Google’s Aditya Swami And Facebook’s Sandeep Bhushan Join Advertising Council’s Board

Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has announced that it has appointed Google India’s director, Aditya Swamy to its board of governors. In addition, Facebook’s head of India global marketing solutions, Sandeep Bhushan will be a special invitee to the board.  

With Swamy and Bhushan’s experience and insights, the self-regulator aims to get a better understanding of the new challenges and their solutions and frame better policies and guidelines for the advertising industry. 

With ASCI working towards ensuring the protection of consumer interests, having Google and Facebook on the board, along with those of other stakeholders like brands and agencies, will help it to sharpen its ability to implement the guidelines well. 

Established in 1985, ASCI is a regulator of the advertising industry ensuring that advertisements conform to its code for self-regulation. 

Manisha Kapoor, secretary-general, ASCI, said, “Having Google and Facebook on our board is a great start to the new journey ASCI is embarking upon. It is vital for us to have a keen understanding of digital operations. We will benefit greatly from the expertise that both these companies bring with them.”

The association claims that the appointments also marks its fast-widening focus on digital advertising and platforms, which began last year with a partnership with TAM to monitor 3,000 digital platforms for misleading marketing claims, as well as the launch of the Influencer guidelines and influencer monitoring through an AI platform.

Digital advertising market has been witnessing a steady growth for the last two years. In 2021, digital advertising spend is set to increase  by 10.8% into a $284 Bn market, according to a Dentsu Media report.

Facebook and Google are the early players of the digital advertising market. In 2020, Google and Facebook combined generated INR 18.9 Cr in advertising sales. A combined 57% jump in digital ad revenue for the giants from 2019. 

However, the duopoly has been witnessing a shaky Indian market due to the venture of Amazon into the digital advertising arena.

Google India has also been in trouble as the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) has asked the tech giant to pay news publishers 85% of its advertising revenue for their content.