Thursday Nov 20, 2025
Thursday Nov 20, 2025
Thursday, 22 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
At a recent conference organised by Digital GroupM, the corporate sector, media and advertising industry and the techno gurus participated to discuss the possible impact of the digital age on our life in 2015.We heard keynote speeches and panel discussions that held vibrant discourse on how digital technology, content creation and commerce will impact us in the coming year.
The object of this conference was primarily to make corporates understand that the digital platform in Sri Lanka was something to be taken seriously and if one did not wake up to this fact, the chances of getting left behind will have a serious impact on their product or service.Some of the arguments presented were that Sri Lanka was now ahead of even India where internet penetration was concerned, and Sri Lankan brands needed to understand the communication mix between the old media and the new.
Safwaan Hussein, Associated Director, Digital Group Min Sri Lanka, says that the way people consume media is changing and therefore our communication too has to change with it.He says that a massive paradigm shift is happening across the globe and Sri Lanka also has to changeto be a part of it.
“Having said that, we are actually a step ahead than our counterparts in the South Asian continent.We actually have very good infrastructure; we have 4G and 4G LTE Connectivity.At the same time, mobile handsets are getting cheaper by the day and our literacy rate is over 90%, all that is fuelling our growth which has our business partners at Google and Facebook thinking that this will be more of a Singapore rather than an India because the internet penetration in India is slower than ours.”
Safwaan says that since Sri Lanka is looked at as the next Singapore, the main objective should be to educate the local communications community on how to make the change to digital.He believes that clients don’t realise the returns they get on digital media for a number of reasons.
“You can’t measure returns from digital, ATL or other forms of media separately.If ATL and Digital are planned together tactically, digital will actually amplify your ROI on media.For example I run a press ad and say if you want a test drive send us an SMS; in that sense digital is amplifying that spend on press and getting a return out of it.There are so many ways to use digital to actually make your ATL spend perform better.”
Digital and developing brands
KarthikNagaraja, Social Media Practice Lead at GroupM, who spoke at the conference, addressed the subject of how brands can be developed on Facebook.In an interview on the sidelines of the conference he said that according to what he had gathered from his discussions with relevant people, Sri Lanka was still at a very nascent stage in this aspect.
He says that it may give vent to the mistaken thought that this is due to a lack interest or potential; but that would be the worst assumption since all markets, which have eventually become huge social centric ones started off in similar vein.
“I think Sri Lanka is at the cusp of a very exciting phase where I think there will be a huge volume of people coming on to social platforms – conversationson brands and content that we can create.In India we have this conversation a lot but it’s a slightly different life cycle, probably around 150 million people on social media in India makes for a larger critical mass.”
Karthik says that they would discuss both the negatives and positives of brands; and mostly negative because it is the tendency to do that on this medium.“A level of consumer resistance is always going to be there and that’s the function of how you conduct your right as a brand.It’s not like the resistance will go up or down because of what’s happening on social media.In fact the good news is that because it’s happening on social media you can monitor it and manage it – i.e. manage the resistance better.
I think there are a lot of similarities in terms of culture in the Indian and Sri Lankan markets.The good news is you don’t have to worry about the challenges that India has to worry about in terms of vernacular conversation and things like that.For you I think, there is a large portion of an English speaking population, plus you literally have only two languages to worry about so it becomes easier to build tools and communications etc.,” he says
Summing up. Karthik mentioned two things that were key to developing brands online.One, the importance of creating content on social media, which will generate conversations and two, the importance of measuring and managing those conversations in order to get actionable insights.
He said that there is technology to handle the measuring part, although a human layer was also necessary.“There has to be a combination of both and it has been done before.The moment you are open to insights into this medium there is no limit in terms of what you can measure.”
According to Karthik, although traditional media is always strong in most markets the question was how much stronger in relation.“As for myself I have not really done any research but I am seeing all the numbers and indications of something that is eventually going to explode in this country that much I am pretty sure of.I think you will hit a critical mass very soon and afterwards it will be difficult for you to ignore this medium.I say this because I’ve seen multiple markets go through this i.e. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brazil, India they all went through this phase.It starts off really small and we all talk of why social media to marketers, brands are using this as a last mile but eventually things change.I don’t believe Sri Lanka is in an isolated or insulated area, where the trends in global technology and consumer behaviour are not going to happen.It will happen; the only thing that’s stopping, or maybe even clouding your judgement at this point is the critical mass.”
However, Karthik cautions of the need to be realistic, as the numbers are still not sufficient for people to move their budgets to social tomorrow.He says there are a couple of things for local marketers to consider i.e. the impending boom he mentioned and the need to move first when that happens.He says that it is those who create markets and platforms when none exist who usually succeed.
Digital and the local psyche
However, HasrathMunasinghe, Deputy General Manager Marketing of Commercial Bank, who was one of the panellists at the conference, has an entirely different view.He says that Sri Lankans are still used to traditional media such as radio, TV, print and outdoor and that is unlikely to change for a while.He says where banks are concerned; they look at digital and traditional in two formats.
“We use digital a lot in our channel migration.We want to engage our customers through digital means and we would like to get our customers banking with us through digital means.The world is moving towards all these electronic channels and that also gives a lot of convenience to customers as well as bringing costs down for the banks.But here I am discussing about digital as a medium.But when you say digital media versus traditional media, in Sri Lanka at this point in time still traditional media is far ahead of digital media.”
According to Hasrath, the reason for this is although digital media has shown a lot of growth in the last couple of years in terms of popularity, still traditional media especially TV, Radio and Press have an edge.He says over 50 % Sri Lankans still read newspapers, over 60 % still listen to the radio and over 80% still watch TV.“Therefore from a media perspective though digital has shown growth, still the larger volumes follow traditional media.”
Giving reasons he says that the root cause for this is the rural urban divide.The rural community are considered savvier towards traditional media.Although there is talk about large scale Internet penetration in the country, Hasrath says that rural communities have not embraced digital media to that degree.“Yes there are Facebook users out of Colombo but they only use it as a tool to log in, make a comment or so and log out.Therefore their interaction on Facebook is minimal due to the digital divide as well as the language barrier.”
In Hasrath’s view the traditional and digital media mix for mass penetration at this point in time is 95 versus 5.He says when the world moves on and society moves on digital expansion happens this mix would change and they would take a more serious look at the expansion for their technical products and services; but he does not see this happening even 10 years down the line.He says traditional will rule over a majority percentage also due to our culture.According to him Asian communities like to see and experience things on a larger scale.
“It is to do with our society, we like to experience things in a group, for instance even when we watch TV its together, more as social activity.We are not an individualistic society but are instead a very social society.I think it’s an Asian phenomenon, like watching TV together over dinner is an engagement; so I don’t see us suddenly becoming like the West, switching to being very individualistic, where one person would watch his phone screen and enjoy it.Well it will happen but it won’t be to the extent that it overtakes the traditional; not anytime soon at any rate.”
Be that as it may, he commented that the digital media forum is a very good move, because Sri Lanka lacks debates, forums or seminars of this nature.Drawing a parallel with India he says there are always these kinds of discussions; and exchange of views that happen, enhancing their knowledge; and they find a particular areas to target through these discussions, hence the importance of having debates of this kind.“We should have broader discussions on this subject as it’s going to landscape the future of Sri Lankan business activity.So it’s important to have this dialogue regularly and see what trends have overtaken in other parts of the world and how much we have adapted.”
But he says it is also necessary to understand that although the world is one global village, one universe and yes we Sri Lankans also adapt most things that happen there are instances we don’t follow international phenomenon both in terms of technology and other ways.Citing his own marketing experience in telecom companies, he says that in some parts of the world the 3G concept and video calls worked and in others it did not and Sri Lanka was one case in point where it did not work.“So the point I am trying to make here is that not everything that works internationally works here.What we need to understand is that we have to respect our consumer and understand their behaviour and boundaries.”
AtiqueKazi from Xaxis, India who was part of the keynote team, said that he was amazed at Sri Lanka’s digital media fraternity, who he had openly interacted with.“There is one thing that stands out here and it is the appetite for digital, to try out new things and learn about new things, that is something exciting for me to look at.There are a lot of new things for Sri Lanka; as Group M we have planned ‘Circuit 2014’ where we talked about data, technology, social and all other aspects which go into creating a great digital mix for all brands, to find their consumers on line.”
What is programmatic?
AtiqueKazi, Director of Xaxis India, the world’s largest programmatic media solutions company, explained that programmatic is a way where you transact or find audiences in an automated set up using technology and data.
“For example, if one needs to target users between 15 and 45 on the web, I will go ahead traditionally and plan my media campaigns to such sites which would have those users.But likely, there’s going to be wastage as there’s likely going to be other users from other age groups who would get to see that ad which means media leakages and wastage resulting in less ROI.However, with the help of data and technology because on the Internet you can actually capture data points of where users are going.When as a user you go from one side to another side you click on a banner, you search for something and you are actually yielding a data point.That data point can be beautifully segmented and become part of your data strategy where you know what users are interested in doing and what they intend to do.Use that as the targeting parameter and that’s what programmatic is all about,” he says.
He says that Xaxis, a global company which is by far the leader in this technology does this successfullyin Indiaas well as worldwide.
However, Atique believes that in Sri Lanka it’s still a long fetch approach.“It’s not something we can just switch on and everything will be fine one day.It is something which you have to build so the whole proposition is kind of built on elements of knowing your users and that takes time, so once we have that data strategy deployed into Sri Lanka, where brands are trying to know about their users and publishers are open to share information; we can then create that into one single platform. That’s when those targeting parameters would work really well.”
He says that the bottom line is the most important factorfor a CEO or CMO, in terms of spending money to get the right audiences for their companies.Therefore, a programmatic approach would be the most targeted, in order to get to that user.Therefore CEOs and CMOs need to build efficiency in this particular approach where they are ensuring that whatever data is available on that basis; and targeting those users, which should be the first step.The next step would be look at expanding this further for the future.
“For example if there is a CEO of a company who has a website i.e. American Express Platinum membership website, where someone comes in and signs up or there’s an emailer being sent out, all those would become users of American Express. So let’s build that bucket of users, find who they are – what are their attributes, what they do and create one template of these users (profiling them).Find these attributes in that space and expand your advertising on the data you already have,” he says. Atique says this is not something that is currentlydone in Sri Lanka.However, the world is opening up towards programmatic, which means everything that is becoming digital is also becoming programmatic because it’s being transformed into platforms that decide things on a real time basis.
Pix by Lasantha Kumara
Panel discussionsA highlight of the conference was the five panel discussions conducted on the topics ‘Multi-Screen Planning – Is it relevant to Sri Lanka?’; ‘Comparing the ROI of Digital Vs Traditional Media’; ‘Value of an Online Influencer’; ‘What’s Next in Digital?’ and ‘Marketing in the Digital Age.’
The panel discussion on ‘Multi-screen Planning –Isit relevant in Sri Lanka?’ moderated by Ravi Rao – Mindshare’s Leader for South Asia, discussed the change that has occurred in Sri Lanka’s media consumption patterns with the increase in technology penetration and digital devices.
Panellists Sharada de Silva, General Manager, Marketing and Sales, Janashakthi Insurance; SiddarthBannerjee, Country Marketing Director, Unilever Sri Lanka; Vidyadhar Kale from Facebook and Tushar Vyas, Managing Partner, Group M South Asia discussed how one on one interaction between media and potential consumers has improved with the proliferation of mobile devices.The discussion focused on the importance for clients and agencies to identify the role digital plays in ‘normal communication’ and explored the advantages of multiple screen planning.
‘Comparing the ROI of Digital VS. Traditional Media’ was a panel discussion Moderated by Safwaan Husain, Associate Director of Digital Media, GroupM Sri Lanka.AtiqueKazi Director Xaxis India Xaxis; Ben King Agency Relationship Manager for Emerging markets, Google; SidathChandrasena, Senior General Manager – Innovationand digital Services Dialog Telekom; and Hasrath Munasinghe DGM Marketing, Commercial Bank Sri Lanka sat on the panel which discussed promotion of brands on digital.
Despite digital media being a buzzword within the industry for a number of years, only a handful of brands in Sri Lanka have tapped the inherent potential of this medium considering it only as a last minute add-on to a media plan. The discussion looked into the rationale for this behaviour, comparing the ROI between traditional media and its digital counterparts and how the mix could change in the future.
The panel discussion on ‘Value of an Online Influencer’ was moderated by Daily FTEditorNisthar Cassim with panellists KarthickNagarajan Social Media Practice Head, GroupM India; RamaniSamarasundara Marketing Director of Unilever Sri Lanka; JegganRajaratnam Co-Founder of Anything.lk; Rohantha Athukorala, Country Director of Turner Investments (USA); and Ravi de Coonghe, Director Marketing of GlaxoSmithKline.
The discussion explored the value of an online influencer to a brand, and how best to leverage a positive review, and manage negative sentiments.The panel concluded that trends in data suggested that the modern consumer is increasingly wary of an advertiser’s promise, but relied more on external recommendations, as they perceived them to be unbiased.The innate nature of social platforms in a world where each consumer is connected to the other via social media was discussed in depth.
‘What’s next in Digital?’ panel discussion moderated by AnushkaWijesinha, Economist and Founder of Smart Future Forum, had DulithHerath Chairman/Founder of Kapruka.com;UnnyRadakrishnan, Head of Digital–South Asia; Maxus Irfan Ahmed Director, Insight and Innovation; TharangaGunasekara Head of Marketing and Communication as panellists.
The discussion revolved around how the the Sri Lankan market is not indicative of what’s happening internationally in digital marketing due to its conservative audience who were not always receptive to global digital trends. The panel explored both forecasts for digital media in Sri Lanka as well as how communications teams can best exploit these trends.
The wrap up session on ‘Marketing in the Digital Age’ was moderatedby C.V.L. Srinivas, CEO of GroupM, South Asia, with panellists consisting of Dirk Pereira, CEO of Union Assurance; Rajendra Theagarajah Director/CEO of NDB; Hiran Cooray, Chairman, Jetwing Hotels; and Shaziya Syed Chairperson, Unilever Sri Lanka.
The session discussed how marketing in the digital age posed its own challenges and the way local decision makers planned on navigating this new medium.The panel took into consideration the difficulties in convincing the top tier of decision makers on how they see digital.Would they see it as a challenge or opportunity and are they willing to build a digital vision for their organisation?
Group M Sri Lanka is confidant that ‘Circuit Colombo 2014’ has taken the initial steps in addressing some key issues for Sri Lanka on the digital age and that the conference was no doubt an enriching experience for all participants. |
Impact of digital in today’s worldNitin Bawankule, Industry Director, E-commerce Google India who addressed the ‘Circuit Colombo 2014’conference said that Sri Lanka is digitally ahead of India, and that Sri Lanka has an internet penetration of 22% whereas India is just about reaching at 16%. “You are on the brink of a digital revolution and what I am here to talk about is where this can lead and where you should aim to take it in order to convert your future to digital.”
The Industry Director said that at Google there were three key pillars of digital; first the consumer, because it is the consumer who decides what he wants, be it on a digital or any other platform; secondly the product and the platforms, which define what is being consumed and thirdly businesses and the brands.Underneath these are what Google calls infrastructure, to boost these three pillars.
From the consumer perspective, close to two million people in Sri Lanka are on mobile and four million people are already connected though PC or other devices, therefore they are well connected.But when talking about digital consumers, there is a big difference between a consumer who uses digital and a consumer who is used to consuming any other media i.e. print or television.
The digital consumer is connected through multiple devices so most of the consumers who are connected to the Internet today are either accessing it through their laptops, desktops, phablets or mobile phones so they use multiple screens.
He says that in comparison with other technologies which have taken several years to reach the one billion mark such as landline telephone lines, which took 110 years and television which took 49 years;internet has taken only 14 years to reach the mark.From a global perspective, if any new technology or platform is to be successful it has to reach the one billion-user mark within five years.
“So, what is driving the Internet?Although the PC industry is not growing, the internet has grown from a billion to three billion and today there are three billion internet users globally.”
The good news he says is that Sri Lanka has 22% of that penetration whereas India is only at 16%.According to research the highest internet access is in the UK where there is 93% penetration with Australia coming a close second with 85% penetration.“…and Sri Lanka’s internet rate is growing and I am sure in five years you will be crossing 50% penetration. What is driving this is smartphones, Android was less than 15 million globally in 2010 and now the number has jumped to a billion android smartphone users.”
Speaking about how traditional business has been challenged, Nitin says that they have launched Android in many countries about two months back only on a digital platform and ecommerce players sold 40,000 phones in 3.4 seconds through one single player.
“Imagine, can you get that scale in a physical retailer world? Youcannot and that is the impact of digital on traditional business so if as a brand you are in any of these industries, you will have to think digitally because this is what will happen in Sri Lanka in the next 12 to 36 months.It will differ the industry and that’s the reality because we have seen this happening globally and we have seen it in your neighbouring India.”
Talking about the impact of social he says there are 40,000 Facebook posts every second, and 5000 Tweets per second globally while every second, one hour of video is uploaded on YouTube.“That is the impact of social so when you think about platforms think about mobile, think about videos and think about being on social; you cannot ignore these three platforms if you are thinking of digital,” he says. |
Focus of ‘Circuit Colombo 2014’ –New trends and challenges in 2015GroupM, the world’s largest media investment company, recently held its inaugural digital conference under the theme ‘Circuit Colombo 2014’ at Park Street Mews, Colombo. Organised by GroupM Interaction, one of the largest digital media outfits in Sri Lanka affiliated to GroupM, the objective of the conference was to share knowledge, new trends and learnings of the ever-evolving space of digital and social media; with partners, clients, media and suppliers.The focus of ‘Circuit Colombo 2014’ was mainly on the new trends and challenges that would come up in 2015. With digital platforms evolving at a rapid pace, the conventional thinking and approach to marketing is changing.Armed with the power of expression, today’s consumers are more in command than ever before. Social media has also influenced people’s thinking and buying patterns. In this paradigm shift that is taking place, there is a significant need for marketers to embrace digital and social marketing and incorporate it in to their marketing mix.In this fast changing environment, it is becoming a necessity for marketers to believe and embrace these challenges sooner rather than later, if they are to find the most suitable solutions for their products and services. Circuit is a technical term synonymous with hardware and digital platforms. GroupM says that from a consumer’s point of view, digital and social media have connected the loop of engagement – the media circuit of brands, which otherwise was a vacuum through conventional media. GroupM Interaction, which has access to key tools that provide insights into consumer behaviours, has entered into strategic partnerships with companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Sizmek, Yahoo, MSN etc.The company is constantly on the cutting edge of technology and new developments. Recently GroupM made a strategic investment in Xaxis, a global digital media platform that programmatically connects advertisers and publishers to audiences across all addressable channels. Xaxis combines proprietary technology, unique data assets and exclusive media relations with the brightest teams of audience analysts, data scientists and software engineers. |
Keynote speakers
The ‘Circuit Colombo 2014’ committee sourced several eminent resource personnel from the region to give key note addresses to participants, who shared their technical knowledge, experiences and case studies that are relevant to the Sri Lankan market and are adaptable.
The speakers included Nitin Bawankule, Director, E Commerce and Online Classifieds, Google India, who spoke on the impact of digital in today’s world; AtiqueKazi, Director of Xaxis India,who touched on the subject of programmatic and its basics, opportunities and pitfalls; Karthik Nagarajan, Social Practice Head, Group M, India, who discussed social and strategy; and Vidyadhar Kale, Agency Head, Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook, who spoke on mobile marketing in a mobile world.
C.V.L. Srinivas, CEO of Group M South Asia, specialist in leveraging media as a marketing tool, managing transformation in the media business, talent management in creative organisations and go-to-market strategies for start-ups, handled the wrap up session on marketing in the digital age. |
