India continues to be a key focus market for us: GroupM CEO Srinivas

Many marketing managers today only have 'media savings' as their KPI, he adds

We need to work as an industry to drive more outcome measures rather than pure output measures like media rates, CVL Srinivas tells Alokananda Chakraborty
 
Have you assessed the impact of demonetisation and GST on GroupM’s business in India?
 
India remains one of the fastest growing ad markets globally. We did see some bit of belt tightening over the past few months, possibly as a cautionary move, but we are confident of the momentum coming back very soon. In the long term we expect growth to continue at a good pace. We’ve had another good year at GroupM delivering our growth numbers in line with our projections.

 

There’s a lot of talk about how people were not spending even in the run-up to the festive season. All that would also have a cascading effect on client spendings. So how does one deliver on shareholder value at a time when clients are cutting costs?
 
Some clients and sectors have been a bit cautious but others have spent in line with our expectations. We’ve had good news from the auto sector, which has recently had a spate of launches and new campaigns. E-commerce, retail and FMCG players have also kept up with the festive period sales.
 

Globally, the media market looks totally disrupted from the way it seemed to proceed even three years back. The list of challenges is huge: Ad viewability and ad blocking, trust erosion around media agency charging practices, changing client relationsh ips thanks to digital and customer data disruption and an adtech explosion are a few. Any predictions on which way clients should look in this chaos?
 
We have diversified our business model beyond regular media planning and buying services and that has helped us stay ahead of the market over the years. By offering services in data analytics, content, experiential marketing, brand consulting etc. we have helped create value for clients beyond traditional services.

 
One hears a lot these days about how the media part of the business has become thoroughly commoditised. What are your views on that?
 
The media business is going through a major shift on many fronts. We are moving towards audience planning from contextual targeting. Planning across multiple screens (television /digital /mobile) is catching on. Media inventory is getting polarised between very high cost/high impact and low cost/long tail inventory. Measurement systems are falling in place to keep up with the changing times. Content solutions are getting more interesting.
 
Over the past decade if the industry got commoditised largely on account of clients’ obsession with getting the lowest media rates, at least now we find the more marketing-savvy clients focus more on value creation than pure price negotiations. In such cases we have started setting aside budgets for innovation, content creation etc. which is helping establish new campaign models for delivering effective advertising.

 
But many clients still measure the success of their media investment purely on the basis of the rate savings or on “output” costs. While it may tick the box on savings, seldom does the impact to the business get accurately captured. It is difficult to reconcile to the fact that many marketing managers today only have “media savings” as their KPI.
 
We need to work as an industry to drive more outcome measures rather than pure output measures like media rates or GRP or reach and control commoditisation at both ends. Brands need to invest wisely so that their business is built in the most efficient and effective manner.

 
We launched [m]PLATFORM which features a universal ID giving a 360-degree view of consumers. It offers fully transparent architecture giving clients full access to the costs of data, technology and talent and applying insights on their target audience throughout the campaign. We recognise that client needs are evolving and we are keeping up to cater to that but in a more intelligent format.
 
What role is technology playing in GroupM’s transformation? How are you addressing the whole issue of transparency?
 
We have pivoted the organisation into a data-centric digitally charged unit that deploys the best of talent and technology for our clients. GroupM has been advocating and seeking the highest standards for the measured viewability of digital advertising to drive greater integrity and make the medium more effective and accountable for advertisers. We had been championing transparency by driving the viewability and brand safety agenda globally and here as well. We are working closely with MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) to bring in more transparent standards.

 
Where does the real opportunity for GroupM lie, both technologically and geographically?
 
Programmatic and content are two big opportunity areas. Geographically, Asia Pacific has always been key to our group and we have established a strong presence here long before others. India continues to be a key focus market for the group and is today ranked within the top growth markets for GroupM. It remains one of the fastest growth markets amongst all major markets.