Facebook is trying to reassure advertisers in India about checks and balances it is putting in place following the Cambridge Analytica data breach controversy, with its top global leadership teams reaching out to clients through emails and calls every day, senior industry executives said on condition of anonymity.
Members of Facebookâs Client Council, a group of company and agency heads that was formed by the social network to serve clients better, and other key agencies and clients have been receiving calls and emails from Sandeep Bhushan, its director for India, and the global leadership teams talking about steps being taken to protect data and privacy.
Read: Indian advertisers grill Facebook over data breach
While most advertisers and media planners told ET it is too early to gauge whether ad budgets for Facebook will go down in the coming months, there are expectations that the platform will provide clear and long-term security solutions.
âThey are trying to assure advertisers and clients that this was definitely a breach and they are putting safeguards in place to ensure this doesnât happen in future. They are saying they will be extremely stringent in terms of which apps can have Facebook logins,â said a chief executive officer.
âThey are admitting there was a problem and they are talking about what they are doing to solve the problem. So every day there is either a call or a mail coming in from the local and global leadership teams,â another executive said.
According to CVL Srinivas, country manager, WPP India and CEO, GroupM South Asia, there have been a series of issues with regard to digital media in general â issues around bots and ad fraud, brand safety and now, data privacy.
âAdvertisers are a bit worried about the implications of all of this. If they are not addressed quickly, then it could, at some point, start impacting ad budget movements and could create doubts in the minds of advertisers,â Srinivas said. âAt the moment, we donât see immediate cutbacks. But everyoneâs keeping a very close watch. It is part of a larger problem.â
Ashish Bhasin, chairman, South Asia at Dentsu Aegis Network, doesnât see ad budgets getting affected, although he acknowledged there is a need to provide a clean and transparent environment to advertisers in digital media.
âIndia is undergoing a boom in digital thanks to Jio and other networks. As per Dentsu studies, by 2020, it is going to be one-fourth of the market. I donât see ad budgets getting impacted, but if there is no longterm solution, then clients will get less enthusiastic,â he said.
Shashi Sinha, CEO of IPG Mediabrands, said he doesnât see foresee an immediate dip in ad budgets on the platform.
âIn the long run, advertisers follow consumers. Itâs too early to say what will happen. It depends on how consumers will react. Itâs such a big platform that overnight there is not going to be a big drop.â He said if most consumers settle for whatever Facebook says, then things will not change.