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In this exclusive “Masters of Media” series, Integral Ad Science (IAS) speaks to the Movers and Shakers of the APAC advertising industry, on all matters digital.
Shashidhar Sharma is Country Head of Programmatic at GroupM leading programmatic for GMS, GroupM’s Centre of Excellence model for delivering optimal efficiency.
IAS: Please tell us about your digital advertising journey and your current role at GroupM
Shashidhar: I have been a part of the Digital industry for more than 11 years now and have worked across all roles the within the Programmatic ecosystem. I started with the troubleshooting (support) role, then moved to the agency side- managing campaigns, building teams, and thought leadership around the future of digital advertising for agencies and clients.
I am currently heading programmatic for GMS, our Centre of Excellence model for delivering optimal efficiency. This includes looking into all programmatic deliverables across all the agencies part of GroupM, including Mindshare, Xaxis, Wavemaker, Mediacom, Essence, and Motivator. Handling the entire gamut of programmatic delivery while ensuring we are supporting client conversations around Digital Maturity, Data Strategy, Key Partner integration, and future ways of leveraging the Programmatic channels to their optimum. At the core, I aim to ensure we develop best practices, adhere to hygiene, and take the lead position in the market around thought leadership.
IAS:What are some of the initiatives GroupM has undertaken to stay connected with its workforce and propagate for the wellness of its employees?
Shashidhar: Employees’ well-being is of utmost importance for GroupM. The pandemic has brought chaos globally, and our industry has also been impacted. We have seen a lot of projects, and spending being rolled back over the past couple of years, though things are picking up now. Throughout this period of flux, GroupM has maintained constant efforts to ensure we do not lose touch with the culture, bonding, and learning that defines working at GroupM. We have assured that the existing team is not impacted or feels insecure.
Some key initiatives taken by us include introducing a wellness leave where our employees get to take a few days off to recuperate, having power off days where the entire team does not work, having a wellness program set up where our employees can chat with certified counsellors (internal) with the confidence of confidentiality and no judgment, having an Employee Assistance Program in place, dedicated Covid cover to go with two weeks of extended covid leave, over and above the existing leave allocation, etc.
Apart from these, we have made it a point to ensure contact with the team is being maintained by everyone through town halls, team meet-ups, regular video calls, and having an open channel for communication through the entire structure.
Our senior leadership team has also been highly hands-on through all these initiatives, ensuring we can get so far through such trying times. Work has been handled remotely, and any move to an office currently remains strictly voluntary (presently) with a decision on future ways of working also dependent on how the situation evolves.
IAS: According to you, what will enable CTV to become more mainstream for advertisers? What role will its measurement capabilities play to propel CTV advertising?
Shashidhar: Connected TV or CTV may be seen as the future of advertising, but it is still a relatively new phenomenon in India & Asia. The ability to reach out to users and audiences on the big screen with the added capability of Digital measurement makes it a promising platform. The key (in my opinion) would be to understand that CTV is not a substitute for broadcast TV. It may be for some users, but not for the advertiser. Leveraging CTV should be a vital part of the Digital strategy rather than looking at it as an either/or for Broadcast TV.
The popular myth that young people no longer watch TV is just not true. They are watching and consuming TV and video content, but in different ways – picking when and where they tune in – and delivering more engagement as a result. Regular viewers of CTV are more accepting of ads in exchange for free online services vs. those that don’t watch CTV regularly (72% vs. 61% – numbers from IAB UK’s real living research). Understanding these triggers and strategizing well is the key to enabling the CTV scale.
Measurement capabilities of CTV are way more enhanced than those available on Broadcast TV. As CTV viewing evolves and more people watch content through streaming platforms (both live and time-shifted), the requirement is to capture viewing on multiple devices from all sources. The digital medium offers scope and presents a solution to this problem statement, though some hiccups remain. With day-to-day advancements on this frontier, CTV is primed to be a significant part of the digital strategy.
IAS: In your opinion is the industry doing enough to combat the trust and transparency challenges in the digital supply chain?
Shashidhar: BAV (Brand Safety, Ad Fraud & Viewability) has been the buzzword within the Programmatic space for a while now. While brand safety offers tremendous opportunities for advertisers and brands today, risks for each abound. Viewable ads that make quality impressions are ones that real humans see within the target audience, served in a safe, suitable, and fraud-free environment. After all, an ad that cannot be seen has no value. And it’s this quality within these appropriate parameters that deliver better performance. GroupM and IAS have already produced studies in France and the Nordics, proving precisely that.
The French research showcased that when campaigns use pre-bid segments for brand safety, viewability, and fraud, 15% of the budget was allocated to better quality media. In the Nordics, the study conducted in partnership with Toyota, Radisson Blue Group, and Kvik proved that viewable ads had an online conversion lift of 83% (brochure downloads tracked), 67% (room bookings followed), and 79% (in-store visits), respectively. GroupM has participated in or led every industry initiative to enhance the integrity of digital advertising worldwide, continuously adapting to and improving the digital supply chain to create the safest and most effective environment possible for our clients. Our high standard for brand safety best practices has allowed us to work closely with industry partners to devise shared technology solutions and establish measurement frameworks and standard definitions. But, as consumers continue to evolve in their preferences for content, there is an opportunity to push the envelope to create an even safer online world.
While there are enough measures to build trust, transparency is the aspect that is more challenging currently. In the complex, multi-channel media market, advertisers have a lot to manage. The number of channels is a challenge in that each one requires careful handling, has its dynamics and data-feeds, and is measured individually. Advertisers cite cross-channel measurement as being the most significant challenge they face. The amount of data produced by all channels is vast. There are several intermediaries involved in the digital supply chain, and it is often opaque to advertisers. Media transparency is achieved when an advertiser can make the best-informed media investment decisions with the most accurate, recent, and robust data and information, including the relevant financial data. For this purpose, the ANA media transparency initiative was launched, and a report titled ‘Seeing through the programmatic fog’ was published in May 2017. The methodology was based on a direct data feed from the demand-side platforms that conduct the advertisers’ media trading in online display. The study analysed 445 campaigns from seven advertisers, comprising 6.6 billion ad placements (impressions). The main finding was that 42% of advertisers’ budgets were used to pay for data provision and intermediary services, leaving only 58% to acquire media. These figures only relate to ‘disclosed’ media trades where the relevant data was accessible. No access to data from ‘undisclosed’ deals as possible and none of the data from such deals could be included.
My opinion on the industry’s current state on these points is that enough initiatives and work are being done to combat these aspects; however, the adoption of tech that enables us to leverage these insights is still a way off. We are still talking about additional costs for onboarding partners such as IAS, who provide us options to measure, monitor, and block invalid inventory within our local market. We should push for and start adding these as basic hygiene on our campaigns and as part of our strategy.
IAS: With brands moving away from keywords and cookies to contextual targeting, how is GroupM approaching this shift?
Shashidhar: GroupM is well prepared to handle the third-party cookie deprecation timelines. GroupM has created a Google Tech Readiness program to ensure that we are in lock-step with Google and across our agency network throughout this evolution. GroupM has also kicked off a global workstream focused on organizational transformation in a cookieless world. It is important to note that this is a seismic shift in how the digital ecosystem operates, and we are journeying through this evolution together. We have a keen eye out for all the available solutions in the market and are also working with some of our key partners to explore and evaluate the possible solutions being offered.
Beyond this, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this challenge. Each client—their data accessibility, product distribution approach, relationship with customers, tech stacks, ethics principles, etc.—is different. Hence, we are prepared to have conversations around data strategy and enhance the usage of 1PD for our clients to be able to see the same rate of success (and even strengthen it) while using these in conjunction with the other solutions available to counter the challenge presented due to this change of scenario.
IAS: What’s your favourite book/podcast/movie, and why?
Shashidhar: I like the Deathworld Trilogy by Harry Harrison. I think the three books are fast-paced and have enough moral dilemmas involved to not only take you into the Protagonist’s world but make you relate these to challenges you face day in and out. These books may be a part of the Fiction genre. Still, they elaborate on differences in perspective based on societal, cultural, and personal standpoints, alongside focussing on the survival instinct within us.
IAS: What is your advice to the fresh talent in the industry?
Shashidhar: When anyone begins working in our industry, things could get overwhelming. It feels good and maybe ‘in’ to go with the flow, but you should always have a plan. This plan need not be rigid but needs to keep you accurate to your path and the general direction you want to take. You should remember the reasons for joining the industry and evaluate if you are learning and working on what you want to. Talk to your friends and family regarding broad topics but leave industry-specific advice to people who have been working in it. Always have a mentor within your chosen field – and reach out to them for advice.
Specifically, within our industry, people starting should have a good idea of the entire ecosystem. Try to learn about all the sides – Seller, Buyer, Platform & Tech Partners to reduce your learning curve.
