Shaping the Future of Digital Marketing: Insights from Bharat Khatri, CDO, Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific

In the latest edition of our Marketing Thought Leadership series, Neha Chimbulkar, Head of Marketing, APAC and Middle East at Quora hosted an insightful discussion with Bharat Khatri, Chief Digital Officer, APAC at Omnicom Media Group. They dove into Bharat’s rich experience in digital innovation and strategy, revealing how he leads impactful campaigns and digital innovations that help brands connect with their online audiences.

In this insight-filled conversation, Bharat sheds light on the fast-changing digital world, sharing how his team at Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific creates campaigns that resonate and deliver results. His perspectives on leveraging social listening tools to analyse online communities and conversations on platforms like Quora to enhance campaigns and achieve better results are particularly compelling.

From tackling the challenges of digital marketing to predicting future trends, this interview is packed with valuable takeaways for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of digital strategy.

How does Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific drive digital innovation to stay ahead in this competitive marketing landscape?

At Omnicom Media Group, digital innovation is ingrained in the DNA. They actively foster a culture of experimentation and agile thinking that allows them to lead rather than follow industry trends. By collaborating with leading tech partners, they’re not just reacting to changes; they’re driving them. Whether it’s AI-driven insights, immersive experiences, or social commerce tools, their focus is always on staying ahead of the curve and delivering tangible results for their clients.

Omnicom Media Group’s digital innovations include co-developing engineering initiatives with leading tech firms; enterprise-level GenAI collaborations for enhanced automation and efficiency; a social commerce tool to optimise returns on ad spend; an inventory-predicting algorithm for better programmatic ROI; and a project with Amazon to integrate browsing and shopping behavior into Prime Ads, creating a seamless shopping experience directly linked to content.

How has using Quora as a high-intent platform influenced your marketing approach and audience engagement?

Bharat believes that building online communities on platforms like Quora is more critical than ever in today’s digital landscape. These communities foster genuine connections and allow Omnicom Media Group’s clients to engage with consumers directly, such as answering questions, sharing insights, and personal experiences about using the products & services.

Quora’s environment allows brands to establish authority and foster loyalty by encouraging authentic peer recommendations and trust. It has become a vital platform for building genuine connections and engaging directly with consumers. 

Additionally, as generative AI and large language models become more prevalent, Omnicom Media Group recognises the importance of optimizing content not only for search engines but also for AI-driven recommendations. With the rise of AI and large language models, optimizing content for platforms like Quora is essential for maintaining brand visibility and ensuring a top-of-mind presence when consumers seek recommendations.

Could you share a recent success story from Quora Ads campaigns and the impact it had on targeting engaged communities?

A recent success of Omnicom Media Group on Quora in Asia Pacific was their campaign for Versuni (formerly, Philips Domestic Appliances). The Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific team targeted specific audience cohorts on Quora, focusing on consumers seeking reviews and feedback on home appliances like mixers, grinders, and other appliances.

While pushing branded content for Versuni, they discovered that there already was a lot of existing user-generated content on Quora which validated the products’ value and performance that they were able to leverage for Versuni’s campaign.

Over a 40-45 day period, the campaign achieved impressive results, garnering over 5 million views and driving significant traffic to the brand’s Quora page, effectively engaging the target community.

How does Omnicom Media Group utilize data analytics to enhance marketing strategies and decision-making?

Omnicom Media Group utilizes advanced analytics to create a data-driven strategy, which also comprises predictive and prescriptive analytics, to enhance marketing strategies and decision-making. Their proprietary marketing orchestration platform, Omni allows for precise audience segmentation, media optimisation, and real-time campaign measurement using detailed data points. They also employ their proprietary cultural insight tool “Q” that leverages NLP to analyze category, trend, brand-related discussions on platforms like Quora, capturing sentiments and trends to inform marketing strategies and optimize media investments across channels.

How does your team typically use insights from Quora in their day-to-day planning or upcoming campaign suggestions to refine their strategy?

Omnicom Media Group leverages insights from Quora’s platform to grasp cultural trends and apply them to their content and communication strategies. By segmenting users into different buckets, they identify key trends within these communities and use them to shape their campaigns across other major media platforms.

Omnicom Media Group also performs in-depth sentiment analysis to understand factors driving competitors’ success–whether it is product transparency or authentic storytelling–making these insights crucial in refining their approach. They find that signals from Quora are far more relevant compared to other traditional media platforms which often focus solely on demographics, geography, device type, and affinity of consumers.

What strategies has Omnicom Media Group implemented to thrive amidst the rapidly evolving digital environment?

Staying ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape requires continuous learning and agility, which are central to the strategy at Omnicom Media Group. They heavily invest in up skilling their teams and maintain a flexible operational model to adapt quickly to new opportunities or challenges. This approach ensures that they remain a leading partner for their clients and stay closely aligned with their evolving needs.

What are the core values that guide your leadership approach, and how do you inspire your team to excel?

Bharat’s leadership is anchored in empowerment, collaboration, and a growth mindset. He believes in giving his team full autonomy to innovate while providing the support they need. Open communication, transparency, and a shared vision are key in motivating the team, allowing them to tackle challenges together and drive the organization forward.

What are the marketing trends you think marketers should watch out for?

1. Understanding Large Language Models: Generative AI is evolving the search ecosystem and how brand recommendations are presented. It is therefore important for brands to be active in the online space and deploy LLM optimisation strategies to ensure they rank higher in the LLM recommendation game.
2. Building Your Own Privacy-Safe Framework: With ongoing signal loss traditional ways of targeting & measurement on digital media is becoming outdated, focusing on creating direct, privacy-compliant connections with consumers through first-party data and effective MarTech/AdTech use is crucial.
3. Embracing Social Commerce: Watch the growth of social commerce, where content and shopping merge on single platforms, simplifying consumer experiences and streamlining brand engagement and sales.