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  • GUEST COLUMN: Social media will play critical role in building brand awareness in 2022

    GUEST COLUMN: Social media will play critical role in building brand awareness in 2022

    Mumbai: As India continues to fight Covid-19 and Omicron, and people continue to fear venturing out, digital initiatives in both advertising and marketing will become more prevalent in 2022.

    According to the most recent statistics, there are around 3.78 billion social media users globally. The number of such users is expected to climb again next year. Social media trends will rule the advertising and brand strategies in the coming year. Marketing and business will become more varied, inclusive, and responsive to real client requirements in the future. While AI and data-driven marketing will continue to advance, the primary focus will remain on people rather than technology.

    Using social media for brand recognition

    Traditional in-person events and promotions have given way to virtual spaces in brand awareness initiatives. We live in a world of social media marketing, and every company understands the value of social media. Whether you are leveraging influencers, referrals, or simply providing good content, social media has proven to be an important part of building brand recognition. This is due to the fact that social media is an excellent venue for brands to maintain client interactions while also increasing their chances of discovering new leads. In reality, many people become aware of new businesses after hearing about them via a friend on social media. Social media sites are a place where people may interact with one another. As a result, it’s an excellent area for you to interact with clients and build a relationship with them.

    Going ahead, 2022 will witness a greater emphasis on highly personalised one-to-one advertising, mobile advertising with in-app and in-game ads, video advertising, video-embedded display banners, native advertising, accelerated automation, programmatic advertising, and even cookie-less advertising, among other things.

    Here are the top 3 social media trends to watch out for in 2022.

    Metaverse and its virtual universe

    Facebook’s name has been changed to Meta. The company has planned a range of new products for virtual and augmented experiences as part of Metaverse. This is a major gamble on the web’s future, and it has the potential to change social media space. Companies will be able to benefit from new features which Meta will introduce. With the help of new emerging social media trends, they will be able to expand their product reach and visibility.

    Influencers market will continue to grow

    Influencer marketing is expected to reach $13.8 billion in 2021, with growth expected to continue in 2022. Influencer marketing efforts add a personal touch to the product, making it more relevant to the user. Thus, B2B brands will continue to embrace influencers in light of current trends.

    LinkedIn will grow in importance as a social networking platform

    In the digital world, LinkedIn is still a growing star. The company just launched a Hindi version to cater to the 600 million Hindi speakers throughout the world. With 82 million members in a global community of 800 million, India is a key market for LinkedIn’s growth and the second-largest market in terms of members after the United States. Since the pandemic, India’s member base has expanded by more than 20 million (15 percent year-over-year), and participation and talks on the platform have increased dramatically. This will continue to be a great way for brands to reach out to their target demographic.

    In conclusion

    Building brand recognition may require some trial and error, but having a dedicated awareness plan will surely help in your brand’s visibility. By following the latest social media trends, you may position yourself to become a brand that stands out in the eyes of your customers.

    (Rishi Kajaria is MD Kajaria Bathware and JMD of Kajaria Ceramics. The views expressed in this column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • GUEST COLUMN: Brand Positioning in FMCG sector is more than just good packaging, logos

    GUEST COLUMN: Brand Positioning in FMCG sector is more than just good packaging, logos

    Mumbai: The FMCG sector happens to be one of the toughest and volatile categories to succeed, often regarded as modern branding’s birthplace. The FMCG market in India was valued at $110 billion in 2020. The overall market size of FMCG had nearly tripled as compared to 2012. Furthermore, by 2025, the market is expected to grow to 220 billion dollars.

    There are numerous brands in India catering their products to millions of people across the country and generating immense capital. However, to become recognised as a household brand, it takes a lot more than just good packaging and ‘nice’ logos. Brand positioning needs synchronised efforts of different moving parts to create a perception in the marketplace that drives the business forward. 

    What is Brand Positioning?

    Brand positioning in simple words can be defined as the place a brand wants to own in the target audience’s mind. It’s about identifying, exploring and refining the distinctiveness of a brand through an effective positioning strategy. The most important aspect of positioning the brand is that it allows a company to be distinct from its competitors which helps communicate value, increase brand awareness and justify the pricing. All these factors impact the bottom line in a significant way.

    Strategies that Act as Allies to Brand Positioning Efforts

    Successful brands incorporate different strategies to create authentic customer experiences around their products. These brands provide their target audiences with a compelling reason to buy through effective communication and reaching out to them. While deciding to position the brand in the marketplace, there are certain strategies that can be adopted to stay ahead in the race and drive towards increasing consumer engagement.

    Creating Brand Loyalty

    At the heart of every successful FMCG company lies returning customers. This is especially true for the FMCG segment where products are usually consumed frequently and quickly. For long-term success, brand loyalty is critical that helps ensure consumers become tunnel-visioned concerning a brand. To drive brand loyalty, many companies make the mistake of competing alone on price. It is important to understand that consumers aren’t just looking for the cheapest products. Typically, they look for the right blend of value and quality. Value is not only about price but involves a complex mix of the brand promise, brand culture, brand values, corporate social responsibility, customer experience, etc. that all add up to enhance the perceived brand value.

    Aligning with the Needs of the Target Audience

    While this may sound odd but to become a household brand, it is desirable to be appealing to the right target audience instead of a broader audience. Apart from knowing the market, competitors, the sector’s environment intimately and understanding what the ideal customer wants, it is also essential to know how the offering can enhance their lives. It’s only when there is a proper understanding of the consumer needs, loves, hates and aspirations that companies can craft a focused and concise brand message that cuts through the noise. In the present age, customers are bombarded with messages from multiple channels throughout the day. The challenge is to put forward the right message, on target to grab their attention, at the right time and then, most importantly, to hold that attention. Companies can develop a customer avatar that they can use to underpin their brand’s proposition and profile. The brand should indicate why and how it’ll meet the consumer needs and that it understands what really matters for the audience.

    Evolving with Time

    The FMCG market is undergoing constant evolvement and brands need to be flexible to be at par with the changing times. Successful brands quickly recognize trends and act on them with shifts in strategy that helps them to stay relevant and meet market requirements over the years. With increasing digital media consumption, the evolution of business models and proliferation in internet connectivity, FMCG companies have vast opportunities to create value by leveraging digital media across the value chain to drive the effectiveness of operations and efficiency. However, there is a thin line between incorporating new trends and staying relevant versus losing sight of what the brand stands for. Instead of ‘muddying the waters’ with an excessive range of confusing brand messages, brands must always remain true to the core of what they stand for.

    (Dawinder Pal is head of marketing at Bikano. The views expressed in this column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • GUEST COLUMN: How D2C brands can level up their digital marketing game in 2022

    GUEST COLUMN: How D2C brands can level up their digital marketing game in 2022

    Mumbai: In today’s times, Direct-to-consumer is an extremely exciting space, primarily because there are so many interesting brands coming up in multiple industry verticals. Right from food to technology to health and many others, there are home-grown D2C brands making it big while raising investors’ money handsomely. And we are seeing some very interesting products and services rolled out for the end-users.

    Here are some focus areas on the top digital marketing activities that the D2C brands need to keep in mind when they want to market their products and services in 2022 –

    Advertising on Google, Facebook, and Instagram

    While this is something that most D2C brands are already doing to a very large extent, there is still a big gap in the way these campaigns are executed. Funnel wise break up of your ad campaigns on these platforms is going to be very crucial to be able to run profitable ad campaigns for your brand. In our experience of working with D2C startups, we have always advised having – remarketing campaigns right from the start, campaigns focused to maximise conversions, and using lookalikes as much as possible.

    Retention Marketing

    I primarily would like to talk about the usage of user engagement tools that help you retain. You want to focus on the lifetime value of your customers and while you do that the prime objective of your campaigns should be to use sophisticated tools like Webengage to bring the audience over and over again to your website and to have them purchase from you more than once in a year as per your product life-cycle.

    Conversion Rate Optimisation

    While D2C brands have spent quite some money in the acquisition game, the bleeding cost of sale has always been quite an important matter of discussion. In today’s time and age when the bottom line is super important from day zero, it becomes imperative that you focus on the conversion rate of the website as much as the number of conversions on your website. Reports which will help you understand where your users are dropping off and where you probably need to do a quick fix need to be generated regularly.

    Do not take an SEO any less seriously than earlier

    SEO is still one of the primary factors that will give you a long-term arbitrage on your cost per sale or cost of acquisition. This is primarily because when you are spending a lot of money in your acquisition campaigns using advertising models there is a very good chance that your organic growth will help you lower the overall cost for acquisition in your acquisition spree and help you remain sustainable in the long term. In our experience working with several D2C businesses, long-tail keywords with high intent and medium competition work best.

    Social Media Marketing

    Connecting with your customers is going to be much more important in 2022. With customers determining the persona of a brand depending on the kind of content they publish on their social media handles. If you want to be a cool brand you will have to have cool content on your social media channels for your customers to take interest and be connected to your brand in the long term. Start talking to your customers like a real person and not a suited-up brand.

    Similarly, the kind of influencers that your brand intends to associate with is going to matter a lot. The kind of content your influencers have been pushing is going to also affect the kind of personality you’re going to build for your brand in front of your customers. Personalisation, thought leadership, and focusing on building a strong brand image will separate you from the crowd.

    Being present omnichannel

    Being present omnichannel is going to be as important in 2022 as never before. This is primarily because of the kind of user behaviour that customers today have started from checking out a product online but probably going off-line and purchasing the product. You have to be in sight so that you are in the top of mind recall for your customers And hence being available at their favourite offline or local stores is going to impact your sales numbers more than ever.

    Creative Packaging

    Having great packaging for your products will be important. This is primarily because no matter how good or bad the eventual product is, the way it is packaged paints the first impression for the customer.

    (Deep Mehta is the co-founder of DigiChefs. The views expressed in this column are personal, and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • GUEST COLUMN: Paradox of Choice – How to influence consumers to pay attention to your brand

    GUEST COLUMN: Paradox of Choice – How to influence consumers to pay attention to your brand

    Mumbai: Twenty-four hours in a day and a zillion media choices to be made! This is the new regular day in the life of a consumer.

    From numerous apps to dime a dozen platforms along the consumer journey, audiences and advertisers are facing a present-day that is rife with limitless choices. Why? But of course, thanks to the internet, data, technology, and personalisation – things we have all become accustomed to. But there is a subtle undercurrent these trends ride on the back of – a paradox of choices!

    The internet has increased connectivity, and penetration is only expected to scale higher with time. The pandemic is accelerating pre-existing industry trends and altering consumer behaviours. In the context of the visual culture, we live in, courting the consumer with packaged and positioned choices is the first step, in the series of many, on the path to forging long-term relationships with them. And this journey is full of the subtle art of choosing.

    Evolving M&E landscape

    With the growth of the Indian digital segment, Television, online video, and social media are emerging as the top entertainment media. According to IBEF, internet browsing has gone up by 64 per cent with increased uptake of news, music, and AVGC. There is a marked shift from offline to online consumption for news with 45-minutes to an hour spent on news on social media and apps.

    Content to Commerce is the new consumer purchase journey. With cumulative time spent over two and a half hours per day, Indians are flocking to their social media accounts and consuming content in genres of news, comedy, the art of cooking, and culture. Then there is influencer-led content and shoppable ads here to delight consumers through the journey of content consumption across social channels.

    OTT Triggered Growth

    OLV and OTT platforms have witnessed a meteoric rise as the new entertainment destination. As per a report by Deloitte, popular platforms have garnered a 45-55 per cent increase in paid subscriptions after the outbreak of the pandemic with audiences spending 95-minutes daily on OTT channels. Rising demand for content and affordable subscription packages has triggered this growth. AVOD segment is anticipated to grow more by 2025. Vernacular adoption has also been accelerated during the pandemic and the momentum is here to stay with more than 13 per cent growth as compared to pre-Covid-19 levels, mostly from the hinterland of India.

    E-commerce Search Engines

    E-commerce and social apps are changing how consumers discover new products. Influencers have emerged as the new brand ambassadors and have evolved as a new marketing channel from discovery to conversion. Video commerce and social commerce are key and emerging conversational commerce-enabling brands are driving their D2C model through messaging apps like WhatsApp that the consumer is already acquainted with and uses extensively.

    The influx of short-form video apps is a testimony to this growth. Current statistics show that Indians spend five times more time on homegrown short video apps than global Instagram reels and YouTube shorts. Apps like Trell, Chingari, Sharechat, Roposo, etc. trail only Google and Facebook ecosystem in terms of time spent by Indians. Voice-based technology is breaking the literacy barrier in India. Searches on voice are expected to grow to 50 per cent, a 10x Increase in multilingual voice assistants is expected.

    All of the above trends indicate that the touchpoints to expose a probable consumer to a product have exploded. Meticulous decisions are required by industry mavens to validate the choices they make on one end. On the other, the consumer is scavenging for informed, yet simple choices to make better decisions, faster.

    For instance, at OMD, we balance the act with attention planning. In a world that is chaotic with choices, brands and advertisers need to be present on platforms their audiences are – adapting to consumer sentiment, being nimble, and providing a media mix of digital solutions to brands not hinged on a tall order but realistic metrics – distinctive packaging to cut through the clutter with creativity. After all, with the impact that the pandemic has had on inventory and ad rates, 2022 in the advertising world is going to be more about influencing the consumer to pay attention to your brand versus competitors and the journey will be interesting.

    (Sulina Menon is the chief client officer at OMD India. The views expressed in this column are personal and Indiantelevision may not subscribe to them.)

  • GUEST COLUMN: One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions

    GUEST COLUMN: One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions

    MUMBAI: Management guru Peter Drucker once said, “Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two — and only these two – basic functions: marketing and innovation.”

    Marketing is more important today than ever before as it leads to brand creation, which is the growth driver of the business. A brand is the biggest moat and one of the most powerful intangible assets a business has. Today around 11 per cent of a company’s revenue is spent on marketing. The second most important quote of Peter Drucker was, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” And, how true is this even today in this age of data overload.

    Around 70 per cent of marketing spends are on media. Advertisers have never been under more pressure to prove ROI. TV has been leading and digital has been growing over the years. Together they contribute to around 80 per cent of spending. Measurement of both remains important, but it’s critical to focus on the right metrics which can drive action.

    TV viewership has undergone changes over the years, especially with digitisation, NTO & OTT. The pandemic has led to increasing the overall TV viewership with rural growing faster. If one has to look at genre level, then News, FTA & Regional has been on a continuous growth & Niche has been facing challenges. The good part about TV is that it has an industry-accepted third-party measurement system which drives most of the decisions on planning and investment. However, the industry needs to sort the recent ambiguity on news measurement.

    The consumer looks at TV and digital as a continuum. The majority of OTT content is TV shows, acting as catch-up TV. Growth of connected TV has been fast, though on a smaller base and with NTO 2.0 closer, it’s an indication that TV might keep tilting the balance towards rural & OTT will emerge as new Urban TV. The question is “When”? The audience being the key, can TV take a step further towards digital with improving targeting capabilities at a geo level as well as consumer interest and affinity?

    Digital has been growing and the launch of 4G and Jio has accelerated the growth. Specific measurement is possible at the customer level due to the availability of large data sets; however, digital comes with the challenge of a common currency and a heavy reliance on self-claimed platform level data.

    Platforms do not talk to each other leading to higher inefficiencies in planning. Over the last 18 months, digital spending has been moving to lower-funnel actions driving purchase and conversion. Evolved businesses do understand the need to balance the spending across the funnel (TOF) to get more efficiency on performance marketing without compromising on brand building.

    One of the major changes over the last few years is the advent of the creator economy. Scale is a challenge here and the industry needs to enable this. There is a need to move beyond views and likes. Coupon codes and affiliate links are solving the attribution question. However, the focus should also be to measure brand advocacy.

    With large data sets and extremely sharper targeting capabilities, digital also faces the wrath of privacy which is now being spoken at various industry forums and is at a cusp of change with regards to customer opt-in and usage of data.

    Hence TV & digital will have to come closer and there is a need for standardisation of the measurement mechanics, for improving the investment decisions. While the basic measures like monitoring reach, frequency, views, etc. are important to track, other outcomes remain critical like brand searches including marketplace, direct traffic, time spent, footfalls, etc. Tracking customer satisfaction, mind metrics, and NPS is also a key measure of brand health.

    While today’s consumer is multiscreen, measurement of media is operating in silos and the absence of single-source data adds to the woes. The industry has to take steps to arrive at a cross-media third-party measurement currency that helps measure effectiveness as well as efficiency of marketing spending.

    And finally, brand metrics across the marketing funnel, like awareness, consideration, and purchase intent will remain critical varying from business to business depending on customer engagement. The power of the brand will be determined by the ability to charge a price premium, loyalty, and advocacy, and it is imperative to measure these continuously.

    (Rahul K Shah is general manager, Motivator at GroupM. The views expressed in this column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • GUEST COLUMN: Five game-changing Indian ad trends to watch out for in 2022

    GUEST COLUMN: Five game-changing Indian ad trends to watch out for in 2022

    Mumbai: The pandemic came as a sudden blow to every industry, with the Indian advertising industry being no exception. But this industry turned a challenge into an opportunity and is now on its path to recovery with a 12.4 per cent growth rate predicted by 2022. Advertising spends on digital media are expected to reach Rs 58,550 crore by the end of 2025. With the market dynamics changing constantly, brands and marketers are tapping into new advertising avenues and adapting their marketing strategies to align with the evolved consumer habits.

    Going forward in 2022, the Indian advertising industry will witness a major surge in digital advertising. It is important for brands to understand the top trends that will shape the future of Indian advertising to be on top of the game. Listed below are some key trends to watch out for in 2022.

    1.      Vernacular content is the future

    Vernacular content consumption is on the rise in India especially with the increased participation from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Brands are now expanding digital advertising to include regional languages with the rural and semi-urban populations consuming digital content in large numbers. Regional language advertising has emerged as a key technique to tap into a diverse consumer base hailing from different social and economic backgrounds. With increased digital activity from the tier-2 and tier-3 cities, vernacular content will continue to dominate the Indian advertising landscape in the coming years.

    2.      Influencer marketing is here to stay

    India is witnessing a surge in the number of quality content creators, pushing brands to capitalise on influencer marketing. Consumers today are inclined towards video content more than ever resulting in huge followership for social media creators. In fact, we are now living in an era where even venture capitalists are willing to invest huge sums of money in creators. Brand partnerships and collaborations with influencers, or rather, micro-influencers, will continue to be a trend in the coming year as influencer marketing presents high engagement opportunities at a competitive price. Influencer-driven ad content powered by predictive AI will assure ROI for brands, giving more impetus to influencer marketing spend.

    3.      Growth in video commerce will continue

    Internet connectivity in India has drastically improved compared to a few years ago. People can now consume online content at high internet speeds, opening doors for advertisers to effortlessly reach the audience where they spend most of their time. Video commerce refers to shopping during live video streaming of events. Video is one of the most popular ad formats in India and mobile video ad spending is projected at $596 million in the year 2022. Going forward, brands will exploit video advertising in many ways to motivate purchases from consumers. Indian consumers’ purchases are no longer just price-driven. They are experience-driven and videos help humanise a brand, raking in more sales and brand loyalists. The video-watching user base increased by 25 per cent in India in the past year alone with the number of users touching 350–400 million and this stat alone is a testament to the rising popularity of video content in the country.

    4.      Shift towards CTV and OTT platforms is imminent

    The CTV and OTT market is growing at a faster pace opening monetization opportunities for advertisers within the video realm. Connected television advertising now presents an incredible opportunity for advertisers to deliver content to the audience. CTV advertising enables advertisers to engage advertisers in a linear TV-like environment, encouraging co-viewing and one-to-many relationships. With the increasing adoption of casting devices in India, advertisers are expected to allocate a substantial budget for CTV and OTT advertising.CTV’s ability to provide incremental reach to linear TV has enabled advertisers to grab the attention of young adults.

    5.      Cookie less advertising will be in vogue

    The push for consent-driven data has forced advertisers to find alternatives to third-party cookies. Advertisers will have to rely on first-party data and rethink their advertising and marketing tactics. Retargeting consumers may not be possible like before as the use of data in the name of hyper-personalisation has raised huge privacy concerns. Instead, the coming year will see advertisers using first-party sources to align their campaign planning and customer segmentation, staying compliant with the consumer data privacy guidelines.

    In conclusion

    India is the fifth fastest-growing ad market in the world with the industry bouncing back to normalcy to touch pre-pandemic levels. Brands vying for consumer attention must capitalise on the above-mentioned critical trends to ride the wave of success. With digital advertising penetrating into tier-2 and tier-3 cities like never before, the ad industry is set to witness some interesting developments going forward in the future.

    (Arun Fernandes is the founder-CEO of Hotstuff Medialabs. The views expressed in this column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • GUEST COLUMN: How has the PR ecosystem evolved over time

    GUEST COLUMN: How has the PR ecosystem evolved over time

    Mumbai: It is no secret that the public relations (PR) landscape has been steadfastly evolving over the past decade, thanks to the advent of digital media and the boom in the tech space.

    However, the conversations surrounding PR and its evolution often tend to be dichotomous in nature, pitting the old guard i.e. traditional PR against digital PR. In reality, both these systems are poised to work in a syncretic manner, with the traditional model supplementing the advances made by digital PR.

    How has the PR ecosystem evolved over time?

    The internet has created an almost borderless media and this has led to the birth of the concept of integrated communications. In essence, the Integrated model espouses leveraging all platforms, traditional and online, to ensure that a brand’s message is delivered to the intended target audience.

    PR agencies have thus had to move away from pure media relations to a more holistic model of communication strategy that is driven by multi-channel quality content. Gone are the days when pulling in a favour with a journalist for a CEO’s profile would suffice. In the wake of the blurring of lines between public relations, advertising, marketing, online and offline media, PR agencies are now being looked at as strategic partners to their clients. PR professionals today are thus tasked with creating meaningful messaging and communication strategies that appeal to clients, analysts, investors and journalists alike.

    There are myriad of changes that are being brought about by the advent of digital tech in PR. Some are more prominent than others and thus deserve to be looked at in-depth.

    Influencer Outreach: After an initial bout of resistance, when this was touted as a fleeting millennial trend, social media influencers have now become an integral part of PR strategies. This is because most brands and agencies have realised the value that influencers hold and the immense sway they have with their followers. Influencers resonate deeply with a specific sector and this can help brands boost visibility and popularity by being able to reach their target audience. It also helps a brand to garner credibility as influencers are able to build trust among audiences.

    Performance and Result Oriented Goals: PR agencies can no longer rely on traditional currencies such as goodwill and trust. Digital media has ushered in the era of real-time trend monitoring and brands can now stay in touch with their consumers through social listening.

    This means that it is possible for brands to have accurate performance metrics and develop a keen sense of what works and the changes that need to be made. And most importantly, data gathering and analysis can now lead to valuable insights and more informed decision-making processes. Companies and their brand solution agencies are thus capable of having their ear to the ground and knowing how the market reacts to their product/service and what consumers are thinking.

    Deeper Impact: Now more than ever before, PR professionals are expected to take into account a multiplicity of factors. Brands and companies don’t just have to be good for consumers, but they also have to be attuned to cultural sensitivities and be beneficial for the environment. Media messaging thus needs to be able to demonstrate true purpose and reflect good intention on behalf of a brand in order to garner the goodwill and trust of the consumers.

    As newer industries and verticals such as healthcare and fintech continue to emerge, PR is set to become an essential arm when it comes to strategic communication. And contrary to popular discourse, traditional PR won’t disappear altogether. In fact, it will just be merged and supplemented with newer digital forward models. The future of PR is thus vibrant but also daunting, and those who are hesitant to pivot to adapt to this new order, risk stagnation or worse.

    (Akshaara Lalwani is the founder & CEO of Communicate India. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • GUEST COLUMN: How to combat streaming piracy with OTT’s broken protocol?

    GUEST COLUMN: How to combat streaming piracy with OTT’s broken protocol?

    Mumbai: With vast sums of money to be made, it’s not surprising that streaming pirates are continually upping their game to keep their highly profitable illegal businesses afloat.  A recent global study conducted by Ampere Analysis for Synamedia found that sports streaming piracy alone is worth over $28 billion and the Global Innovation Policy Centre places the global TV industry’s losses from digital piracy between $39.3 to $95.4 billion per year.

    From Bollywood and Hollywood blockbusters to LIVE sports including IPL and women’s football, streaming piracy has reached an industrial scale in India. Within minutes of release, stolen content is circulated, exchanged and sold on open internet sites and social media platforms, such as Telegram and WhatsApp, as well as on closed subscription-based pirate networks and dedicated OTT applications. Some illegitimate, subscription-based pirate services are now so good that consumers think they are using the brand’s own service, damaging the brand of the legitimate service and preventing upsell opportunities.

    But with superior intelligence and the appropriate technology and legal procedures in place, the industry can stay one step ahead, protect its revenue streams and stop criminals siphoning off billions in revenue that rightfully belong to content owners and services providers.

    Pirate profiteers raise the stakes

    Although low quality pirate content filmed surreptitiously in cinemas is still available, as more consumers switch to digital platforms, pirates are using increasingly sophisticated ways to steal content – and deliver it in pristine quality.

    And the pirates’ methods have advanced considerably since they simply exploited “the analogue hole”: in other words, stole content from the HDMI ports of Set Top Boxes. As license owners and operators have increased their protection methods, cracking down with a combination of source-detection and disruption technologies as well as legal action, pirates have been hunting for new and more concealed ways to source content and find the weak link in the chain.

    From Digital Rights Management (DRM) hacking as seen recently with Widevine, to bypassing client watermarking and manipulating legitimate OTT applications, today’s streaming pirates have found ways to steal not just high-quality content but entire OTT services, including redistributing directly from the service provider’s content delivery network (CDN).

    Sourcing, aggregating and distributing content

    A quick Google search will quickly take you into a world of organised crime: industrial scale professional hackers, criminal technology experts with content aggregators, content wholesalers and content resellers conducting the biggest criminal heist the world has ever seen.

    Current anti-piracy approaches – such as DRM, client hardening and concurrency restrictions are simply scratching the surface of OTT piracy and pirates continue to profit.

    Using the intelligence provided by our operational security team and with access to pirates’ scripts, we have unearthed the root source of this problem – the OTT protocol is broken. The technology of OTT delivery makes it simple and cheap to set up as a pirate operator. Pirates don’t necessarily need to break the DRM to steal content. Using pirate servers and clients, pirates are hacking the OTT protocol to get the DRM license and redirect pirate clients to legitimate service and content providers’ CDNs.

    With little to no acquisition or content costs, pirates have become ultimate media super-aggregators. They can bring highly-sought after content together at an unbeatable price with no geo restrictions or competition law challenges – and then redistribute the stolen content to their paying customers at the expense of the video service provider by using their infrastructure undetected. 

    Protecting content across the ecosystem

    With an understanding about the methods used and insight into how pirates operate, Synamedia has developed the industry’s first solution to systemically address the inherent weaknesses that make it easy for pirates to not only steal content but also entire OTT services, including gaining access to the service provider’s CDN.

    Synamedia OTT ServiceGuard makes it possible to securely distribute content on open platforms by validating that only legitimate subscribers and applications are granted authorised access and receive content. It gives each client a unique identity that is not cloneable and allocates secure keys for signing service requests, ensuring all client messages are validated for their authenticity and origin. This has a critical role to play in protecting content, but tackling piracy requires an all-round team approach, blending pre-breach approaches with proactive detection and disruption technologies and solutions.

    Synamedia’s unrivalled intelligence-based model leverages AI technologies alongside human intelligence – including undercover investigators and cyber security, psychology, criminology, and sociology experts – to monitor and map the piracy supply chain, detect, deter and disrupt piracy and orchestrate anti-piracy activities and legal and technical takedowns.

    The financial rewards on offer and the ease of set-up – combined with the low risk of arrest or meaningful punishment – means the problem of piracy will not go away.  But, by making life as difficult as possible for both pirates and viewers of illicit streams and making legal subscriptions more attractive, content owners and rights holders can not only protect their content investments, but video service providers can cut infrastructure costs and create the opportunity to capture new subscribers.

    (Deepak Bhatia is general manager and head of sales, India at Synamedia. The views expressed in this column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them)

     

  • GUEST COLUMN: How video marketing drives maximum conversions

    GUEST COLUMN: How video marketing drives maximum conversions

    Mumbai: The rapid growth of TikTok globally, as well as Instagram releasing ‘Reels’ over the last couple of years, is a testament to the rise in video consumption, with users preferring to watch short video clips on their mobile devices.

    These short clips, referred to as ‘snackable content’ are often shared by users on their social feeds as well as via messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, etc. Most large brands have been quick to understand the importance of creating snackable video content, as part of their overall marketing efforts and have been leveraging this trend for quite some time, with 93 per cent of marketers saying that it is an important part of their marketing strategy.

    What is Video Marketing?

    Before we discuss video marketing, let’s take a step back and understand today’s consumer, who spends a good part of his/her day on mobile device. Right from checking the news, to social feeds, connecting with friends and family, to shopping & entertainment, their life revolves around their mobile phones. This offers brands a plethora of touchpoints to reach out to them, via search engine marketing, through ad placements on popular websites, and promoted ads on social feeds based on their interests.

    Coming back to the consumer, they are well aware of the ‘techniques’ used by marketers to gain their attention, which makes them look at alternative ways to understand which is the right product for them. Here’s where online influencers and other ‘word of mouth’ marketing plays an important role. Consumers are more likely to trust a product if it has been recommended by a friend or by someone she trusts. This is why, brands have been tapping popular influencers to create content featuring their products. This is manifest in the form of videos featuring product reviews, unboxing, how to use, etc.

    Why is video marketing important for brands?

    Gone are the days when brands can simply create a ‘360 Campaign’ and expect it to deliver the goods. While certain brands, especially in the beauty and lifestyle space see merit in associating with celebrities to endorse their products, from the consumer’s perspective, this only helps in driving awareness of the advertised product. Consumers would still want to know what others say about the product, read the reviews on online marketplaces, see comparisons between different products before putting down her money.

    Here’s where video marketing comes in! By reaching the consumer while he/she is scrolling through the social feed, or when he/she searches for a solution either on YouTube or on a search engine, video marketing enables brands to build a stronger connection with the consumer.

    Brands can reach out to consumers at different stages in their consumer journey by creating specific video content, which addresses these stages. In fact, as per research, 96 per cent of users have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service. What’s more, unlike brand films or TVCs, these videos are affordable to produce and brands can easily create a series of videos without breaking the bank!

    How does video marketing enhance conversions?

    As per a consumer survey on how they’d like to learn about a product or service, 69 per cent users said they’d prefer to watch a short video, in comparison to 18 per cent who’d rather read a text-based article, website or post, or just four per cent who’d like to view an infographic.

    The best part of video marketing is these videos help brands to make that all important conversion, by providing links to the brand website or brand store on marketplaces. These links can be embedded at the end of the video, can appear as a call-out at the bottom of the video and can also be placed in the video description, along with other relevant links to the brand’s website, social media pages, etc., thereby building the trust factor.

    According to a research by Wyzowl, 94 per cent of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service, while 84 per cent say video has helped generate leads.

    (The author is creative director at BC Web Wise. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them)

  • GUEST COLUMN: Mobile marketing trends that’ll pave way for OTT boom in 2022

    GUEST COLUMN: Mobile marketing trends that’ll pave way for OTT boom in 2022

    Mumbai: The OTT sector in India has emerged just like a Bollywood hero — their entry is always late but highly anticipated, sweeping away everyone’s heart and attention. Similarly, the sector that was once considered stagnant with very low penetration across different regions and markets has today become the most promising sector. 

    According to a report by RBSA Advisor, the OTT market in India is expected to increase to $12.5 billion by 2030 from about $1.5 billion in 2021. This massive rise can be largely attributed to the shift in consumer behavior brought on by the pandemic. With cinemas being shuttered, consumers were bound to shift from the big screens to their digital screens. What added to the growth was high-quality content across OTT platforms, the widespread availability of cheap data, and the high penetration of smartphones in India.

    While we have witnessed and understood the growth of India’s OTT landscape, it’s now important to understand what the future will unfold for fellow mobile marketers to enhance their brand presence in this competitive landscape.

    The Consumer is King

    Brands need to delve deeper into understanding their customers better. The kind of content that they prefer watching, the average viewing time of the consumer, their favorite celebrities, and their preferred language will all come into play when a marketer designs their campaigns. This allows marketers to get a better grasp of their consumer’s psyche and enhance customer experience accordingly. Keeping this in mind, brands and marketers will need to invest more time and budget in leveraging the right customer segmentation tools to not only personalise content recommendations but also attract and retain more users.

    Old Will Still Be Gold! 

    OTT players depend on new additions to the content library in order to increase their user base. However, there’s power in the classics. As a brand, one needs to leverage the strength of their existing library and extract more value from that, or potentially think differently about content-acquisition strategies like partnerships. 

    A big part of using the existing content is ensuring flawless content recommendations. With more and more viewing and listening patterns being formed during these times, delivering a hyper-personalised experience becomes vital. Since the competition in this space is high, there is an equally high risk of losing a user to a competitor almost immediately if they feel the recommendations do not align with what they want to enjoy at any given moment. As the usage of OTT media apps rapidly increases, marketers will be required to revisit their user personas and make changes to their app interface to make it more user-centric and user-friendly. Thereby, making app navigation simpler and intuitive.

    A New Shift in In-app Messaging to Enhance Customer Experience

    As brands strive to compete in the OTT space, video apps that have partnered with news houses could take the initiative of sending daily news updates to their customers. These updates could include the number of coronavirus cases and the latest news about anything Covid-19 related via push notifications and SMS. By collecting geographical data, brands can also personalize this by showcasing news from nearby locations. By looking at user habits, OTT platforms can send two kinds of recommendations – one to continue watching the show from where the user left off last time, and another to watch related content. However, timing is really crucial here – for example, one cannot send recommendations to watch a show during work hours!

    From House Parties to Watch Parties

    Watch parties recently became the talk of the town during the lockdown when like-minded users could gather virtually to watch their favourite series or movies online. This was further hyped by various digital influencers stressing this trend and hosting their watch parties by inviting selected users to stream a movie together. This is a huge opportunity for OTT marketers to not only increase viewership for their latest content but also invite new users to the platform. During the launch of a new movie or series, brands can lean into influencer marketing tactics to host a watch party for users. Watch parties also serve as a platform for users to engage with one another, exchange thoughts and share their fondness for a particular show or episode. Thereby, providing marketers with a huge opportunity to understand customer preferences without needing extra budgets. Similarly, watch parties also allow users to share instant feedback on the content that they are watching, further helping brands to understand what content to recommend to users the next time.

    Integrating Augmented Reality (AR)

    Another opportunity for the future of OTT is integrating it with augmented reality. Many Snapchat or Instagram users are familiar with augmented reality and want more AR in their lives. Mobile marketers that use AR features in their streams will have a chance to get ahead and attract more users to their mobile app. Augmented reality also provides marketers the ability to create more inventive, eye-catching, and interactive experiences for their customers and will become a key success metric for customer experience and engagement. The biggest advantage of augmented reality is that it creates unique digital experiences that blend the best of both digital and physical worlds. It does not need any special hardware or software to savor the experience as mainstream smartphones and mobile apps are already capable of experiencing AR. Imagine how immersive it would be to watch a favorite movie scene in augmented reality.

    In the long run, while TV will still be a defining part of our culture, the OTT sector is something mobile marketers cannot afford to ignore. Therefore, marketers need to start wearing their creative hats to bring users new and exciting experiences that increase their loyalty to the OTT brand. 

    (The author is the co-founder and chief product officer at CleverTap. The views expressed in the column are personal and Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them)