The Week India – August 04, 2019

62 THE WEEK • AUGUST 4, 2019

INTERVIEW

P

rasanth Kumar, who recently

took charge as South Asia CEO of

GroupM, the world’s largest adver-

tising media company, is quite excited

about the Indian market. The challenges

the economy faces, he says, are an op-

portunity to do better. Excerpts from an

interview:

How have the popularity of data-ena-

bled smartphones and the availability

of cheap data changed advertising?

We are a country which moved on to mo-

biles faster than any other country. That

is giving multiple opportunities and op-

tions for advertising, either in the content

angle or in the opportunities to interact

with people. It also gives an opportunity

to analyse consumer reactions in a better

manner. That has helped the advertising

fraternity in deciding what to and how to

communicate with the consumer. The

insights on consumer behaviour go into

the creation of the content itself. Earlier

we used to do researches to get some

kind of an understanding. Now it is a lot

easier.

The over-the-top platforms that

have been getting popular among an

important section of consumers have

so far been immune to advertising.

What opportunity do advertisers have

in this market?

These platforms help us understand

and target the consumer better. Then

there are various opportunities in the

content itself. Advertisers can use

these platforms to learn and do better.

Whether it is YouTube, Facebook or

Hotstar, each one of these platforms

has its own characteristics. And adver-

tisers can plan accordingly.

Availability of user data has changed

the way advertisers target consum-

ers. Now with data protection laws

getting stronger, will not that be a

little difficult?

Data protection, in principle, is a good

thing. But it is only defining the rules

of the game. There are mechanisms to

play. It is not a restriction; it allows you to

play within the rules. This is happening

around the world and there will be a new

normal. And it will lead to inventing the

right model.

There is a slowdown in the Indian

economy and many of the big adver-

tisers are affected by it.

Globally when you look at the overall

market, India is one of the top 10. The

growth India is having even in challenging

times is still one of the highest. We

have a population of 1.3 billion people,

which is a great bank of consumers. Our

economy has got multiple variables.

There are new categories coming into it.

Multiple tech-based categories. They are

all adding to the ecosystem. There is a

new normal getting set up. There are, of

course, challenges. But these challenges

are an opportunity for this large country

to do better. Conventional mechanism

of marketing is getting redesigned by

the channels within the chain of the

overall operating system. Those bring in

a lot of challenges and a lot of options.

We are at a stage where our progress

is consistently progressive. We are

confident that this potential will get

utilised. There might be a slowdown, but

the fundamentals continue to be strong.

That is what you need to bank on.

Prasanth Kumar

CEO, GroupM South Asia

Data protection laws are no

restriction for advertisers

BY MAIJO ABRAHAM

VIPIN DAS P.