Hybrid digital solutions refer to the hybrid between the styles of digital and traditional campaigns. In the present business landscape, there is no doubt that digital solutions offer profits to customers and enterprises. However, traditional advertisements and marketing are not completely obsolete. In fact, it has a sturdy advantage in some marketing fronts.
According to Futurum Research,
“Brands must reinvent their operating models to act at the moment. They need a holistic data and technology strategy that they can individualize at scale, customer journey capabilities that can adapt in real-time and intelligent decisioning to automate the self–reinforcing cycle of tailored experiences.”
This is from a 2019 survey on the evolution of customer experience. To cope with the ever-increasing customer demands, it is imperative for all brands to implement digital transformation. Yes, it is true that a lot has changed in the last year. The COVID-19 has forced all the marketing activities to shift to the digital channels, regardless of whether the organizations were ready or not.
All the leads tracking, sales discussions, and customer conversions are digital now. According to the digital survey done by Econsultancy and Adobe – the three digital-related areas that are priorities in 2020 are:
- Customer journey management (36%)
- Targeting and personalization (34%)
- Customer data management (30%)
Hybrid digital solutions improve organization maturity in all three areas.
The benefits of Hybrid Marketing
SL NO. | Benefits of Hybrid Marketing | Brief Summary |
| 1 | Customer Data Management | Customers don’t segregate, so the brands shouldn’t either. Hybrid marketing enables brands to merge direct and digital data sources. Create and manage direct and digital data through a single customer profile. |
| 2 | Targeting and Personalization | With a merged or hybrid customer data profile, it becomes easier to target and personalize. With a hybrid marketing profile, cross-channel analysis, and insights on all the levels are more powerful. |
| 3 | Customer Journey Management | With a complete customer view from both the direct and digital, target and personalize, the marketers can create more advanced journeys. They can merge the inbound and outbound channels, real-time and batch data, machine learning, and integrate adjacent applications. |
| 4 | Cost-effectiveness | With a hybrid approach, it becomes easier to take advantage of the low-cost internal creative help full-time while attaining flexibility and skill diversification from a digital marketing agency. |
| 5 | Accountability | With accurate insightful data to guide the marketing strategy, it becomes easier to maintain accountability. Providing meaningful data helps in coping with the evolving demands of clients. |
Why do startups and SMBs need hybrid digital solutions?
Now, digital marketing is an aspect of marketing that focuses on online activities. When the online activities are combined with other forms of promotional and brand awareness activities, it leads to hybrid marketing. Brands that mix both traditional and digital solutions have more chances of engagement and profits.
A lot of small brands struggle to deploy an omnichannel approach to sell goods and services. Sometimes they are simply not aware of the benefits of maintaining a few social media accounts and maintaining a Google My Business page. The total worldwide e-commerce sales will increase 3X times than they were in 2018.
The age of hybrid digital solutions is here because the advertising and marketing landscape is suddenly much more connected. Businesses cannot separate brands and communications from social media marketing or email marketing. Going hybrid is the new trend in the Indian e-commerce sector.
In order to differentiate their own brands from the cluster of other online brands, a lot of e-tailers are setting up offline shops. For instance, online brands like Pepperfry, MakeMyTrip, Lenskart have opened a dozen physical stores. According to JLL India chairman,
“The biggest nightmare for every online seller is to deal with a shopping cart abandonment rate of 70-80%. The sweet spot is to be in a middle zone where online sellers connect with actual customers and also promote their products in multiple avenues. Expect this trend to continue in times ahead, which is why they need hybrid solutions“.
- The types of solutions offered by startups and small businesses include services and products.
- These services or products could be online or offline
- The selling proposition may target business and consumers
- The main sales can be a local shop or a digital mediums
- Sellable solutions can be limited to a region or worldwide
The reality of the Indian marketing sector
The reality is, e-commerce is still a fraction of the overall retail and it is still going to be this way even after the COVID-19 crisis. The reason is a significant share of the customers still prefers to buy offline. They use online websites as a research tool. The higher valued products, items, and services are mostly bought offline.
According to RP Yadav, the CMD of Genius Consultants,
“A larger portion of the Indian society is middle class dominated. This clientele is very skeptical about what, how, and where they spend. For this strong bastion of middle-class milieu, offline models like retailer shops have mushroomed all over“.
Some experts believe that the hybrid digital model will sustain itself while the pure-play online marketing will continue to stay. As stated by Dinesh Gulati of IndiaMART,
“We can neither call this trend a passing fad nor conclude by saying that it is something that is here to stay as there is a huge gap between the online and offline models of e-commerce“.
What are the hybrid digital avenues of Skyram Technologies?
There is no doubt that Hybrid is the buzzword these days. Whether it is hybrid cars, hybrid seeds, or hybrid mutual funds, the term hybrid is noticed everywhere and digital space is not an exception. One size fits all is never a good idea for consumers because every business is different.
The basic premise of hybrid models is to combine the best of two or more alternative solutions and offer a balanced approach. A flexible business organization incorporates collaboration, partnerships, and new ways to approach the market requirements and services.
A hybrid digital solution offers you the best of both worlds. The objective of Skyram Technologies is to maximize the performance and agility of applications while implementing hybrid digital solutions.
Skyram Technologies is exploring a wide array of avenues to help customers in placing their ads in multiple formats and screens for increased engagement.
1) Columbia Audience Network
We have partnered with Times Internet Columbia Audience Network where you get to feature your ads in front of 470+ million active users per month. Columbia Audience Network is the ad-tech stack of Times Internet that helps publishers in acquiring, engaging, and monetizing the audience with a hassle-free and non-disruptive experience using native advertising, display, and video advertising.
Now, through Skyram Technologies, any businesses can publish ads on Times Internet. What’s more, you can also place EPG Channel Ads in set-top box enabled TV sets throughout India and Hotstar OTT platforms through Skyram Technologies.
What is in it for you in Columbia Ad Network?
- This is your chance to reach up to high-quality users through premium sites to drive business results.
- Columbia Audience Network is the only network that incorporates more than 45 premium publishers along with 39 Times Internet products in 9 languages.
- Get featured in India’s top content network with a reach of over 50% of Indians online.
- You can engage with your customers with targeted features and Columbia DMP.
- With more than 7000 types of audience segments, the advertisers will be able to reach out to a wide array of users.
Here is an update of the monthly viewable impressions in India and other countries through CAN.
Brands like Nissan, Uber, Bose, and LG Electronics use Columbia Audience Network to reach new users. The Ad format is a prominent position on the second story for a day along with a click to site CTA across Mweb & App on the Times Internet sites.
You can drive awareness for all the users visiting the site. The Native Ads run through the Times Internet sites with or without the audience targeting and it is best for increasing the reach & frequency for engagement metrics.
You will have options to place Carousel Ads. These are engaging ad units for showcasing six images, promo text along with the CTA, and distinct links from each card. It is ideal to highlight different products, showcase details about products, service, promotion, and narrate a brand story. You can also add App Install Ads to run across the mobile web & add. These ads can be audience targeted.
2) Update Geotarget
Update Geotarget is another platform where you can place direct ads through Skyram Technologies. This is India’s only regional TV Advertisement focused TV advertising platform with more than 2500 curated channels connecting 500 brands. Your ads will reach 120 million households in 640 districts and 200+ cities.
With cable subscribers on the rise, this is a great option to reach a larger segment of the audience. Cable viewership has increased by 43% during the lockdown. TV has grown by 40% and there has been a 25% increment in the time spent on watching TV during this lockdown. Cable viewership is still the primary source of entertainment. The regional movie consumption has increased by 25%.
Regional News Channels are the new General Entertainment Channels these days. 52% of the total television growth comes from the News Channels. 64% of the TV viewing is spent on the news channels. Regional news consumption has increased to 65%. There is no denying the fact that the consumer always think in their mother tongue. This is why local/regional news drives more consumer relevance.
What is in it for you choosing Update Geotarget?
This is your opportunity to reach out to a wider array of the audience with multi-product geo-targeted solutions. Rest assured to enjoy maximum reach with minimum spill over. Update Geotarget brings you 1500+ Hyperlocal monitored movie channels with much better, relevant and relatable content into customers’ attention.
A comparison of Regional Satellite TV presence and Update Geotarget presence in India
The premium solutions offered by Update Geotarget
i) Insta Reach with Bootup, EPG, Volume & Menu bar
- Set top box (STB) based solutions
- Catering to more than 60 million HH Pan India
- Channel Agnostic Solutions
- Applicable for all channels on STB
ii) Brand building with 2500 FTA Channels
- L Band, A Band, Corporate Logo, sponsorships, song fillers
- Catering to more than 120 million HH Pan India
- Offering fresh, relevant and relatable content through content branding
iii) Increasing conversions through 2500 FTA Channels
- Long format product/concept story telling
- Catering to more than 120 million HH Pan India
- Relevant and relatable audience
- High audience engagement
iv) Some additional features
- You will avail the tactical messaging through EPG in this IPL season, visible through all subscribed channels on STBs, select specific match days along with specific markets.
- Boot-up screen advertisement feature – as soon as anyone switches on the set top box, the brand exposure will be on the present channel.
- Brand ads will be there every time the volume button is used and the menu button is pressed.
- With 270+ news channels, you can reach the audience that matters.
With Skyram Technologies, you can also opt for AD units that are handouts for specified ads. This is also another feature offered by Times Internet. This is a service from Times Internet where you can place your ads in multiple formats in Standard Banners and Rich Media Banners.
An example of different ad formats.
Here is a Standard Banner format for ad placement.
3) Hotstar
Beyond any doubt, HotStar is one of the best and most engaging platforms to place your ads. The good news is Skyram Technologies offers you the opportunity to place ads directly on Hotstar. The best part is, this is just like TV but you can drive awareness through different sporting events too. So what is in it for you in Hotstar ad placements?
Hotstar brings you:
- 300 million monthly users
- 42 minutes of watch times per day
- 1,00,000 hours of content library
- 200+ shows with a watch time of 30+ minutes for every user
- 60% traffic in the time slot of 7-11 PM
- 5X times the reach of TV ads on marquee English shows
- 50% viewer retention every week
You cannot ignore these opportunities to tell your story along with an engaging ad. With Skyram Technologies at your service, you can place direct ads on Hotstar and reap the benefits of:
- 95% viewability
- 100% brand safety
- 90% completion rate.
The full-stack ad formats from Hotstar drive brand awareness and performance. The ad formats include:
1) Billboard ad format
- Available in the form of photos, videos and carousel for all platforms of iOS, Android and Windows
- Useful for a quick and enhanced reach of your brand, generate video views or traffic to the website or app
2) Native Image ad format
- Available in the form of app installation ads and content ads
- Useful when generation more downloads and installs for your app, make more people visit your website and take action on your app.
3) Bumper ad format
- Available in of video on demand (VOD) slots for live TV shows
- It is useful for increasing brand awareness and delivering a short actionable message within 6 seconds or less.
4) Mid Rolls
- This is also available in the form of VOD for live TV shows
- It is useful for increasing brand awareness through an engaging story (20 sec+) in a brand safe environment.
5) Carousal – useful in making the mid roll ads interactive and showcase different product or details about a single product.
- Get to know how your ads perform through complete transparency. You get to see how many times your ad was delivered and to how many people.
- Hotstar offers you industry-best viewability and brand safety metrics.
- Brand lift study helps in measuring the effectiveness of your ads by getting response from the audience who saw your ads and compare them with people that didn’t.
- You can avail in-depth analysis of the impact on ad recall, brand awareness, purchase intent and more.
4) IndiaMART
Very soon, Skyram Technologies will be able to provide their customers with the provision of placing direct ads in IndiaMART – a community of 39 million monthly matchmakings. With 100% organic users and 68.8 million monthly users, you cannot ignore this opportunity of engaging with such a wide array of audiences.
IndiaMART is India’s largest online two-way business marketplace with 1.3 million+ daily inquiries. Skyram Technologies will soon offer you the chance to get your ads placed in multiple formats. Starting from industry-specific banner ads to category-specific banner ads you will have a plethora of opportunities to expand your buyer outreach.
Why IndiaMART?
Why not? IndiaMART incorporates a diverse range of industries & geography.
- IndiaMART obtains 100% organic traffic and 76% through mobile
- 66+ million monthly visits with 1.3+ million daily enquiries
- 10 million+ downloads and 4.7 star app rating – making IndiaMART as one of the most trusted and credible online business.
Also, IndiaMART is India’s most cost-effective digital platform.
With effective email marketing, industry-specific banner and category specific banner, IndiaMART ensures an expanded buyer outreach to make it easy to target more relevant audience. Have a look at the samples of email marketing, category-specific banners and industry-specific banners.
1) Email Marketing inventories to target:
- 54 specific industries
- Reaching out to the sellers of the target industry
- Contact with GST verified sellers
- Email verified sellers
- Available filters include – turnover, employee count, industry business type, and geography
- Assured wide reach without any leakage
2) Industry-specific banner
- 54 target industries
- Reaching out to buyers (B2B, B2C, business owners, traders, resellers, purchase heads, distributors, end users and more)
- 100% industry coverage without any leakage
- PAN India reach
3) Category-specific banner
- A fixed 3-side roadblock advertisement
- Reaching out high-intent buyers
- All-round and complete sub category coverage without any leakage
- A wide reach while covering competition categories
5 essential hybrid digital marketing skills to develop in 2020 and beyond
These are the specific skills that stand out as helpful for marketers, especially in the hybrid digital marketing arena.
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Cross-Channel knowledge
Marketing professionals that have a strong cross-channel knowledge, have a good understanding and helpful insight on different digital mediums. They can guide their team in developing integrated strategies and campaigns. With their contributions, the brand’s presence on multiple platforms is more consistent and successful. This is why it is important to communicate with different members and indulge in online courses to come together in building a brand’s presence.
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Marketing and Business Acumen
When you have to present your brand in front of potential customers, you have to have marketing skills. Whether it is a startup or a well-established business organization, a customer will always see how your company can solve their problem. Marketers, who can fuse this knowledge with business acumen, make valuable employees. They can not only reach the customers but also how to optimize the marketing department that impacts the rest of the company as a whole.
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Technical Skills
Technical skills are very much valuable for marketers. For instance, if you understand coding, then you can make the basic changes needed to the website without involving the IT department every time. Also, you have to be familiar with the analytics and how to judge the progress of a digital campaign.
You have to be able to implement your efforts with more insights and data to back up your decision. Learning technical skills can be done on your own. There are multiple resources available both in-person and online which can help in learning a lot.
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Interpersonal communication skills
With strong interpersonal communication skills, you can collaborate more productively with other departments. As an organization, if you can remove the silos and barriers that separate different departments, you can develop a more holistic marketing effort. Understanding people is necessary for a hybrid digital solution. With more team-building actions, it becomes easier to encourage people in reaching across departments and work on different projects together.
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Passion for the product, industry, and market
Regardless of the experience and skills in digital solutions, if you are not passionate about your brand or product, then your efforts will not span as far as they should. It is important to be emotionally intelligent as well. You have to identify your drive and funnel it towards making your work successful.
Since its inception, the online marketing space has continually evolved, especially in the past five years. As the industry and consumers have become more sophisticated, the world of multiple barriers needs to come down quickly. Not only it changes the way brands engage with customers, but it also changes the roles of the professionals in the industry.
Learning to become a hybrid digital professional needs the marketers to cultivate skills outside their forte. This is how you become equipped to handle multiple challenges of integrated campaigns.
In conclusion, if you want to survive as a brand, you cannot neglect the digital channels and the myriad of information they offer. Yes, it is true that the concept of digital transformation was forced on numerous brands. Some of the brands were prepared while some others struggled.
In this time, customer retention is the top priority and you have to offer exceptional customer experience to achieve this. Thus, now is the time to embrace hybrid marketing to help navigate through the uncharted waters.
