#OpinionsThatCount: What really is a digital campaign?

As consumption increases on internet, almost every brand is going for a digital campaign to widen their reach. BestMediaInfo.com talks to experts to find the real definition of a digital campaign and how it should be

Archit Ambekar | Mumbai | March 6, 2017

Everyone consumes different kinds of content on internet today. With the internet explosion, almost every brand today is exploring 'digital campaigns.' They are creating posts, small snippets and engaging content for digital. BestMediaInfo.com goes back to basics and asks experts what a digital campaign really is.

Gopa Kumar

Gopa Kumar, Vice-President, Isobar:

It is an interesting question. We keep on debating among ourselves about how to define a digital campaign, because clients can end up doing a digital campaign by themselves. These days we see posts becoming digital campaigns, which should not be the case. It is eventually how the idea is amplified and brought to life across digital. The most important thing to focus on is how the brand narrative is spread across digital platforms, which becomes a campaign. Digital campaign clearly has to have an amplification limit and certain bit of scale. Now, the entire scene is so cluttered that you need to stand out. If it does not reach the desired group, then it's a waste.

Surya Narayanan

Surya Narayanan, Head of Business, Hungama Digital Services:

A campaign is normally defined as something that is a sequence of communication and never seen as one post. It is a series of steps. In the first step, we found out KPIs and also what our objectives are -- reach/ engagement. Then we choose media vehicles and engagement points. After that we go to the creative and run it and measure the ongoing campaign. Then we stop, start and/or continue elements based on A/B, multivariate testing and then the final report or learning of the ongoing campaign.

Rajiv Dingra

Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WATConsult:

Defining digital is like saying how one defines life. It is a complicated question which doesn't have a simple answer. It is also a question with a very relative answer. What is a digital campaign? For me it is a social campaign, for you is a mobile campaign, a native advertising campaign for someone or a search campaign for someone else and so on.

About a decade back, the context of digital was discovery and visibility to content. But today, its engagement and it's been the buzz word for digital. Digital campaign to me is where one uses a digital platform. A mobile or any internet platform that uses the internet on any device/platform or access point and engages a one-to-many, one-to-one or many-to-many is a digital campaign.

Today, a digital campaign goes through four stages – connect, converse, collaborate and co-create and brands are at different stages depending on their campaign objective.

Sanjay Shetty

Sanjay Shetty, Senior Vice-President, Digital Brand Solutions, Asymmetrique:

The essential elements of a campaign haven't changed yet. When you think of a campaign, it's doing a couple of things. It is trying to get the attention of people, trying to ensure the target audience remembers it in the long run and lastly, get them to do some action. It all boils down to attention, retention and action.

When it comes to digital, what has happened is, everything on digital is understood as a campaign. Primarily, it's no more a one-way campaign. A person can react and participate in a digital campaign and that's how the medium is different.

Varun Duggirala

Varun Duggirala, Co-Founder, The Glitch:

I think in today's time every campaign has to be digital. In a generic sense, a campaign amplified on social media, any audio platform, on Whatsapp, any over-the-top (OTT) platform or through a publisher on the web is a digital campaign. But beyond these platforms, a digital campaign is a two-way communication campaign that gives you the most accurate metrics of who you're reaching, and to what extent. That clarity is what defines a digital campaign.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com