For Better or For Worse

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: “Accountability on every rupee spent as media gets fragmented will be a challenge for all media buyers.” Comparing the global media buying trends with that of India, Kiran says, “Digital and wireless are now pretty much a standard part of most media strategies across the globe. However in India, clients are still undecided about the use of new media. That’s why, they are stopping only at experimentation. Same goes for brand-content integration, something that’s still in its infancy in India and a lot of people are doing it incorrectly,” he adds.

OMS’ Mitra observes that media buying will be supported by robust research and consumer insight. “The challenge will not be just to buy efficiently, but also effectively. Effective buys are going to be those that deliver consumer engagement, block competition, integrate with holistic communication plan, and create win-win for the client and media owners,” explains Mitra.

Kiran believes that the real big trend on the supply side is that four or five media owner groups will emerge over the next three years as the big powerhouses. “It’s a trend we call supermarketisation of media. Many companies are already diversifying into media forms outside their historical presence. The signs are already there. This is encouraging media owners to offer neutral marketing solutions to our clients,” says Ravi Kiran.

What will be the impact of brand new channels on media buyers in India? And how will media agencies handle additional responsibilities? Increasing clutter in media will lead to more confusion, fragmentation and artificial inflation. This, in turn, is going to affect brand advertising in terms of ROI, observes Arumugam. Incidentally, eight new channels are gearing up to enter the Indian electronic media in the next three months.