Mumbai: mediasmart, an Affle company, is a unified programmatic platform which provides advertisers, trading desks, and agencies ways to integrate consumer journeys across screens. Unique strengths such as omni-channel audience management & incremental measurement together with measurable and high impact CTV advertising (through its proprietary Household Sync technology), make mediasmart the platform of choice for marketers looking for an intuitive and powerful programmatic solution, whether they choose to use mediasmart’s console or build their own solutions on top of its open APIs.
Indiantelevision.com spoke to Nikhil Kumar - Vice President, India and SEA, mediasmart on the company’s journey in India, Omni channel Programmatic ad platform, the reach of connected TV’s and the road ahead…..
Edited excerpts
On the mediasmart journey in India and the strategies used in the past two years for your clients regarding programmatic advertising to counter the challenges due to the pandemic
mediasmart, which was already a leading programmatic platform in Spain, joined forces with Affle in March 2020. This opened up new avenues for advertisers in India and Southeast Asia to benefit from mediasmart’s programmatic solutions.
Our solutions have always been designed keeping the end consumer as well as the brands in mind. During the last two years, especially, we strategized towards making advertising work for the new world that existed during and post pandemic. As consumer behaviours changed during the pandemic, people spent a lot of time indoors and consumed content over Connected TV (CTVs). Advertising on CTV was gradually picking up during this time in the Western world, but was fairly a new phenomenon in the Indian advertising ecosystem. Our CTV solution launched during this time saw fantastic success, especially with our proprietary Household Sync solution. With Household Sync, brands could now sync their CTV ads with ads on other connected devices in the same household.
Now, in the post-pandemic world, people are more mobile than ever, and are once again back to work and travel. This has again created new opportunities for advertisers to connect with their audience on-the-go. We understand that the consumer journeys are not linear anymore and the same consumer can exist both on online and offline worlds. With this, we recently launched DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home) advertising to help advertisers reach their target audience in specific locations at the right time. Advertisers can deliver highly targeted and personalized ads to audiences in real-time, based on their location, context, and behaviour. The Omni channel impact of such solutions help advertisers to deliver brand messaging seamlessly across different channels and reach their target audience in new and innovative ways.
Our innovative privacy-first solutions make us a bespoke voice within the programmatic advertising landscape and have brought us recognition at many prestigious awards in India and Asia.
On the reach of Connected TV’s in India
Market estimates peg the current CTV reach to be around 14-15 million, and is poised to reach over 25 million by 2025. The growth has been impressive due to the cheaper internet data rates, competitive pricing, and availability of affordable Smart TVs. The growing engaged audiences have also encouraged co-viewing opportunities in households, taking CTV’s reach to wider audience demographics.
In 2022, mediasmart's India CTV 2.0 report revealed interesting insights into CTV consumption in India. 84% of respondents had more than one person watching CTV. Additionally, 64% of respondents claimed to prefer watching CTV with their families, and the time spent on CTV viewing increased to 4 hours in 2022, up from 3.5 hours in 2021.
On advertisers & brands benefiting from being on CTV
Traditional TV advertising has long been used by brands for awareness, recall, and purchase. However, it lacked precision targeting, personalization, and measurable results. CTV offers an immersive brand experience that enhances the advertising experience, making it more transparent, measurable, and impactful than ever before. With CTV, brands can reach specific audience groups with targeted ads based on demographics, screen size, interests, and location. This allows them to create tailored messaging that resonates with the viewer.
Moreover, co-viewing is becoming a crucial driver for brands to engage with CTV users and make the most of interactive CTV ads, which offer better engagement and ad recall for improved impact. With the ability to connect the journey from TV to mobile, CTV empowers brands to create meaningful experiences for users and improve brand recall. In today's hyper-connected Omni channel world, it's crucial to create experiences that leverage how a single user can be reached across multiple channels. CTV offers advertisers the opportunity to build an efficient channel for Omni channel targeting, resulting in more effective campaigns with higher ROI.
On the recently launched Omni channel Programmatic ad platform, and strategy to strengthen it
Today advertisers need an omnichannel approach to advertising to be responsive to the evolved consumer journeys that exist across multiple screens in the online world as well as in the offline physical spaces. Our solutions combine the highly immersive world of CTV advertising with real-world impactful targeting through DOOH, and relevant and targeted mobile advertising. By integrating CTV, mobile, and DOOH advertising, our solutions allow brands to create a seamless experience that is cohesive and impactful.
Our unique proprietary solutions such as Household Sync, Engagement Sync, and Offline Sync, allow brands to effectively target their potential consumers. Additionally, with our footfall measurement we help brands to ascertain the incremental impact of DOOH campaigns by running proximity campaigns on mobile devices targeted at a DOOH audience.
On the surge of digital and brands are allocating more spends to digital
Many brands moved to being digital-first during the pandemic as a response to the changing consumer behaviour. This shift is particularly evident among brand marketers, who have expanded their focus beyond just creating awareness to measuring the complete funnel impact. There has also been an increased awareness on where the ads are being displayed, what the impact is, and what happens post the user clicks on the ad. The focus is on demanding advertising that is targeted, measurable, and impactful. Furthermore, there appears to be a move away from closed advertising ecosystems to more transparent, programmatic-led channels that are essential for purchasing, delivering, and tracking advertisements
On providing a seamless and synchronized experience for consumers
We have been a leader in cross-screen storytelling and measurement and are dedicated to driving innovation. Our technology is designed to improve user engagement and ad awareness. With our omnichannel solutions, we integrate consumer journeys across screens, including CTV, where our Household Sync Technology reaches multiple devices in the same household. Our proximity marketing, location-based advertising, and footfall tracking solutions help increase brand awareness and drive footfalls to retail stores. Our DOOH solution offers unparalleled footfall attribution tracking and personalized targeting capabilities, including real-time weather-based ad personalization. These solutions are highly relevant in the current post-pandemic digital landscape where brands are looking for ways to drive back footfalls to the stores, while also boosting their online presence. Many brands across verticals such as QSR, retail, entertainment, etc. have found success with our solutions to engage with a high-intent audience and increase conversions.
We also offer patent-pending ad fatigue targeting technology to ensure that advertising campaigns remain fresh and impactful. Our clients also benefit from integrated dashboards, granular reports, and open APIs for complete campaign visibility and optimization.
On the three years from now where do you see CTV advertising in India
We’re already witnessing a dynamic change to the advertising landscape in India, particularly on digital channels like CTV. Newer technologies, innovation on measurement, and standardization will further propel brands to invest in CTV with more confidence. The challenge for marketers will be to stay ahead of the curve by investing in new technologies while being mindful of the global economic climate.