On the last day of Goafest, Tejas Apte, head of media and digital marketing at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) spoke about the urgent need for a safer and cleaner digital media ecosystem. He outlined the media charter by the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and emphasised the crucial need for collaborations across the industry to ensure transparency.
He began with the contentious issue of fraud that has been plaguing digital advertising for sometime now. “Up to 30% of digital impressions could be fake or non-human, leading to major business inefficiencies. Ad fraud, bot views, and data misuse are key threats impacting ROI and trust in digital,” Apte added.
Unlike legacy media that operates on a mixed model of subscription and advertising, digital media is heavily ad-funded, raising the stakes for consumer safety and brand integrity, he added. He advocated the ISA’s four-pillar media charter to address these concerns – safe placements for brands and users, viewability standards to filter fake impressions, fraud prevention across platforms and responsible, consensual use of first-party data.
Apte also noted that while brands are increasingly leaning towards keeping advertising in-house, that shift is only partial. Agencies still play a key role in creative strategy, innovation and planning. The agency of the future must go beyond service delivery and must drive business outcomes for brands, he added.