Ravi Shankar, CEO, Euro RSCG 4D Matrix on Internet Marketing, Social Media and More

by sweta on August 29th, 2011 2

Today we have Ravi Shankar, CEO, Euro RSCG 4D Matrix talking about internet marketing, its evolution in India and how social media is becoming a focus area for the company. Shuttling between London and Bangalore, Ravi looks at the overall management and strategic growth of the company and needless to say it took me close to a month to get this interview from him.

The digital market has seen a huge growth in India over the last couple of years. Where do you think we stand in terms of digital adoption today compared to our global counter parts?

If you are referring to digital advertising, it is young in India and it is what Internet marketing was in 2000-2001 in the UK. Instance finance, recruitment and travel categories dominated the internet landscape in the UK with FMCG and other categories having a lesser presence.

Of late, there has been a greater acceptance of the internet as media of opportunity even among traditional enterprises who have always relied on the press and their dealer network. Would like to add that the estimated 30 million SMEs in the country have MERELY DIPPED their toes in the water and there is a huge opportunity in the waiting.

You have been in the search industry for over ten years now. How has the journey been so far?

Been great, exciting should say. It was SEO to begin with where people wanted a ‘good web site’ and were excited to have not a mere web site but a ‘Search Engine Friendly site’! Google was in it’s early stages of infancy and clients would get really excited when they got inquiries via their web site. Still remember, had clients in the UK who did not know how to access their emails and would ask us to fax them their emails….it was part of the service!

Today , we have advertisers who are lot more aware of the internet. Search Behavior has undergone a lot of changes especially with the coming together of Social Media. Consumers do spend more time on sites which have a good social media presence and has seen to have an impact on the search sales funnel.

Your major markets being UK and India, how would you differentiate the two markets?

I see that there has been a rapid growth in internet marketing here in India especially over the past 2 years . people’s attitude towards making purchases online has seen a positive change with the launch of Flipkart, Bookmyshow etc. Trust factor is one aspect which needs to be strengthen, people are still wary of online businesses. In a nutshell, I feel it is still an evolving market.

From the point of view of advertisers there is always a feeling of Do it Yourself ( DIY), for many businesses internet marketing still means a web site which is managed and controlled by the IT administrators.

What are your views on social media? Are you a social media friendly person?

Social Media helps to create a dialogue around brands and products with the primary objective of creating brand awareness and a secondary objective of driving sales. Integrating Social Media with Search helps to target audiences who are more likely to search, helps to target audiences who are more likely to click and because of this Search Listings achieve a better Click through rate which in the case of Paid Search would immediately translate in to a Higher Quality Score . Achieving high Quality Score is a state of Nirvana for a Paid Search Marketer which obviously helps in achieving better ROI.

Social Media friendly person- There is a difference between Social Media and Social Networking, if you mean my point of view on Social Media- yes believe that Social Media will only grow and there would be a stronger integration between Search Marketing and Social Media. There is no silver bullet which connects the two but is something which needs to be very strategically so that the two mediums which are two different mediums but are also complimentary.

Social Networking- yes helps me connect with peers, friends

Most of your focus has been on the search market but off late you have bagged many projects on social media marketing. Is this a shift of focus?

Yes do agree that we have been focused on Searching Marketing and we are very good at it. However if one looks at the two of them from the point of view of Media then yes there is a closer integration of the two. Google’s concept of Universal Search has proven to be very successful for all our Search Clients across the globe including India.

What are the major challenges you see in terms of social media adoption in India and how do you plan to overcome them?

Guess one challenge which comes to my mind is the risk-benefit analysis. This is an obvious question to people’s minds just not in India but across the globe. Cant think of any other challenge …..!

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