MAM
Guest column: Trends which will define 2021 for programmatic advertising
NEW DELHI: The following digital advertising trends will influence the shift to programmatic buying and help brands optimise ad spend.
Data and cookie deprecation
There has already been a lot of talk around data and how the third-party cookie deprecation is going to allow the media industry to evolve, looking into new (or old, think contextual) ways to help the brands reach out to their consumers. 2021 would be the year where marketers, publishers and adtech stakeholders will become increasingly self-reliant in establishing their own CDPs, DMPs and unique audience identifiers. We also see the emergence of mediator technologies such as data clean rooms on the back of blockchain architecture that will allow these siloed data sets to talk to each other in a privacy compliant way.
Media Commerce
E-commerce spends have been steadily increasing year-on-year and with Covid, some categories like grocery, FMCGs, apparel, health & personal Care have grown tremendously. In the next three years, the share of e-commerce is predicted to be just shy of eight per cent of total retail in India, hitting approximately $120 billion in revenue by 2024. According to the research published by Kantar on the State of E-commerce 2021, the online purchase journey can be complex and spans across multiple online and offline touch points. Thus brands need to be able to build a cohesive omnichannel strategy across all digital platforms be it search, social, email, retail or marketplaces. In addition to winning the product promotion on retailers or marketplaces’ own inventory, marketers should be looking to leverage the strong deterministic e-commerce data signals to reach their audiences across all digital platforms outside of O&O inventory. With media commerce driving awareness, consideration and final conversions brands should look for both qualitative and quantitative signals to measure effectiveness of their media investments, and not just ROAS.
Creative innovation and hyper-personalisation at scale
We’re already a mobile-first market, which is getting even bigger with better network performance on 4G and 5G. This has opened a huge opportunity to drive creative innovations across all channels – video, audio, gaming, commerce. Tech advancements and low latency mean advanced features such as AR/VR will load easily – visual search, social media lens, shoppable media, immersive gaming formats are certainly on the horizon. Ad formats such as interactive video, conversational audio and voice search ad-formats are already creating a true intent-based dialogue and engagement with consumers. Apart from the innovations-formats, data-driven creative storytelling will allow marketers to deliver personalised communication to their audiences at scale.
(The author is head of product & marketing science, Xaxis India. Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to their views.)
Brands
Wellbeing Nutrition ropes in Malavika Mohanan as brand ambassador
Actor fronts Marine Collagen and Skin Fuel Glutathione portfolio.
MUMBAI: Malavika Mohanan just became the face of inner glow because when your skincare starts in the bottle instead of the jar, even beauty gets a glow-up from the inside out. Wellbeing Nutrition has appointed acclaimed actor Malavika Mohanan as brand ambassador for its premium Korean Marine Collagen and Skin Fuel Glutathione range. The move signals a deliberate shift in the Indian ingestible beauty segment from surface-level routines to foundation-level nutrition that supports skin health from within.
The campaign positions collagen as the essential “beauty protein” that maintains elasticity and firmness, with daily supplementation reframed as a consistent ritual rather than a quick cosmetic fix. It aims to simplify the science behind collagen and build awareness around long-term skin nourishment.
Wellbeing Nutrition co-founder Saurabh Kapoor said, “In India, collagen is still largely viewed through a cosmetic lens, associated with glow and quick fixes. In reality, it is the primary structural protein of the skin, and we begin losing nearly 1 per cent of it every year in the late 20s. Yet a significant number of consumers remain unaware of its foundational role in long-term skin health. Our goal is to shift the conversation from fixing visible signs to feeding the foundation.”
Malavika Mohanan added, “For me, skincare has always been about consistency and taking care of myself in ways that go beyond just what I apply on my skin. I love the idea of supporting skin health from within, and that’s what drew me to Wellbeing Nutrition’s Marine Collagen and Skin Fuel Gluta.”
The Korean Marine Collagen uses nano-hydrolyzed peptides for better bioavailability, while Skin Fuel Glutathione complements the inside-out approach. The portfolio targets structure, brightness and resilience over time, backed by clinical research.
The ambassador announcement kicks off a broader collagen-focused roadmap for the brand, with planned innovations across formats and functional blends.
In an era where beauty routines are getting deeper than skin, Wellbeing Nutrition isn’t just selling supplements, it’s selling the quiet power of feeding your glow from the inside, one daily scoop at a time.
