Programmatic in India is still at a nascent stage. Though the programmatic penetration in India has reached 38%, it is largely concentrated in very specific pockets and it still has a long way to go in terms of adoption. With regional concerns around the complexities of programmatic technology and the need for upskilling in such areas, MediaMath aims to bridge the knowledge gap and help marketers in the region execute more efficient and successful marketing campaigns by rolling out a series of educational initiatives across the programmatic ecosystem in India.
With the help of MediaMath’s training arm — New Marketing Institute — MediaMath ran an agency roadshow covering all things programmatic. The topics covered included ‘Programmatic 101’, ‘Data Driven Programmatic’, ‘Programmatic for Media Planners’ and ‘Programmatic for leaders’. The training was led by the Head of NMI, APAC Marrah Africa, Pranjal Desai (Country Manager India) and Zirca team (Mediamath’s exclusive partners in India). It was extremely well received and we ended up training 200+ agency folks across India.
The objectives of the trainings were multi-fold, the primary emphasis was to provide required knowledge to help align with the latest digital trends and capabilities to our partners.
Salil Shanker, Business Head, Amnet India said “For DAN, this training helped to get the understanding of programmatic to folks beyond their trading desk. Amnet has always encouraged initiatives around training by conducting various internal workshops. The support from technology partners like MediaMath is refreshing and positive for the thriving Indian programmatic ecosystem. Participants were from multiple DAN digital agencies who learnt a great deal of knowledge on programmatic media. Such training helps the traditional digital buyers in understanding the programmatic space more and there by selling and using it more effectively.”
Smita Salgoankar, OMG programmatic, said “Continuous learning is an industry obligation. The pace at which we iterate our platforms should match the pace at which we educate ourselves. MediaMath’s training initiatives are helping our teams not only make sense of their platform, but the course of the industry on the whole.”
Secondly, there is a dire need for gaining clarity around the programmatic jargon. There are plenty of terms, buzzwords and acronyms in this space. We need to ensure that everyone involved is speaking the same terminology, allowing the various teams to plan and coordinate effectively. As Rammohan Pai, Associate Director, OmnicomMediaGroup Programmatic said “The training helped the larger team at OMG understand the scope from a non-jargon and easy to understand view, so that everyone finally comes together to understand what the strengths are and evolves their client side stakeholders.”
Lastly, a huge benefit to programmatic rests on the data layer. Data is generally a complex topic and it can be difficult to understand how to make the data work but the training helps to simplify a convoluted concept. Sagar Pushp, Business Head Cadreon, India said “The training was conducted in a very simple yet elaborate manner, taking the audience right from the basics of programmatic to current and future trends, without making it tedious or boring. We saw a great amount of excitement post this with our media planners and client servicing folks.”
MediaMath will continue to put effort in educating the market and building a transparent and efficient platform to help brands and agencies enjoy the full benefits of the programmatic revolution.