B2B will accelerate growth of digital, mobile, social media in India: Experts

Digitas Global Chief Creative Officer Mark Beeching and Chief Marketing Officer Seth Solomons feel that the biggest space for growth of digital, mobile or social media in India is in the B2B space.

Digitas is the digital arm of the world’s fourth largest communications group, The Publicis Groupe.

In an exclusive interview with Preethi Chamikutty of The Economic Times, Beeching and Solomons say, “Businesses today are adopting digital much faster than customers…

“India would have to leap frog some of the bad marketing that the West has done and go directly to the ones that give results to the brand. For example, in the West, financial institutions were attracting customer by giving them low rates of interest, which put them in a soup in the long run.

“So, today Indian companies should help the customer in the decision-making process and give them offers that they would value. A 30-second spot cannot alone connect with the customer. There have to be activities before and after the TVC to connect with the customers. Digital and traditional media are like Siamese twins, you cannot separate the two.”

Online banner ad spend growth slows down as clients switch to search marketing, mobile ads

The growth in online banner ad spend is expected to slow down this financial year as clients have been switching to search marketing and mobile advertising.

In 2008-09, the online banner ad spend grew by 38 per cent to Rs 325 crore. In contrast, the growth rate is expected to drop to 32 per cent (Rs 430 crore) in 2009-10, according to a study by Internet and Mobile Association of India-IMRB.

Search marketing and mobile advertising are expected to reach Rs 325 crore and Rs 50 crore respectively in this financial year, according to afaqs!

Prasanth Mohanachandran, Executive Director, Digital Services, OgilvyOne India, has told afaqs!, “Advertisers have started to experiment, and must have increased their spending on other formats such as search marketing and social media marketing.”

The IAMAI-IMRB study revealed that the growth in banner ad spends in 2009-10 would be driven by sectors such as education (expected to grew by 76 per cent to Rs 34 crore), IT/telecom (41 per cent to Rs 68 crore), FMCG (46 per cent to Rs 47 crore) and auto (40 per cent Rs 39 crore).

The study indicated that the traditional online advertisers - banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and online publishers - have not increased spends on banner advertisements significantly.

Banner ad spends in the BFSI sector is projected to increase by 17 per cent to Rs 64.5 crore in 2009-10. Online publishers' banner spend is anticipated to reach Rs 107 crore in 2009-10, compared to Rs 84.5 crore in 2008-09.