Digital Marketing

How Ad Ops is Revolutionizing the Indian Advertising Landscape

Welcome to the world of ad operations, where advertising and optimization meet chaos and order, respectively. Ad operations are the foundation of the monetization strategy in the realm of digital marketing. Its function is basic. Make sure the publishers serve the right advertising at the right times. The management and optimization of digital advertising initiatives fall under this category. Ad operations have changed significantly over time. According to a 2022 forecast, revenue for ad media owners will increase by around 6% globally to a record-breaking $865 billion in 2023. As the decade progresses, it is predicted that the annual sum will rise even higher, hitting one trillion dollars by 2026.

Ad Ops is a crucial part of any publisher’s system. It is in charge of overseeing internet sales of digital advertisements and is the most profitable cash cow. In essence, it is a crucial element of ad tech. But what precisely are Ad Ops?

An Introduction to Ad Operations

Ad Ops, often referred to as Digital Ad Operations, is the term used to describe the systems and procedures that enable the management and delivery of digital advertisements. The term refers to any method used by a marketing team to manage, carry out, or improve advertising campaigns. Although there are more than a billion websites, it would be extremely expensive for advertisers to have their adverts seen by everyone around the globe. Instead, companies can attempt to target their ads at individuals who most closely match their existing customers using digital advertising markets. Here’s where ad ops come in.

They are in charge of placing the ads based on the likely audience, time zones, places, and regions. It will generate income in return through advertising initiatives. Ad operations technology links advertisers looking to buy ad space with websites that offer ad space for sale. Despite the fact that the majority of digital ad spaces are sold programmatically and without human intervention, ad operations play a significant role in setting up and overseeing these procedures.

Key Components

Ad operations is the fusion of many technological methods, tools, and stakeholders. The main categories in which the key elements of ad operations fall are:

1. Ad trafficking
2. Creating and managing ads
3. Delivering and targeting ads

Ad Trafficking

Ad Trafficking means setting up and implementing an advertisement campaign so it runs in line with its goals.

• Scheduling – One of the crucial tasks for Ad Ops is to correctly decide and operate pre-fixed schedules for launching and running ads considering the timing of an ad is a key.
• Optimization – One of the most important benefits of digital advertising is the ability to get precise, real-time data on consumer behavior and advertising engagement.

Creating and Managing Ads

Involves choosing ad formats, developing ads, and managing marketing campaigns. To guarantee that ads are properly created and handled, ad ops specialists collaborate closely with advertisers and publishers.

Delivering and targeting ads

Professionals in ad operations employ a variety of targeting strategies, including behavioral and demographic targeting.

• Ad Performance Analytics – To optimize ad campaigns and boost performance, Ad Ops specialists track and analyze data on ad performance.
• Privacy and Ad Compliance – Ad Ops experts must make sure that ads are delivered in a way that respects user privacy and adheres to applicable laws.’

Read More: 10 Game-Changing AI Tools for Digital Marketing in 2023

Advertising Landscape in India

With cutting-edge digital technology becoming more popular than ever in the market, the Indian advertising sector is set to reach new heights. Due to the pandemic, the advertising industry has been struggling to survive the past two years. However, indications show that the Indian advertising sector has been progressively recovering. The market size was INR 743 billion in 2022, and by 2028, it is anticipated to be INR 1,412.5 billion. It has a growth rate of 11%. The Indian advertising industry is expanding at an unprecedented rate, and digital advertising is flourishing. In an effort to reach the target demographic, brands and advertisers are using agile strategies to use digital advertising.

 

With every second that goes by, the Indian advertising scene continues to grow. Advertising experts adopted a 360-degree strategy as technology improved to include existing and upcoming digital media. Advertising in India, a now-vast industry, is set on being the second-fastest growing advertising market in Asia. It is now more data-driven, with thorough client journeys, mass-customized messages, and attractive deals. 

Benefits and Drawbacks of the Ad Ops in the Advertising Landscape

 

Read More: Cracking the CRED Code: A Deep Dive into its Advertising Mastery

Case Study for Brands Who Leveraged Ad Ops

In India, Zomato is a well-known B2P app for food delivery. Zomato’s excellent marketing campaign has been one of the primary causes of this enormous increase in revenue. It has made it a priority to connect with its target market consistently. Zomato grew when internet marketing became mainstream in India. For instance, appealing ad words on billboards and SMS messages to the target population showed a firm belief in their advertising skills.

 

 

Here are some ways that Zomato’s marketing and ad operations techniques contributed to the app’s success.

1. Wide-range and Powerful Outreach
2. Email Tactics
3. Using Social Media
4. SEO Efficiency

Wide-range and Powerful Outreach

Zomato used a variety of outreach strategies in its marketing initiatives. It involves paid advertisements, email and SMS lists, and social media strategy. They studied consumer traits, ordering trends, and peak ordering hours to tailor ads for Zomato’s user base.

 

Email Tactics

Zomato targeted a potential niche by curating its emails to implement marketing strategies centered on the binge-watching culture that goes hand in hand with food.

Using Social Media

Zomato depicts itself on social media with postings that are engaging on an emotional level. They interact in regional languages and make humorous memes to participate in meme

 

SEO Efficiency

Zomato has produced extremely keyword-dense material that has drawn more than 67 lakh internet visitors.

 

Zomato has a lot of influence because of its unique strategy of putting novel concepts into action on various fronts. It has always been a top priority for them to pay heed to customer comments and answer as soon as feasible.

Read More: An Innovative Triumph: Burger King x Stevenage FC Case Study

 

Myntra, a top-tier Indian online apparel retailer, boasts a remarkable “rags-to-riches” journey. Renowned for quality products and stellar customer service, its marketing plan revolves around key pillars for success.

1. Content Marketing
2. Social Media Marketing
3. SEO Efficiency
4. Paid Advertising

Content Marketing

Myntra has a popular blog that discusses a wide range of fashion, lifestyle, and trend-related topics. This makes the site one of the most well-liked fashion blogs in India. It leverages content marketing to establish connections with other brands and influencers.

 

Social media marketing

Myntra keeps a strong social media presence to ensure its target audience is always aware of the latest content. It routinely undertakes social media campaigns that support the development of the brand’s feeling of community. Additionally, it assists in providing a supply of user-generated material for advertising needs.

 

 

SEO Efficiency

Myntra makes use of SEO to make sure that its website ranks as highly as possible for the right keywords. To do this, they incorporate relevant keywords and phrases into the website text.

 

Paid Advertising

Myntra promotes its website and goods through paid advertising. They employ a variety of strategies, such as display, retargeting, and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. These techniques enable Myntra to efficiently promote its brand to a large audience.

 

Both businesses saw enormous success as a result of their marketing plans and ad operations. These businesses would still be unknown if they had not reached their target audiences at the correct time and through the right channels. Zomato and Myntra needed to avoid bombarding customers with frequent and unnecessary ads to provide an excellent customer experience. They were aware of the demographics and preferences of their audience. Both businesses achieved the ideal mix between client satisfaction and revenue generation. The organizations were able to make informed decisions due to their comprehensive insights. 

The Future of Ad Ops in India

Ad operations teams will need to embrace newer platforms and follow the lead of younger demographics as the Indian advertising market continues to grow. Digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising tools are among the new technologies that enable marketers to reach audiences in public spaces with customized content. Moreover, it’s clear that ad operations are no longer only a tactical role. Ad operations teams are already becoming more strategic, leveraging technology to solve business challenges and playing a key role in revenue growth because of their close relationship to revenue. However since digital media is always changing, ad operations professionals should expect to face a number of new difficulties in the coming years.

• The volume of campaigns will keep growing at an exponential rate.
• The range of available ad formats will increase.
• Utilizing first-party data effectively will be essential—even more so than it is now.
• Changes in policy will be implemented on a worldwide, regional, and national scale.
• There will be more pressure on companies to maintain high margins while increasing revenue.
• Publishers will see that ad ops teams with a tech focus can directly affect revenue.
• Ad ops teams’ increased awareness of revenue workflows and data will help them move closer to the strategic side of the business.

Another important factor in digital marketing will be the development of technology. Fortunately, generative AI has made it simpler for ad operations teams to create more content in greater quantities intended for multiple channels. This technology can be used by ad operations specialists to test ad tech platforms, generate and evaluate audience segments, and produce content in a variety of formats. Ad operations teams can concentrate more on gathering information and using data-driven insights to guide marketing and revenue decisions as generative AI enhances automation.

Final Words

Ad Ops is increasingly playing a crucial role in the Indian advertising sector by enhancing efficiency, targeting, and campaign effectiveness. In this industry, automation and personalization must be carefully balanced. Ad operations will be essential in ensuring ad viewability and brand safety as the advertising landscape changes. Cheers to the growth of ad operations and their bright future in the Indian advertising industry.

Read More: Cricket’s Advertising Blitz: Boundaries Beyond the Game!

Sky Media Unveils Innovative Programmatic Audience Match Tool

The sales division of Sky, Sky Media, has announced the introduction of a new programmatic Creative Optimization feature targeted at performance and response focused TV advertisers. Together with Adalyser, this tool leverages Sky’s ability to correlate online activity with TV ad viewing. It looks at the genre, channels, time of day, and day of the week, and while the campaign is running. It dynamically matches the most appropriate ad creative to the most responsive audience. As close to the transmission as feasible, the tool can then automatically update the spot schedule and modify the ad selection based on message, product, or call to action.

How does the new programmatic tool work?

The tool can choose and position an advertisement based on message, product, or call-to-action when a range of creative is provided. For instance, changing the call-to-action from a spot-on Sky Sports to one for food programming on Sky Arts might result in better viewership. Utilizing the tool raises campaign response rates by about 18%, according to tests conducted with brands thus far. Working in tandem with Adalyser, the tool makes use of Sky’s Web Attribution tool to connect TV ad viewing to online activity and purchases. The broadcaster and its sales division have made a number of changes to increase their ability to reach advertisers, and the addition of Creative Optimization is the most recent.

Read More: Disney+ Introduces First-Party Audience Targeting, Programmatic Buying Via PMP

Sky’s Web Attribution Tool

With its ability to connect spot placements to online activity and purchases, Sky’s Web Attribution tool is well-suited for this. Using this information, an airtime schedule can be modified to give clients the most successful campaign possible. For instance, one creative might perform better during the day than another during peak hours, or one call-to-action might elicit better responses from viewers of culinary programming while another might be more effective at content monitoring.

Sky Media’s other ventures

In an effort to collaborate with other broadcasters and facilitate the purchase of ad slots by brands in this highly competitive market, Sky Media signed up for a trial period in July with ITV’s addressable platform, Planet V. Sky also introduced AdSmart targeting capabilities in August, allowing businesses to target particular audiences based on their online search habits and locations.

Here’s what they said

Cath Crow, head of performance at Sky Media said,

We know from speaking with advertisers, that making sure every pound and ad placement count is essential in today’s climate. So, putting the best ad in front of the most responsive audience makes a massive difference. Being able to earn as the campaign runs and generate the best results in broadcast TV is a great step forward for advertisers. At Sky we continue to bring some of the best features of digital into the premium, big screen, brand safe world of TV.

Read More: Paramount Launches Conduit that Directly Integrates Major Programmatic Platforms

Aleph Unveils ‘One Brand’ Initiative, A Unified Digital Marketing Ecosystem

Aleph launched its “One Brand” campaign. Aleph is an ecosystem of regional digital marketing professionals and technology-driven solutions. By using the Aleph moniker, it unifies its distinctive variety of brands. Aleph specializes in developing markets for local businesses to expand through digital marketing. Furthermore, it helps in linking thousands of marketers with billions of customers worldwide. Httpool, IMS Internet Media Services, Ad Dynamo by Aleph in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, and Connect Ads are just a few of the Group’s numerous, primarily regional businesses. The top platforms, advertisers, and agencies across the globe choose it as their go-to ad tech partner.

Aleph aims to unite digital marketing platforms for innovative advertising solutions

The Group has offices in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Buenos Aires. Most of its old brands will be instantly rebranded as Aleph, forming a genuinely global ecosystem of local experts in the process. Additionally, this will help Aleph’s medium-term expansion plan. Aleph hopes to collaborate with over 60 leading digital platforms by 2026 in order to support them in providing creative advertising solutions to customers across more than 150 nations. Aleph aims to promote professional growth, facilitate better collaboration and knowledge sharing, and expand its service offerings beyond its current clientele of 22k advertisers across 45+ platform partners by implementing the One Brand strategy. Additionally, it gives Aleph a platform to fortify its position in current markets, penetrate new areas, quicken organic growth, and look at M&A possibilities that fit in with its strategic goals.

Aleph’s One Brand Initiative

With this endeavor, Aleph will be able to build on the noticeable advancements of the past few years. Since 2021, the Group has grown to service over 45 partners with a committed staff of digital marketing specialists worldwide, having expanded from 90 markets to over 130 markets across five continents. Aleph assists companies in expanding abroad in a cost-effective and de-risked manner by connecting them with new markets through its global connections, unparalleled local knowledge, and scalable solutions.

With the introduction of Aleph Payments and Aleph Express in recent months, Aleph has broadened its offering beyond its core ad tech offering. It offers enterprises stand-alone credit underwriting and payments solutions, building on the nearly two decades of experience Aleph has managing cross-border credit and payments for its partners.

Read More: 10 Game-Changing AI Tools for Digital Marketing in 2023

Aleph Payments

Aleph Payments simplifies the financial complications. They can be associated with KYC, local billing collections, FX exchange, tax settlements, and cross-border payments. This enables companies to concentrate on their core competencies. Currently, Aleph Payments oversees cross-border credits and payments totaling more than $2 billion.

Aleph Express

Aleph Express is the company’s exclusive solution for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses. It offers business owners a platform to build and manage a free e-commerce website, catalog products, generate deals and coupons, and track and process orders. The most revolutionary feature of Aleph Express is its single unified inbox. This unifies Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It allows businesses to effectively communicate with and sell on their preferred social media platform from one location.

Digital Ad Expert

Aleph’s business plan is supported by Digital Ad Expert. It is the Group’s social program to open up economic prospects through training in digital advertising. Nearly 600,000 active users are enrolled in the Digital Ad Expert site. It was created by international professionals in the field of digital advertising. More than 75,000 students have received their Digital Ad Certificate from the platform. Digital Ad Expert recently joined UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition. Moreover, it supports its ambitious objectives to upskill ten million individuals by 2029 in order to provide even more value for students. This is in addition to the medium-term goal of Digital Ad Expert to certify 100,000 students worldwide.

Through the Group, One Brand will make it possible for Aleph to collaborate with partners like Aleph Express and Digital Ad Expert more successfully in order to scale Aleph payments.

Here’s what they said

Gaston Taratuta, Founder and CEO at Aleph commented, 

At Aleph, we are beginning an exciting new chapter that brings our local experts and proprietary technology under one powerful brand, Aleph. That is the purpose of our One Brand initiative,  a strategic direction towards a unified future where our global expertise enables us to deliver unparalleled value to our partners, advertisers, agencies, and SMBs worldwide. Our vision for One Brand goes beyond unifying our visual identity. It’s about embracing innovation, fostering professional development, and accelerating economic growth in the markets we operate in. By equipping thousands of digital media experts with the skills they need to excel, we are not just shaping the future of digital advertising – we’re shaping future economies and providing dignity through education, the only currency that never depreciates in value.

Read More: Mastering Digital Marketing: Insights from Kosal Malladi, VP at Madison Loop

Equativ Partners with Utiq for Ethical Programmatic Marketing Practices

Equativ, the top independent ad platform in the world, revealed a partnership with Utiq. It is a European AdTech firm that offers an authentic consent service powered by telcos to support ethical digital marketing. The merger blends secure data management with programmatic effectiveness. Furthermore, it enables insight-based media monetization and ad targeting, driven by a shared commitment to safeguarding user privacy. With its Authentic Consent Service, Utiq better supports free and ad-funded services by providing customers with a more relevant advertising environment. Through real-time, end-to-end encrypted signal matching, it links Utiq’s Telco partners, publishers, and marketers.

Equativ – Utiq partnership

The alliance responds to the ongoing need for a third-party cookie replacement that operates successfully outside of walled gardens and ensures responsible data use. In light of the fact that many media environments have already restricted the use of third-party cookies in advance of Google’s 2024 deprecation deadline, it is vital for companies that are having trouble getting direct access to verified first-party audience data to use tracker-free alternatives.

Utiq’s programmatic integration

Equativ’s data activation capabilities have been enhanced through integration with Utiq’s service, including features that enable publishers and advertisers to supplement first-party audience segments with owned information and design unique auction packages. With Utiq’s technology, you also have the choice of quickly converting information that has received clear authorization into data signals that can be transferred across the supply chain, facilitating efficient and secure programmatic trade on all sides.

Users choose their privacy preferences carefully and then obtain their consented data encrypted. Equativ’s supply-side platform then sends it to the demand-side platform of each publisher’s choice. Utilizing distinct telco signals in this way establishes a solid, durable connection that works on all browsers and devices, enabling increased scalability for publishers and advertisers.

Read More: Adverty Launches First Programmatic VAST Video in In-Play Ads

Benefits of Equativ and Utiq’s programmatic integration

With alternatives available through open programmatic auctions, direct deals, and private marketplaces, Equativ and Utiq will work to provide a cookie-less solution to continue generating crucial targeting, retargeting, and frequency capping activity.

Principal advantages of the alliance include:

• Addressability measurement: Advertisers can attain and evaluate broad cross-environment and device reach, including cookie-free browsers like Firefox and Safari.
• Privacy Inspection: Passes rooted in consent abide by all data privacy laws worldwide, protecting users and enhancing customization while also driving up inventory value.
• Valid information Utilizing data only when a legitimate contract with a telco partner is in place reduces the danger of fraud, while never combining audiences prevents contamination.
• Greater sustainability: Reducing the number of high-quality partners in the supply chain and enabling more stringent ad frequency limits reduce carbon emissions.

Here’s what they said

Commenting on the partnership, Benoit Hucafol, VP of Product Management at Equativ, stated

Upholding addressability is vital to secure the future of the wider and open web. At Equativ, we see improving the availability and diversity of cookie-free solutions as an essential part of that; equipping media owners, brands, agencies, and advertisers with tools they can use to continue serving relevant and responsible ads. By partnering with Utiq and supporting their alternative ID across our advertising chain, we aim to empower privacy-safe marketing and industry-wide change, while facilitating effective monetization and driving our advertisers ROIs through personalized targeting and frequency capping.

Will Harmer, Chief Product Officer at Utiq, said

Respecting user privacy has been a challenge for the marketing industry, but considerations around non-compliant consent must now be a priority for all concerned. Our mission is based on serving the long-term interests of the entire ecosystem, and integral to this is that people should have the ability to share their data in the way they choose, with full confidence it will be used fairly, whilst receiving free, high-quality content in return. We’re delighted to be working with an innovative partner like Equativ that shares this same goal.

About Equativ

Prominent independent ad tech platform Equativ was created to promote the objectives of both publishers and advertisers. Equativ combines client expertise and engineering excellence to serve the interests of the supply side and demand-side. It does so with equal professionalism and technical sophistication. Furthermore, it empowers its clients to achieve maximum impact while respecting consumers’ rights. It also offers brand- and privacy-safe solutions. Equativ, which has headquarters in Paris and New York, employs more than 550 people worldwide. To deliver on the promise of advertising technology, Equativ provides the market with its own independent ad server, SSP, buyer tools, and media services.

About Utiq

Utiq offers a Telco-powered Authentic Consent Service. It is a European AdTech startup that enables ethical digital marketing. It enables consumers to easily and simply govern their data. Utiq assists in the development of an ecosystem founded on transparency and trust. Through its private and encrypted consent hub and consent pass solutions, Utiq enables brands and publishers to offer pertinent ad-funded experiences to their consented audiences while adhering to the strictest privacy standards. Telecommunications companies Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange SA, Telefónica S.A., and Vodafone Group plc support Utiq, which was introduced in 2023.

Read More: Comscore’s Proximic Unveils New AI-Powered Contextual Solutions for Programmatic

Cracking the CRED Code: A Deep Dive into its Advertising Mastery

This case study explores how the Indian fintech company CRED went from zero to hero thanks to its marketing team and advertising approach.

Introduction

CRED, an Indian Fin-Tech business, became well-known in India thanks to its creative marketing strategy. The sole objective of CRED is to educate Indians about money and establish their creditworthiness

Path to Tackling Challenges

CRED was able to pinpoint the difficulties customers had paying off credit card debt and other bills and unveiled a business plan centered on these issues. 

• EMI payments.
• Significant late payment fees.
• Hidden fees and additional interest

In response to the pain points, here’s what they provided their users with-

• Method for tracking bills
• On-time payment method with an automated payment option.
• Points for every payment of a bill and other features

Advertising and Marketing Campaigns

The primary goal of CRED was to successfully dominate digital marketing rather than conventional marketing. It used a variety of marketing techniques, some of which you may be familiar with.

Ad Campaigns

Here are some of the campaigns CRED has carried out leading them to become a unicorn start-up.

1. Celebrity Endorsements

CRED used celebrities from the world of sports and Bollywood in many high-profile marketing efforts to advance the brand. Because the notion was novel at the time, the brand used well-known faces to pique people’s interest while also fostering consumer confidence. CRED is famous for endorsing Famous 90s celebrities in its advertisements. For the initial part of their marketing campaign, their goal was to increase app downloads, and that’s exactly what they conveyed through their ads.

Indiranagar ka Gunda Ad

 

The ad showcased Rahul Dravid in a never-seen persona. The implication? Getting rewards after paying credit card bills through CRED was just as absurd as the chances of Rahul Dravid having anger issues. The ad trended #1 on Twitter. This was CRED’s highest-grossing ad. Within a week of its screening, it generated a wave of user-generated content, from memes to brand engagements. , 

By numbers,

• The ad generated over 3.6 million views on YouTube
• Garnered 114K in engagements within a week
• 31K mentions on social media
• Share sentiment of the ad was positive with 59%

 

2. Kunal Shah’s Personal Branding

Kunal Shah, the founder of CRED, is quite active on social media. He built his personal brand by selecting information on financial subjects, expressing his views on the startup scene, and interacting with other Twitter influencers.

In the last one year you’ve spent more time at:

— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11) July 26, 2023

 

3. Platform Marketing

The brand maintains a vibrant presence across several social media platforms, which has had a big impact on its performance. They interact with other firms’ tweets, entice celebrities to promote and retweet their material and use other marketing strategies to increase their audience base.

Do they not know about my Oscar?@CRED_club pic.twitter.com/BcW18zXLBO

— Anil Kapoor (@AnilKapoor) September 19, 2020

4. Content Marketing 

Furthermore, CRED also engages with its audience on YouTube. The company curates blogs related to the finance sector, releases podcast on topic related to start-up trends, money and much more.

Results

The marketing and advertising plan used by CRED was quite successful. CRED has effectively tapped all of the advertising’s potential. The IPL season of 2021 was CRED’s most prosperous marketing initiative. 

• App downloads increased by 700%. 
• Spent around Rs. 120 cr during its three-year affiliation with the Indian Premier League.
• Aimed to cut through the clutter and evoke nostalgia. 
• Emphasized simply one CTA—download CRED
• Has millions of active downloads and is RBI-certified. 
• Today, CRED processes more than 20% of all credit card payments made in India.

 

Today in India, Cred is among the brands that people are most familiar with. The influence that CRED has made can serve as an example for up-and-coming, innovative enterprises. CRED has created goods that people today would not have imagined using in the past. Their successful golden strategy of changing society’s behavioral design has turned them into a billion-dollar business and is an intriguing case study for India’s startup scene.

Read More: 10 Game-Changing AI Tools for Digital Marketing in 2023

Dentsu India Debuts Game-Changing Media Insights Tool

Planners can only integrate APIs (application programming interfaces) into the media analysis program they employ. They are forced to manually search through several sources for the information. Media services from Dentsu India announced the Dentsu Intelligence Dashboard (DID), a first-of-its-kind competitive media insights and intelligence solution, to address this issue. Planners and clients will be able to quickly understand the most recent competitor data and make decisions more quickly as a result. The program offers automatic data analysis of online and offline media expenditures, gross rating points (GRP), and impressions.

The Denstu Intelligence Dashboard

The DID was developed in accordance with the network’s ongoing collaborations with sources that are distributed by the industry. It is designed to compile and transform data from various media channels onto a single platform. Dentsu wants to make the process easier by providing views with its digital data, aggregated data, and automated PPT capability through this application. Moreover, it allows media planners the freedom to tailor their searches at different levels.

The system utilizes its dynamic capabilities to select sectors, categories, brands, advertisers, etc. The application also provides a comprehensive perspective of data analysis from several channels, including TV, Print, Digital, and Radio. The solution will improve Dentsu India’s capacity to provide clients with access to the most recent GRP data. This will be irrespective of the category or brand, which is important to mention.

Read More: Adlook – Adsquare Join Forces for Advanced Brand Growth Solutions

Here’s what they said

Commenting on the tool launch Anita Kotwani, CEO of Media, South Asia, Dentsu said,

At dentsu, we are on a journey that requires us to compete with ourselves. Our determination to break our records ensures that we invest in building one-of-its-kind cutting-edge solutions for our clients. The tool is certainly a game changer & one-stop go-to for our clients. Media pulls a massive chunk of financial budgets for every brand and the slightest deviation in seeking the true picture could ruin all their efforts. Dentsu Intelligence Dashboard simplistically offers data insights that are accurately curated in an easy-to-understand format and save resources. The launch of this tool is just the beginning of the many firsts that we are working towards.

Bhasker Jaiswal, Chief Operating Officer, Media, Dentsu India, states it will be the first tool in the market to integrate data from multiple data sources. It will further help to reduce workload and enhance strategy-making. He further added,

We believe in upgrading our practices to best serve our clients and people. Dentsu Intelligence Dashboard is also proof of our commitment to contributing to the industry at large. It goes way beyond a simple dashboard and gives planners/clients a readymade competitive overview for Digital as well as TV GRPs which will certainly make it a must-have for all brands.

Pankaj Bhatlawande, Vice President – Media Analytics, Media, Dentsu India commented,

Built on scalable architecture and powered by new-age technologies, the Dentsu Intelligence Dashboard will deliver unparalleled competitive intelligence to media planners. Using serverless technologies like BigQuery enabled data transformation of RLD data, and GRP calculations at scale and reliability. We are certain of this being a game-changer which will elevate marketing strategies to newer heights and redefine business approaches in this digital age.

Read More: Dentsu-Microsoft Forge AI-Powered Alliance for Agency Brands

Google Boosts Performance Max with URL Contains Targeting Tool

Performance Max (PMax) campaigns now include the ‘URL Contains Targeting Functionality’ feature from Google. The tech behemoth has yet again raised the bar in the fiercely competitive field of digital marketing. It is poised to transform marketing tactics with its latest product, URL Contains Targeting Functionality for PMax. The multinational software company has always sought to connect its technology with the goal of giving advertising useful solutions. By providing a clever gateway between advertisers and their target demographic, this feature raises the bar once again. Advertisers can manually specify the URL to show the PMax advertisements using the capability, which is also accessible in Dynamic Search advertisements (DSA).

What is Performance Max Campaigns in Google Ads?

PMax campaign is a Google Ads campaign type. What distinguishes it from the competition is its capacity to integrate smart bidding and targeting elements into a single goal-based campaign across the whole Google Network. It utilizes all of Google’s advertising platforms. PMax’s main objective is to assist advertisers in growing their visibility and conversions within the Google Network. The campaign type uses smart bidding, an AI-driven automated bidding technique, to optimize ad performance in real time. Depending on what is most effective at a specific place and time, advertisements are displayed in a variety of formats.

How does a PMax Campaign work?

Ad Optimization

Ads are automatically and dynamically optimized utilizing data provided by advertisers (including various assets tailored to each advertising channel, such as photos, videos, logos, and ad content).

Cross-channel advertising

Performance Max may choose when and where to display adverts across the Google Advertising Network. This is possible thanks to machine learning technologies. PMax displays ads where the target audience is most likely to interact.

Bidding and budget strategy automation

It uses ML and automation to increase conversions and maximize budget efficiency.

Campaign issue identification

Detects campaign problems automatically and offers a diagnostic insights tool. Every time a potential issue arises in relation to an account, billing, campaign status, some policy violations, ad strength, budget, and more, advertisers receive immediate alerts that include solutions to troubleshoot the issue.

Read More: Google’s Triple Treat- Unleashes a Trio of Updates to Elevate User Experience

A Deep Dive into URL Contains Targeting Functionality

Advertisers can manually specify the URL where the PMax adverts are displayed by using the URL Contains Targeting tool. It substantially improves ad optimization by enabling the deliberate routing of users to certain URLs, like blogs or about us pages.

The significance of URL functionality to advertisers

Advertisers can use this essential feature to remove non-monetizable pages from their ad campaigns. It gives them the ability to target and provide ads to audiences that are most appropriate for their offerings. By focusing on the URL-included feature, marketers may enhance conversions

URL Contains Targeting Functionality- How does it work?

Advertisers can target particular pages using URLs that contain a particular text string, or “Token.” It is important to note that a text fragment enclosed by a delimiter (:, /,?, +, &) is referred to as a token within URLs. It‘s vital to keep in mind, though, that this capability does not apply to all URL types. It cannot be utilized, for instance, with URLs like “electronicexample.com/servicemenu” since the term MENU is present after the targeted keyword SERVICES. However, URLs like “electronicsexample.com/services-menu/” are compatible with this feature. This is due to the ‘-‘ separating the keyword SERVICES from the word MENU.

Google’s URL Contains Targeting Functionality that eliminates uncertainty in ad tactics at a time when digital marketing is constantly changing, allowing advertisers to increase their reach and impact. With such potent features, it’s intriguing to wonder what Google may release next.

Here’s what they said

As reported by Search Engine Land, Google said

This is a new feature rolling out for Performance Max. We are bringing the same URL Contains targeting functionality from Dynamic Search ads (DSA) into Performance Max to better support DSA use cases in PMax as part of the voluntary upgrade we announced in July. This feature works exactly as it does in DSA today.

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10 Game-Changing AI Tools for Digital Marketing in 2023

Welcome to the realm of artificial intelligence! In this day and age, where corporations are scrambling to embrace AI’s disruptive powers, it is only a matter of time before this expanding technology completely takes over our lives. AI has had a significant impact on our world today. It has transformed every industry. Digital marketing companies are more affected than ever. Through sophisticated business techniques, it is transforming the way these firms communicate with their clients and generating unparalleled success.

According to a Statista report, more than 90% of digital marketers in 35 countries use AI in their company’s operations. While businesses invest in AI capabilities, marketers are becoming more inventive in how they use this technology, from better targeting to content creation. The technology is becoming so prevalent that it is estimated that by 2028, AI in marketing revenue will reach $107 billion, up from $27.4 billion in 2023.

Many organizations now rely solely on AI solutions for advertising and marketing. Marketers in these fast-paced industries seek novel ways to reach potential clients. Still, considering AI in your business? Here are some data to help you decide.

AI is transforming every sector. We’ve looked at the importance of artificial intelligence in digital marketing and the tools you should utilize in the digital age. So, let us dive into AI, where creativity meets marketing. We will also uncover the limitless potential AI has to offer your organization to succeed in this ever-changing terrain.

 

AI in Digital Marketing

AI in digital marketing has helped make life and work easier and more efficient. Now, you might wonder how this technology can help marketers in their jobs. Here’s how:

• Streamline Tasks: It can automate difficult tasks like finding potential customers, creating content, and enhancing marketing campaigns, thus reducing manual efforts
• Personalization: AI has the ability to analyze and understand what customers want, their behaviors, and their needs, and formulate messages and recommendations accordingly.
• Understand customers: Marketers can use AI to analyze consumer trends from vast internet data.
• Chatbots: Customers can now have real-world conversations with AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Bard, etc. They can interact with virtual assistants to help them with queries or issues. This makes things easier for not only customers but for companies too.
• Forecast Future: AI analyzes historical data to predict future trends and market performance, allowing for more effective marketing campaigns.
• Target Ads: Analyzing customer data will help marketers to target ads efficiently. In simple words, the data can help to show ads to the right people at the right time, making the ads more effective.
• Competitor analysis: AI helps to understand how your competitors are performing, and what they are doing. This helps marketers to stay ahead of the competition and dominate the market.

AI Tools for Digital Marketing

Due to advancements in AI, hundreds of AI tools are available for you to choose from. But we have used and curated a list of ones you can implement in your business. Here are some AI tools you can use to take your business to the next level.

1. AI Tools for Content Generation
2. AI Tool for Content Optimization
3. AI Tools for presentation 
4. AI tool for segmentation.
5. AI tool for Campaign Optimization
6. AI Tools for Email Marketing
7. AI tools for SEO optimization.
8. Video and image editing tools
9. AI chatbot

 

1. AI tools for Content Generation

An important part of digital marketing, content generation means creating information or marketing material for a group of people. This can include images, texts, infographics, video, or audio files.

 

i. MarketMuse

Don’t you wish you had customized objective insights about your platform to avoid all the guesswork? MarketMuse offers exactly what you need! With this tool, you can analyze your existing keywords to find improvements during your research.

What’s To Love About?

• Automates content audit and deciphers the most effective strategy for you and your business.
• Saves 11+ hours of time that would otherwise be spent on manual content audits.
• Helps manage your SERP rankings.
• Gives you analyses of your competitors.
• Information about gaps in your competitors’ coverage for your business to exploit.
• Shows you what topics to include, the value they will bring, and how challenging it will be to rank,
• Prompts keywords with best ranking chance, content brief templates with SEO-optimized titles, sub-headings, meta description, and usable internal links.
• Now integrated with ChatGPT for accelerating the content process.

Available Plans

Free Plan, Standard Plan starting from $149/month, Team plan starting from $399/month

 

 

ii. Writesonic by Cohesive.so

Deciding on topics and outlines for blogs is time-consuming. Add to that, writer’s block hinders a streamlined writing process. Writesonic helps you overcome all that, but also generates an entire blog in seconds. You can ask it to summarize the entire blog in a few sentences, change the tone of voice, and even upload high-resolution images from Unsplash.

What’s to Love About?

You can choose from a variety of options, including:

• 150 different templates
• 100+ AI images and 10+ AI voices
• Up to 5 integrations with unlimited PDF and audio downloads
• 10 different languages to compose, rephrase, and more
• Connect your WordPress account to publish your content directly

And the cherry on top? It’s completely FREE!

We experimented with the tool to know more about it! Here’s a prompt we put in:

Instagram caption for the role of AI in digital marketing

 

 

 

iii. Hemingway

Want to get all Grammarly benefits, but do not want to pay for a subscription? Look no further. Hemingway is the most suitable alternative to Grammarly. Different color markings show you opportunities to improve your writing. It even offers suggestions for condensing your sentences for better readability.

Another FREE tool? Sign me up!

 

2. AI Tool for Content Optimization

It is the process of improving your digital content, be it on the website page, blog posts, videos, and social media to increase its value and make it more relatable to your target audiences. The main objective of content optimization is to make your content visible, engage with your audience, and ultimately drive more traffic, conversions, and revenue.

 

i. Alicent

Do you find the content written for your website or campaign too generic and basic? Do you want a specific product to sell more or target a specific set of audiences? Alicent is here for that purpose. This tool, powered by ChatGPT helps optimize your content and even offers prompts for various use cases. It saves you time and provides a structured format for your website. Just put in your ideas at the prompt and get instant results with strategies to work with.

What’s To Love About?

• Alicent hosts a curated library of 250+ templates to choose from.
• It is supported by 50+ languages so don’t be afraid to reach other demographics.

 Here’s how it works! 

We have two words for this: freaking cool!

 

3. AI Tools for presentations

 

i. Gamma AI

Creating vibrant and appealing presentations is no longer a headache! With Gamma AI, you can design, customize, and choose templates from a range of available themes.

What’s to Love About?

It’s literally an advanced chatbot for presentations! You can save hours of work by designing and customizing entire slide decks with AI. All you have to do is specify the topic of your presentation. The tool creates an entire presentation within seconds!

• Enjoy endless image choices thanks to integrated apps like Unsplash, Giphy, Vimeo and many more.
• Equipped with changing the tone of voice to better suit your target audience.
• Get insights to understand which part of the presentation fascinated your clients the most
• Analysis helps determine potential areas for improvement within the business.

We tried using it to make you life easier! Might we just say, how cool was it!

Available Plans

The Free plan offers unlimited user collaboration and slide decks with basic analytics. The Plus plan starts at $8 per month. Head over to Gamma AI to design beautiful and personalized presentations!

4. AI Tools for Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is done to divide a large and diverse group of people into smaller and more manageable segments on the basis of shared interests, preferences, demographics, and other factors. This allows advertisers to target and customize campaigns for the segments effectively.

 

i. Spatial.ai

What is Spatial.AI,  you wonder? No, it’s not about space! But it’s an AI tool that predicts and influences customer behavior in real time. The tool analyzes activities in the social, mobile, and web landscape and provides perceptive insights and data about consumer behavior.

What’s To Love About?

The major benefit is location-based segmentation. It also provides answers to your questions “what are my customers like?” or “what is the social activity in the area like?”

• They offer geosocial segmentation rather than just demographics based on consumer patterns.
• Data can be used to draft a campaign strategy by separating users into niche cohorts.
• Competitor analysis to see which market share you are competing for
• Targeting specific customer segments to improve social media engagement
• Campaign optimization based on real-time data

Available Plans

You can only sign up for the Freemium package after you request a demo.

 

5. AI Tool for Campaign Optimization

Campaign optimization, in simple terms, means improving digital advertising performance by adjusting certain aspects like keywords, interests, targeting strategies, ad copy and so on. This is to get desired business results.

 

i. Peachly.ai

AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E2, and Copy-AI are all fused into one. That is what Peachly.AI is!  It features an advanced artificial intelligence tool for creating, targeting, and optimizing your ads. With Peachly.AI, you can breathe easily while launching a campaign. Your business can achieve maximum results with cutting-edge technology.

What’s To Love About?

All you have to do is input your ad account, and budget, and sit back. Peachly.AI will handle the rest, from setting up the campaign to optimizing it for maximum output. Here’s how to streamline the advertising process:

• Upload the website link you want to promote to Peachly.AI
• The AI will then crunch through the data, and deliver the most effective targeting strategies. Additionally, it will also draft engaging ads that reach your target audience.
• The tool will review it to make sure the ads meet industry standards and your marketing goals.
• The ads will then be published on your linked accounts.
• The tool will continuously monitor and optimize your ads for maximum results.

Available Plans

The platform offers a 7-day free trial. The starter pack starts at $29 per month, and the AI accelerator pack starts at $37 per month.

 

6. AI Tool for Email Marketing

A digital marketing approach which involves sending out messages and promotional content to a group of people through emails. It is the most powerful channel available to marketers that allows businesses to interact with customers directly.

 

i. Smartwriter.ai

Smartwriter.AI is an email marketing and outreach tool that provides templates for drafting emails. The tool generates customized email messages and headlines depending on the consumer’s profile.

What’s to Love About?

Technology scrambles through the web in search of the consumer or company your business wants to target. Businesses can obtain audience profiles from LinkedIn to draft customized messages that pique the client’s interest.

• Consists of a feature that allows businesses to personalize messages based on the target’s company news, case studies, blogs, and website.
• Provides outlines for emails, blogs, product descriptions for Shopify products, and SEO-optimized meta titles and descriptions to rank higher.
• Assists with keywords that help increase email reach and opens rather than directly marking it as spam.

Here’s an experiment we tried with this tool!

Catchy Intro Lines for sending emails to digital marketers to start using AI tools

 

Available Plans

The tool offers a 7-day trial. After that, the Basic plan starts at $49 per month and the Popular plan starts at $124 per month.

 

7. AI Tool for SEO Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the visibility of a website on search engine results pages. Technical and content adjustments are made to the website or any readily accessible content in order to enhance traffic and ranking.

 

i. GrowthBar SEO

A content generation automation tool that suggests keywords to be included in a blog post. It’s a dream haven for digital marketers! GrowthBar SEO is the SEO optimization tool you need to use today.

What’s to Love About?

Consequently, in order to rank higher in SERPs, the bots scan the internet for qualified keywords.

• It assists with keyword research and rank tracker.
• Helps with blog post generator prompts and outlines for meta descriptions, newsletters, press releases, and more
• Provides a Chrome extension with extensive backlinks.
• Utilizes GPT-3 model developed by OpenAI for content generation

With this AI tool, we wanted to understand which keywords would work the best.

Available Plans

GrowthBar SEO offers a 14-day free trial. Moreover, the standard plan starts at $29 per month whereas the Pro plan costs $79 per month.

 

8. AI Tool for Image and Video editing

 

i. Craiyon.ai

Image creation is now easy! Create AI-generated images for nothing. All you need is an idea to write a prompt. Craiyon.ai will generate it within minutes.

Here in the example, we input a prompt to create an image of a business meet under the sea. The results were fascinating!

 

9. AI chatbot

 

i. Perplexity

We all know ChatGPT. But have you heard of Perplexity? It is a chatbot that goes further from ChatGPT.

What’s to Love About?

• Gives you instant results for your queries.
• Gives you cited articles related to your search request.

We even gave this tool a try to help you decide better!

Isn’t that amazing? It saves you time looking for sources to cite and helps you to focus more on the job at hand!

Available Plans

It costs nothing! Furthermore, you can choose their premium plan which costs $20 per month to avail of more features like Copilot and GPT-4.

 

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence in digital marketing has proven to be a boon. AI tools are not meant to replace humans’ creativity and intuition. AI provides valuable insights. Therefore, it’s up to marketers to use these insights and data to create campaigns that resonate with their audiences. Businesses can achieve remarkable results with AI and human expertise. It’s time for you to step up your digital marketing arsenal with these game-changing tools to dominate the competition in 2023!

Read More: Mastering Digital Marketing: Insights from Kosal Malladi, VP at Madison Loop

Driving Brand Success: In Conversation with Vishal Shah from EssenceMediacom

Vishal Shah, Managing Partner at EssenceMediacom, is a prominent marketing professional in the media, marketing and advertising industry. With a strong background in brand building, digital marketing and media strategy, he has made significant contributions to the growth and success of various brands and campaigns. As a dedicated and innovative leader, he continues to make a lasting impact in the media landscape, driving excellence and fostering strong relationships with clients and partners.

In an exclusive interview, he shares his insights on achieving agency of the Year, building brands, and embracing the future of digital marketing.

Firstly, congratulations on EssenceMediacom winning the agency of the year at Goafest! What key factors and strategies do you attribute to this remarkable achievement, and how do you plan to build upon this success in the future?

Thank you very much. We are elated about this accomplishment. It is a remarkable achievement, and we are proud to be working with the best minds in the industry. We have received overwhelming appreciation from clients and partners, who are proud and happy to be associated with an agency that is producing such fantastic work. We aim to maintain this momentum across all our brands and build upon this success in the future.

As the Managing Partner of Essence Mediacom, you have played a significant role in the company’s growth and success. Can you share some key insights into your journey and the challenges you faced while scaling the business?

Four days after I joined, the COVID-19 pandemic peaked, and authorities announced a nationwide lockdown, abruptly shifting us to remote work. Overnight, we faced numerous challenges. Firstly, working remotely on such a large scale for an extended period was a unique and unprecedented experience, requiring everyone to quickly adapt. Meeting my entire team virtually was particularly challenging given its size. I honed my voice recognition skills as many team members experienced bandwidth issues, preventing them from enabling their cameras during virtual meetings. Additionally, a significant hurdle emerged when most clients decided to drastically cut their marketing budgets due to prevailing uncertainty.

I faced a two-fold challenge:

a)Convincing clients to maintain their investment in marketing. b) Boosting team morale and keeping spirits high.

In response, we revisited our strategies and implemented multiple changes in our work processes. These adjustments yielded exceptional results, fueling unparalleled growth in our business and teams over the past three years. We remain committed to building upon this success and sustaining our upward trajectory.

 

With your extensive experience, how do you approach the process of creating and nurturing a brand identity, especially in today’s highly competitive and fast-paced digital landscape?

Building brands has shifted from a mass media economy to a new-age economy, requiring a distinct approach and mindset. We closely collaborate with clients, developing breakthrough capabilities instead of simply cutting through. Our multidimensional approach generates breakthroughs for our brands, transcending traditional boundaries. A Breakthrough because it took two incredibly successful individual agencies and brought them together to create something new – Essence & Mediacom.

We created a new agency that unlocks the potential of the new communication economy, moving beyond brand vs. performance, digital vs. analogue, and media vs. creative. Clients trust and choose to work with us to advance, break new ground, and shape future brands and businesses. We are already delivering these outcomes for the world’s biggest and most influential brands, consistently and globally. EM is the only agency capable of consistently providing new ideas and opportunities to understand and connect with people. This is made possible by our scale, exceptional team, advanced technology, and strong leadership.

Storytelling is a powerful tool in brand communications. How do you perceive the power of storytelling, particularly its ability to create emotional connections with the target audience?

The very essence of storytelling lies in its ability to create an emotional connection between the brand and the consumer, thereby humanizing the brand and bringing it to life. It transforms the brand from a mere logo to a meaningful connection. Storytelling is unparalleled in building trust, and loyalty, and establishing a strong connection with consumers. In the marketing communications business, storytelling is at the heart of every connection between the brand and the consumer, making it the most definitive way to build strong brands.

Essence Mediacom prides itself on utilizing data-driven strategies. Could you provide an example of how data analysis has significantly impacted a client’s campaign, leading to tangible results?

The legacies of Essence and Mediacom, combined with the power of WPP, Group M, and Nexus, mean that we possess the most advanced suite of tech products and experts in the market.

This manifests not only in our individual products and agency tools but also in the embedded innovation teams within our agencies, which swiftly develop scripts to solve immediate problems.All of this is consolidated in EMOS: a global planning operating system that we can customize for clients and is utilized by our personnel every day. EMOS merges the finest technology from MediaCom with Essence’s automation, data governance, and data storage, resulting in the industry’s most advanced reporting tech and analytics suite applied to billions of dollars of client spend.

The combined tech of both agencies has created something truly unique: the ability to provide data-driven breakthroughs to every client through customized products and capabilities accessible to all our planners across all markets. Our tools are developed with the consumer journey in mind, spanning the marketing cycle, campaign cycle, and optimization cycle, enabling timely interventions for breakthrough planning.

Start-ups often face unique challenges when it comes to brand building and marketing. What advice do you have for start-up founders looking to establish a strong brand presence and effectively communicate their value proposition to potential investors and customers?

Strong brands are built over time through consistent actions. A strong brand is defined by what consumers think, feel, do, and how they interact with it, not by the perceptions of founders or investors. It is imperative to create a consistent brand experience that provides meaningful interactions and addresses consumers’ unmet needs. The brand needs to have differentiated benefits, appeal, and proposition and communicate this with consumers regularly. They will also need to continue building brand trust, as it is a gradual process that requires commitment. Maintaining the right balance between brand building and performance marketing is crucial, and consistent investment in both areas will help founders establish strong brands.

Mentorship can play a significant role in personal and professional growth. Can you share an experience where a mentor or role model had a profound impact on your career, and what lessons did you learn from them?

I strongly believe that mentors play a critical role in your personal and professional journey. With the right mentor, you can receive help and guidance across key areas, not only in your professional life but also in your personal life. I have been very lucky to have had some very good mentors who have shown me the way throughout my career. Here are the key lessons that I learned from my mentors:

1. Attitude and passion make all the difference; if they are in the right place, they will take you places. Where there is a will, there is a way!

2. Two key areas that matter the most are business management and people management. Most things we do will revolve around these two areas, and we need to continuously maintain a learning mindset to build on these areas.

As a thought leader in the marketing industry, what are your predictions for the future of digital marketing, and is the industry preparing to capitalize on these trends to maintain its competitive edge?

Digital marketing is poised to dominate the advertising industry. India ranks among the top 10 globally in terms of ad spend and continues to be the fastest-growing market worldwide.

Key predictions:

1.5G will be a game changer in many ways for India.

2.Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality will become mainstream.

3.Understanding and investing in data and technology will not be optional; it will be crucial and require super acceleration if brands and marketers want to remain relevant.

4.Influencer Marketing

5. Voice and everything related to it will have many more use cases and applications.

 

 

Navigating the Digital Frontier: A Discussion with Reena Jagtap, Lead Digital Marketer at Henkel

Reena Jagtap, a Lead Digital Marketer at Henkel is an accomplished marketing professional with a diverse background in engineering, brand communication, and digital expertise. She has worked with renowned brands, collaborated with industry leaders, and received multiple awards for her contributions.

In this insightful and exclusive interview, she shares her digital marketing expertise, campaign strategies, and industry wisdom.

 

Can you share your journey and experience in becoming a lead digital marketer at Henkel?

I started my career as a Production Engineer specializing in Switch Gears and EOMs for L&T. After pursuing an MBA in Brand Communication, I have led functions like digital marketing, social media, and PR for renowned brands.

I started my marketing career at Edelman India, where I worked on several projects in the consumer, hospitality, and auto industry. Here, I got the opportunity to collaborate closely with the team of Mr. Ratan Tata as I was handling the Tata Trusts account.

At Audi India, I joined the Digital and Digitalization team and got the opportunity to work with some of the best leaders in the automotive industry. I gained exposure to the world of luxury marketing and worked on several launch campaigns and global campaigns. There was tremendous learning across the Marketing and technology domains. I received the ‘Above and Beyond Employee of the Year Award’ from the Skoda Auto Volkswagen Group for my contribution and achievements.

With a perfect blend of years of digital expertise, an engineering background, and creative skills, I joined Henkel Adhesive Technologies. I am part of the Digital Transformation and Customer Experience team. I lead Digital Media, Content & Campaigns. I’ve been recognized as a ’40 under 40 Industry Expert 2023′ in Social Media Strategy by Business Mint and listed among the ’50 under 50 Inspiring Women 2022′ by Fox Story India. Additionally, I have served as a jury member for prestigious digital industry awards and enjoy mentoring talent at universities and on upskilling platforms.

 

What are the key components of a successful content strategy, and how do you ensure they align with the overall marketing objectives?

To establish a robust digital identity and achieve sustainable impact, brand marketers must prioritize-

a) Content Strategy: Create engaging content and deliver it through interactive formats b) Media Strategy: Targeting audiences based on their digital consumption patterns

In today’s content-saturated landscape, where various genres flood our social feeds, capturing attention is a major challenge due to fast-paced scrolling behaviour. Developing a thumb-stopping content strategy is the key to successful marketing. Your business goals should serve as the foundation for creating any type of content. Based on my experience, the focus should be on crafting content that grabs the audience’s attention, intrigues them to click, and prompts them to take the desired action. I view content through the lens of the marketing funnel, which consists of three stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversion. To make an impact, it’s crucial to collaborate closely with creative partners and develop IMMERSIVE, INTERACTIVE, and INCLUSIVE content mapped to the different funnels. By implementing an effective content strategy, brands can achieve remarkable results in their marketing efforts as both factors are interdependent.

What are some of the most effective campaign strategies you have implemented, and what made them successful?

In the vast digital landscape, locating relevant consumers and driving online conversions is like finding diamonds in a coal mine. Throughout my career, I have developed content strategies for diverse categories, leveraging storytelling as a powerful driver. Working with top creative and media agencies globally, I crafted successful campaign strategies based on three pillars- campaign objectives, target audience, and key messaging. Thorough research, on consumer and brand studies, guides me to craft a robust communication strategy.

I believe in a phased campaign approach: Pre-launch for awareness and intrigue, Launch for showcasing product/service benefits, and Post-launch for retargeting and nurturing. Utilizing the right media channels and targeting based on interests and behaviour patterns are crucial. By tracking the end-to-end customer journey using CRM platforms and tools, helps attribute conversions to specific sources and enables better decision-making in terms of campaign optimization. Examples of some successful and engaging campaigns that I have executed over the years:

Category-specific campaigns:
Engaging the B2B consumer online is not as easy as marketing consumer goods. Identifying the right platform and creating category-specific communication that entices them to click and turn into prospects is the approach that I have taken for the Engineering Adhesive category.

Audi e-tron Launch: When we launched the first electric Audi, the Audi e-tron, in India, we generated significant buzz through #ReadyForElectric #etronInIndia #FutureIsAnAttitude.We collaborated with prominent influencers from various industries, who shared their electrifying moments and stories.

#DriveTheChange: This topical content campaign for Women’s Day was aimed at challenging stereotypes about women driving cars. We collaborated with our customers who are women and conducted a performance car drive to showcase their potential and capabilities.

#TogetherWithAudi: During the uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic, this campaign focused on creating an inclusive environment for Audi’s followers and fostering a sense of togetherness.

Also, can you describe a digital marketing campaign that presented unexpected challenges or outcomes? What were your learnings from them for future campaigns?

Media Challenge: Reaching and converting the relevant B2B audience for Engineering adhesives across digital platforms poses unique difficulties compared to consumer products and services.

Navigation of challenges: We focused on two key objectives:
a) Increasing e-commerce orders on the website with a higher average order value (AOV) and lower cost per order (CPO)
b) Boosting lead volumes and achieving high-quality conversions
To overcome these challenges, we collaborated with industry-specific platforms and database partners to target the right audience with tailored messaging, ultimately improving conversions.
Key Learnings: Invested in platforms that yielded higher ROI. These insights helped us develop performance-driven media strategies, setting targets based on previous years’ platform performance. Weekly reviews and campaign optimizations were conducted to steadily progress toward our objectives and optimize costs.

Content Challenge: While managing the digital Marketing and Digitalization responsibilities at Audi India, I faced the task of creating a strong digital impact for the brand by connecting with our luxury customers and fanbase on a local level. Our campaign visuals heavily relied on international premium imagery, and our communication lacked a strong local connection.

Navigation of challenges: To engage and connect with our audience, I directed my agency to create a campaign that leverages local elements. We explored adding a local touch to our campaign communication. We focussed on India’s diverse cultures and languages and created a video focusing on pronunciation. The outcome was the #MyKindofAudi campaign to celebrate 10 years of Audi in India. We highlighted the unique pronunciations of “Audi” across various regions in India. We curated a video to support this concept.

Key Learnings: The #MyKindofAudi campaign achieved high organic reach and engagement, generating substantial media value through PR. Collaborating with influential personalities such as Aditya Patel, Ravi Shastri, and Virat Kohli further enhanced its impact. Customized local content and relatable faces proved more effective than generic strategies.

 

How do you leverage data-driven insights to optimize your marketing campaigns and improve their performance?

Data lies at the core of my decision-making process. I track data across campaigns and platforms to set targets, optimize performance, and enhance conversions. Key metrics are assigned to evaluate content and ad format performance, enabling strategic budget allocation across platforms.

By utilizing first-party data, one can create audience cohorts and customize content based on customer profiling. This approach maximizes engagement and improves return on ad spend (ROAS). Collaboration with the sales team at every stage is vital across all businesses. Their feedback on lead quality helps us provide valuable input to agencies and publishers, enhancing our marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and aiming for higher sales-qualified leads (SQLs).

How do you think generative AI will shape the future of digital marketing, and what skills should marketers develop to stay ahead of the curve?

Generative AI, an advanced category of AI algorithms, has revolutionized content creation in the digital marketing industry. Tools like Chat GPT, Bard, DALL-E 2, Lex, and AlphaCode have simplified the once tedious task, enabling faster and more efficient content generation. This serves consumers with minimal effort, making their experience seamless. To stay updated with the latest trends and technologies, Google offers free courses, and universities now provide specialized modules. Keeping pace with ever-evolving consumer behaviour is crucial for professionals in this field. By embracing an innovative and impactful mindset, digital marketers can take their strategies to the next level.

How do you manage your time and prioritize tasks in a fast-paced environment to meet deadlines and achieve your goals?

Every day feels like an exciting adventure when you wake up to do what you love. The world of Digital always inspires me to think beyond the status quo and discover innovative solutions that benefit the brand, the consumers, and businesses. To stay organized, I plan tasks in advance, set deadlines, and track my progress using reminders and creating project plans. In the fast-paced digital industry, prioritizing work and effectively balancing personal commitments is essential. I make sure to allocate time for activities that help me relax, unwind, and focus on personal growth. Painting, swimming, dance workouts, meditation, and maintaining a balanced diet keep me energized and motivated to take on new challenges in the digital world. 

What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career in digital marketing, and what skills do you believe are essential for success in this field?

Believing in limitless possibilities and finding contentment within oneself are the foundations for excelling in any field. In the digital and digitalization industry, I’ve learned that trends and consumer behaviour can change rapidly. Agility at work and humility with all stakeholders are two vital learnings that guide my strategic decision-making and foster strong connections. 

To newcomers in this industry, a few words of wisdom that I can share is, “Believe in yourself and explore your talent and potential. Do all that it takes to nurture it to perfection. Learn to unlearn and create the best solutions with what exists around you.”