MAM
FICCI-EY report sheds light on priorities & challenges for CMOs in 2021
NEW DELHI: 2020 was a very challenging year for marketers and business owners, as the Covid2019 pandemic literally reshaped the way in which they functioned in the past. And now, a new FICCI-EY study report has shed light on the priorities and challenges for marketing heads in 2021.
Marketing spend efficiency: The foremost priority
The study report suggested that marketing spending efficiency will be the most important priority for CMOs in 2021. 80 per cent of the CMOs who took part in the survey highlighted marketing spend efficiency as one of their top two priorities for 2021 given the impact of Covid2019 on marketing budgets.
Considering the rising popularity of OTT platforms, 65 per cent of the respondents are working towards finding a balance between television and OTT spends. Over 50 per cent of the respondents suggested that they are planning to revive offline engagement opportunities with customers.
Challenges faced by marketers in 2021
The survey report suggested that the key challenge faced by marketers is self-reporting by walled gardens on ad performance, as it demonstrated a clear need for a layer of assurance on digital spends. Most marketers face a dilemma while evaluating lead quality before additional amounts are invested, and many of them are using a trial and error mechanism to evaluate the same across platforms, formats, etc.
A majority of the participants who took part in the survey revealed that digital ad fraud remained an issue for most of them. 41 per cent of the marketers trust their digital ad agencies or the platforms to manage ad fraud for them. 31 per cent rely on using third-party tools to detect ad frauds.
Respondents in this survey also talked about how their organisation accesses the state of future-readiness in terms of digital maturity. 92 per cent of respondents were actively monitoring their digital readiness, while 53 per cent of respondents are dependent on their digital agency partners to know more about leading practices in their digital transformation journeys.
Six per cent of the respondents revealed that they are growing at their own pace, and made it clear that the state of future-readiness in terms of digital maturity does not interest them. Two per cent of the marketers admitted that they are not aware of the state of future readiness in terms of digital maturity.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
