 "Advertisers have to invest where people are, not where they were: Mark D'Arcy")
In four months, four global executives of Facebook - COO Cheryl Sandberg, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, retail and e-commerce head Nicholas Franchet, and now, chief creative officer Mark D'Arcy - visited India. India is Facebook's second largest market after the US. It is also the social media major's fastest growing market. Mark D'Arcy, who has worked with ad agency networks such as WPP's Y&R and media groups such as Time Warner earlier, is on a three-day visit to the country. D'Arcy speaks to Viveat Susan Pinto on the challenges and opportunities in India for Facebook. Excerpts:
What will you tell advertisers and agency heads when you meet them?
The advertising community in India is incredibly developed and our philosophy as a company is that we have this amazing platform that we've built in the last decade. A lot of the conversations around us is centred around technology. When we look at creativity in advertising and marketing and connecting brands and companies to people, we believe Facebook can play an important role here. Our job is to help the creative community leverage our platform. And that is what I am here for.
Yes, we have one in the UK and another in the AMEA (Asia, Middle East and Africa) region. A client council in India would effectively be the third one we are setting up and demonstrates the importance we are giving India. Moreover, the client council is also about the importance we are giving to the business community here. A lot of what we do involves sitting down and listening to what our partners (advertisers) are telling us. The client council came out of this. We first started it (client council) three years ago (globally), where the idea was to get some of our biggest and most important partners into a room and hear first-hand how we could build a better company, be more responsive, focus on measurement and on various aspects of the business. This sharing of insights has been very valuable and has helped us address client problems in far better way. From an India point of view, we will not only be talking to multinational companies, but also home-grown firms, those who have a presence here and those who are spreading their wings abroad. Facebook is a wonderful bridge to connect companies within India to the world and vice versa and the client council is all about getting ideas that can make it happen.
While digital advertising is slated to grow in India, advertisers, and notably, ad agencies, here tend to use Youtube rather than Facebook to launch their digital campaigns. How are you looking to change that?
Like in any other medium, there is a choice. So it is on digital, where people select the best platform on which they want to tell their brand stories. Youtube is an amazing platform. But what we are seeing is that a lot of native uploading of videos on Facebook is growing. The result is that engagement levels are also growing, which helps in communicating the brand story.
It is easy to pitch one against the other, but you have to look at scale. Where are consumers going? And what is the best investment I can make, as a marketer in terms of time, energy and money. Any platform takes time to orient an organisation around. In an environment of choice, you need to pick your bet with the platform that can give you the best return for your time and money. When it comes to Facebook and video or digital advertising, it is a pretty good metric in terms of time and energy spent. It is not just about social investment, but very much about media and advertising investment. Just think about it: What you have on Facebook is a large scale, deeply engaged audience that you can connect with to drive your brand message.
Despite the growing importance of digital in India, advertisers don't seem to be allocating enough ad budgets to the medium. Your views on this.
As humans, we traditionally tend to have a lot of habits that we cling to. When there is a shift in the way people are spending their time or the way in which they are finding or discovering things, it is difficult as an enterprise to make the transition. You are very often not as fast as lay people are in making the switch. But the entities who do it, reap the rewards. Advertisers in India will have to make that transition at some stage if they want to reap the rewards of communicating through a fast and efficient medium such as digital. I am not saying that you should be running away from television or magazine or print advertising. I am simply saying that you have to invest where people are, not where they were or where you wish they were. If digital media is drawing eyeballs, advertisers will have to recognise and invest in the medium appropriately.
This is your first trip to India. Will you come visiting more often since one trip will not be sufficient to change advertiser habits?
I hope to make more trips here and conduct more sessions with advertisers. At the Cannes (Advertising Festival) this year, we were running these short three-day sessions where the emphasis was on generating ideas that could quickly be rolled out into ad campaigns. They were quite successful. I hope to engage with advertisers and agency heads here in a similar manner.
What will you tell advertisers and agency heads when you meet them?
The advertising community in India is incredibly developed and our philosophy as a company is that we have this amazing platform that we've built in the last decade. A lot of the conversations around us is centred around technology. When we look at creativity in advertising and marketing and connecting brands and companies to people, we believe Facebook can play an important role here. Our job is to help the creative community leverage our platform. And that is what I am here for.
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Tell us something about the client council that you are setting up here. India is among the few key markets where you are launching one. What is it all about?
Yes, we have one in the UK and another in the AMEA (Asia, Middle East and Africa) region. A client council in India would effectively be the third one we are setting up and demonstrates the importance we are giving India. Moreover, the client council is also about the importance we are giving to the business community here. A lot of what we do involves sitting down and listening to what our partners (advertisers) are telling us. The client council came out of this. We first started it (client council) three years ago (globally), where the idea was to get some of our biggest and most important partners into a room and hear first-hand how we could build a better company, be more responsive, focus on measurement and on various aspects of the business. This sharing of insights has been very valuable and has helped us address client problems in far better way. From an India point of view, we will not only be talking to multinational companies, but also home-grown firms, those who have a presence here and those who are spreading their wings abroad. Facebook is a wonderful bridge to connect companies within India to the world and vice versa and the client council is all about getting ideas that can make it happen.
While digital advertising is slated to grow in India, advertisers, and notably, ad agencies, here tend to use Youtube rather than Facebook to launch their digital campaigns. How are you looking to change that?
Like in any other medium, there is a choice. So it is on digital, where people select the best platform on which they want to tell their brand stories. Youtube is an amazing platform. But what we are seeing is that a lot of native uploading of videos on Facebook is growing. The result is that engagement levels are also growing, which helps in communicating the brand story.
It is easy to pitch one against the other, but you have to look at scale. Where are consumers going? And what is the best investment I can make, as a marketer in terms of time, energy and money. Any platform takes time to orient an organisation around. In an environment of choice, you need to pick your bet with the platform that can give you the best return for your time and money. When it comes to Facebook and video or digital advertising, it is a pretty good metric in terms of time and energy spent. It is not just about social investment, but very much about media and advertising investment. Just think about it: What you have on Facebook is a large scale, deeply engaged audience that you can connect with to drive your brand message.
Despite the growing importance of digital in India, advertisers don't seem to be allocating enough ad budgets to the medium. Your views on this.
As humans, we traditionally tend to have a lot of habits that we cling to. When there is a shift in the way people are spending their time or the way in which they are finding or discovering things, it is difficult as an enterprise to make the transition. You are very often not as fast as lay people are in making the switch. But the entities who do it, reap the rewards. Advertisers in India will have to make that transition at some stage if they want to reap the rewards of communicating through a fast and efficient medium such as digital. I am not saying that you should be running away from television or magazine or print advertising. I am simply saying that you have to invest where people are, not where they were or where you wish they were. If digital media is drawing eyeballs, advertisers will have to recognise and invest in the medium appropriately.
This is your first trip to India. Will you come visiting more often since one trip will not be sufficient to change advertiser habits?
I hope to make more trips here and conduct more sessions with advertisers. At the Cannes (Advertising Festival) this year, we were running these short three-day sessions where the emphasis was on generating ideas that could quickly be rolled out into ad campaigns. They were quite successful. I hope to engage with advertisers and agency heads here in a similar manner.