/afaqs/media/agency_attachments/2024-10-10t065829449z-afaqs_640x480.png)
Follow Us/afaqs/media/post_attachments/0e4f66870176278c99e273d17829ef42826176aa14c50534f15d0f5b9ee237c5.jpg)
Rajan Anandan took charge of Google India in 2011 and since then, has been instrumental in driving Google India's focus on mobile and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). However, from a brand's perspective, Google India preaches 'online and mobile first'.
Prior to joining Google India, Anandan was the managing director of Microsoft's Sales Marketing and Services business in India. Before this role, he used to be the managing director of Dell India and prior to Dell, Anandan worked for McKinsey & Company in USA, where he was a partner.
On the sidelines of an event organised by Google, we caught up with Anandan to discuss how the future of digital advertising is evolving in India.
Edited Excerpts
Since you took up the reigns of Google India, how has digital grown as a marketing medium?
In the last two years, we have definitely seen a surge in the uptake of digital advertising. According to GroupM data, in 2012, Indian digital advertising was Rs 2,500 crore and when I started two years back, it was about Rs 1,000 crore. So, the business has grown 2.5 times, which is really exciting.
Specifically in Google, we have seen that performance advertising has become critical for brands across categories like travel, e-commerce and local. These categories see internet not just as a marketing medium, but as an alternative sales channel. Then, there is a set of industries like automotive and telecom where I feel digital should be a performance channel. Besides these, there is another lot, traditional advertisers, who see the internet as a branding medium. These industries are using display advertising.
The year 2012 was very interesting as we started seeing many traditional industries embracing the medium for brand building. And, this is being fuelled by online video.
Has it become more difficult to sell a display ad banner since click rates have declined?
Display today means many different things. We have traditional text-based banner advertisements; rich media-based display and mobile advertisements; online video advertising, ad exchanges and bidding platforms.
Today, convincing a brand to embrace online video is very similar to telling it to use TV. It's a medium brands understand well and we can talk about similar parameters that include reach, frequency, yield and so on. And, when rich media is used on mobile, it becomes more engaging. For example, Kerala Tourism runs a rich media campaign on mobile that has a click through rate of 10 per cent.
In my view, display is getting more engaging and exciting and with the advent of real time exchanges and bidding platforms, the digital display advertising industry will get completely transformed. Brands have begun to realise that both TV and online video ads play on the components of sound and vision, but on online, the chances of getting the campaign go viral goes up.
For example, Mahindra and Mahindra broke its latest campaign on YouTube before taking it on traditional media. Besides, Unilever is using YouTube as a medium to run its Keratinology campaign ( where it has created a virtual hair studio; a user can pick and choose products of her choice from a range of products from the Sunsilk brand.
When one combines interactivity and rich media with an ad format like TrueView in-stream video ads, where the advertiser only pays when the consumer chooses to watch the ad, brands are increasingly taking to such media.
How do you see more traditional advertisers embracing digital?
Today, if a brand wants to reach Indians in the age group of 18-35 years in SEC A and B, digital is the only way. Depending on the specific demographic of the audience, the brands need to pick their platform.
In Google India, a combination of search and display network (which reaches 50,000 websites) coupled with YouTube (which now reaches 40 million people) and mobile internet will be the key advertising revenue driver.
Do we see brand spends increasing on the mobile medium?
Mobile as a marketing platform is growing at 200 per cent and more people are getting connected on mobile. We have also got rich media on mobile, which is an interesting proposition for advertisers. Mobile search is exploding, and as we said in our report that in 2012, 30 per cent of online shopping search queries came from mobile phones. To add to that, there is in-app advertising and app downloads.
What percentage of overall media spends is digital expected to draw this year?
At this moment, I really can't put a number to it. The overall advertising industry in India grew between high single digits to low double digits last year, while digital grew 50 per cent. So, if we presume that in the next five years, overall advertising industry grows at 10-12 per cent and digital grows at 40-50 per cent, we all can do the maths.