“India has a unique publisher landscape but the major element that will be leading its future in digital marketing will be the dominance of mobile as a consumer’s most important screen. This means India is at the forefront of the cross-device challenge and could be in a great position to lead moving forward.” Said Chris Dobson, Executive Chairman, The Exchange Lab, in an interview with MediAvataar India.
Here is the complete Q&A…….
MediAvataar: What is your vision for The Exchange Lab in Asia?
Chris: As one of the fathers of programmatic and a market leader in Europe and Canada, our vision is to expand further in the U.S. and Asia, bringing our pioneering service to agencies and clients while ensuring we recognise the characteristics of the differing markets. Our agnostic and independent approach means we can tailor our multi-DSP philosophy either as a managed service or with a greater degree of self-serve as clients gain interest in being more ‘hands on’. Our global around-the-clock approach means we can service campaigns 24/7 – customer service is where we intend to excel.
MediAvataar: What differentiates The Exchange Lab in its approach to its work?
Chris: The Exchange Lab pioneered the multi-DSP approach allowing brands to access the best and most appropriate tactics and ‘footprint’ to suit their sector and geographical mix. What makes us unique is that we’ve built Proteus – our proprietary trading management platform – allowing us to manage this approach at scale and deliver class-leading performance and insight to marketers.
MediAvataar: What do you consider has been your greatest achievement in your career so far?
Chris: Interesting question – for me, a particular highlight was being awarded the Chairman’s Award at Microsoft by Bill Gates himself, mainly because I had pioneered the use of data over context and as a performance driver (in MSN Messenger) long before this approach had become centre stage, as it is today.
MediAvataar: How would you describe the Asian programmatic landscape?
Chris: The Asian programmatic landscape has evolved significantly over the last couple of years with an increasing number of advertisers, marketers, and publishers embracing the new potential opportunities it offers. It is important to realise though that each country or market within Asia is at a different phase of this programmatic evolution due to different stages in the economic growth, varying cultures, business protocols, and service expectations. Asia is in a great position to take advantage of markets that are further ahead in programmatic and that have already learnt valuable lessons, meaning it can adopt the technology without the experimental phase.
MediAvataar: Where do you see the future of digital marketing in India heading?
Chris: India has a unique publisher landscape but the major element that will be leading its future in digital marketing will be the dominance of mobile as a consumer’s most important screen. This means India is at the forefront of the cross-device challenge and could be in a great position to lead moving forward.
MediAvataar: What global market trends over the last year do you think will progress programmatic in India?
Chris: The biggest global trend is quite simply the large-scale adoption of automation in marketing. This is propelling programmatic forward, which is already running at growth rates double what was expected just a few months ago. Given the publisher landscape, you can also expect the automation of native marketing solutions to be widely adopted as programmatic grows across the continent.
