After making several marketing acquisitions in recent times, Dentsu Digital is going aggressive on integrating mobile advertising, social media and the online ad medium. Glen Ireland, CEO, Dentsu Digital India, spoke to Beryl Menezes about the company’s latest iButterfly app launch and the game plan ahead. Excerpts from the interview:

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Is iButterfly launch the next step in Dentsu’s transformation towards a digital marketing medium?While digital marketing is definitely a new model of innovation for advertising, Dentsu is focused equally on all platforms – both online and offline. However, we are seeing 8% of the overall ad spend today on digital marketing, and 10-15% of our revenues globally come from digital marketing. The rise in ad spend from digital marketing, however, is from geographies such as North America and Japan, where offline advertising has reached a saturation point, and digital is thus the new focus.

So tell us about the iButterfly platform?iButterfly is a motion sensor, GPS and augmented reality coupon entertainment platform, which was initially developed as a mobile game for the iPhone (hence the name iButterfly) by Dentsu Labs in Japan in 2010. As its popularity grew, we decided to develop it as a sales promotion model for companies to send out electronic coupons to customers, which turned out to be more successful than the print coupons in newspapers. The iButterfly app is now available for free download on the iOS and Android platforms, and we are looking to take it to the Symbian BlackBerry platform soon. Customers can avail of discounts at their favourite stores by clicking on the butterfly on their smartphones.

What is your plan for promoting the app in India?Before the India launch, we integrated social media into the app as well – like Facebook access –  developed the iButterfly website and made it available for download from the Google Play app store as well. Besides, we were waiting for the smartphone boom to hit India, to derive maximum eyeballs for the product once launched. We now believe the time is right, and are in talks with 2-3 clients for a large-scale launch. We have set a 3-6 months timeline for it.

How is the app doing globally and who are some of your clients?The iButterfly app has won awards worldwide for mobile advertising and has become hugely popular across brands and verticals. Some of our clients include Reebok, Bridgestone, Colgate, Unilever, Samsung and Pacific Coffee.

Would you say mobile advertising is the next big thing? What is the cost difference as compared to the offline medium?While mobile advertising is growing rapidly, it still makes up a very small portion of ad spend within online advertising today. However, apps are where mobile advertising spend is growing, as a new way of connecting the brand and consumer in an advertising medium. Digital marketing is definitely more cost-effective than the offline medium, and to an extent has larger reach as well.

What is your digital marketing strategy in India?We will be launching another digital marketing product in India in the next six months, integrating search and media innovation and social media.