"As category leader, we needed to drive awareness around ad solutions for agency clients": Disney+ Hotstar's Nitin Bawankule

The head - ad sales, Star and Disney India, said the platform intends to conduct the program for at least top six agencies by March-end.

Last month Disney+ Hotstar launched an educational program for agency planners on advertising solutions and online video marketing. Through this program, the streaming platform intends to help agencies gain in-depth knowledge and expertise in planning and executing strategic digital campaigns.

“Digital advertising over the last decade has been phenomenal. Within that video ads have exploded. It makes 60-70 per cent of the data traffic in this country, which makes it the largest marketing platform for any marketeer, and we play a significant role in that. So we realised that as a leader in the category, we should launch an educational programme for our agency clients to drive awareness around advertising solutions on Disney+ Hotstar. The idea was to provide in-depth knowledge and expertise in planning digital campaigns for this platform and its capabilities,” said Nitin Bawankule, head - ad sales, Star and Disney India in an interview with afaqs!

Since it's an eight-hour long programme, it is split into two days of four hours each. The first session of LEAP was conducted on November 25 with the Dentsu India team and the next will be with Madison. The platform intends to conduct the program for at least top six agencies and 25 mid-tier agencies by March-end and by June-end at least 50 mid-tier agencies.

“Video consumption is surging. Currently, there are close to 500 million internet users in India. Over the next three years, it will go up to 800 million. So the consumption of videos is going to explode. And Disney+ Hotstar consumption will also keep growing. As we get new audiences on the platform, new areas will be able to add value to the brands who want to reach out to this audience. So this will evolve every year. So we plan to run this programme for all agencies in the next three to six months. Once we're done, we will get feedback and evolve to see if there are new modules that can be added next year,” he added.

Speaking on the need for the program, Bawankule pointed to a lack of in-depth information and insights. While digital platforms are an effective medium for brands to connect with their audiences, media planning on online video marketing platforms needs a different approach.

“Unlike our competitors who have no advertising on their platforms, Disney+ Hotstar allows advertising. So our kind of content is not available on any other advertising platform. The media planner wouldn’t know the audience for this kind of content. As a leader in the category, it is our job to create awareness. So even if a new media planner joins an agency tomorrow, he or she can be given a cheat sheet to say this is how you can plan a campaign,” he said.

This program helps Disney+ Hotstar engage deeply with the advertisers and help them reach a premium audience. It also helps the audience watch relevant ads.

“Our subscribers are the most premium audience in this country. We wanted to ensure that we give the marketeers the ability to reach out to them with the right messaging. For example, if Nestle or P&G wants to reach out with its premium products to the premium audiences, we have the ability to reach out to this audience and have a great value. From an audience perspective, the audience will also enjoy the experience of seeing relevant ads, rather than seeing random ads,” he said.

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