MAM
GUEST COLUMN: Going beyond the short video format for digital media
Mumbai: Coconut Films has been in the business of TV commercial production for more than a decade and has recently delivered a digital film for the bullet brand, Royal Enfield. Breaking digital stereotypes, the film is a long-format one & profound. Much like the bike, the film – ’Home’ moves at a cruising pace, and leaves the audiences with a lingering feeling of connecting back with their roots. Coconut Films co-founder Tushar Raut shares his insights on creating the ad-film and how different it was to write for a digital audience.
Digital has been on the rise for a while. More occasions and more stories have been the mantra for marketers trying to connect with a divided audience whose attention span floats from window to window and app to app. So, how are ad-makers navigating through in a cluttered market? These are some questions that the entire marketing community has been facing since the short format video and video consumption online became a way of life.
The good news is that we are no longer being dictated by the inherent challenges of the medium and being dictated by the format. Digital gives you a lot of creative freedom on the upside. Brevity is no longer the order of the day. We are not writing for 30 seconds. Of course, the audience has the option of skipping but every second does not count so I believe there is a lot of wind beneath our wings by that count.
Short format videos are moving fast and selling like hotcakes but the medium has space for longer format and a lot of other kinds of storytelling. The thumb rule here is that there are no thumb rules. It is as ‘lawless’ as it gets. So, you have to do a lot of self-censorships and not get overindulgent with your own ideas. The script is the hero and the story you want to convey guides you rather than the medium.
For Royal Enfield, we picked a subject that most people would relate to, irrespective of the age group and the format of media they consume. The film for Royal Enfield speaks about going back to roots, going back home and that can’t differ in terms of emotions. Even when it comes to the tech-savvy audience, going back to roots (in most cases) is very soothing. Anybody who has been away from home while having a similar set of feelings. People may change with every passing day, their physical needs also change but emotional needs are less fastidious, it is far more basic and confined. That is what makes us so similar despite many differences. I believe that is what one should focus on while working on a film, be it for TV or theatre, or digital.
As for us, ‘Home’- the ad film which is roughly over seven minutes long, was not even conceived with the digital platform on our mind. We wanted to tell a story and tell it in the most authentic way. It was conceived with a feeling of wanting to give things back to where we all came from! Roots! We just wanted to make a film with a pure passion for storytelling without limiting ourselves to any parameters. We strongly believe that good content will be seen be it on TV or digital.
ALSO READ | https://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/marketing/mam/royal-enfields-new-ad-film-kindles-the-joy-of-returning-home-210804
The market dynamics these days are such that brand managers are often pushed by visibility, recall factors and maintain a continuous presence. While the line between content and advertising is blurring, on one hand, there is a constant need for being present and being connected with the audience. I don’t know whether to call it a downside but that tends to dictate a lot of other factors in terms of making the films, production values, etc. Initially, when the medium started putting out films, the brands would have smaller budgets, more films that were restricted to the short format. But over the years, marketers are coming to terms with the fact that a film is a film irrespective of the medium. It has to have a story, good production values, and weave well, overall. It really doesn’t matter if the film is for digital or any other medium because everything remains the same while producing one. One big takeaway for me has been that this is a very dynamic medium and still at nascent stages so it is evolving at a paid pace every day.
It is important for the client, agency, and the production house to be on the same page and understand the objective of the film both in terms of the creative and budgetary aspects. If the brief is clear and everyone is aligned, then you can do a phenomenal job on a tight budget also. Budget is not the prerequisite of success; it gives you more freedom to do a lot of things. But I think it is a sort of a litmus test for professionals.
All marketers will want the best bang for the buck and hence the entire value chain, therefore, aligns to this direction. ‘Home’ luckily was our pet project and the objective was to make an authentic, true-to-life film, which we managed to achieve. By the way, it looks opulent too and that is where our years of hard work has come into play, to achieve what we have achieved within the price points we had earmarked.
(Tushar Raut is co-founder of Coconut Films. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)
Brands
Zscaler, Airtel launch India AI Cyber Research Centre
New hub to boost cyber resilience and trusted AI use
NEW DELHI: As India’s digital engine roars ahead, so do the risks riding shotgun. In response, Zscaler, Inc. and Bharti Airtel have joined hands to launch the AI and Cyber Threat Research Center – India, a national initiative aimed at strengthening the country’s cyber defences and accelerating responsible AI adoption.
The centre is designed as a multi stakeholder platform that brings together industry, government and academia. Its mission is clear: protect critical sectors such as telecom, banking and energy, shield everyday digital users, and future proof India’s fast expanding online ecosystem.
India has long been a major innovation hub for Zscaler, with a substantial portion of its cyber research talent based here. With this new centre, that footprint evolves into a national collaboration engine. The idea is simple but ambitious, build in India, for India, and help power the country’s journey towards a secure and digitally self reliant future.
The timing is telling. India is building digital systems at population scale, not just enterprise scale. That scale has widened the attack surface dramatically. At the same time, cyber criminals and nation state actors are deploying AI to scan, probe and exploit vulnerabilities in minutes.
Zscaler’s research arm, ThreatLabz India, reports millions of infiltration attempts every month. These include espionage campaigns linked to regional geopolitical tensions, 1.2 million intrusion attempts from 20,000 sources targeting 58 Indian digital entities, and a rise in zero day exploit attempts across multiple industries.
In such an environment, perimeter based security models are struggling to keep pace. The new centre aims to push a shift towards secure by design systems and Zero Trust architecture.
Its strategy rests on four pillars: protect through real time intelligence, remediate by working directly with government agencies, facilitate adoption of AI driven security and Zero Trust frameworks, and build a stronger cybersecurity talent pipeline through specialised certifications.
As founding members, Zscaler and Airtel will combine global threat intelligence with local network visibility. Zscaler will deploy a dedicated India focused research team and draw insights from its Zero Trust Exchange platform, which processes over 500 billion daily transactions worldwide. Airtel, meanwhile, will contribute deep visibility into IoT and mobile traffic, helping detect suspicious activity faster and coordinate response across the ecosystem.
Bharti Airtel executive vice chairman Gopal Vittal, said the partnership extends Airtel’s commitment to safeguarding customers and the nation’s digital fabric. He added that the collaboration would address challenges unique to the Indian market and encourage secure and confident digital engagement.
Zscaler chief executive, chairman and founder Jay Chaudhry, said India’s digital ambition cannot be secured with legacy firewalls and VPNs. He noted that a modern Zero Trust architecture is essential for a hyper connected world and that the new centre would harness the scale of Zscaler’s global security cloud while empowering a new generation of Indian cyber defenders.
Additional members from critical public and private sectors are expected to join the initiative in the coming months, expanding its scope and deepening collaboration.
In a world where threats travel at machine speed, India’s answer is to think faster, collaborate wider and build smarter.
