AgTalk | Real-time data driven marketing is the future: SMVG's Mallikarjun Das

SMG India boasts its robust digital and analytics practice and its consumer insight work led by its Human Experience Strategist Network. At the helm of the agency is it's CEO, Mallikarjun Das, who in an exclusive interaction with Adgully speaks out on its research and digital specialization, global development and what lies in the future for this french network. Excerpts of the interview:

To know more about this diversified media network and its contribution to the industry, Adgully caught up with Mallikarjun Das, CEO of SMG India.

Adgully (AG): What according to you are the key strengths of SMVG?

Mallikarjun Das (MD): SMG’s media product is predicated on Brilliant basics, Digital & Analytics. In today’s media fragmented world, there are multiple pathways to constructing a media plan. To optimize the clients’ investment requires a judicious mix of optimization and intuition in the traditional media world. Not doing so would lead to wastage and fat hiding in the TV or print plan. We have built proprietary measurement in areas of optimization and Video Neutral Planning. In Digital, SMG Convonix is one of leading Digital agencies with exceptional strengths in search (both organic and paid), display, social and mobile.  All media investment has to be directed by data driven media planning. This is where our analytics practice comes into play. SMG India is the Global Analytics Centre of Excellence for all Convergence Analytics. By sifting multiple streams of data, our Analytics professionals determine the true ROI of multiple marketing inputs and this closes the feedback loop in the media planning process.

AG: Looking at the growing digital focus among the industry players today, what kind of contribution does ‘Digital’ add to SMG's revenues?

MD: We are certainly ahead of the curve of several industry players on this front today and are poised well to be the guiding light in the digital transition of our existing and potential clients. In 2013, digital contributed 50% + of SMG India’s revenues. This is at par with what several developed markets earn. We are more than ready for the future.

AG: What have been some of the recent developments at SMVG globally? What have been some of the new and important account wins at SMVG’s end?

MD: SMG global finished 2013 on a very strong note. We are number 1 on RECMA and won more than 322 awards globally. Honda & Novartis are some of our notable wins in the last 18 months. We continue to be number 1 or number 2 in most leading markets. We have made several game changing partnerships with technological partners and have made giant strides in the areas of digital, analytics and content.

AG: Which key account wins at SMG in the last couple of years are mention-worthy?

MD: Some of SMG India’s key wins in the last 2 years include Axis Bank, Dabur &, Ranbaxy. On the Digital side, SMG Convonix in partnership with our group company, LBi won the digital media mandate of Tata Motors. It also won the digital media mandate of DBS Bank and OLX.

AG: Also there has been a lot of buzz with regards to data, analytics and research. How do you use these practices and what value does it hold for you at SMVG?

MD: SMG India is the Global Centre of Excellence for Analytics. We have seen this contribute substantially to our top line and bottom-line growth in H1. In the last 6 months, we have executed revenue generating analytics projects for SMG from US, UK, Italy, Australia & Middle-East. SMG India’s Analytics team has won international awards and presented papers in prestigious forums such as ESOMAR in Jakarta, Advertising Research Foundation’s Seminar in NY and at the Predictive Analytics World Conference in Chicago. We have built world-class capability on this front and are well placed as an organization for the data driven, precision marketing transition that will take place in media planning over the next 12 to 24 months.

AG: Where do you see the global A & M industry heading during the next 2 years?

MD: Real time, data-driven media planning and Content at scale is the future. The traditional media needs to understand this and invest substantially on measurement and not devalue the currency. We have seen several controversies around TV and measurement in the last few months. Controversies and questions by themselves are not bad – they are good so long as the collision of thesis & anti-thesis leads us to a higher plane. However some of the debates have not been in this spirit. Putting down a currency is detrimental to the industry. I think the future evolution of TV and print measurement and how we plan them is going to be crucial for these industries. Digital measurement will improve and Digital planning will be driven by programmatic, algorithm driven media planning. If TV and print continue to remain in the realm of cookbook driven rules, they will lose faster than otherwise.

AG: Do you think we need to optimize earned, owned and paid media to do justice to the client’s brief?

MD: Absolutely. This is where what we at SMG call convergence analytics comes into play. Paid, owned and earned media do not act in isolation. They influence brand outcomes both directly and indirectly. These effects need to computed and true of ROI of paid, owned and earned media arrived at. This is the kind of work that our Analytics Centre of Excellence does. Over the last 1 year, we have won awards for this in both practitioner as well as technical forums.

AG: Shed light on some of the trends you foresee in the media buying and selling land with regards to brands advertising and spending heavily during major events like IPL, FIFA World Cup etc.

MD: Spending on these properties will increase but they will also come under the scanner across clients. Risk taking is a part of marketing & media planning. However since the quantum of investments on these properties is massive, one needs to arrive with a reasonable level of certainty on their sales / salience building ability. Does it work for my kind of category or brand? Doing a mere pre-post based on awareness to judge the efficacy of these properties is not the answer and moreover investments should not be solely driven by adrenalin and gut.

AG: What are some of the core values which all the team members follow/embrace at SMG?

MD: SMG values include the following adjectives – integrity, switched-on, tribal, transformational, dynamic & curious. These are self-explanatory and what is required for the current epoch of media planning. The new age media planner should be a tri-athlete. She should be able to triangulate Traditional media paradigms, the Digital world and Analytics. It is from this confluence that path-breaking decision making in media can emerge.

AG: Lastly, what are your expectations from 2014? Is there any specific mandate that has been handed over to your team mates?

MD: Our focus will be client–delight, product, growth & training. SMG sees itself as a strategic partner to its clients with its product predicated on the principles of Brilliant Basics, Digital, Data and Analytics. We will look at building new paradigms of planning that would help optimize the TV and Print investments of our clients. We are already ahead of the market in terms of being one of the few agencies with a capability to do Video Neutral Planning. Digital transition, for the right reasons, will be a spotlight for the agency. Also, we strongly believe that Real-time Data driven marketing and media planning is the future. This will continue to be an area of thrust. Training is another area for us in which we plan to make substantial investments in 2014.

AG: Any recent campaigns that you have worked on and created wonders with?

MD: We love the kind of work that we have been doing on Axis Bank over the last couple of years. It has been a privilege to be associated with this Brand’s journey of brand building in the commoditized financial services space. It is something that we at SMG are proud of. [By: Aanchal Kohli | Twitter: @aanchalkohli]