for the event companies, and they have to sell the tickets at reduced rates as well, but at the same time they can get more and more people come online and watch the event.”

He added, “BookMyShow expanded its base dramatically by introducing online theatre shows and treasure hunts etc. And then Paytm Insider took it a notch higher by offering live shows, and even various classes including photography.”

Banerjee cited the example of his client 5Stars Do Nothing show that they did with OML. “The show managed to reach an audience of fifty million digitally, which wouldn’t have been possible in the case of an offline event.”

Nathani added an interesting insight as she noted that not only brands are collaborating with event companies to curate these shows, or running ads there, but are themselves also running training classes or entertainment events as they have realised a vast pool of opportunities lies in the online events space.

The panel also extensively touched upon the topic of IoT opening newers realms of marketing opportunities for the brands.

While Nambiar was of the view that IoT is still at a very nascent stage and is more of a utility than marketing platform, Banerjee highlighted, taking his experience of working with Vodafone in account that the roll out of 5G will lead to an explosion of IoT in the country.

Bajaj insisted that marketing will greatly benefit from the contactless experience that IoT will soon bring forth, as the brands will have more targetted information about the consumer as it starts relying on technology even for most basic needs like grocery shopping.

Nathani seconded the thought as she noted, “What IoT will be doing is creating hyper-personalised data, thus seamlessly helping the brands to reach out to the consumers with very targetted needs and that is the space we as marketers and brand consultants will need to explore.”

Watch the full discussion here:

Embed: