Digitisation Begins 2013: Focused content is the key for both broadcasters and advertisers

Today consumers decide what kind of content they want to watch and hence even advertising needs to be relevant.

Presenting their perspectives at 'Digitisation Begins', an event on digitisation and its implications which was organised by afaqs! at the ITC Sheraton in New Delhi, both broadcasters and advertisers touched upon the importance of relevant and focused content.

Presenting the advertisers' perspective post-digitisation, Amit Tiwari, country head, digital, Philips India amplified the importance of focused content to be in brand communications. "If the content is not focused, brands can lose consumers. Today, consumers decide what kind of content they need to watch and hence advertising needs to be relevant," he added.

Taking the point forward, Sunil Raina, business head, Lava International, felt that post digitisation, the key for advertisers will be content co-creation. Citing the example of marketing for a smartphone brand, Raina said, "Video content is very necessary to connect to a smartphone consumer. Smartphone brands need to communicate with the consumers on a regular basis through content."

Anita Nayyar, CEO, India and South Asia, Havas Media also emphasised that content will be extremely important. "We need not look at TV, radio and online as different media. Rather we should look at video, audio and text as media, thus making way for integrated content in marketing," she said.

Pointing out the lack of availability in consumer consumption data post digitisation, Tiwari said, "Every sub-category has different requirements and we can't have a vanilla method of marketing for all. Marketing will work differently for a product such as a television set, compared to a hair dryer or razor, as the audiences are different. If we have the right data that reveals what kind of content is preferred by the audiences, we will definitely pay a premium to work something around it."

Supporting the argument, Nayyar said that there needs to be a currency through which the change in marketing can be calculated post digitisation. "Almost in every campaign, the advertisers' gut does the work where he knows what would work well among consumers. That has been coming from experience and not numbers. But in the long run, that will be difficult as consumer patterns are changing," Nayyar said.

Commenting on what channels should do post digitisation, Tiwari suggested, "The channels have to start becoming brands themselves. That means channels need to wear the marketer's hat. As marketers have a product life cycle, likewise, channels should also have a programme life cycle."

Presenting the broadcaster's perspective, Neeraj Sanan, CMO and head, distribution, MCCS India said that like in any other industry, the production is happening in the content side and monetisation is happening at the consumer's end. "With digitisation, the amount of time spent watching has gone up but the bad news for a content person is that competition is also increasing. Hence, content that determines better time spent, will determine better revenues and market share," Sanan predicted.

Presenting some content viewing patterns post digitisation, Sanan said that the basic philosophy of content consumption is changing. "Recorded consumption is going up and the whole concept of on demand services will drive the consumer behavioural shift. Content wise, channels need to keep an eye on local languages. We also need a good Electronic Program Guide (EPG) to help viewers in content discovery," he said.

The event was partnered by MediaPro and TheOneAlliance.

Download Neeraj Sanan's presentation here