The duopoly of digital giants has been an existing reality for media companies, agencies, marketers and most new age platforms alike. If the current statistics are to be believed, Google and Facebook control nearly 85% share of the global digital media and together accounted for 186% of the digital growth witnessed last year. Being a part of today’s digital ecosystem, no company or institution is immune to challenges that are a part of this business. Competing for digital media dollars and diminishing CPMs is a constant fight with no winners globally, including the US. This represents a classic environment where restrictions can breed creativity and limitations can create the freedom for companies to look at functioning with renewed focus areas.
The India story
India has a digital playground of its own. The launch of low cost smartphones under tie-ups with the likes of Jio and Airtel bundled with data plans and wifi connectivity has given rise to a new wave of users that is coming online for the first time. Furthermore, triggered by Jio, the cost of consuming data has fallen drastically leaving a whole new audience demographic with increased internet connectivity, especially in rural areas.
Gone are the times when companies and brands could create robust content destinations, and expect users to remain loyal followers. With the outburst of information available online and an attention-deficit audience, one has to aspire to be omnipresent in order to derive the full benefits of operating. Hence, the growing importance of the OTT space in India cannot be undermined. Global and local players are leveraging the power of content to grow their subscriber base across different audience segments by building multiple platform partnerships.
Indian OTT players today, in turn, need a supply of original compelling content to stand out and gain share of voice in a cluttered market. There is no escaping the fact that digital content creators need to think of themselves as high premium IP creation and licensing engines to focus on creating an unbeatable library of content.
The content ambition
The realisation of this content ambition will require companies to be agile, nimble and think like a start-up. Success in the content game is no longer about being a big or small company; it is about speed. A few years ago, Snapchat arguably revamped the content landscape and introduced the world to the vertical format which is the new normal for millennials. Today, research shows that we hold our phones vertically 94% of the time. The trend demanded a massive restructuring of content programming as well as the talent that was being hired to create this content. The end result? Top brands and platforms grappled with introducing this trend to their existing storytelling — Facebook and Instagram created Stories, ESPN created a Snapchat SportsCentre, General Electric revamped its locomotive marketing approach and the list goes on. Furthermore, newsrooms and content teams brought in younger talent, 15-20 year-olds who grew up on digital to create and curate this content.
Having an ‘off-platform strategy’ is almost as necessary as having the right talent pool thinking and creating original content. In other words, distribution and content cannot be looked at as separate functions anymore — both have to prevail symbiotically in order to build a successful monetisation strategy.
By- Chanpreet Arora, The author is CEO, Vice India
