Ignitee Digital Solutions, earlier known as Connecturf, has emerged as one of the leading digital advertising companies in the country today. It created a buzz with its online campaigns for the Congress party during the general elections in 2009 when it used social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut to drive traffic to the party?s ?Jai Ho? video on YouTube. In an interview with FE?s Pritha Mitra Dasgupta, Ignitee?s chief executive officer Atul Hegde talks about how companies can use the social media place to build their brands.
How is digital advertising different from traditional advertising?
Well, it?s not different in a sense. At the end of the day, it?s a medium–so all brands are going to use the medium to reach the message to the audience. So, the principles are not different. So, how you would use traditional medium–be it television, outdoor, radio?to reach out to a certain audience with a certain message?the same principles apply for internet as a medium. In a sense, people have been seeing it as different because it?s much newer.
But yes, each medium has its own uniqueness. So, just the way TV is different from radio or print, so is internet. It allows you to have interactivity with the consumer. Which I think is the first point of differentiation. It also lets you pinpoint your target audience. For example, if you use Yahoo?s email service, I can actually send you an email customised according to what your surfing habits are, your likes and dislikes which you listed when you joined Yahoo. So it allows me customization, it allows me one-to-one interaction and allows far more interactivity.
How do you create a buzz on the digital medium and create your own audience set?
Even for marketers today, it is not one medium against the other. It?s not that these are the advantages of the medium and these are the disadvantages of the other medium and so should I put my money here or there. If you look at any robust marketing campaign there is always a judicious mix of different mediums. And that?s how it really works. So depending on the category, the campaign will always have a mix. So it might be a TV, print and internet mix. It might be internet and outdoor mix. So it?s not one against the other.
Let?s take the example of the auto industry. You will either have the auto guy go heavy on print or television, depending on the model. The more mass targeted it is, (the more) it will go on television. There might be specific needs for that brand. For example, some brands are fighting the brand perception game, so there may be a good product and their problem is-?how do I get enough people to come and ask for my car?? Once they come and ask for the car and take the test drive, they know I have a good product. So, internet comes in over there. For example, if an auto company wants to run a specific test drive generation module, the net allows you to do that because there is far more interactivity. I can?t do that with TV, print or outdoor.
Let me give you another example. We worked for the Congress party during the general election. So, one of the things that Congress wanted?is that the party manifesto remains typically remains within the party, and internet provided them a beautiful medium (to send it to voters). We did millions of mail-shots, where Jairam Ramesh, the election convenor of the party, actually sent out emails from his id with the manifesto. And today we are talking about 80 million users. That?s almost double of English readership.
How do you ensure that marketers don?t lose control to consumers?
If you ask me, then I think marketers do need to let go of their brands much more. And, especially for social media, it?s all about letting go of your brand. We educate the client right from the beginning that don?t get into this medium if you want to control everything and don?t want to hear anything negative about your brand. Social media is a platform where people come and give their opinion, vent their anger or share a good experience. So you have to take the positives with the negatives. You will see that most of the brands which are on this medium reflect that they are forward thinking. But the amazing thing is that when you respond to brickbats, the affinity you build for your brand is something that cannot be measured and that?s a huge benefit to the brand.
But is there a way to control negative publicity?
You can control negative publicity only till a point. For example, you can do a lot of damage control. Take Satyam, for example. A lot of damage has happened. But that doesn?t mean that Satyam is a bad company. It?s been around, it has given jobs to 30,000-40,000 people, they have built a brand and so there must be a lot of things which are going right. So a good reputation management programme will show that there are also a lot of good things spoken about the brand. That doesn?t mean they will try and suppress all the negative things that are coming in the market about Satyam.
And we will never recommend a client to artificially suppress the negative comments. And that?s the beauty of the medium. You know exactly who is making a negative comment and why, and using the technology you can just reply back. And that can make such a huge difference in how your brand is perceived. One of the reasons why social medium is booming in this country is because we are a country full of opinions and that?s what makes this medium thrive.
How do marketers combat user generated content (UGC)?
Again, it is not advisable to combat UGC. Best brands are those that have managed to leverage UGC. I think brands can provide the right stimuli, can provide the right information and can provide the right environment for people to generate content. I think it?s a great opportunity and we have been seeing it across the social programmes that we do. If you empower the internet user or your consumer to actually go and write a blog, upload a picture or a video or some form of UGC, it will have a positive rub-off on the brand. Today, even in the UGC area, there are professionals as in there are professional bloggers or critics and they are forming networks. Also, when you want experts to talk about your product, they are not going to do that only because you want them to. They will take their own time and see how serious you are about their opinion. So it?s another way of building the brand.
In early 2009, a number of media buying and selling agencies predicted that overall growth of advertising in any medium will be in the range of 2-5%. How has the digital medium fared?
We are predicting that the growth of the digital medium will be in the range of 30-40%. Digital medium holds a small pie, but the fact is it is growing seven to eight times faster. Currently, the size of the digital advertising industry is about Rs 1,800 crore. Overall, the size of the advertising business is Rs 22,000-26,000 crore. I would be happy if I see 5-8% of a client?s advertising budget going to this medium.
What are the biggest challenges in the digital medium.
I think educating the client is the biggest challenge because there is something new coming out everyday. Because one of the biggest things that can cause serious damage to the medium is half information or wrong information. I have been with so many clients who have said: ?Facebook is such a waste of time. Why should a brand be there? People just go there to waste time and therefore we have blocked Facebook in our office?. So people have different perceptions.
Then there are hardcore FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies who would say: ?Can you actually analyse the medium because we are so used to doing CPRP (cost per rating point) deals?. The second challenge is not to get lost in the technology. Our experience tells us that once a client invests in this medium it just goes up.
What has been the key learning from the slowdown?
I think the best thing that has happened to this medium is that it was heavily dependent on financial brands. And because they were hit the most during the slowdown, people were forced to go out and find other investors in this medium. So the category expanded.
The second big thing that happened to this medium is that people sampled us in a large way. They cut down on bigger bucks on TV, print and other medium and came onto the internet. The largest spender in this medium is the government. We have railways, tourism, education, health and other ministries spending on it.
Category-wise, auto, travel and tourism are big spenders. One of the categories that exploded in this medium this year is movies – be it regional or national. FMCG and telecom companies are now coming onboard in a big way.