In the world today, we use many devices. They are ubiquitous and serve a multitude of needs. The question is how device-agnostic are we as an audience or as a society? The issue came up for discussion at Goafest 2023 at the session titled “Future of connected devices and cross channel measurement”, moderated by Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor, India Today Television, who kicked off proceedings by asking if attention span today is a big issue.
The session was in the backdrop of how the future of connected devices will be. Clearly, seamless integration of various smart devices facilitates the process of not just effortless communication but also data sharing between them. Of course, cross-channel measurement is a lot more sophisticated today and that helps in getting comprehensive insights across multiple platforms and touchpoints, allowing marketers to draw up sharper strategies.
Geet Lulla, VP (Sales) & Head – Asia Pacific, Comscore said measurement is now moving from a monolithic approach to one that is fragmented. “It needs to be reported frequently since data, by itself, is meaningless without a proper context,” he explained. The discussion saw emphasis on the concept of incremental reach and Pankaj Krishna, Founder and CEO, Chrome DM outlined three components – browsers (223 million), mobile devices (619 million) and connected TVs at 22.1 million. “The total number of internet users stands at 837 million and just in terms of incremental reach, Aaj Tak is the leader. It is important to understand that digital is increasing but cable and satellite is not declining.”
With opportunities come challenges and one of them relates to social measurement. “The future will be about first party data. For advertisers, this is critical from the point of view of reputation management,” said Lulla. Meanwhile, Salil Kumar, CEO, India Today Group Digital brought up the issue of monetisation of data. “Feeds are different and data volumes are higher. Just look at the number of concurrencies on YouTube.”
A big takeaway from the session on the role of collaboration, which Lulla said was not difficult but just called for a certain mindset. In the time to come, like how one tracks the Sensex live, advertisers will be able to place their commercial in real time in line what news is trending.