Exclusive | Chasing Dollars through DTH advertising: Matrix's Sparsh Ganguli

Matrix Publicities & Media India Pvt Ltd (MP&MI), a WPP Group company is perhaps the only agency dealing with suggestion of new age mediums like DTH to all Group M as well as non Group M clients pan India. With a presence in all major media hubs like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata, MP&MI has been influential in propagating new mediums like DTH as a platform for branding and advertising. It also has an exclusive tie-up with Air-India for in-flight branding and advertising.

The parentage of WPP has been of huge help as well. Being a huge name, Matrix gets the enhanced credibility and it has been able to leverage on the parentage by seamlessly integrating itself with all other WPP media management companies like Group M, Mediacom, Kinetic etc.

Speaking to Adgully about the DTH medium, Sparsh Ganguli, Business Head, MP&MI says, “The uniqueness of this medium makes it stand out as it’s employed as an extension to amplify TV campaigns and even for digital campaigns.” The DTH medium has been used to run normal TV commercials it has even been employed to boost digital content and other call to action activities. All major advertisers who have employed the medium have used it extensively to boost the reach of their respective campaigns.

Currently the DTH branding and advertising is still in its nascent stage but the potential is huge because of its similarity with the TV medium plus the additional scope for amplifying the reach for TV advertisers. Adds Ganguli, “The trends of the past 2 years have shown business volumes double in terms of inventory booking as well as new clients trying out the medium. Over10 major spenders on TV advertising have closed annual advertising deals on DTH. There is a huge scope of growth and that time is near when it would be used in tandem with regular TV plans to boost the effects of any ad campaign.”

The biggest hurdle to growth is to get some amount of measurability to the medium. Agencies like Matrix and even DTH operators are vying with leading market research agencies to come up with some solution to measure DTH audiences viewership data. Says Ganguli, “this will be very critical in making the medium progress further. Perhaps with the implementation of the 10+2 cap on TV channels the search for alternate mediums would further open up and that would boost a measure coming in place for DTH audiences too.” Amongst the other minor challenge is that of making the marketers take a bite and getting them to open up for the medium. Ganguli is however confident of successfully managing the hurdles.

MP&MI’s plan going forward is to leverage all DTH operators under one roof and be the one stop shop for all DTH needs, branding and solutions. Says Ganguli, “Every medium’s success depends upon its reach and measurability hence we are planning to apply more science to make the medium tangible for instance every DTH service provider has its own strength and penetration in different markets, we want to consolidate them as per their strengths so that a brand can be presented with a best solution.” After all it makes sense for every brand to target and reach out to its core consumers and audience. Bridging this gap for them is the company’s priority. ‘That is what will eventually lead to more advertisers coming in and further expansion of business,” concludes Ganguli.