ETBWS 2025: Buying media at fixed rates is fundamentally flawed
customer acquisition costs
(CAC) and diminishing returns on investment (RoI). Audiences today are no longer confined to search and social media. Increasingly, consumption is shifting towards emerging channels such as OTT, connected TV (CTV), and retail media.
At the 7th edition of the Brand World Summit, organised by ETBrandEquity,
Tejinder Gill
, managing director of The Trade Desk, addressed one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary advertising: marketers often persist with publisher-first strategies, despite audiences being fluid, unbound by platform loyalty, and constantly shifting across channels.
Gill noted, 'This fragmentation is further compounded by delays in actionable insights. Campaign reports arrive a day, a week, sometimes even a month later. By then, the moment has passed, and the opportunity is lost. Delayed insights equate to missed revenue. Real-time optimisation delivers tangible results, and dynamic planning will always outperform static forecasts.'
While consumers are perpetually 'always on', marketers continue to work in silos, often planning and investing out of step with where genuine attention lies.
'There is a fundamental disconnect. Over 50% of India's consumers today spend their time on the open internet, OTT platforms, audio content, podcasts, news, and live sports, yet most marketing budgets remain disproportionately skewed towards walled gardens,' Gill explained.
'As Indians, we instinctively negotiate, whether with vegetable vendors or for cab fares. Yet in advertising, we continue to buy media at fixed rates. This approach is fundamentally flawed in a world where every consumer is different,' remarked Gill.
He elaborated, 'The bottle on your table may carry an MRP of ₹6, but its true value is context-dependent. If you're not thirsty, it is worth nothing. If it is biodegradable or serves another purpose, say, your pet plays with it, its value may rise to ₹10. This is the essence of dynamic pricing, and the same principle must apply to advertising: why are marketers serving the same ad to two completely different individuals? If no two users are alike, neither should their advertising experience be.'
The future, Gill emphasised, lies in real-time, audience-based programmatic buying, particularly on the 'open internet', where opportunities for precise, context-aware engagement are abundant.
'The open internet offers scale, diversity, and flexibility; what's needed now is a shift in mindset towards smarter, dynamic media investment,' he concluded.
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