Ashish Kulshrestha: Secrets to Digital ShoutOuts’ Success
In this exclusive interview, we speak with Ashish Kulshrestha, CEO and founder of Digital ShoutOuts Media. With over 15 years in the media industry, Ashish excels in brand solutions, client management, and innovation. He shares pivotal moments that shaped his career, the strategies driving Digital ShoutOuts Media’s success, and his vision for the future. Ashish’s insights on digital marketing, gaming, and live streaming reveal his confidence and forward-thinking approach, offering a glimpse into the evolving media landscape and the company’s ambitious expansion plans.
With over a decade of experience in the media industry, can you share some pivotal moments that shaped your professional journey?
Thank you for this opportunity. When I entered the digital industry, I was uncertain about what lay ahead. This market’s inherent unpredictability keeps one excited and continually moving forward. With a technical background and a degree in Cyber-Crime Law, I grasp market dynamics and stay prepared to tackle challenges.
Reflecting on my journey, my initial three jobs were pivotal in shaping my career. At Justdial, I learned the significance of data, particularly B2B data. Way2sms was transformative, providing insights into data monetization. I gained extensive experience across various digital mediums like SMS marketing, email marketing, display ads, pop-ups, and push notifications, alongside mastering platforms like DoubleClick, AdSense, and AdWords.
My tenure at Taskbucks immersed me in the app ecosystem, focusing on user installation processes, tracking, attribution platform behaviors, and retargeting. Each company held significant market leadership: Justdial as the largest B2B publisher, Way2sms in SMS, email, and display marketing, and Taskbucks in app installations. Working with these leaders offered deep insights into user behaviors and advertiser needs through client interactions.
I’ve also successfully launched and developed divisions throughout my career, offering valuable insights into market dynamics. Drawing from these experiences, I founded my company in 2021, and today, we take pride in our achievements.
Congratulations to Digital ShoutOuts Media for completing 3 glorious years and for the launch of a new office in ME! Can you share how it came about to you launching this agency?
Thank you. I’ve always wanted to work in the creative field. Throughout my career, I’ve collaborated closely with many brands and creative agencies, though I spent most of my time in performance marketing. When I decided to start my company, I aimed for over 80% of our work to focus on ideas and innovation. Now, after three years, I can proudly say we are recognized in the market for our innovative brand-building work. Additionally, over 90% of our revenue comes from branding campaigns.
I am proud to have achieved the purpose for which I left the performance industry and founded Digital ShoutOuts Media. With a similar purpose and goal, we are now entering the Middle East market. I am confident we will soon have another interview where you will congratulate us on our success in this new market.
What strategies do you use to stay on top of the latest adtech and media trends?
I believe experience and vision matter. The Adtech industry is evolving rapidly. I have spent over 14 years in the media industry. When I entered the digital space, there were a few big websites, slow-loading internet, Nokia phones with VGA cameras, and the launch of Android and 3G in India. At that time, barely 1% of users had access to the latest technologies. Now, brands are focusing on the Metaverse, AI, and VR. I have witnessed this transformation closely.
The key is to stay updated with upcoming trends. While no one can predict the future, living through such a transformation allows you to anticipate what might come next. Trust your anticipation. My first client was a major FMCG brand seeking simple clicks at Rs.5 CPC. Recently, we pitched a robot for a phone brand, but the client wanted something more. This journey from simple clicks to sophisticated robotics illustrates the industry’s evolution.
My advice is not to do everything your competitors are doing. Excelling in the same areas as your competitors isn’t necessary. Everyone has different expertise. Focus on excelling in the areas where you truly want to be.
With your expertise in gaming and live streaming, how do you see these areas evolving in the media landscape, and what opportunities do they present for brands?
Before answering the question, I’d like to address a necessary change in the Indian gaming ecosystem: the mindset. In India, parents still do not view the gaming industry as a viable career option. However, gaming is not the future; it is the present. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with top Indian gamers, significantly boosting the industry’s visibility.
Despite this, we have a USD 3.5 billion industry set to be worth almost USD 7.5 billion and create 250,000 jobs by 2025. India has about 146 million real money gaming (RMG) players and about 202 million non-RMG casual gamers, with 57% of RMG players and 51% of casual gamers residing outside major cities. The game live-streaming market in India is projected to reach USD 200 million by 2024 and USD 250 million by 2027.
Most of these gamers are Gen Z and Millennials, who make up 52% of India’s population. Brands love this age group, especially those in the OTT, BFSI, soft drink, automobile, e-commerce, cosmetic & personal care, and apparel & fashion industries. Many categories want
to target this audience. Live streaming gaming offers numerous brand integration options with the latest technologies, providing unskippable, unstoppable content with 100% viewership. We are now focusing more than ever on our live-streaming solutions with the latest technologies.
What are your goals for the future of Digital ShoutOuts Media, and how do you plan to continue evolving and innovating in the industry?
We have been considering starting a new vertical to launch four new products and Connected TV (CTV) for a long time, but due to global expansion, we put that plan on hold. Now, in a few weeks, we will launch these new products, followed by CTV, with our creative ideas and innovations. Our strategy team is already working on it. Recently, we read that Netflix is set to launch its own proprietary advertising technology platform, which will significantly boost the CTV ecosystem.
I strongly believe that evolution and innovation are journeys, not destinations, especially in the media industry, which is ever-changing. Emerging technologies will reshape traditional mediums. The rise of AI, the Metaverse, immersive experiences, Blockchain, Web 3.0, and increased personalization will transform the media ecosystem. For the first time in decades, we are witnessing digital media provide unparalleled competition to offline spending. TV is becoming CTV, and OOH is becoming DOOH.
Additionally, we are aggressively focusing on the Non-Gaming Live Streaming industry. People are cutting their cable connections, a trend that started in Tier-1 cities and is now happening in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as well. Everything is available online through apps. To watch the news on TV, mobile, or laptop, there are multiple options: websites, apps, or YouTube Live Streaming channels.
Indian brands love our ideas, innovations, and creativity. When we began pitching our ideas in markets outside India, the excitement among brands further motivated us. We are ready to explore new opportunities in the coming months.
FreeWheel Unveils New Suite of Live Product Capabilities to Better Enable Programmatic Transactions
CANNES a global technology platform for the television advertising industry, today announced the launch of an enhanced product suite for programmatic transactions on live steaming events—including the Olympic [& Paralympic] Games Paris 2024. In addition, FreeWheel released a new report entitled, “It’s Only Live Once: How TV Advertisers Can Capture Audiences in the Moment…and How Streaming Is Changing the Game,” adding additional support for marketers interested in advertising and exploring programmatic opportunities in the live streaming environment.
As the report asserts, live events continue to offer advertisers large, simultaneous audiences; highly-engaged viewing environments; and positive brand associations, yet as live events begin to move onto streaming platforms, challenges also present themselves. Ad technologies must deliver an advertiser’s message into a dynamic environment with millions of simultaneous views, with little room for failure or errors. Hence, the roll out of FreeWheel’s new capabilities that solve some of the key challenges of transacting programmatically within live events.
Mark McKee, General Manager, FreeWheel said,
“Streaming opened the path for publishers to transact programmatically within their highly valuable live inventory. But most programmers, understandably, took a walk, jog, run approach. Now, with advanced ad technologies, proven business models, and unprecedented scale of streaming audiences, we’re at a new stage in the programmatic evolution,”
“There are still different approaches for different events, but publishers interested in opening their premier inventory to automated trading, can do so with confidence. As they say, it’s only live once, which is what makes these events so special for advertisers.”
New Capabilities for Live Event Advertising
FreeWheel has a history of ad serving at scale into live events, including tentpole events like the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup; major sports leagues including MLB, NCAA, NFL, NHL and Premier League; and an array of regional sports networks. As more major events move to streaming, sometimes as the sole distribution platform, publishers can serve a more customized ad experience to viewers, and that ability increases with the use of real-time programmatic capabilities. At the same time, however, the magnitude and complexity of digital ad serving escalates, due to concurrent viewing spikes, making pacing and latency control even more critical.
To meet these new demands, FreeWheel is introducing now and over the next few months a suite of new capabilities to ensure smooth delivery of ads even during the largest streaming events. These include the ability to:
- Expedite programmatic activation via creative pre-approvals and transcoding to minimize latency,
- Expand advertiser diversity by increasing inventory opportunities for more advertisers,
- Anticipate real time surges in live viewership to properly scale server capacity, and
- Adjust campaign pacing to account for high viewership to maintain seamless ad experience.
These new capabilities offer several benefits to advertisers and publishers alike, including:
- Increased reliability and confidence that ads will run as planned,
- Enhanced fill rates and monetization for publishers,
- Greater access for new advertisers who leverage programmatic as a primary buying strategy, and
- More personalized ad experience for viewers with fewer repetitive ads.
Read more: FreeWheel and OrkaTV Announce Partnership for FAST Channel Market
Mark Marshall, Chairman, Global Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal said,
“As our industry shifts to an always on marketplace, we have been able to bring in advertisers of all sizes to our content across our entire ecosystem through programmatic, especially to the highly coveted sports and live events programming we air,”
“This allows for a greater diversity of marketers to access our premiere content, while also enhancing targeting and engagement with the right audiences. We are excited for the continued marriage of premiere programming and advanced ad technologies, as its impact will be unsurpassed.”
Why is Live TV Special?
According to FreeWheel’s new report, the appetite for live programming continues to grow. Whether tuning in to tentpole events like the Super Bowl, which broke viewership records this year, or in-season games, U.S. households watch 23 hours of live sports per month.
There are three broad drivers of its appeal:
- It is current—the top reason viewers watch live programming is that it happens in real-time,
- It is engaging – live events garner 22% longer tune-in than all other programs,
- It is communal—live events are 17% more likely to be viewed by multiple people together, and 54% of sports viewers say they often watch live sports with others.
Click here to view the full report It’s Only Live Once: How TV Advertisers Can Capture Audiences in the Moment…and How Streaming Is Changing the Game.
About FreeWheel
FreeWheel empowers all segments of The New TV Ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Beijing, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit https://www.freewheel.com/, and follow us on X and LinkedIn.
Read more: PubMatic Integrates with FreeWheel, Expands CTV Ad Inventory