Expert Speak: Festive marketing media playbook to maximize returns

From activating the entire funnel to dedicating 10% of the budget to learning-based experiments - industry experts share tips on driving optimum value from your media spends.

The stalwarts share their understanding of the media consumption trends, fundamentals of the media blueprint, and festive marketing media playbook for standing out in this period.

The Panelists

• Vandana Ramkrishna, Chief Operating Officer, Madison Media Ace
• Ashok Shinde, VP – Media at PivotRoots
• Amaresh Godbole, CEO, Digital Technology, Publicis Groupe
• Merlin Coutinho, Head of Marketing & Brand Solutions, Lemma

Media Consumption trends

Vandana expressed, “The only thing constant in advertising and media for over 20 years is change and how you adapt to it in an agile manner is very important. You can’t define the consumer very well today because the entire journey for them is extremely convoluted in the way they consume media.”

She affirmed that COVID-19 has made information more easily accessible, and consumers are continuously looking for information about brands or products through conventional, digital, or influencer marketing videos. Because the customer journey is so extensive, it is impossible to develop a media plan that just uses one specific media channel. When implementing any marketing strategies, it is crucial to fully activate the ACT funnel.

Explaining this, Vandana adds, “If Flipkart big days or Amazon Prime days were only featuring on one platform, they would be giving leeway to Meesho and Myntra to take in their audiences at the same point.”

Amaresh shares that the two new avenues that have picked up last year from the scale perspective are voice and creators. Voice has become a big channel and has crossed around 100 million users across formats whereas creators themselves are a media platform.

In a festive context, you are trying to do three things - to get reach at scale for which creators could be a powerful medium, deep engagement and unique experiences, and completing the transaction online by driving footfalls, Amaresh explains.

Also Read: Dan Wieden – the man & the journey!

Fundamentals of festive marketing blueprint

Merlin shares that the definition of performance is tweaked to such an extent that it is synonymous with sales. Correcting the equation performance = sales, she states, ”Branding performance and performance in terms of sales acquisition is a different definition, so, use different media to attain those goals. You need to start with the upper funnel media strategies and have everything in place so that the lower funnel is prepared."

We think because it is digital, it will be converted which is a misconception. You can’t skip any digital media platform for any purpose from branding to performance because everybody, whether Urban India or Bharat is on digital.

Merlin Coutinho

Merlin shares the simple fundamental strategy that she believes works all around the year, but is especially applicable during the festive season is to use Omni digital strategies where the client gets a seamless experience.

Ashok shares that given the trends, it is crucial that businesses invest in a media strategy that emphasizes digital content. To create a substantial impact on the customer, the budget must be sizable; it cannot be a fraction of what it was in the early days or years. The fundamentals to touch upon is the e-commerce platform is a really great source for knowing your audience and being there when they are making purchases.

Shinde adds, “You need largely three things at this point. How best you can reach the user, inclusion of Influencer marketing in the festive plan, and when you are doing a large scale brand marketing campaign offline do make sure that you are dialing up your performance gaps.”

Takeaways

• The Reach Relevance and Response (RRR) model must be activated throughout the whole ACT funnel.
• Putting 100% of the money on a performance marketing plan will undoubtedly fail.
• Instead of concentrating on just one aspect of the funnel, make sure to activate it all.
• Dedicate 10% of the budget to learning-based experiments.
• Make sure the experience continues to be very smooth following the advertisement.
• Never undervalue an idea's ability to sway a media choice while organizing media campaigns.
• Discover what your audience is interested in, whether it is OTT, gaming, or the metaverse, and then explore it.

Experts shared their inputs at Social Samosa’s Festive Marketing Camp. You can view more interesting insights from the virtual conclave here.