Indian marketers set to increase investment in 'outcome-driven media': Xaxis

The vast majority of digital media marketers across India are planning to increase their investment in the emerging field of ‘outcome-driven media’, found a survey conducted by Outcome media company Xaxis, which is also GroupM’s programmatic media arm.

The research conducted via an online survey in September 2018 on 500 Indian digital media marketers found that 97% of them would invest in ‘outcome-driven media’ to address growing media complexities and better understand the impact of their campaigns on business results.

The research assessed how satisfied marketers around the world were with their existing methods of measuring the success of digital display campaigns, especially in terms of how they deliver against their strategic business and marketing goals. It also asked what the main barriers were in moving to new metrics, and whether they were planning to increase their investment in ‘outcomes-driven media’, which the company defined as ‘planning and optimising campaigns against KPIs — often tailor-made for an advertiser or campaign — that are much more closely aligned to the marketer’s ultimate marketing and business goals’.

The results of the survey suggest that while outcome-driven media looks to be a critical area of increased investment, there is a mixed picture in relation to how marketers view ways of evaluating digital media success.

The majority (80%) of Indian marketers surveyed either strongly or somewhat agreed that evaluating digital media spend had become more difficult over the past five years and almost all respondents (90%) said they were very or somewhat likely to change the primary metric they used to measure campaigns over the next 12-24 months.

The research found that 92% of Indian marketers surveyed agreed that being able to link business objectives to digital media spend ‘positively impacted’ their marketing budget. And the same majority agreed that understanding how media can meet business objectives allowed their organisation to have a measurable advantage over competitors.

When asked what their organisation’s priorities were for media spend in 2019, the top answer (52%) was ‘increased efficiency’, followed by ‘Improving ad viewability levels’ (46%), ‘gaining full transparency of campaign performance’ (42%), and ‘gaining full transparency of campaign performance’ (37%). ‘Effective allocation of resources’ was the 5th-ranked answer with 34% of survey respondents.

The research also highlighted that 92% of Indian marketers want to work with a partner who can help them deliver against marketing and business objectives. In an era of complexity, Indian marketers seek experts who will help them handle massive sets of data and set up systems to measure their results.

Arshan Saha

“This is an exciting time for us right now as the advertising industry in the APAC region continues to grow and advance. Survey results for the APAC market were closely in line with global trends, and indicate a clear need for marketing that can drive real world results that accrue to the bottom line. This approach will empower marketing to solidify its position as a centre for revenue enhancement, which could ultimately change perceptions of its role within the organisation,” said Arshan Saha, President, Xaxis Asia-Pacific.

Bharat Khatri, National Director, Xaxis India, added, “The findings demonstrate that Indian marketers are clearly looking to investing on outcome media as part of their strategy moving into 2019. They are recognising the need to measure themselves as well as have plans in place to reach out effectively to the large Indian market. The research also suggests that India marketers would like to work with partners to better understand the impact of their campaigns on business results. Based on the comparisons with the other regions, we can see that Indian marketers are opening up to recognising the need to change and implement newer strategies which is a positive shift.”

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