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Panchayat Mumbai Witnesses an Engaging Discussion on Evolving Trends in Digital News Advertising

Panchayat Mumbai Witnesses an Engaging Discussion on Evolving Trends in Digital News Advertising

The discussion revolved around the newer set of opportunities for advertisers and publishers.

In a casual, yet enriching evening in Mumbai, Agency Reporter organised the third edition of Panchayat, a networking event for Amigos, by Amigos. Organised in partnership with The News Minute, the evening witnessed participation from enthusiasts from digital agencies, media planners’ buyers and marketers in great numbers.

Panchayat Mumbai Panel: (L to R) Vignesh Vellore, Paurush Sonkar, Rohan Gandhi, Himanka Das, Raushni Bhagia

The panel discussion that evening comprised of Himanka Das, CEO, Vizeum; Paurush Sonkar, Digital Marketing Consultant, Aditya Birla MyUniverse; Rohan Gandhi, Head, Digital Brand Communication, Zee5 and Vignesh Vellore, CEO and Co-founder, The News Minute. The discussion delved upon the ‘Changing Paradigms of Digital News Advertising’, moderated by Raushni Bhagia, a former senior journalist and communication professional.

The evening saw participation from brands and media agencies likewise. Professionals from LIC Mutual Fund, Mediacom, Madison, Yatra, BC Web Wise, Saint Gobain, FCM Travel Solutions, HDFC Life, Spain Tourism, Viacom18, DDB Mudra Group, State Bank of India, SME Chamber, VML, OMD, Coverfox, Hotstar, Dentsu Aegis Network, iProspect, B4U TV, Sony Pictures, AngCap had graced the event.

The consumption of news has shifted to digital platform for a lot of people. The discussion revolved around the newer set of opportunities for advertisers and publishers. The panel shared their views on branded content in the segment, the growth of native and programmatic advertising, the significance of digital news platforms during elections, news on OTT, role of social media and the evolving regional news platforms. The discussion on fake news was also an important segment.

Edited Excerpts from the Panelists:

Paurush Sonkar, digital marketing consultant, Aditya Birla MyUniverse

Paurush Sonkar

As an advertiser who is looking at building a brand, over strict purchase, digital news is a huge enabler, especially in times of elections. I have often been worried about the whole race of conversions and purchase cycles, I prefer building my brand so strong, that purchase will eventually take place.

In today’s world, digital news is not just news, it is views. It is a two way street now, where you get instant reactions, views and sometimes updates from your audience. It has to be dealt with very carefully.

Rohan Gandhi, Head, Digital Brand Communication, Zee5

Rohan Gandhi

OTT has news only in the form of live news, yes. That’s true. While there are fewer avenues to monetise live news on digital, but if one has to strategically look for the time and content that can attract advertiser interest. For example, the events like budget, elections and even big policy changes can be planned ahead and monetised well.

About the regional digital news platforms not getting enough ad rates, I feel that though the reach of regional news platforms is great, the engagement rates are very low. The conversion rates of these audience into purchase are not as much as the national news audience. Hence, these ad-rates are quite justified, to my mind.

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Vignesh Vellore, CEO and Co-founder, The News Minute

Vignesh Vellore

The reach of the regional publications is immense and the advertiser must, sooner or later, realise this and improve the indexation against the audience that they are getting.

Additionally, while it is true that social media has been a source of news to many, I don’t think it is entirely wrong. I mean, when we started off, social media was a big enabler in acquiring audiences. Social media is a good discovery platform and many publications use it for that purpose.

Himanka Das, CEO, Vizeum

Himanka Das

The importance of digital news platforms don’t decrease during the elections at all. In fact, it increases. My estimate is that about 9-10% of the total spends happening during elections would be going to digital news. This is in line with how the spends are divided for digital and the traditional news mediums.

Additionally, digital news has given birth to the phenomenon called ‘fake news.“ While the platform owners like Google, Facebook and WhatsApp have taken a note of it and are constantly creating awareness about it, deleting content as and when they find, advertisers still have a challenge. There have been instances in the past, when advertisers have had to delete their ads because they were placed on the basis of a fake news/ or was placed besides a certain fake news article. Especially in this era of ‘topicality’ and the hurry to ride on a trend, the need to authenticate every information is important.

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