Quite a few path-breaking trends emerged in media and marketing in the last few years. Here are four which have impacted the most
The IPL marketing cocktail
In 2008, when BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) launched the Twenty20 cricket extravaganza Indian Premier League (IPL), it not only changed cricket forever but also emerged as a safe haven for marketers. The primary reason behind this: IPL has been successful in bringing Bollywood and cricket together, the two most popular mediums of entertainment in India. From television advertising, to various on-ground sponsorships rights, to food and beverage deals, to online broadcast rights of the tournament, IPL launched various innovative methods for marketers to hop onto this new platform. Another reason why marketers are gung-ho about IPL is its target audience, which is much larger because of the format and not restricted to the traditional male audience only who watch cricket.
Stars shine down
?Television is good pocket money?, says a senior Bollywood director and that is exactly how most Bollywood celebrities look at their small screen stints. Bollywood celebrity-led shows are a staple for most of the leading Hindi general entertainment channels and the format is omnipresent. And the list not only includes actors but other professionals from the film industry including directors, singers, choreographers, et al. While a big star and a good format can instantly help a channel earn some quick bucks and boost its ratings, media planners say there are some formats which need to be changed immediately. Again, launching new Bollywood stars on television, like Star Plus did through its show Just Dance on which Hrithik Roshan made his small screen debut this year, turned out to be a smart idea with the finale lappingd up one of the highest ratings ever.
Return of the sequels
On May 1, 1995 Zee Television introduced a music reality show on Indian television ? Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. It has been 16 years and the show is still running. The channel launched various avatars of the show including Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs for children and also launched the show in various regional languages on various channels across its network. The trend to bring back sequels or seasons of various shows, primarily reality shows, has now taken root on Indian television. Formats such as Indian Idol, Kaun Banega Crorepati, Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Coffee with Karan, Bigg Boss, Khatron Ke Khiladi and many others have made their appearance repeatedly on Indian general entertainment channels and are here to stay.
Tweeting into the headlines
In 2008, during the Mumbai terror attacks when Indian audiences watched a Hollywood style rescue operation on television, they also turned to two social media sites for quick and regular updates ? Twitter and Flickr. And suddenly there was a whole new dimension to the idea of ‘breaking news’. It brought social media websites like Twitter, Flickr, Facebook to the limelight. This incident also ushered in a new trend: Indian audiences, who were till now just consumers of news became the producers of news. Social media also democratised news, in terms of its dissemination. Today news can come from anywhere and from anyone. This year every piece of Indian and global news has broken first on social media and then on traditional news platforms. The rise of social media has forced news mediums, especially news channels, to have their own social media team to track news 24/7 and strengthen their presence on social media.