ITV

Tag: web 2.0

  • GUEST ARTICLE: The creator economy and how it has evolved over the last few years

    GUEST ARTICLE: The creator economy and how it has evolved over the last few years

    Mumbai: For many decades, we have relied on traditional media outlets like television, radio, and print for our information and entertainment, consuming content created and curated by a few major media houses based on the preferences and requirements of the masses. The advent of the internet and web 2.0 brought a significant shift in how we consumed information by decentralising content communication, creation, and distribution. Thanks to the opportunity offered by social media, we found ordinary people like ourselves writing, filming, and creating niche as well as mass content that resonated with people worldwide.

    And as a result of this, people moved away from traditional media sources. They started surfing the internet to consume content and connect with people who shared similar interests and experiences. Over time, people learned to market their skills, hobbies, and interests online. This resulted in the rise of a new economy built by millions of independent content creators, curators, and community builders, marking the beginning of the “creator economy.”

    Today, the creator economy is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion, and it includes everyone who is a part of the web economy, such as social media, blogs, videos, software tools, and tech platforms like Hypothesis designed to help them grow and monetise.

    More than 50 million people worldwide identify as “creators,” with two million or more earning a living from their passion through platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, TikTok, and others. According to a survey, YouTube content creators contributed a whopping Rs 6,800 crore to the Indian economy in 2020.

    The evolution of the creator economy

    ●      The birth of social media platforms

    Towards the end of the 2000s, we witnessed the birth of many social and content channels like YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, Medium, Linkedin, and more. The rise of the creator economy has relied heavily on the development of these platforms. We wouldn’t have creators if you didn’t have platforms on which they could create. It was due to social media sharing that content distribution became normalised. Today, creators are no longer at the mercy of large production companies, as these platforms have equipped them well to solve their distribution problems.

    ●      The emergence of influencer marketing

    Brands began to see the value in investing in creators to promote their products and services to their large on-platform audiences as they began to build a dedicated audience engaging with their content due to their skills and personalities. This proved a very successful marketing strategy, aka “influencer marketing,” as it allowed brands to tap into a new market and advertise to a niche audience more likely to be interested in the brand’s product during their moment of consumption.

    Brand sponsors began paying creators on platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok in exchange for their reach to an audience gained through the platforms.

    ●      Covid impact 

    As social media platforms proliferated, people found themselves increasingly attracted to screens, both as creators and consumers. What many believed would be a passing phase, like the dot-com era, soon became a compulsion.

    With the onset of the pandemic, millennials and gen-z turned towards social and subscription based platforms either out of boredom or to supplement their income due to the economic slump. Because of the nationwide lockdown, everyone was forced to use online health, education, shopping, and entertainment resources.

    This has led to the growing dominance of content creators in mainstream media who are willing to pay for tools that help them grow their content reach and maximise their revenue.

    ●      Creators are brands within themselves

    With the constant influx of influencers, competition for branded collaborations is becoming increasingly fierce, prompting influencers to seek alternative revenue streams.

    Instead of chasing revenue through generic clickbait content, influencers are becoming the new brands. Today, creators have gained enough loyalty from their audiences to be able to sell any product better than the traditional brands. Creators are launching their brands without investing millions of dollars in a team and resources, instead relying on a combination of audience and reach, good branding, and a distinct point of view with their product.

    Today, many brands consider working with creators an essential part of their brand and marketing strategy. But it remains a largely unorganised space, with discovering the right talent to work with and measuring success depending on how each brand structures its efforts. The creator economy needs a unified platform to connect brands with customers through the right influencers and manage the entire campaign pipeline. At the same time, it requires a platform for creators to engage with their audience and build meaningful relationships with brands.

    That’s where “influencer marketing software services” step in, allowing agencies and brands to discover the right creator, conduct outreach, set up campaigns, and track performance on one platform. On the supply side of the ecosystem, it empowers creators and influencers to reach their audiences by understanding their content performance and audience affinity and collaborating with brands and agencies.

    The author of this article is Hypothesis senior VP product and analytics Himani Agrawal.

  • lDBF 2022: Content marketing to become an extremely powerful tool for brands in future

    lDBF 2022: Content marketing to become an extremely powerful tool for brands in future

    Mumbai: The second edition of the Indian Digital Brand Fest (IDBF) 2022, which took place on 12 October at ITC Maratha, Mumbai, ran an intriguing panel discussion on the topic “Content Marketing for Web 3.0,” which brought together minds and thoughts on how content marketing is going to be the next big thing and how essential it is going to become to understand the consumer.

    The session was chaired by Indiantelevision.com Group founder, CEO & editor in chief, Anil NM Wanvari.

    Beginning the session and putting things into perspective with the topic of web 2.0, TV9 Network managing editor R Sridharan said, “If you look at the innovation that has happened in web 2.0 is far greater than what we saw much before. Earlier it was static content, then in web 2.0 we saw that it allowed people to interact with content like becoming a publisher on Twitter, Facebook. It became richer in many ways. In that way web 2.0 has done an incredible job in making content an integral part of marketing for every chief marketing officer (CMO).

    “More than advertising, content marketing is important, and for that web 2.0 has done a great job. Web 2.0 has been a great learning experience from a content marketing perspective,” he added.

    However, Madison India vice president Kosal Malladi was of the view, “We have done a job in content marketing, but have we done a good job? I’m not so sure. When content marketing started, we thought that the end consumer wanted to know everything, so initially the content marketing was quite bad. We are getting better; it’s an ongoing learning process.”

    “We got to understand that if there’s too much content and information being bombarded on the consumer, then that’s also a problem,” pointed out HDFC ERGO General Insurance vice president marketing Alok Bhargava.

    Talking about the onset of web 3.0, Sridharan brought out, “No one knows how it’s going to pan out, but some things are very apparent and obvious. Firstly, on the content side, it is going to become far more immersive, and secondly, it’s about privacy. These things are going to change the game, and brands have to understand how to know their customers and how to interact with them.”

    He reiterated, “Content marketing is going to become more important in web 3.0 because, as a brand, I need to build communities and platforms where people will come on their own and share information about themselves.”

    “It is about creating the right content in the first place – if you have created some content which is not engaging the consumer and the consumer is not enthusiastic about it, then you have to have a harder look at what you’ve created. Researching the customer and what would keep them engaged is probably the most important thing,” Sridharan pressed.

    Needless to say, content will become extremely powerful if it is done the right way. He said, “If the customer sees value in interacting with you, he/she will come back to you again and again. You won’t have to persuade them.”

    Bhargava opined, “Content creates a good factor for any brand. If your content is not good, you will have to push it harder to the consumer.”

    According to Malladi, most of the content marketing is paid. Sridharan was quick to add, “When a piece of content is dishonest to the consumer, it’s not going to work. They are able to see through when the brand is not being authentic.”

    Regarding whether digital will overtake TV in outreach, Malladi said, “If you are advertising on digital, it’s not just the reach that happens but your ad is also seen on multiple devices.”

    “Yes, digital will overtake eventually, with connected TV taking over linear TV family viewing habits in India. The content has to be medium-appropriate,” said Bhargava.