ad:tech New Delhi had changed the context for the digital fraternity in India with its first edition last year in April 2011. It still has the reminiscences of the keynotes of Babs Rangaiah of Unilever to David Fischer of FB to Sav of Digitas UK. It had left an indelible imagery on what is in store for the future. Continuing the trend and increasing the learning curve, the second edition of ad:tech New Delhi started with a Master Class on day zero on Search and Social.

The Master Class was organized in association with the Knowledge partner Communicate 2. The Master Class with 7 sessions gave a deep understanding on Search and Social and how it can be applied in real time and enriched the participants with enough practical knowledge to try them on their own.

Here’s a round up of the days learning’s…

Search is indispensable at every move for the brand to be present when they are being searched for even if not directly. It would also make great for brands to be present as content providers in times of searches so that they engage with the prospect or a consumer online in the way they choose to.

Content has become the King and the Queen, that remains the uncontested statement with all the brands and publishers looking to make content the center of all their communication. It goes without saying if we have content then of course there is rise in engagement. One of the best use of content was the Google adwords FAQ page. That according to me is a master stroke by the people who do what they talk, or walk the talk.

Its not just our website these days, there are many manifestations of the brand communication which is today spread across the spectrum with search and social integrated, the search apart, we have Facebook, twitter, Google Pages etc. How often have we devised a strategy to be in line with the brand communicates across the platforms across every point of communication. It is most important for brands to sync all these together in a way that consumers get a feel of the brand and engage constructively for raising their brand equity.

Reputation management has become very important in the literal sense because of online social platforms, and listening on Social media will be imperative because the net id going to have a wider impact than ever before. We have also seen some of the brands being online and how the listening has not exactly been the way it should be. Going forward there will be a lot of traction in terms of customer experience management online especially the social media. For sure an angry customer today has only this to do update his status with a tag to the brand experience good or bad.

One of the most important unveiling infact was that of YouTube presentation wherein the content owner can own his right and YouTube will search for any usage of the content across the network. This is done by a video search and I think the algorithm searches the video in parts and lists if there are videos that are similar. This is an ideal situation where in the piracy will be checked and of course the content creators get their due with respect to their work and monetize the same in due course.

Ofcourse the video is going to be big and in a way will lead the brands to own content than ever before. Collaborative effort will be in the making like that of Coke Studios by MTV.

Thanks to the knowledge partner Communicate 2 for their handling of the session and a great kick start to the ad:tech New Delhi 2012.

R Senthilkumar

This is the first part of the 3 part article which appeared in imediaconnection.in, you can see the original article here