ad:tech 2014: ‘Till now, reach has been built in a data-deficient world’

With so many ways to measure digital efforts - among them being sales, awareness, buzz - marketers need to find the right RoI metrics that reflect the value of both short-term and longer-term marketing efforts. But how? A panel moderated by Piyush Mathur, president, India Region, Nielsen, at ad:tech 2014 that got underway in Gurgaon on 20 March, discussed just that. Speakers included Tushar Vyas, managing partner, GroupM; Mohit Gupta, chief business officer (holidays) & CMO, MakeMyTrip.com; and Upen Rai, MD and co-founder, Fork Media. Here are some excerpts.

Flavours of digital RoI

“It is difficult to get a RoI for digital that is comparable to RoI that we get for other media, say television,” remarked Mathur. He made the case for digital RoI to be based on parameters of reach, resonance and reaction.

Vyas advocated that the parameters that defined reach be re-looked at. He said, “People do not ask now if internet is reaching the right audience. Facebook recently crossed the 100-million mark. In a typical week, over two million people celebrate birthdays on Facebook. It is a dimension of reach that gets missed. Till now, reach has been built in a data-deficient world.”
Gupta added, “In a medium that has rich targeting strategy, not much has been invested in developing capabilities. This is what is lacking.”

Rai of Fork Media pointed to another potential hurdle: “Whether reach is relevant to brand is big debate.”

Vyas pointed to two types of measurement: output and outcome, and underlined that the focus needed to be more on the outcome. The common currency that marketers sometimes need when advertising across television and digital was currently missing, he noted.

Gupta of MakeMyTrip concurred on the issue of multi-screen measurement. The very next session on ‘Planning for the new multi-screen world’ took this topic head on.