The Trade Desk appoints Tejinder Gill as General Manager for India Operations

Tejinder will lead the company’s business and growth strategy in India, helping Indian brands and publishers unleash the full potential of the open internet.

Global advertising technology leader, The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD), today announced that it has launched operations in India, as well as the appointment of Tejinder Gill as the company’s India general manager. Tejinder will lead the company’s business and growth strategy in India, helping Indian brands and publishers unleash the full potential of the open internet where Indian consumers are increasingly spending their time.

Rapid digitization of the media industry has provided a paradigm shift in the way Indians consume content online. In particular, content consumption on the open internet has exploded in the last 18 months. According to a study by Global Web Index, Indians, on average, are spending as many as eight hours a day online – 70 percent of which is spent on the open internet, which includes online content, over-the-top (OTT) and music streaming.* Furthermore, the open internet grew at much faster pace than other online channels, even social media. Online content and OTT streaming grew 28 percent and 16 percent respectively, while social media grew by a mere 1 percent.

The Trade Desk aims to help India’s digital marketers capture these fast-growing opportunities. With The Trade Desk’s industry-leading data-driven capabilities, marketers can access a marketplace of premium advertising inventory across a wide range of websites, apps, podcasts and streaming OTT platforms. As an omnichannel platform, The Trade Desk enables marketers to reach relevant audiences across different devices (including computers, mobile devices, tablets and connected TV), and engage with them meaningfully along their entire digital journey.

“Digital is the fastest-growing advertising segment in India and, as a result, marketers in India are seeking more trust and transparency as they shift more campaign budget there,” says Tejinder Gill, general manager, India, The Trade Desk. “While Indian consumers are spending 70 percent of their time on the open internet, almost 80 percent of India’s digital ad revenue still goes to the big tech platforms, which sit outside the open internet. The Trade Desk is here to bring the much needed data-driven decisioning and transparency to India’s digital advertising ecosystem, offering marketers a credible choice where they can tap into the immense opportunities of the open internet.”

Modern marketers and some of the largest media agencies in India are already utilising The Trade Desk’s platform and reaping the benefits of greater agility and flexibility, essential in navigating today’s volatile environment.

“Digital duopoly has existed for quite a while in India. However, we are now seeing brands increase their spends on other platforms on the open internet. Seeing how programmatic advertising has grown multi-fold in the past few years, The Trade Desk has arrived in India at the right time, when opportunities on the open internet are expected to grow much faster than traditional digital channels.” added Divya Karani CEO, Media – South Asia, Dentsu.

“We believe that winning in programmatic media is important in the platform world. Digital marketers are being exposed to the power of data, and they want to embrace it more fully across advertising channels. At Publicis, we invest ahead in training our talent. And so our talent who are certified by The Trade Desk can help marketers drive real-time campaigns with qualified reach and accuracy while transparency is an effort in the same direction.” Tanmay Mohanty, CEO, Publicis Media Services, Publicis Groupe India

With a vision to reshape digital advertising, The Trade Desk is spearheading initiatives to make the industry more trusted and transparent. Last year, The Trade Desk led the charge to build a new and better approach to internet identity. Unified ID 2.0 has been designed from the consumer’s perspective, upgrading privacy and control for the user, while preserving the value of relevant advertising. The solution is helping the industry prepare for the deprecation of third-party cookies in 2021.