Digital to be the largest medium by 2022-23

Talk about digital revolutionising the world has been going on for quite some time now. No seminar, conference or discussion is complete without a talk about digital and its immense potential and how to tap it. But the conversation becomes a lot more relevant and important when people and organisations that have the ability to effect change and influence the market.

In the event ‘Discover Growth’, hosted by Facebook, marketers and advertisers discussed key strategies focused on growth marketing and how mobile or digital can help businesses drive growth. The event consisted of a panel discussion moderated by Sandeep Bhushan, Director, Facebook India and South Asia. Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network; Alok Agarwal, General Manager, Marketing Excellence, GSK Consumer Healthcare and Ambuj Chandna, Head-Retail Liabilities, Investments and Payment Products, Kotak Mahindra Bank were the panellists.

Kick-starting the event and setting the tone for the discussion, Bhushan said, “With over 217 million monthly active users in India – most of whom are active on mobile – Facebook is at the heart of a mobile-first shopping journey. We want to help all marketers and businesses drive revenue growth by tapping into the shift in consumer behaviour towards mobile, and help them adopt practices to drive both penetration and loyalty.”

Highlighting the speed with which businesses are embracing digital and how fast it is growing in the country, Bhasin said that 40 per cent of his company’s revenues come from digital and by the year 2019 their target is to increase that number to more than 50 per cent.

“There is a clear shift. According to the Dentsu Aegis digital report for the 2017, by 2020, 25 per cent of the market will be digital. Today it is 15 per cent. This also means that by 2022 or 2023, digital will probably be the single largest medium in the country,” said Bhasin.

Chandna spoke about how 60 per cent of their customers were digitally active and how 80 per cent of that 60 per cent were also active on mobile. He also mentioned that 60 per cent of that 80 per cent were active only on mobile.

“The shift that we at Kotak Mahindra Bank have seen in the last eight to nine months has been the shift of making mobile or digital work from the point of view of customer acquisition. The big learning for us has been that the same formula that applies to us as a bank in the physical world doesn’t apply in the digital world. It is important to curate product proposition and value propositions for the digital world and if you get that right, you can scale up dramatically,” said Chandna.

The fact that women too today are digital savvy has propelled brands that have traditionally spoken to women to be present on digital too, pointed out Agarwal. He also spoke about how Facebook and TV worked together better.

“For the first time, we measured the reach and impact of an integrated media plan (TV and Facebook) from a single source of measurement on an on-going basis. We are encouraged by Facebook’s ability to drive brand reach and impact. The campaign delivered better results than just TV-only campaigns. For us, Facebook and TV worked better together,” said Agarwal.

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