NEW DELHI: The confluence of marketing and technology has reshaped how sales and promotions are done by marketers. With the infiltration of digital technologies even in the remotest corners of the world, marketers now sit on loads of data and possess the means to target their customers better. However, most of them might be missing the bus by a few miles. 

Dentsu Performance Group CEO Vivek Bhargava pointed out, “There is so much information we have in the marketing world that we are not using effectively to make advertising more targeted and result-oriented. The data remains segregated in so many disparate sources and we need to connect them.” 

He was speaking at PubNation (print & digital) organised by Indiantelevision.com, in partnership with Quintype and Gamezop, in a panel discussing ‘Marketing & Technology: Two Sides of the Same Coin.’ Other speakers on the panel, moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, were Affle co-founder, chief revenue & operating officer Anuj Kumar, Xaxis country head - India Bharat Khatri, Gamezop co-founder Gaurav Agarwal, Publicis Groupe COO - Indigo Consulting Jose Leon, Schbang co-founder, chief design & technology officer Sohil Karia, and Foxymoron & Zoo Media Network co-founder Suveer Bajaj. 

Bhargava cited the example of a food delivery platform to make his point. “Say one person gets registered on Swiggy and the platform doesn’t have any algorithm in place to identify what food one actually likes. It identifies it as a virgin. So, if in the past he has skipped 10 ads of various pizza-delivery platforms and had clicked on a keto diet programme, there is data in the marketing world available. There should be a merging of this data for both the platforms, so they can build on each other. This will create significant efficiencies on both ends of the system.” 

He added that he sees a great opportunity for companies that can aggregate this data and find out niche tools to support this segment. 

The panel agreed that there is a huge scope of growth in the martech world and digital advertising – if all brands start keeping consumers at the core of their marketing functions and not as mere numbers. 

Kumar highlighted that it is very important for brands and marketers to understand how consumers are engaging with technology: what kind of devices they are using, what platforms they are present on, etc, to reach them better using the power of programmatic advertising. 

Karia noted, “What I am seeing is that a lot many brands are now working with the D2C (direct to consumer) model and they have consumers at the centre of their experience. For B2B operations, websites are becoming their focus. While we speak about programmatic buying and driving traffic to the website, it is also essential to look at how we’re retaining these consumers and how we are serving them better during and after-sale. Personalising their experience on the site post-sale is how we can nudge them to make repeat purchases.” 

He added that if the marketers have third-party data visible and the right tools to identify what industry is this person (customer) coming from and what are his preferences, they will be better able to serve him with a personalised experience on the platform. 

In the same vein, Khatri highlighted, “If you look at young brands like Mamaearth, they worked excellently in the D2C category. They opened with a reverse approach that okay, I don’t want to create a big buzz or have millions of views on my YouTube videos, but they instead identified their target customers and pitched to them directly. They did not say that I want 10 million customers in that market but instead, they said that they want 50 per cent of their revenue from there and this is the return on my advertising spend I am expecting.” 

He continued, “So, they got themselves present on each channel they found fit to reach their target audience. Be it through Amazon or Flipkart, or having influencers onboard whose single post or tweet would have converted into hundreds of buyers.” 

There are more than 8,000 platforms today, offering various data and tech solutions, noted Leon, but what should remain any brand’s focus is to realise who the consumer is and what the consumer wants. “Is the platform able to differentiate the consumer behaviour on a real-time basis and hence you can go back to the advertiser and monetise it better? The way to this is to start (campaign) testing on digital platforms,” he advised.

Another interesting insight was brought to the table by Bajaj, who said that marketers should also keep into consideration how technology can support and enable the content they are creating. 

“Today, the right tools and technologies could even tell me what should I name my video, which ‘influencer’ should be starring in my video, what music I can use, what keywords are to be used, and how to package my video using predictive intelligence. That’s where open-source platforms guide us, they let us use their tools and marketing intelligence,” he stated.

Agarwal seconded the thought and shared how better and engaging content can help acquire and retain new consumers. “With Gamezop, we work on a B2B2C model, that means we partner with publishers who want to create unique gamified experiences for their consumers and help them with that. So, we are in the process of creating better experiences where users might compete for discounts and offers.”

The panel opined that publishers and advertisers both should be focusing on creating better experiences for consumers, and ethically use the data available to curate unique products and services.