Vertoz is an ad-tech company eager to help businesses emerge swiftly and smartly in the digital world. Right from building websites to running successful ad campaigns- Vertoz helps the clients with everything and to make the whole process hassle-free, Vertoz has developed all the possible services in-house.
In an interview with Medianews4u, Hiren Shah spoke about the journey of the brand so far, the ad tech industry in India, and more.
Excerpts:
Can you elaborate on your journey by far?
Vertoz was founded by Me and Ashish in 2012. We quickly expanded offices worldwide keeping its Indian headquarter in Mumbai & global headquarter in New York. In 2013 we had our launch of display and mobile advertising solutions. Almost all services offered under Vertoz were intended to offer end to end solutions to advertisers and publishers. This led us to start the development of Ingenious Plex in 2014. Soon we expanded to London and Dubai in 2015 with the growth of Vertoz as the core motive.
2017 was a very crucial year as we went from a private limited to a public limited. Vertoz was listed at NSE emerge and became the first publicly listed ad-tech company. In 2020 we migrated to the NSE Mainboard. These are the milestones but if you ask me this is just the tip of the iceberg. Lots of effort and sleepless nights have been behind this as the founding structure for each of these milestones. Vertoz is a result of meticulous planning and dynamic execution of plans which have led it to be where it is. Change and growth for Vertoz is really a motivation that keeps me going and taking on new challenges daily.
Where is Ad tech in India headed towards? And the challenges faced by the ad tech industry in India?
India is an incredibly large market for advertising and marketing. With over a billion people, it has the potential to be one of the most powerful markets in the world. One of the biggest challenges that Indian Adtech companies face are increasing Infra-costs, acquisition costs, proper attribution measurement, cookie-less advertising but I would like to say that the industry is evolving. But these speed breakers are something that is expected on the MADtech journey and solutions to some of these problems have already been found and some are being worked upon as we speak about this.
Can you talk about Vertoz’s global footprints and successful clientele with the brands like Amazon, Godrej, Mahindra, Hyatt, and case studies with Zomato, Ola, etc?
Vertoz has always been a global brand. We have had multiple successful campaigns with international brands. I cannot talk about one specific ad campaign. Working with international clients has always been a unique experience every time. The exchange of information provides us insights that have helped us grow as a brand.
Our Ad campaigns with Ola make for a really good case as it demonstrates how location-based targeting has let us achieve multiple goals within a single campaign.
These allow for hyperlocal targeting to reach commuters travelling to a certain place, commuters having a relatively higher-spending account, based on their gender, and a customer who travels to a specific location. This helps in generating great CTR within a limited time.
Can you highlight the current situation and forecast for the future of promising areas in Digital Marketing, advertising space that will impact people at the bottom of the pyramid?
Digital marketing is a very vast term if you consider it. It is ever-expanding and there are immense possibilities that make it a multifaceted growth opportunity through digital marketing. If we talk about the people at the bottom of the pyramid then just consider that this pyramid is something like a treadmill, people at the bottom keep changing and upgrading to some higher tier after acquiring the required skills. Digital marketing is a stepping stone for multiple individuals starting in this industry.
What are the key technologies that are going to drive the ad tech growth in the next 5 years?
The technologies of advertisements in the future are a complicated one to predict. We have seen many changes and innovations over the years and will probably see an even bigger variety in the future. One thing that won’t change is the human desire for attention, which advertisers are always trying to use against us.
Many new advertisement technologies are available. These technologies allow for a better user experience and can provide higher conversions for advertisers. Some of these new technologies including AI and ML have opened new opportunities. IoT consists of everyday objects that are connected and can collect data from the internet allowing them to interact with one another. There are many benefits of IoT and as advertisers, we are looking at opportunities to grow further in them. My personal prediction would also be that Audio (Podcasts), Video (OTT) will grow exponentially.
Throw some light on the MAdTech business in India and its global reframing
India doesn’t need a radical change to succeed. Rather, it needs a few small adjustments that will provide significant benefits. These changes will improve the quality of MAdTech business across the nation, as well as enhance the MADTech Business in general. The industry itself is booming and is largely driven by the country’s massive population size, socio-economic growth, and large market. Also, the MADTech business is evolving wherein it is merging with older conventional ways of advertisement which are being changed into multidimensional advertisements providing depth and engagement to the audience they are targeting. Although India has volumes the technology implementation is still behind.
Can you talk about your native advertising solutions and any case studies to recall?
Our Ingenious Plex system allows for a seamless way to host your Native Ads. Native ads have been something that we think is still the only place that allows for an advertising experience that blends well with the content. As before I would not like to mention any brand in specific. We do have seen a good CTR on native ads and I think there is a place for experimenting with creative and quirky ads.
Your focus for 2022?
2022 is a year somewhere we will dynamically focus on creating seamless services for our clients. Also, as technology progresses and data privacy puts more restrictions on us, we will have to work together with it rather than hold against it. In some ways it is going to be challenging but also that will help up offer unique solutions. Might probably be a great year after the pandemic ends, we see huge growth potential in the upcoming year
