OPE smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’…,” said English poet Alfred Tennyson in his book Tennyson Year Book. He couldn’t have been more right. The beginning of a new year marks the start of a new chapter and everyone, including our friends in the media, advertising and marketing industry, is keeping her fingers crossed for this one to be a better year.
To understand better what 2015 holds for the advertising, media and marketing we have got experts from ten different fields— Binny Bansal, co-founder and COO, Flipkart, Mallikarjunadas CR, CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group; Raghav Bahl, founder, Quintillion Media; Tarun Katial, CEO, Reliance Broadcast Network; KV Sridhar, chief creative officer, SapientNitro India; Kiran Khalap, founder, Chlorophyll brand consultancy; Ajit Andhare, chief operating officer, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Arun Anant, director – strategy and revenue, HT Media; Srinivasa Rao, head-marketing, Lifestyle; Ritanbara Mundrey, head – consumer and customer insights, Nestlé India —outlining the challenges and opportunities that the new year will throw up.
To begin with, the advertising industry is all set to explore the digital iceberg in 2015 after touching its tip last year. Read this as the industry going full throttle on digital, says SapientNitro chief creative officer KV Sridhar.
From Zee’s Zindagi to Discovery ID, to Sony Pal and Set Max2, a set of new niche Hindi entertainment channels showcasing tailor-made content were brought to life in 2014. Come 2015 and broadcasters are expected to ride the digitisation wave to launch more niche channels, says Reliance Broadcast’s Tarun Katial.
Meanwhile, the going will be tough for the print industry, especially English dailies, which is grappling with falling readership. Yet another challenging new year is what awaits the Indian newspaper industry, says HT Media’s Arun Anant.
The Indian film industry is expected to have its very own roller coaster ride. From big budget movies to small scale movies with novel ideas, if the last year was a mixed bag, then this year will see film makers experimenting more with ideas.
The year will also witness digital gaining more access to our lives. For social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter to mobile messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Hike, Viber to internet giant Google, the game will be about transforming into a social entertainment company. While these platforms will come out as a journalist’s best friend for deep research and knowledge, you can also expect a bit of role reversal with these being used to break news, points out Quintillion Media founder Raghav Bahl.
After fighting a bloody battle in 2014, which saw neither side winning, this year both retailers and e-tailers are expected to come full-circle as they ensure an omni-channel presence. Expect a lot more action with e-tailers joining hands with brick-and-mortar retailers to ensure a better customer experience.
The effervescent youth will remain a marketer’s best friend as he tries to win it over. But a word of caution: Marketers should take a lesson from the Idea ad which says ‘no ullu banaoing’ (don’t try to cheat me) with today’s consumer much smarter and able to get hold of the truth with a little help from the internet, warns Chlorophyll’s Kiran Khalap. Enjoy this special issue.