RevX recently was a part of ad:tech New Delhi with Affle as the diamond sponsor. ad:tech New Delhi 2024 was a roaring success and we were thrilled to be there. It was wonderful connecting with so many marketers and discussing app marketing! Read on to find out more about ad:tech and RevX’s presence at the event!
What is Ad:tech?
Ad:tech is an annual event that brings together the most influential and brightest agencies, brands, publishers, and technology providers to discuss business and determine the future of marketing. They are a common point where marketing, technology, and media communities unite to exchange ideas, trends, insights, and trending technology carving the industry. They offer a platform for over 120 speakers who are leaders in the industry to offer their insights, learnings, and unique perspectives.
Conference at Ad:tech:
Ad:tech 2024 conference agenda comprised four different tracks which included:
- TRACK 01: Future-Tech
- TRACK 02: Commerce Everywhere
- TRACK 03: Identity, Addressability, & Consumer Experience
- TRACK 04: Accelerated & Sustainable Growth
Commerce Everywhere: Retail Media & Social Media — are these the new performance drivers?
On the second day of the conference, the insightful discussion on the topic “Retail Media & Social Media — are these the new performance drivers?” was carried out by our CEO, Martje Abeldt along with Apoorva Maheshwari, the CMO at Bestseller, Mahip Dwivedi, the VP of Marketing & Growth at Pepperfry, and moderator Dr. Kushal Sanghvi, an independent consultant. This brought in insightful and diverse perspectives on the topic. They discussed whether Social & Retail are more effective than search and affiliates in driving growth, what new improvements these channels bring, and what optimization techniques brands should use.
Our key takeaways:
Some of the points highlighted during this session are that the retail media and social media platforms are not just utilized as performance drivers but also serve the purpose of brand building and brand awareness while targeting the desired audience.
“as programmatic advertisers, we act as an enabler that facilitates the effective visibility of brands to the target consumers.” — Martje Abeldt, CEO at RevX
Moreover, it was also mentioned that the scale of this is very significant and is built all around first-party data. The ongoing challenge in terms of attaining the first-party data and being able to use it at different levels of the funnel a brand wants has been to be able to leverage the first-party data for the brands.
First-Party Data or 1P Data and Its Importance:
When 1P data (First-Party Data) privacy and compliance are of utmost importance, it is hard to build it mindfully with privacy in place and make sure that brands still get to reach the relevant consumers. When looking into reaching high-intent consumers, relevancy plays a huge role and technology helps in building this. Moreover, social media is very powerful in providing insights to determine what a consumer likes, does, and is looking for. Online retail is known to have these insights as well, as what the consumer likes and has on their wishlist. An example of an online retail platform built with a very powerful advertising ecosystem is Amazon. This can go beyond that, especially for platforms that are not as large as Amazon.
Some publications talk about collaborations and alliances in the industry that are formed to leverage the 1P data. This ultimately connects to offering brands to drive performance along with branding.
“Along with utilizing customer data to drive performance and sales, it also acts as a bridge between the brand and the consumer to receive insightful consumer feedback.” — Apporva Maheshwari, CMO at Bestseller
“First-party data can also serve as a way to help consumers purchase what they want and keep them informed on what’s going on in their preferred medium of purchase.” — Mahip Dwivedi, VP of Marketing & Growth at Pepperfry
Social Commerce:
Social commerce is where social media and retail meet, it is where recommendations, reviews, and interests can be shared that could ideally influence the purchasing decision of other high-intent users.
However, Martje Abeldt addresses the aspect that although social media can be hugely influential on users, it does not fit the requirements nor does it address the challenges of all brands. It might come across as some formats are available there but in programmatic advertising, several other formats are available for the brands to choose from to engage their high-intent users and drive conversions. Overall, when advertising is looked at, engagement can be found in different ways. For example, the Indian market has brands coming out with funny content with celebrities to position themselves.
For programmatic advertisers, the Indian market can be considered incredibly diverse but RevX being a homegrown brand, we carefully observe all the trends. We offer our clients similar and also alternatives. Some of our clients only work in the domestic market, which allows us to experiment and better understand how we can add value across all verticals.
In Conclusion:
It was an insight-packed two-day event that allowed our team to interact and discuss with partners, industry experts, and everyone else. We can’t wait for ad:tech 2025 and further insightful conversations it would bring to the table.
Lauren Heineck
