Hello everyone
In today's edition of Zapr fireside
we have Aditya Kulkarni
who heads data insights at Zapr Media Labs
Aditya has an interesting background
He's looked at data analytics almost pretty much all through his career
He comes with the background in the media industry having worked with two stalwarts like Star and Zee
He's also spent time on the media agency side having worked with group M
And
for a short stint also worked at Phillips lighting
and
He's been with Zapr for
quite some time now, and the pleasure
is ours to have him here today at Zapr fireside, so let's kick it off
Aditya
First of all, we'd just like to know why a career in data insights?
Okay, i'll, I would like to answer this on a very philosophical level
I think
You know, it is, It is all about a continuous
quest for enquiry, you know, so it's not about, you know
churning out big data, but it's about
asking those bigger questions,
rather than saying that I know all the answers
because the moment you say that I know the answers
the enquiry stops there
Fair enough
Interesting
and on the same philosophical note,
It is said that
you can beat down the data to give you insights
whatever you want
So from that angle, how has the journey been in terms of
really getting to the insights
which the data provides, rather than
the insights you want the data to provide?
So like I said, It is an
it's a continuous enquiry
because, if you, you know, try to create answers,
it will not be relevant to the business
because
for once you may be able to get away with it
but the moment it fails to
justify the ROIs or it doesn't connect with the business,
you'll be exposed
So there is no other way than to
It's a lot of hard work
You have to deep dive
you have to, you have to be honest
so, like I said, It's not about saying that I know the answer
You have to be okay with the ignorance.
Either you say that, you know, this is what I know
and this is what I really don't know
That's
Understood
So as an outsider, a lot of us use
insights
lot of us use data
but,
developing a career in data
seems to be a very
dry role
if I could use that word
because,
from the outsiders,
you seem to be more geeky
looking at Excel all the time.
What gives you that kick?
It's a very
Individual specific thing
so for me, I'm kind of a, I mean, I love the philosophical aspects of data.
You know, it's
The kick I that get from, this kind of role is, you know
You are continuously asking yourself bigger question
You know, why you are doing this?
What is the next thing that you want to step into?
Fair enough
Coming to the media industry,
so, traditionally the industry has
had limited avenues of data
and now all of a sudden It looks like there is
a plethora of
different data streams which are available for the industry
How has the industry been coping up?
It's been difficult for them
If, if we look at over the last 40 years what has happened in India
You know, it started with radio then came DD.
Then we have the decade of 90s when satellite came to India
the next ticket was about proliferation of satellite channels
and this current decade we are seeing that there is a massive
overlap of digital with television
so this was happening at a
content consumption level
You know, they were new formats which were emerging
media consumption moved from just audio to audio visual
from audio-visual to
more exciting and immersive formats like HD
and we are now talking about
VR being the next frontier
so that is the one
major transformation which has happened
On the other hand, if you look at
The way disposable income has increased in India,
post liberalisation, specially last twenty - thirty years,
there was this sudden,
you know, creation of wealth that has happened
Now, as a result
so, these two things were happening simultaneously
so they were newer content formats
which were emerging
and at the same time
the incomes
the income of country
went up
now this has
segmented the consumers
True
to a great extent
You know, even in one family, you could have four different psychographics
So, all this while,
while media industry has been using certain
platforms for measurement
But now, what is really challenging is,
when you have such diverse country
when you have so much fragmented audience and
content format, which is continuously evolving
so this requires
You know,
having
Real access to, you know, what consumers
who, who my consumer is
and what consumers are really thinking about
rather than, you know,
evaluating on a very structured platform
So
I think industry so far has managed but
somewhere, because I have also been on the brand side,
I've seen that agencies are
agencies and both brands are struggling
to, you know, justify the ROIs,
because,
Because it is becoming increasingly difficult to
sharply target your audience.
It's very interesting
so on one extent
we say that
there is a lot of additional data
which is available for the industry
and the other end
we say that it is getting difficult to justify ROI
as well as
do very specific targeting
so where do the two come in?
So ideally data should have actually solved this problem
I think what has also happened is,
because
there has been a particular way
industry has been used to
so somewhere, I think, they are also taking time to,
you know,
move on to the
newer ways of measurement
trying to convince clients.
Because there is one
currency of the market
which continues to exist
and there are emerging sources of data
So,
I think that is where intelligence is required at every level
you need, you know, as a
as an agency person,
you have to be intelligent enough to
you know, differentiate grain from the shaft or
True
the same thing applies to clients also
So from that perspective, what you're saying is that, the industry is still trying to
catch up
catch up
and make sense of the different sources of data
which are available.
But interestingly, what, what has really happened
and the way you described it
is that, data has become decentralized
so instead of one
traditional body controlling all of that data
now it is available in different pockets
So I am guessing, one of the challenges is also, kind of,
understanding which are the right data sets to pick
and therefore what kind of
insights you really draw out of those
So what...
I think which I think will
involve lot of experimentation
so maybe
you know, industry has to keep on experimenting
and try and understand, what is it that is really working for them?
what is it that is not really working for them?
and I think that is how
as a fraternity we will evolve
because
only when you let go of the past is when you see some future
But, have we as an industry, even
identified the right problems we want to solve
for using the data
I think to some extent we do know
what are the problems
we know that, you know, as a matter of fact
that we are not able to really measure.
So, for instance, simple things like,
if I'm doing a multimedia campaign
you know, I have always
looked at each medium in isolation
and looked at metrics
But I have never been able to, you know, it could be for the lack of
any methodology to which
kind of gives me multimedia impact
so
therefore I do not know whether
the investments that I'm making across media,
are they justified or what are the right trade-offs that I need to make?
What are the right choices that I need to make?
I have always been
Doing that based on
each medium's metrics
in isolation
So this is one definite problem
right, so, so the
different media still continues to operate in silos
in silos
and
what data is helping is, the way it is helping
bridging the gap between these different silos
fair enough
from that perspective,
again, this is something which I have seen in my experience
that, when you go and talk about
digital and digital as a platform has a lot of data behind it
but the kind of questions which are asked or
The kind of metrics digital is held up to
seem to be extremely complicated sometimes and difficult to prove
Whereas you get a feeling sometimes that
those metrics were never asked of the traditional media
so to that extent,
is the industry being unfair to digital by
asking too much, which was never asked of the traditional offline media?
Partly true
but I would also say that, you know, you have to, in a way sympathize
with people
because, you need to understand, you know, they have been evaluating things differently
Fair enough
From that perspective,
what, companies like Zapr can actually help provide
to the marketing fraternity,
in terms of helping them drive a better adoption of digital?
So I think it's really exciting
because, you know,
here at Zapr, we have, like, profiled over 60 million audiences
and it's all about the possibilities
that we can do with this data
that we have of 60 million audiences
So I would like to talk about a couple of, you know, real-time case studies
that we are working on.
So, one of the leading broadcaster approached us and said,
you know, they want to
plan their content buying decisions
such that they are able to differentiate
what premium audiences are consuming versus what masses are consuming
and they were saying that it's
with the existing various
data streams, it's difficult to really differentiate between
what an affluent audience is consuming versus what masses are consuming
So what can, Zapr, do for us?
So one of the idea that we thought was
you know, what if we could look at the people who are consuming high-end phones
people who are using hand phones and
who are located in upmarket areas across top 20 - 30 cities
So when we shared this approach with the broadcaster, they really liked this idea
therefore, they saw a possibility of now
doing something differently
You never know, there will be errors, but those errors won't
you know, take you away from truth
They will incrementally
lead you towards the truth.
Right
But this 60 million profiled users you spoke about,
that's a humongous amount of data.
So,
how is this data helping you understand the end consumer better?
So you spoke about the different
segments being available within a family of four in the household
Now, for ages, broadcasters have struggled to, kind of,
differentiate
one GRP on one channel versus another GRP on another channel, so,
with the 60 million profile users,
are you any closer to doing that?
Yeah, so there's another interesting project that we are currently working on
which is around the whole user profiling exercise
what we are trying to do is using this whole 60 million base that we have
we are trying to further segment and
even create finer segments which will sharply differentiate themselves
So there are quite a few interesting
projects that we have worked upon
One was for Maharashtra
what we actually did was,
we actually,
differentiated, we created different segments of the
social cultural regions
and looked at how, let's say a socio-cultural region of Vidarbha
behaves differently than,
than Bombay or a socio-cultural region of Marathwada
consumes content differently than South of Maharashtra.
That is one thing.
The other thing that we are doing is, basically,
using various filters such as whether the individual is
is a consumer of HD or SD
What kind of phone does he own?
Does, is he a owner of high-end phone
or is he a owner of medium-end phone?
so using these kind of filters and
creating these newer segments
we have been able to segment audiences.
I'll profile them in a
In a much attractive manner
Understood
So, we've been talking about lot of work, which is being done for broadcasters
but if you look at the entire value chain
of, the where it starts, right from content creators
to broadcasters, to the media agencies in the middle
and brands and then the end consumers,
where is is that there is a maximum urgency of
utilizing this massive pool of data, which is available?
I think in terms of urgency,
I think the onus currently is
definitely lot on broadcasters
because ultimately they are the content creators
if they
accurately reflect the
attitudes and mindset of larger India,
only then they can create right content which will appeal to the correct segment
only then agencies or
brands can
cctually connect with those set of audiences.
So it, it is like you said, you know, it's, it's an entire value chain
but at the same time, the onus lies tremendously with the,
with the broadcasters to
correctly capture the attitudes of
audiences
Understood
now, across, if you look at this value chain, the media agency plays a critical role
in bridging the gap between
content creators and broadcasters,
and the brands and the consumers on the other side and
right in the middle
How is their role changing given that there is so much of additional information which is available?
So, yes their role is becoming challenging, but I think
media agencies are also trying to become a strategic partner in client's
planning process
So, rather than just facilitating the inventory exchange, media agencies are now
evaluating the various data sources which are available
how do we
understand the psychographics of my brand's TG?
And, you know, not just evaluate media,
but also, how do you become a part of the entire business planning process itself?
So become more strategic partner than just facilitating the video inventory exchange
Understood
And from that perspective, how are the brands
really changing the way they interact with their media agencies
and with broadcasters in general?
So, historically, what used to happen was,
brands would
First have their business planning process done.
They will have their annual targets for their
portfolio of brands and then
basis the targets they used to then involve agencies.
But currently what is happening is, right at the business planning process itself,
they are involving agencies which
and they're involving both media as well as creative agencies to
actually plan the next financial year which
current, which currently captures the learnings for last year and what is it that we want to do
So, at that stage itself, agencies are involved in the
brainstorming process of how do we do business plans
which, which are in sync with the consumer
Understood
Seems like the industry is in a fairly exciting phase right now
Coming back to what you do here at Zapr,
I'm guessing there is a lot of challenges you face in terms of
getting data
understanding what the right data is
So just wanted to get your perspective on what are the bigger challenges you face,
in terms of getting these insights to our customers?
Sure
So one, obviously the scale and the velocity with which we operate is immense.
I don't think so anybody in India has ever dealt with such large scale and
this velocity
So therefore it demands having
consistent and reliable data
Now, in order to do that we have to, you know, look at our methodology
see how we are currently evaluating
We spent a lot of time in this particular field and
apart from having spent time so much time in the industry,
but if you look at
young people who are just coming out of college,
thinking of developing a career in data insights,
what would you advise them?
What are the key skills which are required in this field for a person to succeed?
So, like we have been discussing that, you know, the field is evolving
and there are multiple ways to be part of this field.
You know, you could be a statistics expert, you could be a
data analyst who's, who comes from a computer science background
Or you could
have hands-on experience on working on certain tools
As you go along, you can pick the other skills
but at, but at the same time, like I said, you know, one has to have a
boundless energy and
this continuous, continuous quest for
knowing the unknown
or trying to know the unknown
I like the way you put it
So, very interesting
field indeed
But, in terms of the market side of it,
how is that changing?
So are customers expecting more of insight as a service or
are they looking at just pure data, and they want to draw insights on their own?
Or is it more consulting?
I think, at this stage, they would,
you know, till the time,
till the time they are able to understand these various streams of data,
I think for now they would want to have
clear actionable insights that can be derived out of the data
Going forward, you know, as
you know, as the field expands, they may have in-house setups which will
further look at data
Got it
So from that perspective, what you're saying is that, the skill set required is not just about
handling large data streams
But it is also about drawing, drawing the right insights
and then being able to communicate the right insights
which match the business objectives for the client
for the client, yeah
Very interesting
and if you look forward into the future,
what are the key priorities for you as leader of the data insights at Zapr?
In terms of, what are we trying to solve for, what are the new things you're working on?
So one thing that we definitely have to do on an urgent basis
is focus a lot on automation
So there are a lot of tasks that we are doing which are repetitive
and which
do consume a lot of human hours
So we have to make sure that we first automate these
Secondly, you know,
There's lot of
predictive analytics which can be done
There is an interesting project that we are working on with data science team
for predicting the
mobile ad inventory
so that as a company we are able to monetize our revenues better
so
immediately, I think two things will be priority
one will be
automation and the second will be working on
interesting analytics projects
Got it
So when you say automation, it is more about
leveraging the database you already have
to generate more insights
so it is
the data learning by itself and
helping you create more data on top of it
interesting
and how has the journey been so far?
it has been hell of a ride
Because,
so personally I had been on all the sides
been on the broadcaster brand as well as
agency, and I had like personally dealt with these problems
So what I tried to do is, you know,
first try to relate with the, with the client with whom we are working
Understand the problems that they are going through
and try, try to develop solutions
as per their needs
So like we have been discussing that, you know, mediums have been
functioning in silos, and it has always been a difficult
thing for brands to actually measure the multimedia impact of their activities
Because it had
an immediate impact on the way they planned their budgets.
So one thing that we are trying to do at Zapr is
also try and include radio as well as cinema in our
ecosystem
and over a period of time, maybe OTT
because that will then really help a brand
to strategically allocate
Their budgets
and make those right choices in terms of how much do I really need to spend on TV versus digital versus cinema?
So with this we'll be able to drive integrated
marketing approach across all these media, and that's what you mean to say?
So, all this while, agencies and brands have been, you know, using words like
integrated strategic planning
I think if we are able to do this, this will be the real integrated strategic planning
Fair enough. Great.
Thank you Aditya, for a very interesting and insightful discussion
on how data is changing the media industry
I think it's still a fair bit of time till the contours of the industry develop
And we'll wait to see how they do develop, but thanks a lot for your perspective
It's been, it's been great talking to you
and thank you all for watching
We'll bring you further conversations on Zapr Fireside
Where we bring in thought leaders in the industry and talk to them about
top of mind problems for the marketers in the country
Thank you once again
For more infomation >> Những bài tập giảm cân hiệu quả tại nhà đơn giản với tạ - Duration: 11:04. 
For more infomation >> Lâu Đài Tình Ái - Phiên Bản Sáo Trúc | Hoàng Nam Flute - Duration: 6:25. 
For more infomation >> [한국어cc] 去韓國狗農場做動物義工 개농장 봉사활동 하루 ft.youumba｜Ling Cheng - Duration: 8:41. 
For more infomation >> [TOOZI] 💰HOW TO MAKE PVA GLUE - SAVING YOUR POCKET! - Duration: 5:18. 
For more infomation >> ALANYA YA YOLCULUK 1 BÖLÜM 2018 - Duration: 2:17. 
For more infomation >> TRÒ CHƠI HUYỀN BÍ ✔Phim Ma Hay Nhất 2018 [ Phim Thuyết Minh HD] - Duration: 1:34:13. 
For more infomation >> SuPer-Uutiset 25 | SuPer-liitto - Duration: 2:25. 
For more infomation >> YÊU NHẦM CHÀNG ĐẠI GIA ✔Phim Chiếu Rạp 2018 Mới Nhất - Official Trailer (HD) - Duration: 16:07. 
For more infomation >> Silk Route Tour | Silk Route Tour Package | Sillery Gaon - Duration: 6:30. 
For more infomation >> Granetalsperre - Harz aus Leidenschaft - Duration: 3:00. 
For more infomation >> Liên Quân - Fennik Cáo Siêu Thanh kéo rank cao thủ part 1 - Duration: 10:41. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét