ad:tech 2015 | From E-Commerce to M-Commerce and Future of Performance Marketing .....

Among the big themes at the second day were; the future of performance marketing, Role of Data and automation in future media planning, Opportunities in video advertising and platform, M-Commerce, the future of E-Commerce, M-Commerce: Challenges in delivering premium experience to online shopper, Mobile users are everywhere, why are they out of reach for marketers.

This year ad:tech witnessed over 3500 attendees, 96+ Speakers, 30+ Sessions, 8 Sponsored workshops, 23 Partners & Sponsors and 58 Exhibitors .The scale and the value proposition of ad:tech New Delhi makes it a key calendar event for marketing and media fraternity.

The first panel discussion was held on the most on-going topic, The Future of Performance Marketing and saw panelists like Shekhar Sharma National Director, GroupM Interaction; Nitin Agarwal, Sr Director Marketing, Shopclues; Sumeet Pahwa Head – Media & Consumer Insights; Mobility, Delhi, Tata Teleservices Limited; Dhruv Chopra CMO, Car Wale and Aloke Bajpai CEO & Co-founder, ixigo.com.

The session moderator was Mohit Joshi Managing Director, Havas Media India. The panelist felt that search is going to evolve beyond the wildest dreams. The panel discussed the game-changing trends in search which will be dominated by mobile, mimic natural language, localisation  knowledge based, vetical etc.

Aloke Bajpai said, “Mobile is the buzz word when performance marketing comes to the picture. Though initially a lot of people mix online marketing with performance marketing with aim to stress that they can measure every click but where we are today, everything can be measured.”

Mohit Joshi said, “Performance marketing is always about converting performance into revenue.  It is also about getting right set of customers into the scenario. Performance over-performs when it comes to value. The performance marketing industry is somewhat like digital marketing channels is witnessing a lot of change as there has been a rapid and fragmented shift in the consumer purchase journeys. “

Agreeing to Mohit Joshi, Nitin Agarwal said, “What is important and is the matter of concern that what revenue power a brand is driving from performance marketing. As Mohit mentioned, undoubtedly the performance marketing industry has completely changed and performance marketing has changed the market scenario. Nevertheless helping the companies scale up as per their desired targets.”

Posing a question to the panelists Joshi stated that while there was a notion in the industry that digital is not measurable but we see brands using digital quite extensively.  Nitin Agarwal said, “Today everything is measurable and we at Shopclue.com started using digital much before Television and Print and it gave us encouraging results.”

Dhruv Chopra said, “We at Carwale have been using digital very extensively whether it is in terms of performance or garnering results. We are in the world where technology is so advanced that it is really easy to measure whatever desired.”

India is going through a huge wave of  e-commerce and has caught  has the attention of one and all.  Keeping the same in mind, the next session was conducted on E-COMMERCE and it stressed upon  M-commerce-The future of E-commerce.

Sharat Dhall President, Yatra Online; Saran Chatterjee VP-Products, Flipkart; Sachin Kapur Chief Marketing Officer, Groupon India; Nikhil Rungta SVP & CMO – Digital, Social and eCommerce, Reliance Jio. The session moderator was Dippak Khurana Co-founder & CEO, Vserv.

After E-Commerce another thing today that is catching everyones  attention is M-Commerce. Accrding to marketers it is like putting a store in your customer’s pocket. “Whether it’s on smartphones, smartwatches or tablets, we can now browse and buy just about anything we want, anywhere, anytime. It also presents an enormous challenge, with customers expecting a consistent shopping experience across offline stores, conventional e-commerce, and mobile apps,” Dippak Khurana said.

Examining the challenges, Saran Chatterjee said, “What it takes to succeed in mobile commerce and be future ready is to integrate mobile operations seamlessly into omni-channel strategy. Today consumers are occupied with a lot of screens around them and they prefer utilizing every single second of their lives.”

Khurana said, “Today brands and a significant number of our population has realized the fact that internet is just not facebook and is much beyond than that.” Agreeing to Khurana Nikhil Rungta said, “Yes, unlike earlier days today people have gone beyond just surfing facebook. For any e-commerce brand to succeed, it is important for them to understand and cater to the omni-channel demand of the consumers.”

Summarizing the session, Deepak Khurana said, “Well  E-commerce will soon shift to M-commerce and there will be a significant change in the way e-commerce is being accepted in our country.” 

The next session was again on E-COMMERCE which stressed upon the Challenges in delivering premium experience to online shopper. The panelists include Sandeep Komaravelly Sr. VP – Marketing, Snapdeal.com; Pallav Singhvi Head- Paid Digital Marketing, cleartrip; Alokedeep Singh Head eCommerce, Titan Company; Abhishek Rajan Head, Mobile & Digital Marketing, Myntra and Dulles Krishnan Executive Director, IBM Commerce Division, Asia Pacific Markets. The session was moderated by Manoj Mansukhani Senior Vice President & Head of Ecommerce in India, Razorfish.

As it is quite visible that the e-commerce battle in India is heating up and it is important for brands to understand how data and technology are being used to provide premium experience to online shoppers. All the panelists stressed upon the respective challenges that are being faced and how do they overcome the same.

The next session was conducted on; Opportunities in video advertising and platforms which involded stalwarts like Pankaj Parihar Head of Digital Marketing, Godrej Group; Aman Malhotra Head of Brand Solutions, Google, India;  Ajit Mohan Head of Digital Business, Star; Harsh Saxena Head-Marketing Non Voice Services, Mobility, Delhi, Tata Teleservices Limited and Rohit Sharma Founder and CEO, POKKT.

The session was moderated by Milind Pathak Chief Operating Officer, Madhouse, South Asia. “As fragmentation of viewing continues to grow, advertisers are looking for innovative solutions to drive better return on their marketing dollars. There are more ways than ever for brands to reach their intended audience based on a variety of transactional, interest, or psychographic behaviors,” Milind Pathak said.

The panel discussed factors like how brand marketers can benefit from a fine-tuned video platform strategy through cross-device formats to reach them. "Today video platform has also emerged like a trend in our country. A lot of marketers have been stressing upon the usage of this medium and today quite a few brands have started using video as a medium to promote their brand story," said Ajit Mohan.

"Advanced targeting options, more accurate determination of the frequency and reach are also few concerns of the brands today. The less reactive scattering or Lower unit cost ( better returns). Are we moving closer to a world in which all media data will be available in the cloud, algorithms will dictate decisions and real-time buying and optimization will be the norm, said Aman Malhotra.
"Telcos need to advance their reach and broadband which will enable consumers in terms of using M-Commerce in the desired way," said Harsh Saxena.

Well as ad:tech 2015 comes to an end , Stewart mentioned that this year is one of the biggest years for ad:tech. At ad:tech, one can experience action-packed days with keynotes, education led by digital marketing’s best and brightest, hundreds of leading-edge suppliers – from established players to the newest startups – nonstop networking and , much more.....