DAN's Anand Bhadkamkar reflects on the year that went by

• The current year witnessed several challenges for the industry – NTO, weak economic conditions, muted consumer demand and slowdown in some sectors such as automobiles, real estate, BFSI, etc.
• While the advertising industry did grow in 2019 but it was lower than the originally-anticipated growth rate of 12-13%.
• Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network India’s (DAN) summarises some of the trends that developed in 2019 and how DAN latched onto them.

The current year witnessed several challenges for the industry – NTO, weak economic conditions, muted consumer demand and slowdown in some sectors such as automobiles, real estate, BFSI, etc. The industry did grow in the current year but growth was lower than the originally-anticipated growth rate of 12-13%. During the year, the government has taken many proactive decisions such as reduction in corporate tax rates, further simplification in GST, sector-focused recovery actions such as for real estate, etc.

As we move into 2020, some of these actions will help re-ignite the growth. At the same time, the market is going through a transformative phase with digital playing a big role in how the brands are engaging with and reaching out to consumers. Some of the trends noticed during the year are:

Digital beyond marketing: Clients are beginning to use digital better to understand consumer trends/recruitment/deciding product strategy; it is more about using digital to achieve business outcomes and driving commerce rather than advertising/marketing outcomes with the use of data, Machine Learning, Martech platforms, etc.

Millennials rule the roost for multiple reasons:
Eagerness to find engaging content and share
A large buying population
Great influences of the wider population

Storytelling/Content is King: There is a growing realization of the importance of connecting audiences through interesting storytelling – be it in long format or short - to engage audiences. In fact, the trend of starting to think digital engagement first and then TV is on the rise; and this trend is not just connecting with Video or Static, but across.

Digital OOH is Coming of Age: OOH is now seen as a strong medium that enables strong connections with brands and enhances response to online brand communication. Advertisers are willing to experiment more with digital OOH solutions. Ambient spaces are being taken more seriously and designed with greater focus to be part of a larger story that the brand is trying to tell. Evidently, Storytelling is steadily becoming the hero here as well.

Customer Experience & Customer Centricity to Drive Brand Building: Customer experience (CX) design is becoming the next developing frontier in brand building. Brands and agency partners that decode and deliver this best will win more with consumers. Use of data and machine learning, collecting first party data and enriching it is becoming a focus area for many clients. And this, with the support of Martech, helps deliver better consumer / personal experiences. There is growing recognition of the importance of marrying data and creativity.

The vision for Television: it was news (elections) and sports that provided the initial spike to TV when the year began. However, expectations began to dull post May when slowdown hit. The TV spends also took a hit at the start of the year with NTO taking some time to settle down; but it did not catalyze the withdrawal of spends by advertisers from the market. No! Rather, what it did was get clients into a worry-spin. After all, ‘measurement’ was missing. There was little clarity. And for a short while, all channels suffered. Spends dropped and for the first few months, clients preferred to wait and watch. But some clients were committed, and they went ahead with what was promised. In India, TV still has a lot of growth potential and I believe, will continue to grow in double digits albeit at a slightly lower pace in coming years as well.

At Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), more than 50% of our business is digital. This, along with our data capabilities and our one P&L approach, has helped us adapt to the new trends and deliver growth faster than market in the current year. We at DAN had called out 3V’s – Video, Voice and Vernacular to drive growth. The 3 V’s continued to grow this year with regional languages expected to fuel further growth in the coming years especially in content, OTT platforms.

- By Anand Bhadkamkar, CEO, Dentsu Aegis Network India’s (DAN)