Marketers embrace CTV, Retail Media as emerging mediums of advertising

As marketers look beyond the traditional formats of advertising, connected TV (CTV) and retail media are emerging as new mediums to reach consumers. As per the EY-FICCI report, India has around 20-25 million CTV households. According to an ET report, in FY23 retail media spend for Amazon and Flipkart together was at Rs 30,000 crore.

In a recent panel discussion ‘New frontiers: Utilising retail media and C-TV to unlock growth’ as part of afaqs! Marketers Excellence Conference, panellists discussed what marketers can do with these platforms and what different platforms have to offer. The session was moderated by Venkata Susmita Biswas, executive editor, afaqs!, and the panel comprised of Esha Arora, SVP- growth and insights, Info Edge India, Krishna Menon, chief operating officer, QYOU Media Inc, Pallavi Barman, chief strategy advisor, HRX, Vaibhav Kapur, senior director - monetisation, Flipkart, Varun Mohan, head of growth and revenue, MiQ India, and Vignesh Narayanan, vice president - business head, media, JioAds.

Advertising on Retail Media

Narayanan said that JioAds aims to go beyond what Google and Meta offer. Its goal is to drive value for brands and the entire ecosystem, including both advertisers and publishers. “We believe we are on the verge of achieving this,” he said.

Since Jio operates across various sectors, including retail, e-commerce, telecommunications, and content, it has a comprehensive view of user behaviour throughout the day. By analysing this behaviour, it can deliver targeted advertising to consumers based on their activities and locations. 

Jio's approach to advertisers is not about securing specific placements on particular websites but about understanding the audience they want to reach and connecting with them at the right moments. 

“Effective advertising involves reaching the right user at the right time with the right content. Jio's extensive ecosystem and partnerships with other publishers allow them to offer a complete omnichannel advertising solution both within and outside their ecosystem,” he said.

Outside of Jio it has collaborated with over 40 publishers, and this number continues to grow. This extensive network enables it to build customised solutions. Because it has a presence across the ecosystem, it can develop tailored solutions for each brand, ensuring they reach their target audience effectively and efficiently.

“We are fully integrated across various platforms, which allows us to offer highly targeted advertising solutions. When a brand wants to reach a specific audience based on demographics and affluence, the focus shifts from the publisher to the audience itself. As long as the ads are delivered in a brand-safe environment, the primary concern is finding the audience in the most cost-effective manner,” he said.

Kapur said that today's marketers seek retail media solutions that address the entire consumer funnel, not just the final sale. While driving conversions remains crucial, Flipkart now offers integrated strategies to help brands connect with consumers at every stage.

For instance, it recently collaborated with Samsung to promote their Galaxy AI phone. It developed a comprehensive 360-degree solution that spanned the entire app experience. Samsung was featured as a sponsor for its second-largest event in May, gaining visibility across the app, from the homepage to product pages to search. Additionally, it extended their reach beyond Flipkart by partnering with Meta and Criteo, leveraging its consumer insights to target audiences elsewhere. This holistic approach resulted in a threefold increase in search volumes during the campaign. 

“When we started, marketers viewed us primarily as a platform for driving conversions through search ads. Helping brands reach consumers in the search funnel was a key focus. However, as consumer behaviour evolves, we're seeing that searches and review checks increasingly happen on e-commerce platforms. This shift means our role has expanded beyond driving conversions to also building awareness on our platform,” he said. 

Explaining how HRX uses retail media, Barman said the apparel brand started with homepage placement to build awareness, moved to the category page to enter the audience’s consideration set, and finally to the product page for conversions. This strategy allowed it to correlate impressions with SKU-level sales, showing direct results from clicks. 

It also mirrored data cards to target potential customers. For instance, someone who previously bought the lowest level of Nike was likely to be its audience. This first-party data, provided by its platform partner Myntra, was crucial. 

“This targeted approach avoided the inefficiencies of broad, untargeted marketing. We reached new customers and cohorts, growing HRX from brand awareness to consideration to conversion, correlating impressions to sales, and continuously improving our performance marketing strategy,” she said.

Retail marketing now constitutes 60-70% of HRX’s budget because it delivers incremental revenue by targeting users who have already shown purchase intent. By focusing on sports buyers and leveraging first-party data, it achieved higher conversion rates and incremental revenue. 

“HRX has been a digital brand for the past seven years, built on an e-commerce platform with valuable brand assets like Hrithik Roshan. With TV viewership declining, we questioned whether the traditional impressions-based marketing was still effective. Given HRX’s digital-first approach and celebrity backing, we decided to focus on precision marketing,” she said.

CTV Advertising

Menon shared that currently marketers allocate budgets for CTV from its digital spends. However, he believes that marketers shouldn't view CTV purely as a digital buy; it needs a mix of both digital and TV broadcast strategies. CTV encompasses various platforms, including OTT and Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST). FAST, for example, follows a format similar to broadcast channels. 

“While we've started using pre-rolls and other digital formats, ad breaks on CTV often still resemble traditional TV ads rather than digital ones. The industry needs to mature in this aspect,” he said. 

Info Edge recently advertised on the IPL for its brand Naukri.com. Arora believes that CTV has become mainstream and has delivered mass reach for it. 

“When you advertise on CTV for a live event like the World Cup or IPL, which brings the entire nation together, the platform becomes secondary. It’s ultimately about the audience you're targeting,” she said. 

Arora said that besides offering access to a higher NCCS audience, CTV has evolved into a part of Info Edge’s sustained advertising strategy. It's not just about creating a big impact during major events like IPL or the World Cup anymore. It aims to maintain a presence on CTV throughout the year through various media. 

“We can target audiences on CTV via YouTube on TV panels, Jio, and other platforms, covering both live and pre-recorded content. Although we still lack the capability to target demographics specifically, we can target based on content, time periods, or events, allowing for sharper targeting and meeting specific audience segments,” she said. 

Mohan emphasised that marketers need to view CTV as TV getting smarter, not just mobile screens getting bigger. The capabilities and targeting options available on mobile cannot be fully replicated on CTV. However, CTV covers gaps that linear TV cannot. 

“Traditional TV measurement relies on devices like the BARC system with around 160,000 devices, while CTV offers deterministic targeting based on content, devices, and OEMs. The market is evolving, and marketers are aligning with CTV, with budgets now coming from both TV and digital allocations. Major events like the IPL and World Cup still attract the majority of spending, but many brands are recognising the value of CTV as a key platform in their overall marketing mix,” he said.

We thank our MEA 2024 sponsors, MiQ, JioAds, and RedFM 93.5.