Vishal Chinchankar, CEO, Madison Digital and Madison Media Ultra is a veteran in the Digital space. He has been instrumental in shaping the digital arm of Madison Digital since his appointment at Madison Media in 2017. In addition, Vishal has also been giving responsibility to drive a few integrated mandates underMadison Media Ultra, the unit that handles Marico, Atomberg, amongst other businesses. Vishal will continue to be a part of the agency’s Exco and strengthen the agency’s value proposition under his leadership.
Under the leadership of Vishal Madison Digital, has grown 10x in terms of billing in the last 3 years, to become a 150 employee strong outfit with capabilities in Branding, Performance & Creative solutions. Madison Digital has built its proprietary cloud marketing and automation tools; also is one of the few agencies with its own DMP & Tech solutions.
Vishal Chinchankar – CEO Madison Digital and Madison Media Ultrain conversation with Medianews4U talks about his role, the growth of digital in the pandemic, and the way forward…
Now as CEO what would be your responsibilities?
I will be double handling, along with my existing role of heading the digital business across all units of Madison, with an additional role to head integrated media solutions which include traditional & digital media of the Madison Ultra unit. Madison Ultra manages the AOR of Marico &Atomberg amongst other clients.
There have been ups and downs in the Digital space, now there is a surge, what have been the challenges, and what will be the new challenges in this business?
It’s only been up & up in the digital space and this surge is only a boon to the industry. Today, digital is rapidly changing with new technologies & platforms. However, we are quite agile and adaptable to these changes. Many brands are accepting the change, this is not a worry. The biggest challenge in the industry is the talent crunch. My sense is, this will remain in the months to come. It may be okay to say that “It’s a talent war to hire & retain right skillsets.”
The past year was a difficult phase for all, now as CEO how are you seeing 2021?
The 2020 year has not been bad. We have seen good growth in Digital, while Television came back to normal by 3rd quarter. Print & Outdoor also grew by then. The larger impact was seen in Activation & Cinema. In my mind, advertising will remain a drip to clients’ business and for some categories, advertising will be oxygen. We don’t see any southward movement. There possibly could be a blip with the 2nd wave of the pandemic, but 2021 will see better growth over the last two years.
Are you seeing a shift in how brands are now looking at digital as the front runner when it comes to delivering their brand communication? Are you seeing AI, Blockchain taking prominence in the new normal?
Look, from a funnel marketing perspective, digital plays a role across all top, mid, and bottom of the funnel. Television will remain the lead medium for brand communications. Having said that, digital has only been increasing its share on top of the funnel with Google, FB & OTT’s gaining share. AI is not new and it’s been part of the ecosystem for quite a while and it will grow. While Blockchain is a well-accepted norm in other markets, however in India, it will need some time to take prominence.
What has been the performance of the Digital Platforms in the last quarter of 2020 and the beginning of the financial year in 2021?
Not just the giants like Google and FB, but also the torso-to-tail has seen a growth in 2020. While some categories like travel and their related categories went muted, other categories like eCommerce, Edu tech, Food tech, Fintech, FMCG, Gaming, Health Care, etc. did witness high boosting overall growth and we expect the same trajectory in 2021.
More and more brands are adapting to Digital also exploring storytelling beyond normal headlines, how are you seeing this phenomenon in the new normal?
This will continue to grow. Content Marketing, Influencer, short-form platforms have seen high returns when it comes to engagement with brands. Clearly, this addresses the middle funnel and plays a huge role in building brand stories.
Digital is still not measured, how do brands evaluate and measure their performance?
I wouldn’t say digital is not measured. Every brand today has clear hard KPI’s (impression, views & clicks) & soft KPI’s (mind measures, sales lift, etc.) There are enough and more 3rd party tools available to measure hard and soft KPI’s. What’s currently missing is a common currency or metric across all mediums. In the absence of this, we at Madison build our own proprietary tool on probabilistic modeling to get the right measures.
