Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: As India’s media landscape fragments across linear television, OTT platforms and digital video, advertisers are increasingly questioning whether reach alone is enough to measure campaign success.
New findings from a cross-screen attribution framework developed by Kantar’s Worldpanel India suggest that integrated media strategies are significantly more effective than campaigns run on a single platform.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18, K. Ramakrishnan, Managing Director of Worldpanel India, said the study reveals that combining linear television with OTT platforms can deliver more than 50 per cent higher conversions compared with single-platform exposure. For years, linear television has largely been viewed as a top-of-the-funnel medium focused on building awareness and delivering scale.
Digital platforms, meanwhile, have been perceived as better suited for driving measurable outcomes such as clicks, searches and purchases. However, the new data challenges that long-held assumption. According to Ramakrishnan, linear television does far more than simply deliver reach.
Exposure to television advertising also leads to measurable consumer actions such as online searches and website visits. The findings are based on a single-source deterministic panel that measures both advertising exposure and consumer behaviour within the same households.
The panel tracks how audiences encounter ads across screens — including linear television, OTT and digital — and links that exposure to behaviours such as searching online, visiting websites and adding products to carts. The study also highlights the growing importance of cross-screen media planning.
Campaigns that combine platforms tend to outperform siloed strategies. Kantar’s data shows that when linear television is paired with OTT platforms, search activity rises by 30-40 per cent while add-to-cart behaviour increases by at least 25 per cent.
The implication for marketers is clear: each medium plays a distinct role across the marketing funnel — from awareness to consideration and purchase. Rather than treating platforms in isolation, brands may need to focus on integrated cross-screen strategies to maximise advertising effectiveness.