MAM
Circulation data pitched as critical to print media planning
MUMBAI: “Young successful media planners today are aware of the different dimensions one needs to look at when one is making a media plan. Whilst the readership survey is very crucial, a lot of them forget and seem to take the shortcut not taking into account circulation figures.”
And that is exactly what the session conducted by the Audit Bureau of Circulation today focussed on. The fact that circulation figures are an important tool in the media planning and buying process and readership, although very crucial, is finally an estimated projection whereas circulation figures are like the census and are absolute.
Taking us back to the recent past, the session talked about how with the media explosion, media professionals today have access to a barrage of information, the earlier handbook of media planning which was the ABC data has taken a back seat.
Another important point of note made was the popular misconception today being, print as a medium is considered secondary. The focus of the session was how to apply and utilise ABC data and thereby strengthen the print media selection process.
Coming to some ground rules to be applied when one refers to the ABC data, it was pointed out that publishing members are to use only the latest certified circulation data for all the publicity and promotional activities.
Secondly, a valid comparison can take place only when the latest data in the simultaneous periods are juxtaposed between two publications.
How does ABC data help?
1) Data can be viewed in absolute terms as compared to readership, which might face an extrapolation problem.
2) District based planning and media selection can be smoothly facilitated by ABC data. A point in note here was that reliability on socio cultural regions when one talks of readership is a lot lower than the circulation figures.
3) Ease of data access and usage
4) The facilitation of accounting for copy per reader which is calculated by readership/circulation
5) Enhancing circulation plan coverage and reducing skewness in print planning.
The pleas to the media fraternity at large was very clearly to understand and use circulation figures in the planning process and encourage publishing houses to get themselves ABC certified. Also, to exercise caution in case of non-ABC certified publications.
A seminar that triggered some food for thought in terms of the current standing of the print planning process as it is executed today.
MAM
Publicis Groupe India launches data-led influencer platform ‘Influential’
A new platform, a seasoned hire and an ambitious plan to bring discipline to India’s booming but chaotic creator economy.
MUMBAI: Influencer marketing in India is big, messy and, for most brands, maddeningly hard to measure. Publicis Groupe India has decided it has had enough of that and is moving to fix it.
The advertising giant has launched Influential, its global creator marketing solution, in India, pairing the rollout with the appointment of Diwaker Chandani as managing partner for Influential India. The brief is blunt: drag influencer marketing out of the spray-and-pray era and into one defined by data, accountability and results that actually show up on a balance sheet.
A fragmented market ripe for disruption
India’s influencer ecosystem has scale in abundance. What it lacks is maturity. Measurement standards are inconsistent, creator databases are riddled with duplication, and brands remain dangerously hooked on organic reach, a strategy that flatters vanity metrics while delivering uncertain commercial returns. Chandani, who brings nearly two decades of experience across digital platforms and media, puts it plainly. “The ecosystem has scale, but not maturity,” he says. “By combining data-led audience intelligence with creator ecosystems and media amplification, we aim to build a model that delivers measurable and repeatable outcomes.”
It is a diagnosis that Publicis Groupe is staking serious infrastructure on. Influential is anchored in the group’s Connected Identity system, which maps consumer profiles to enable more precise audience targeting and creator selection. Layered on top are the Captiv8 platform and Influential’s global creator network, giving brands the tools to plan, activate and measure campaigns across the full funnel, from awareness down to commerce, rather than treating each influencer post as a standalone act of faith.
The hire
Chandani is not an unfamiliar face in the industry. He has held senior roles at Meta, Zee Entertainment and the Network18 Group, working across creator partnerships and content-led media strategies. His mandate at Influential India is to integrate data, creators, media and commerce into a unified framework and to build the team and client roster to scale it.
Anupriya Acharya, chief executive of Publicis Groupe South Asia, frames the launch as a response to a market that has grown faster than its own infrastructure. “The channel has reached scale, but lacks a unified, data-led foundation,” she says. “With Influential, we are moving from a creator-first approach to a cohort-first, identity-led model powered by Connected Identity.” The integration of creators, media and commerce, she adds, will enable more precise and scalable outcomes for brands.
Why now
The timing is deliberate. Influencer marketing in India is expanding rapidly, fuelled by cheap data, a vast and young social-media audience, and brands increasingly willing to redirect budgets away from traditional media. But growth without governance has created a market where consistent returns remain elusive and accountability is largely aspirational. Publicis Groupe is betting that the industry’s next phase belongs not to whoever has the biggest roster of creators, but to whoever can prove, with hard numbers, that those creators are actually shifting product.
The old model of picking a popular face, posting a reel and hoping for the best is running out of road. Influential is Publicis Groupe India’s wager that the future belongs to the spreadsheet as much as the selfie.
