Reaching out, for a larger share of the ad wallet

Google’s Alfonso de Gaetano explains how the shift to digital could result in more media monies moving to creative – and how a good creative impacts online views

Digital advertising’s growth in the region according to Alfonso de Gaetano, agency and branding lead, MENA, Google, would range between 30 and 40 per cent over last year. He’s quick to add that this is a ‘personal guesstimate’. What has also grown since the launch of YouTube monetisation in April 2012 here is the size of the Google team, which stands at over a 100 now. In line with the famed online video consumption of the region, share of ‘branding’ revenue ( YouTube videos, premium displays and the like) is also significantly higher compared to other markets, he reveals.

What are the reach numbers like today and what’s driving your stated growth?

When you look at YouTube in the GCC, it’s at about 90 per cent of the 80 per cent internet reach. So the reach of YouTube is about 60 to 70 per cent, depending on the segment. For all the segments in the 15 to 45-year group, we’re very comfortable that this reach is over 70 per cent (monthly). When you think about the fact that a campaign is four to six weeks, that’s the kind of reach you can achieve.

You speak about replacing TV campaigns with online video. Why should one do that?

Firstly, because reach is comparable. But the most important thing is that because of frequency cap and the power of technology, our clients are able to reach users in a very targeted way. Instead of being on TV for a couple of weeks, they can be live and always on, throughout the year.

Some of the big advertisers are starting to do this here – and this is not happening anywhere else. Today when we look at our branding revenue as a percentage of the total, we are one of the most advanced in the world. This has been possible because of the power of YouTube in this region.

Where clients are really testing substituting TV with YouTube is mainly in the GCC. The reach that you have for internet and YouTube makes the campaign reach comparable.

Which are the clients buying in?

If you look at the top 20 advertisers from MENA, whether it is technology, FMCG, automobile, they are all on YouTube. The early adopters were the global companies – Pepsi, P&G, Unilever among others.

A 100 per cent of top advert i sers are l everaging YouTube, each in their own way. A lot of the clients look at efficient video buying, using targeting. And they are focusing on the frequency cap, to reach most of the audience they are interested in, in a highly efficient way.

The other strategy that advertisers are adopting is focusing on content, doing sponsorships based on the kind of platforms they want to own. Take the case of Pepsi – they were sponsoring all the music content, international and Arabic. Unilever took up sponsorship of all channels of a network, each one about a different theme. They mapped it to different brands, and they also created branded content. Or take P&G, during Ramadan – they were sponsoring 250 channels that were develop- ing content specific to Ramadan across multiple categories ranging from cooking, lifestyle, beauty and so on.

And then there’s a third front, which is campaigns where digital plays a central

One out of five ads is watched fully, and four are being skipped. But it really depends on the creative...

role. We have more and more clients coming to us and asking how they can engage digital and technology as a core element of their communication plan. It’s no longer about TV and offline and then what they can do about digital. Now they are coming to us at the beginning of the communication process.

When users start to really engage with the brand content, the kind of impact you see on brand metrics is completely different.

What is the revenue model in this market for branding – specifically, videos? Is there a cost-per-acquisition model?

It’s still CPM or CPT-based, not cost per acquisition-based. But with the technology that we have, with the conversion and activation initiatives, you can easily understand what your cost per acquisition is.

You mention branding is a bigger revenue component here compared to other markets. It is also a market where TV is said to garner a third of all media ad revenues – is some of that moving to digital?

What we do know is that our revenues are growing extremely fast. As I said, share of branding in total share of revenue here is much higher. The other key thing is when we look at share of wallet that’s coming to Google…. In the FMCG space for example, we are quite ahead compared to other markets globally. Clients are smart – they understand the power of YouTube in this part of the world. They see a huge difference in terms of efficiency.

Reach is an easier thing to get. The key difference is the impact on the brand metrics.

Tell us about ‘Google Preferred’…

We launched very recently in UK and France. The way it works is, it collects some of the best content that is available on YouTube, and allows advertisers to buy the target demo on that specific content alone – the premium content on YouTube.

There are already brands buying up 100 per cent inventory on some channels in the region, because they want a 100 per cent share of voice on those channels. It’s the same way some brands operate on TV through sponsorships, so it was very easy for us to replicate the model.

So while for us, Google Preferred is a way to sell premium i nventory to advertisers, in this part of the world advertisers are already doing some of that. The feature that Preferred is adding on top of sponsorship is that you can do demo targeting on top of the content and also put a frequency cap.

While the volume of video consumption is very high, what is the yield like in the region, compared to

markets in the West?

Given that users are watching a lot of content, there is a lot of inventory. When there is a lot of inventory in an auction model, the price is cheaper than what you see somewhere else. We are still not fully realising its potential in this part of the world.

In Saudi, which is our largest market in terms of total views, when you look at views per user ( per day), the number is three times the second highest in the world.

In terms of viewing time, it’s 50 per cent higher than last year, across MENA.

There is a lot of inventory, which is why we are growing in terms of revenues. Clients are spending more. But in terms of prices, they are still not going up.

What is ad avoidance like in this market? How many people skip ads, when they have a choice?

It’s in line with other markets. We are at about 15 to 20 per cent – so one out of five ads is watched fully, and four are being skipped. But it really depends on the creative. When the creative is really good, this number can go up to 50 to 60 per cent – which means less than one out of two is being skipped. So the creative element becomes extremely important. If it’s really bad, the number can go down to 10 per cent.

Clients are starting to adapt their TVC for YouTube. A second trend is of clients starting to develop onlineonly video content, or ‘Made for YouTube’ videos.

In terms of TVCs, except for shorter edits on TV, should the content be any different?

It can be the same production but the storylines should be different, adapted to the YouTube platform.

Yes, it can be longer, but it also needs to factor in that the user’s attention needs to be captured in the first five seconds, after which they can skip the video. In some cases, you start to see the product after the first 15 seconds and that might be too late.

What we are seeing more and more of, are long-form ‘ Made- for- YouTube’ ads. Pepsi, every year for Ramadan, develops such ads, and this year they got 12 million views. There are many cases. Now local companies are also doing this.

Now with videos on social networks, will it have an impact on YouTube ads?

First of all, we already have a lot of YouTube videos being watched today on social networks, like Facebook for example. It’s a great way to share.

The great news for advertisers is that wherever the video is viewed today, their ads will be shown. If their ads are running on YouTube, their ads will run on all the platforms.

It’s great that there are more and more players developing online video and proposing online video solutions to clients. This is going to help more and more advertisers to shift budgets from traditional TV to online video.

Has there been a resistance when you try to shift budgets from TV?

I don’t think there has been resistance. But there is a lack of data. The TV measurement that exists is based on computer-aided telephonic interviews.

As a company, we only support passive measurement systems. It is not new globally, but it is not yet here in MENA. Once it comes in, I think we will see a big shift.

The other big shift we will see is more media money going into creative.

Can you explain how?

If you have frequency cap and you can do remarketing, you can have several impressions with each one detailing a different element of the value proposition. On TV, this is not possible. It’s different from doing one creative and going mass.

This is extremely important for some sectors – like automotive, technology, travel. It’s very difficult to try and tell the story of a complex product in 30 seconds. Technology clients for example are developing different ads today for different features of a phone.

When we look at the number of users buying products – let’s take automotive… out of 400mn people, there are only 3 to 4mn buying cars. Technology allows you to identify these people, whether they are searching for cars or reading comparisons.

Once you identify them, you can really build the story with multiple creatives.