Mumbai: At the Media Investment Summit 2023 organised by Indiantelevision.com one of the panel discussions was on the changing paradigm of the media business with the Emergence of the Digital Age. One point noted was that digital is in an emerging state. But there is complexity. With web3 and the metaverse coming into the picture the complexity needs to be broken. It needs to be made a lot simpler.

The panellists were Byju’s marketing head Atit Mehta, Abbott Nutrition head media, digital and CRM Loveleen Gajria, Dentsu India COO media Bhasker Jaiswal, Clovia general manager – marketing Nikhil Gulati, Pernod Ricard India lead digital communications Shetanshu Dikshit. The session was moderated by DDB Mudra chief digital officer Preetham Venkky.

Jaiswal made a point about complexity. He noted that measurement needs to be worked on to better measure campaign effectiveness. He said that the creation of jobs is going on in digital like creative technologists. This never existed a few years back. Command centres have been created within organisations. Niche profiles are being created. From a brand side, there are data specialists, analysts, technology specialists, creative mindset people, brand planners etc. All this is good because there needs to be enough awareness and education to be connected to the brand’s needs. In the coming five years digital will be pushed much more. Spends will increase. Clients and brand teams will be much more aware of digital.

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Gajria meanwhile broke down the journey of digital into fewer phases. Initially digital was seen as being cheaper entertainment than television. Today, there is top-rated production quality content being created digitally. She also noted that digital inclusion has happened through things like financial independence, e-learning etc.

At the session, it was also noted that the next phase of digital will be what happened with television. One will see heavy, medium and light users. The challenge will be to segregate and for a brand to figure out where its cohort sits. Digital is not playing second fiddle to television anymore, noted the session. Brands have to see how they can take the digital space ahead. What are the kinds of customisations, and personalisations that can be done? Digital has certainly emerged and one has to see what is next.

The discussion then moved on to the new digital channels that are growing that are not Meta, Google or OTT. The channels it was noted on are already there. It is a question which will come in. Nobody knew that the metaverse would be like one year ago. Today everybody is excited about it. If consumers adopt a technology brands will also adopt and then agencies will put more thought into it. So technology will drive digital not a platform.

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Gajria noted that specific segments have emerged in digital that cater to various audiences. People spend time on bite-sized games in between commuting. “That is a huge space, E-learning is another one.” She also noted that consumers learning about brands on e-commerce platforms will be important. At the session, the importance of AI was mentioned. Brands can get involved in ChatGPT. This can be a game-changer. There is a lot of scope for SEO, content marketing. It remains to be seen how Microsoft integrates it into its products. Right now experimentation is going on in ChatGPT and brand safety is important. The good news though is that each new technology that comes in sees a faster adoption rate. Brands need to know what the guardrails are so that they know what they are getting into. Search whether it is audio or video gives a lot of space for brands as an avenue. But at the end of the day it is important to be channel agnostic and consumer first. One has to see where the TG is. Dikshit noted that gaming, audio podcasts are big trends that brands should explore. He said that Blenders Pride conducted India’s first fashion show in the metaverse. “It was a big hit. We were clear on what we were looking for.” He added that influencer marketing is growing in importance.”

It was noted that OTT is struggling in terms of SVoD. There are TV channels that have one million subscribers on YouTube. Subscription is struggling because the purchasing power is not in proportion to what the consumption is. While some OTT platforms are lagging with 15-20 million subscribers a lot of the same content is seen on YouTube. Advertising is attractive. The dispersion between the paid customer and the ad customer is different here. OTT players are struggling with their paid subscriber numbers not going up. 

The session also noted that the lines are blurring in terms of content consumption. One has to understand consumer segments irrespective of where they stay. One has to understand what they want. What they consume is more critical and in this way brands can make their plans better. There is also immense potential in the vernacular Bharat side of things. The issue is that while OTT apps have 10-11 languages often the entire app experience is not native. This is what platforms like Josh, JioCinema are working on. The affinity for vernacular languages is high. There is a lot of untapped potential for brands to target vernacular languages.

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The session also noted that people from broadcasters to agencies, digital platforms define India, Bharat, India 1 India 2 in a different way. Is it based on demographics, psychographics, geographically? As a business, this does not matter. It is more of a planning conversation. At the end of the day brands need to focus on selling products where the consumers are. Business objectives have to be fulfilled. There is a market mix model and it could have Bharat, India 1, India 2. So if West Bengal is the key market then an OTT platform like Hoichoi works well. Brands need to be relevant to the context, culture of a place. Market priorities need to be taken off through a media plan.