EEMA 2010: Neeraj Roy: "In the digital space, a brand is a media channel in itself"

Neeraj Roy spoke about the key trends in the digital environment; the rise of mobile advertising; the link between activation, events and the digital media; and how the convergence of technology aids multitasking

Saturday, August 28, 2010, was the first day of the two-day convention of the event and activation industry, EEMAGINE 2010, held at ITC Grand Maratha in Mumbai. The event was organised by the Event & Entertainment Management Association (EEMA).

At the convention, Neeraj Roy, managing director and chief executive officer, Hungama Digital Media, addressed the issue of the power of digital media for experiential marketing, and gave a sneak peek into leveraging new media for this purpose.

In the context of the digital space, Roy first spoke about the dual forces of the "device" and its "connectivity". Devices today have the ability to store ample data; and the speed at which this data is connected to other devices makes the entire system come alive. It is due to these two digital boons that, at the press of a button, an ongoing event has the ability to be streamed live on someone's social media page.

This fact, reiterated Roy, has implications for consumer activation events -- for instance, a demonstration of say, a microwave, can be aired live in the digital space, which comprises scores of channels, including mobile internet.

"So far, we bought media space; but in a digital ecosystem, the brand is in fact the media," he stated. Although brands are yet to become an integral part of this digital ecosystem, he assured the audience that once they do, an intriguing market, beyond ad-funded mobile entertainment, would emerge. Concurrently, he stated that in the digital as well as in the activation space, the consumer is also the medium.

An inevitable eventuality that has emerged in the digital space is the "applications ecosystem", wherein brands use microsites for the purpose of enabling real-time streaming of events and activation. This facilitates interactivity and engagement between the brand and the consumers.

In order to illustrate his claim that the digital landscape is booming, Roy shared some interesting statistics. "Facebook has seen over 500 million consumers in just three years," he said. By 2015, apparently, there would be 10 billion internet connected devices, which go beyond the mere phone, across the world. This implies a rise in video consumption, thus aiding the existing link between activation and digital viewing of the same event, as it occurs.

Sharing India-specific data, Roy said that India is the second largest contributor as far as the use of the "top 10 global websites" (google.com, youtube.com and the like) goes. By 2013, there would be 50 billion applications that consumers will download. India already has 70-72 million internet users; this figure is expected to rise to 320 million by 2015. By then, there would also be one billion SIM cards in the country, with SIMs being used not only in phones, but also in other gadgets such as refrigerators, cars and microwave ovens.

Digital gratification, stickiness and instant-ness

He also explained the concept of "digital gratification" with the example of Bacardi. The brand's martini bottles come along with two million songs, which the consumer can avail from a website. This site also offers tremendous value in the form of movies and other entertainment options. "This generates the required 'stickiness' for the brand that makes the consumers come back to it," Roy said.

A glaring and fascinating instance of how a brand can interact with its consumers instantly via the digital environment is the use of this space by Nike, during last year's Tour de France. Supporters could text or tweet inspirational messages for the bicyclists; and these messages were, in real time, printed onto the race track by a machine called the Chalkbot. This was part of the brand's Livestrong campaign during the event. Senders of the messages were even given an area code of sorts, which they could feed into Google Earth and view their message digitally.

Roy concluded the discussion with the claim that today, the consumers that most brands are connecting with are digitally enabled and that maximum adoption of the "instant-ness" of this medium exists amongst the young and upcoming generation. "The scale of the digital business in the last four years, driven by the mobile space, has been huge. The next generation will enjoy this space most," Roy signed off.