India’s digital advertising market is projected to reach USD$4.99 billion by 2024, with year-over-year growth at 18%. Your brand/ business spend will be in this too. And when two approaches have emerged: being present on the open web and/ or walled gardens like Google and Meta, there is always new information to consider in the equation of the media mix. Understanding the nuances, advantages, and drawbacks of each is crucial for making informed decisions about your digital marketing strategy. And this needs expertise and experience and a thorough knowledge on best practices, current trends, growth of new platforms etc.

While we look at where to spend your marketing budget efficiently, we need to understand where your TG is. The consumer’s online behaviour is no longer so straightforward as being present on one or the other platform. This has been some time in the making, especially during and post-pandemic. Recently, Kantar and The Trade Desk released a study of online consumer behaviour along with the Open. Today, Indians spend half of their time on the open internet, even though ad spend is 5.5 times higher on walled gardens.

Wait a minute? If your TG is spending time on the open internet, why is your money being spent mostly on Google and Meta? Should you relook at your spend bifurcation? Should you look at how your agency is planning and buying media for you? These are all difficult questions indeed.

To make it simpler for those who need a quick understanding, here are a few things to show how walled gardens and the open internet work, along with their pros and cons.

The Open Web: Allows you to embrace freedom and flexibility

Some examples of the open web in India are music streaming platforms, news platforms, OTT/ CTV platforms etc.

Let’s look at the Pros of the Open Web

Control and Independence: Control is one of the most significant advantages of the open web. You can have the autonomy to build your online presence without being bound by platform restrictions. Leading to the ability to create a unique digital experience that aligns precisely with your brand’s vision.

Transparency: The open web provides greater transparency in terms of data and performance metrics. This data is a gold mine about your audience’s behaviour, and gives you the opportunity to make data-driven decisions and optimize your approach effectively.

Innovation and Customization: Here, you can experiment with various content formats, ad placements, and user experiences that resonates with your brand and creates a sync with your audience.

Various Advertising Options: Beyond traditional display ads, you can figure out content marketing through partnerships/ deals, build influencer partnerships, and add affiliate marketing to your mix.

Cons of the Open Web

Fragmentation: Too many options could create a fatigue in managing platforms and channels. This can lead to complexities and laborious situations, especially if you don’t have people resources, unlike a specialist agency. This could lead to inefficiencies.

Trust Building: Your TG will be bombarded with a plethora of ads and content on a daily basis. So, building trust with your TG on the open web can be difficult and may take a longer time to establish a solid online presence for your brand.

Walled Gardens: Attraction of reach

In India, we have Google, Meta and Amazon as closed gardens.

Pros of Walled Gardens

Massive Reach: Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) offer a massive user base. This has been built over time and everybody is on them. For your brand to quickly expand your TG, this is a no-brainer.

Ease of use: Walled gardens offer the ability to be self-served platforms. You can create and manage campaigns without navigating multiple platforms.

Sharp Targeting: With the crazy amount of data, these platforms help in sharper ad targeting. Specific requirements like, demographics, interests, affinities can be utilized to build efficient campaigns.

Cons of Walled Gardens

Less Control: These platforms can give you plenty of convenience while managing and reaching and expanded TG. But you are at the mercy of their algorithms and inner workings that can impact visibility of your brand. Also, with constant updates, their changing algorithms can affect your approach.

Privacy Concerns: today, data privacy has become very important especially with the advent of GDPR and soon, the coming cookieless future. What this will mean is that you have very limited access to get user data, again, affecting your effectiveness.

Transparency: They provide low transparency into how your ads are displayed and their performance. This can make it very difficult to optimize your campaigns well.

Costs: Everybody wants to be on Google and Meta. Today, even a small business knows this and tries to be on the platforms. This increases competition for inventory. Imagine a Diwali scenario, everyone from BFSI, to Ecommerce, to FMCG, and then some will be heavily advertising. This will not allow an SMB to compete effectively and get it literally out of the game.

So, what should a brand or a business do in this kind of a reality? A marketeer has plenty on her/ his plate and wondering about what next to do shouldn’t be there as a problem. So, as an agency which has worked with national brands and managed plenty of media spends, our POV is that we need to have a combination of both open web and walled gardens on balance. We bring in the learnings across verticals and across business cycles. Here are some tips for finding the right balance:

Diversify Risk: The old adage of not putting all eggs in one basket needs to followed. So, diversify your marketing channels and reduce risk and reach a broader audience.

Data Protection: Most companies now build their first party data for their marketing purposes. If you are not as mature, start building that and ensure you prioritize data privacy and comply with regulations like GDPR to build trust with your audience.

Analytics Monitoring: Tools that can be provide insights across all your platforms for a unified view help in making decisions. Talk to us if you need help with this.

ABT (Always Be Testing): The digital playground has become actually a place to continuously refine processes by testing due to its sheer dynamism. So, the opportunity here is to keep testing out different strategies and adapt your way forward based on data.

Content will always be King: High-quality and engaging content that your TG syncs with are a must irrespective of any platform you choose. As a marketeer this is critical for your arsenal.

In the end, the open web and walled gardens have the ability to give various results for your needs. The idea is to use both of them for specific goals and budgets like how a Swiss Army Knife is used in survival. But it is critical to know what they offer and integrate them accordingly in your marketing efforts. This becomes difficult if you are lacking in resources – both people and time. If you are a brand in this kind of a situation, talk to us for a no obligation call. We will be glad to help you out here.

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Brands face stiff competition while advertising during the festive period

While the Indian consumer’s wallet also opens up during this time and she is on the hunt for deals, cool new things to buy for friends and family, brands have an uphill task.

Plus, this year, it is a double dhamaaka as Cricket coincides with the festive season. So, every brand and their uncle, in E-commerce, FMCG, hospitality, fintech, health, auto and other consumer discretionary verticals, will compete for a pie out of the consumer’s wallet.

So, what should brands do in this situation? While spends dictate many things, other things to consider in your arsenal are these factors while maximising impact and reach:

1. Pay attention to Consumer Behaviour:

Understanding the changing consumer behaviour during the festive season is crucial. Brands should analyze trends, preferences, and purchase patterns to tailor their marketing strategies accordingly. By identifying what motivates consumers to make purchases, brands can align their messaging and promotions to effectively capture their attention. Eg., If you look at the screenshot below, the change in digital transaction volumes is visible in terms of consumer preferences. It becomes a no-brainer that your business needs to be addressing a seamless transaction experience on your D2C site, while also even removing COD for transactions.

2. Be culturally relevant:

Festivals in India are deeply rooted in culture and traditions. Brands should gear their marketing campaigns towards connecting with consumers on a cultural level. By incorporating elements that resonate with the festive spirit, brands can create a sense of familiarity and emotional connection with their target audience. This means creatives being emotional, funny etc. Look at your creatives with a clutter-breaking approach and create an opportunity to connect on all your channels with videos, banners that convey an idea singularly. While as a brand you might be outspoken, but an idea that cannot connect Diwali to your brand truth might not help you this festive season. E.g., most brands will be looking at the environmental and sustainability factors for Diwali, will your brand benefit from a different route?

3. Audit and reorganise your digital presence:

With the rise of digital platforms, brands must have a strong online presence during the festive season. Investing in digital marketing channels such as social media advertising, influencer collaborations, and search engine optimization can significantly enhance brand visibility and engagement. Brands should also ensure that their website and online platforms are optimized for mobile devices, as mobile usage tends to increase during this time. But the SOV game also needs a war chest what with Ecommerce platforms, BFSI etc., also participating, inventory becomes scarce. So, can you play the game a bit differently? Why not move away from the walled gardens and look at the Open internet and create an opportunity with deals that you can afford?

4. Create personalization:

Tailoring marketing campaigns to individual preferences can greatly enhance brand perception and loyalty. Brands should leverage data-driven insights to create personalized experiences for their customers. By understanding their target audience’s demographics, interests, and purchase history, brands can deliver targeted messaging and offers that resonate with consumers on a personal level. And if you are already at this digital maturity, have you explored programmatic leveraging your first party data? Can your agency get you cool inventory deals that you can participate in?

5. Take an omni-channel approach:

The festive season sees an influx of shoppers both online and offline. Brands should adopt an omni-channel approach to reach consumers through various touchpoints. This can include a combination of traditional advertising, social media marketing, influencer partnerships, experiential events, and collaborations with local retailers. By being present across multiple channels, brands can maximize their reach and engage with consumers wherever they are. Again, do you have the ability to marry online and offline campaign push and measure the metrics really well?  

The festive season this year is going to be big, especially with consumer sentiments being positive, leading to good sales for most brands. By understanding these key factors and aligning your strategies accordingly, you can make a difference to your brand by making the most out of their marketing budget and create a lasting impact on their target audience.

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Here are a few things that I have found as challenges for clients – Founders and marketing folks alike:

1. Challenges in setting clear goals

Before embarking on any marketing campaign, it’s essential you have clear, measurable goals. But, you know there is a clear need to build brand awareness, while the business puts in pressure to show numbers that are achievable through more performance driving campaigns. And this is thrust on you due to a funding milestone to reached. Then what do you prioritise on? Awareness, leads, or drive sales?

Unfortunately, there is no clear answer here. One has to go with the other and that is the nature of the beast. But, what you can do is prioritise spends in media in a time-bound fashion. Rely on your agency to give the right campaign schedule where they will think for you on what could be the right approach. Once you get a clear understanding of what can be achieved, you can execute your strategy accordingly.

2. Investing in the Right Channels

With so many different digital marketing channels available, it can be overwhelming to know where to focus your efforts. Some of the most effective channels include search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, and content marketing. Consider your target audience, budget, and goals when deciding which channels to invest in.

Sometimes, there are platforms that you would never have heard of but would be ideal to target, say, 18-24 year gamer kids. This is where insights and data come in handy and some common sense also plays a role.

3. Developing a Data-Driven Approach

Data is a valuable tool for optimizing your digital marketing strategy. Regularly analyzing metrics such as website traffic, conversions, and customer behavior can help you make informed decisions about where to allocate your resources. This data can also provide insights into what’s working and what’s not, allowing you to make tweaks and optimizations for better results. The question to ask is do you do this regularly, religiously and rigorously?

4. The Power of Personalization

In the new world, ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL. Personalization is one of the most effective ways to engage with customers and drive growth. By tailoring your marketing messages and offers to individual customers based on their interests and behavior, you can build stronger relationships and drive conversions. Whether it’s through email marketing, website content, or social media, personalization should be a key component of your digital marketing strategy.

No matter what, it’s essential to stay on top of the latest digital marketing trends and continuously evaluate and optimize your strategy for the best results. If you are bogged by internal politics, unnecessary metrics etc., rely on an agency that questions, challenges and brings perspective.

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Of crumbling cookies and worried advertisers Sometime around May 2019, Google announced a crackdown on third-party cookies as part of its push for better transparency and giving greater control to a user. By 2022, it said it would withdraw support to third-party cookies.

Third-party cookies allow advertisers to follow users whenever they are online, understand customer behaviours online and their preferences. These cookies also help create user profiles, detailing sites visited during your normal online journey while browsing. Advertisers got key insights into a user’s interests and preferences. These allowed advertisers to target customers with their advertising efficiently. Smart consumers who are internet savvy had already caught on to this and started using ad blockers. The move by Google to downplay these cookies through Chrome has created the possibility for consumers to be “untagged” further. And with Chrome’s over 65% market share, this will create a dent for advertisers.

While from a privacy point of view, this might be good for someone browsing online, advertisers will get affected on their media front and they will need to secure alternatives to still target their consumers and sell their wares.

So, what does this mean exactly for an advertiser?

The trend toward cookie-less web impacts publishers and third-party ad-tech platforms the most. Publishers have been seeing ad budgets being shifted from their owned and operated properties to the big platforms. Many publishers are now offering subscriptions for users to make up for it.

The Economist, New York Times etc., seem to be doing decently.

For advertisers, there is no specific and measured solution currently for alternative ways of approaching the consumer online with your ads. But some “not so bad” alternatives are available.

First-party data becomes superior in your marketing armoury

Be it a Google, Facebook or an Amazon, your first-party data will be critical to be used in these platforms to target at scale. Retargeting will never go from these platforms as these walled gardens stand to gain from this situation. Keep using this but ensure that your first-party data is robust enough.

Going around these walled gardens

Unilever is going all guns blazing in creating the Unilever Trusted Publishers network. The idea behind this was to ensure that Unilever’s targeting is done in a better and controlled way. Eliminating bot views, ad frauds and ensuring brand safety while offering a better experience to the consumer. This network is filled with global, regional and local online publishers and platforms. This could be another way to approach publishers directly and create partnerships that are subservient to the advertiser barring the higher costs.

Explore new publisher alliances

In the UK, a new alliance has been formed called Ozone – the project between the Guardian, The Telegraph, News UK and Reach (mostly news publishers). This alliance has been created to compete better with Google and Facebook that today is in some ways a duopoly. This alliance also promises to deliver a brand-safe, fraud-free environment for advertisers. This could be the future for publishers across the world and exploring these for your advertising would be worth it.

Although all this sounds a bit painful, the short term will see advertisers lose a very decent method to target consumers like they are doing at present. But in the long run, there will be more robust solutions that will help personalize communication to the consumer, which should be the ultimate goal in your advertising efforts. Till then, keep your ears to the ground.

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