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Tag: YouTube

  • YouTube watch time grew 400% y-o-y, 80% on mobile

    MUMBAI: With a growing appetite among Indian consumers to watch videos online, YouTube, as per App Annie, has shared that over 180 million Indians are watching YouTube every month on mobile. The video streaming platform at the fourth edition of Brandcast India, further noted that the watch time in India has grown 400 per cent year on year and 80 per cent of watch time in India comes from mobile. From entertainment to education, from news to beauty – Indians are turning to YouTube for every aspect of their lives

    Held in Mumbai, the event brought together top advertisers, agencies, and partners from all across the country to discuss and celebrate YouTube – the destination where Indians choose to watch video.

    Improved connectivity, affordable data plans and huge variety of content available has led to over 400 million Indians online and 300 smartphone users today. In the mobile video era, viewers can watch what they want, where they want and when they want – and this greater choice for viewers also means greater opportunities for marketers. In today’s media environment, while there is plentiful reach, it’s harder to attract viewers’ attention.

    Elaborating on how ‘attentive reach’ has become the new currency for the advertisers, Google India and South-East Asia head of marketing Sapna Chadha, said, “According to a survey we conducted with Majestic Research, using eye-tracking technology we discovered, the first ad in an TV ad break is watched actively by 50 per cent of people while the last one is watched actively by only 13 per cent of viewers. Attention has always been inherent to advertising. But, capturing and keeping attention has never been harder for advertisers.”

    Addressing the audience, Chadha asked them to change how they buy and plan media for attentive reach. She also shared that over the years, YouTube captures audience attention by delivering 95 per cent audibility and 93 per cent viewability.

    Speaking on how to make advertising more effective online, MOAT CEO Jonah Goodhart added, “Everywhere in the world, consumption patterns are changing, making ‘attentive reach’ the foundation of any digital campaign. Measurability is the key to understand the efficacy of any brand engagement and we are thrilled to be the first company to independently measure viewability on YouTube.”

    Maruti Suzuki VP and head of marketing Sanjeev Handa asserted, “When you combine a format like video and you want to reach out to a billion+ Indians, the answer comes naturally and that is YouTube. YouTube allows us to tell the right brand stories to the right audiences helping us capture their attention. Case in point, is the launch of the IGNIS which was done simultaneously through the physical as well as digital medium to engage with the millennials and, the results were astounding. On YouTube, the launch was viewed over 10 million times, and 20 per cent pre-launch bookings came from digital in the first 10 days.” He further added, “For advertisers to leverage digital effectively, one needs to have deep insights into your consumers, look to target their interests and effectively measure the viewability of the ad.”

    Sharing his experience of working with brands, Kurt Hugo Schneider who has over 8 million subscribers on YouTube and has collaborated with over 40 global brands said, “Concept integration and not product integration, is key to making a brand video authentic and earning people’s attention. With technological innovation, brands today have the opportunity to interact more closely with their audience and get a feel of their preferences.”

    Attended by over 800 marketers, advertisers and creators, YouTube Brandcast 2017 also saw YouTube Leaderboard Awards where top 10 advertisers with the most creative ads were felicitated. The award celebrated the brands that performed best through a combination of popularity and promotion.

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  • Wrogn Virat brand in Jabong portfolio

    MUMBAI: India’s leading online fashion portal Jabong has announced the addition of Virat Kohli’s breakaway fashion brand Wrogn to its product portfolio. The men’s fashionwear brand will be available in 450 variants.

    Virat has been the highest run scorer for India for six years straight and was the fastest in the world to reach 25 centuries in ODIs. Jabong is known to have introduced a multitude of fashion and sports brands in India in the past such as TOPSHOP, TOPMAN, Dorothy Perkins, Missguided, Next, ASICS, ALCIS, Hummel, DC and New Era Caps to name a few.

    Wrogn’s launch will be supported by digital and social media campaigns including Virat’s selfie video announcing the brand’s launch on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. A separate Shop-In-Shop promotion will highlight the WROGN’s latest campaign images, videos, main categories & brand description on Jabong’s website & mobile app as well as the Jabong’s digital fashion blog. The top two highest spenders on the day of launch will be invited for a Meet & Greet with Virat Kohli while the remaining five highest spenders will receive merchandise signed by the Indian cricket captain.

    Jabong chief business officer Rahul Taneja said, “We are pretty stoked to launch Wrogn on Jabong, which comes from a similar philosophy of being comfortable in your own skin, and therefore, is a great fit for Jabong’s core shoppers. Virat Kohli is a true Indian icon, especially amongst the youth and is a great example of rising above the ordinary by just being himself.”
    Jabong chief merchandising officer Kalyan Kumar Gunasekaran added, “Wrogn collection exudes candid and comfort fashion and allows one to carry their own style effortlessly. Each brand uniquely differentiates itself in its language, Wrogn for us is just the right click.”

    Universal Sportsbiz CEO & owner of Wrogn Anjana Reddy said, “Wrogn is one of the fastest growing men’s youth fashion brand in India, and we are excited to partner with Jabong and launch our latest SS’17 Collection.”

    Universal, under its brand ‘Collectabillia’, is every sporting enthusiast’s dream. Promoted by Reddy – a national level badminton player – and backed by the Accel Partners, of the Angry Birds and Facebook fame, Collectabillia aims to bridge the gap between celebrities and their ardent fans.

  • Second season of ‘A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend’ to launch on Arré

    MUMBAI: Arré’s cult and award winning web series A.I.SHA | My Virtual Girlfriend is back with a season two. This season endeavors to further explore the maze of dimensions that go beyond the creation of A.I.

    Season two of A.I.SHA is about revenge, redemption and a revolution that threatens to destroy anyone who comes in the way of a mad pursuit of power, control and world domination.
    This season of A.I.SHA has six episodes and will launch on the Arré App, website (www.arre.co.in) and all its partner platforms, including Facebook, Youtube, SonyLiv, YuppTV, Vodafone Play, and others on 23 March 2017.

    Arre founder B Saikumar said: “We are overwhelmed with the response on A.I.SHA, a show that introduced a new genre within the digital space in India. Set in the backdrop of A.I, virtual reality and cyber crime, this season explores various emotions from love to revenge in the real and virtual worlds, promising to keep the viewer on the edge of his seat. A.I.SHA is very special to us since it was one of the shows that Arré launched with and we are thrilled to be coming out with a new season within the year.”

    The show is presented by Gillette Flexball in association with Palo Alto Networks and Indo Nissin Foods. Palo Alto Networks has also partnered with the series as script consultant and advisor, to bring in the required technical authenticity to the show.

    It is produced for Arré by Raghu Ram and Rajiv Laxman’s production venture, Monozygotic.

    Ram added, “We’re fast approaching a world where the power balance depends on who controls A.I. Season 2 is a peek into this exciting and scary world and A.I.SHA is at the centre of this deadly power struggle. This season takes this great game to the next level.“

  • Netflix’s Reed Hastings’ compliment pleases Hotstar

    MUMBAI: When the world’s most successful video on demand player Netflix acknowledges you as a rival to watch out for, you obviously are going to be fairly kicked about it. That’s the case at Star India-owned Hotstar.

    Sources reveal that the team – led by Ajit Mohan – inside the domestically originating service is pretty happy about the comment that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made last week in an interaction with the media.

    Said he: “Here in India, consumers are fortunate because there’s a great battle with Hotstar, Amazon, YouTube and Netflix, and maybe others, all competing for consumer’s time. When you use your mobile phone, laptop, smart TV, there are many services to go to. You can do many things. We’re one of the choices. What’s unique about Netflix is that we have got these international originals, combined with local talent.”

    Hotstar India claims to have around 60 million subscribers in India and is gung-ho about going global. The plan is to target Indians globally and possible other international viewers too: the number is anywhere between 25-50 million worldwide.

    The other two players – Amazon and YouTube – are backed by global super heavyweights, while Hotstar is backed by Star India, which is part of Twenty First Century Corp. The latter is a midget compared to both and Google and Amazon in terms of valuation and market capitalisation.

    Says a media commentator: “Hotstar is targeting a billion minutes a day of watch time. Netflix does multiples of that in a day worldwide. Hence, to be named as a competitor to be watched out for is a stripe on the Hotstar team’s shoulders. As compared to Netflix, Hotstar has a smorgasbord of content offerings which are very local – right from soaps to series to films, primarily in house content created for its television channels. Or there’s the movies and the international shows from good libraries. Of course, in recent times, it has been curating original Indian content. And then, there is the IPL which drives the nation crazy. It’s interesting to see how team Netflix will actually do battle with it in the marketplace as it seeks to scale up the numbers in India.”

  • Stop judging #SheForHer

    MUMBAI: “#SheForHer” is about letting the women be comfortable in what they identify with. A digital video campaign launched on Women’s Day drives a positive message to uplift the gender towards a brighter tomorrow. Before the acceptance from the entire world, we need to accept each other. The film ridicules the judgment we pass on to each other and gives us a perspective to think differently. 

    The campaign is launched by Gypsy Moth, a creative agency based in Bangalore as its first in-house film and produced by Green Apple Films. Gypsy Moth is founded to story tell the brands in the most engaging form.  

    Gypsy Moth founder & creative director Priyanka Chugh expresses her excitement releasing the film on International Women’s Day, “We happen to have an all women crew to work on the film which made it a very interesting journey. Launching an occasion driven film, is our first step to create in-house content and a YouTube channel to engage viewers online. We believe if our stories trigger emotions in our viewers, we consider our job is done. In future, we would like to associate with brands who want to send out a strong message through the art of storytelling.”

    Film writer & director Diksha Grover talks about the story and screenplay being the integral part of the film, “The film celebrates the joy of valuing the woman in front of you and supporting her in the simplest of manner. Every character & situation tries to highlight the point that the fight isn’t against each other. Its only when we stand by each other, do we bring out the best of being a woman.”

    DOP Preetha shares her experience of shooting the film’ “We captured every scene in its purest form to make it look real so everyone can easily relate to the situation. When I read the script, I knew this was a simple yet powerful film and I would love to be associated with something like this. I hope the message reaches the audience and triggers a change.”


     

  • Content & channel management vital as Asian production enters new growth cycle

    MUMBAI: The TV, film and video production sector in Asia is set to enter a new cycle of growth, according to a new report from Media Partners Asia (MPA), as economic development and evolving distribution ecosystems stoke competition and demand for better shows, as well as more varied formats and approaches.

    MPA’s Video Content Dynamics, published today, reviews industry supply, demand and key drivers across India, Korea and five markets in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) on free, pay and OTT platforms. The report breaks out ratings performance, economics and key players by genre (drama, movies, news, sports, kids and factual), as well as theatrical performance for local and international films.

    TV is the dominant viewing platform in these markets. However, as more people get access to affordable high-speed broadband, quality content as well as proactive channel management are becoming increasingly important for incumbent broadcasters, MPA analysts noted.

    “Online video is gaining traction in key emerging markets, as broadband speeds increase and connection costs come down,” said Media Partners Asia VP – Research & Consulting Steve Laslocky. “Leading broadcasters are rolling out ad-supported catch-up services while subscription online video services (local, regional and global) are gaining traction with premium Asian content as well as domestic and Hollywood movies. More than ever, a healthy local production ecosystem is a vital component of a healthy TV market.”

    Korean content remains the gold standard for production in Asia, expanding beyond drama and film to become a genre in its own right. Costs are increasing in Korea’s highly competitive domestic marketplace, where profits are challenging. At the same time, demand and pricing power in MPA-surveyed markets continue to rise across both TV and online video, helping sustain Korea’s leadership position.

    MIXED PICTURE ACROSS ASIA

    Future growth prospects and the relative health of local production varies across the seven markets covered by MPA’s Asia Video Content Dynamics report. Broadcasters that rely heavily on in-house teams, as seen in Malaysia and the Philippines for example, risk stifling ideas and competition. On the other hand, too many third-party studios competing for work can squeeze margins. This trend, seen in India’s TV industry, leaves little money to reinvest and develop local production for the opportunities and challenges ahead.

    Indonesia stands out as a relatively healthy ecosystem among Asian growth markets. Southeast Asia’s largest economy comprises comparatively few major production houses, often operating with backing from one of the country’s major TV groups. Production costs are relatively low, while the free-to-air ad market remains buoyant, providing good returns for popular shows. This bodes well for the future development of Indonesian content.

    By contrast, the environment for production in India is almost the opposite. The rollout of digital TV is dramatically expanding viewer choices for hundreds of millions of homes in the sub-continent, while opening up opportunities to develop premium and more targeted content. However, intense competition for TV revenues between hundreds of local production houses has driven margins to 15% and below, making it difficult to capitalize on these changes.

    DRAMA RULES, BUT GENRE MIX CRUCIAL

    Multiple genres are fueling consumption on free, pay and OTT services. Local dramas, however, remain the most important ratings driver across much of the region, despite concerns about stale storylines.

    In India for example, domestic drama accounted for over half of all TV viewing last year, underscoring its dominance. Local series were also popular in Southeast Asia, representing 46% of viewing in Vietnam, 35% of viewing in Thailand and 31% of viewing in the Philippines.

    Movies also tend to rate well on TV, especially in countries with a strong domestic film industry. This is especially evident in India as well as Indonesia and the Philippines, the two markets in Southeast Asia with the largest box office and where local films also have the highest share of revenue.

    Sports, meanwhile, is a high-profile and high-rating but ultimately event-driven genre. Many international marquee events are aired late at night, limiting viewership, underscoring the importance of local tournaments. Monetization for some local sports, such as football in Malaysia, still lags international franchises however, despite high ratings.

    Contrary to common perception, sports is not a major audience contributor on pay-TV, while the popularity of recent Hollywood movies on pay-TV varies by market. Kids content, meanwhile, is a leading pay-TV genre in Indonesia (50% audience share) and the Philippines (22%).

    Some OTT platforms are starting to compete on early windows for Asian content, although not on Hollywood movies, where studios can still command high prices from premium pay channels and pay-TV operators across most markets. This will likely change over time.

    Investment in local content and original productions for the OTT window, meanwhile, is growing rapidly in India and slowly expanding across Southeast Asia. In markets such as Indonesia, local movies, dramas and series are boosting consumption across regional SVOD services.

    Monetization for ad-supported services however, with the exception of YouTube, is proving to be a challenge. As online video gains scale in the region, industry standards for comparable viewing data will be crucial to further growing online video advertising outside of the YouTube ecosystem.

     

  • YouTube challenges Facebook & Twitter with mobile live

    MUMBAI: Beware, Facebook and Periscope. YouTube is ready to ramp up a challenge with its live mobile closeup. Google-owned video network has began to let popular online video personalities broadcast on the go using mobile devices.

    The new mobile live streaming feature allows YouTube content creators whose channels have more than 10,000 subscribers to broadcast through apps tailored for mobile devices such as smartphones.

    According to product managers Barbara Macdonald and Kurt Wilms, this launch will put the power of live streaming in the hands of hundreds of thousands of talented creators, giving them a more intimate and spontaneous way to share their thoughts, lives and creativity.

    The feature would be available more broadly at YouTube soon.

    However, the functionality remains unchanged. As before, you can set a custom title, enable or disable live chat, and choose to send a notification to all of your subscribers. You can broadcast in portrait or landscape and messages will appear on your screen as fast-moving bubbles.

    Facebook and Twitter have already added such capabilities to their mobile applications, getting an advantage on YouTube.

    YouTube is banking on its reliability and rock-solid infrastructure to tempt people across, as well as a new Super Chat feature. Like Twitch and other live streaming services, this gives viewers the option to pay for a distinct, brightly colored message. It’ll stay pinned to the top of the chat window for up to five hours, and earn creators another slice of cash as they converse with their fans in real-time.

    Macdonald and Wilms said that Super Chat is like paying for that front-row seat in the digital age.

    In December, Facebook began testing a live audio streaming service that will let people essentially broadcast radio-style on the leading online social network.

    The new feature came as an alternative to a Facebook Live tool that lets people stream live video at the social network.

    An audio-streaming option promised to be useful in areas where telecommunication networks have trouble handling the larger data demands of video streaming.

  • Disney India’s goal is to create a content omni-bus, says Subramaniam

    Disney India’s goal is to create a content omni-bus, says Subramaniam

    MUMBAI: Bindass’ maiden web series Girl in the City – a story of a girl who steps into the bustling city of Mumbai to fulfil her dream of being in the fashion industry – has turned out to be a huge success for the channel. According to the channel, it has garnered 53 million views including all the micro-content, episodes, and live interactions with the cast. After 13 triumphant episodes, the channel is all geared up to launch the second installment.

    The channel is also launching another show next month.

    “The first season has done stupendously well for us. It was one of the most talked about series in its first chapter. I am very happy to say that the success of the first chapter has made us launch the second chapter,” said Disney India VP Media Networks Vijay Subramaniam.

    Girl in the City chapter two will go live with its first episode in March following a omni platform strategy wherein it will launch on all the platforms at the same time (YouTube and TV). This year too, Castrol Activ Scooter is back on board as the presenting sponsor with Titan (Tanishq Mia) and Zydus (Everyuth) as associate sponsors.

    “The biggest validation is that the title sponsor has come back for the second season clearly indicating that the show has exceeded their expectations. We don’t take too many advertisers because this content effectively works for brands as we are able to seamlessly integrate them into our story telling. In order to do that, we tend to restrict the number of brands we work with and it also gives us time to crate very interesting integrations that are within the story and don’t look forced,” asserted the VP.

    The story builds on the first season and moves in a very interesting direction full of surprises. It moves ahead from where it ended last season. This chapter of her life will chronicle Meera’s journey of self-discovery as she comes of age through. Through this journey of realizing her dreams and fulfilling her aspirations, she comes across Kiran (Karanvir Sharma), Areem (Preetika Chawla) along with Kartik (Rajat Barmecha) who play a pivotal role in helping Meera move a step closer to her ultimate goal.

    Girl in the City season two is directed by Samar Shaikh, written by Sanyukta Shaikh and is produced by Still and Still Moving Pictures.

    The marketing strategy of the show is on the similar grounds like its previous season. It will be conversational and will go wherever the viewers already are. “When we look back at the success of Girl In The City, the whole social engagement that we created by putting Meera Sehgal on Facebook and getting live updates about what is happening in her world was a huge hit. So, we are going to do something similar to help spread the buzz about season two. We are seeing a lot of demand already,” added Subramaniam.

    He said further, “We are pretty confident that it will beat all the metrics, every benchmark it has set with the season one. That is my expectation. We believe that it will do better than the first one. Our goal is to create a content omni-bus, which is truly a reflector of the world of millennial and is related to them. It should also have a unique bindass take on the story. We will perceive omni content strategy for consumption,” concluded Subramaniam.

    Bindass’ other web-series, The Trip, has also received a tremendous response from the viewers with around 20 million views. Though, the channel has not yet decided on launching a second season.

  • Netflix facilitates downloads on Android memory cards

    Netflix facilitates downloads on Android memory cards

    MUMBAI: OTT and VOD services have been adding a variety of content and myriad features to attract more and more consumers to their service in India. India is one of the fastest growing smartphone-owning countries as hinted by Ericsson recently.

    Launched last year in India, Netflix, the entertainment streaming company, recently added the ability to download its dynamic entertainment content on memory card or expandable storage on Android operating system.

    Users can now download content on Android smartphones and tablets. Earlier, the company had opened up the ‘watch offline’ feature as a response to the growing business race from players such as Amazon Prime and Hotstar.

    The feature however is restricted to inbuilt storage. Players such as YouTube also have a similar limitation. But, the new feather in its cap could Netflix hike its user base in densely populated nations such as India.

    But, the new feature does not surprise Nougat or Android Marshmallow users as they could already avoid limitations by using the adoptable storage option.

    However, for those who can’t do this, they make use of Netflix app and move to the option of ‘download location’ and select from the storage options — SD card or internal storage.

    Also Read:

    Netflix confirms seven million subs; picks up Amazon gauntlet

    OTT/VOD disrupted traditional ‘appointment viewing’ in India: Spuul’s Subin Subaiah

  • Netflix facilitates downloads on Android memory cards

    Netflix facilitates downloads on Android memory cards

    MUMBAI: OTT and VOD services have been adding a variety of content and myriad features to attract more and more consumers to their service in India. India is one of the fastest growing smartphone-owning countries as hinted by Ericsson recently.

    Launched last year in India, Netflix, the entertainment streaming company, recently added the ability to download its dynamic entertainment content on memory card or expandable storage on Android operating system.

    Users can now download content on Android smartphones and tablets. Earlier, the company had opened up the ‘watch offline’ feature as a response to the growing business race from players such as Amazon Prime and Hotstar.

    The feature however is restricted to inbuilt storage. Players such as YouTube also have a similar limitation. But, the new feather in its cap could Netflix hike its user base in densely populated nations such as India.

    But, the new feature does not surprise Nougat or Android Marshmallow users as they could already avoid limitations by using the adoptable storage option.

    However, for those who can’t do this, they make use of Netflix app and move to the option of ‘download location’ and select from the storage options — SD card or internal storage.

    Also Read:

    Netflix confirms seven million subs; picks up Amazon gauntlet

    OTT/VOD disrupted traditional ‘appointment viewing’ in India: Spuul’s Subin Subaiah