Month: November 2015

Branded Content on Social Media

Shabbir Chunawalla

Yash Raj Film’s Bang Raja Baraat has crossed a lac views in less than 24 hours. Lakme BBB video depicting to families have gone viral. Man’s World of YRF has crossed 1 million views.

Branded content is for subtle advertising of the brand. It is a short film which professionals make. It trends on social media.

Brands such as Myntra Emami and many others have taken to such short films to promote the brand offerings. There are cameos in such films. It can do cross-promotion too.

These short films are made with a tight budget of Rs. 5 lac, but the costs can go up to Rs. 1-Rs. 2 crore.

The target audience of these films is generally between 18 and 30.

Start ups too take advantage of the branded content.

Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings

Shabbir Chunawalla

It was difficult for marketers to measure RoI on the digital campaigns.It was also difficult to map the target audience. It can be done now with Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR).

This new tool DAR can measure all kinds of display and video ads( except Twitter and YouTube app on mobile phones and tablets). Even mobile phones and tablets will soon be integrated.

DAR can measure online advertising audiences, the reach and frequency of ad campaigns and gross rating points (GRP) of the digital ads.

The new system will help advertisers and agencies gauge return on investment for every rupee they spend online.

Rural Ratings

Shabbir Chunawalla

BARC India proposes to include rural India’s viewership data. It will give more comprehensive information to the broadcasters and advertisers. It will throw deeper insights about what India watches.

By adding rural reports, there is almost a 2.5 times jump in TV viewership. Advertisers now know prcisely what their money’s actual worth is.

Vuclip

Shabbir Chunawalla

Vuclip offers premium video-on-demand services for emerging markets. They use a freenium model — both free and paid users. In India, they have close to 20 million free users, who are completely mobile users. They use the service when they come across the app and the browser. They have 6 million paid users every quarter. There is a constant churn here — both voluntary  and involuntary. Voluntary churn is when the user is unwilling to pay.  Involuntary churn is when the user wants to continue using the service, but does not have enough money on the prepaid card, for example. They churn out, but they return to the service once they have the money.

They source the content from 270 content providers — international, regional and local content.They make the content providers understand that the higher the monetisation for Vuclip, the higher will be the monetisation for them too.  To begin with, content providers want all their content on subscription basis. But this does not have enough scale. They have a sitting with the content provider, and decide which content they are ready to part with free, and which they require to be behind the subscription pay wall. News is loved, but no one is ready to pay for it.

Currently, their 90 per cent revenue comes from subscriptions and the balance 10 per cent through advertising.

HotStar, Eros Now and Spool are leaky buckets. They get a lot of downloads, but majority of them get uninstalled.

Facebook is doing lot of videos but that is advertising-driven. Facebook also puts Its software development kits ( SDKs) into other people’s apps. Whatever value was provided by Fb, the same value can be provided on third party sites such as Vuclip. In fact, they are partnering with Fb.

On mobiles, consumers  do not have long session times, as the device does not lend itself to such long sessions. Most sessions ( 90 percent ) are of 10-15 minutes. In such a short short span, people can watch humour, stand up comedy or sports highlights. It is no different in the US. It is not true that all that is watched on TV will be watched on the mobile.

They can think of having revenue sharing agreements with telecom operators. They can bundle data and video as a part of the package. This can be priced innovatively.

What India Watches

Shabbir Chunawalla

So  many questions arise on the watching habits of the Indian population. Who is watching what? What works ? What does not work ? Has the advertiser put money on the right show ? Where the RoI is maximum? All such questions make the world of TV watching a Rubik’s cube — whatever is revealed leads to a new puzzle.

Many GECS and news channels, many specialized niche channels, Over-the- Top ( OTT ) channels such as Hotstar, digital TV — all this makes the measurement complex.

Advertisers are looking at splitting their budgets between TV and digital which was earlier done on silo basis.

FM Radio

Shabbir Chunawalla

The first phase of radio broadcasting was launched in 1999. They launched 21 private FM radio channels. In July 2005, phase II auction were held. In this phase, 221 radio channels became operational. The previous 21 channels of phase I had to migrate to phase II, taking the private operational radio channels to 242 ( 21 + 221 ). At present, 242  FM radio channels are operational in 85 cities. In phase III, 135 channels of FM radio will be made available to the 69 cities of phase II. FM phase III ( 2015 ) extends to about 227 new cities, whose population is 1 lac or above touching a total of 839 new FM channels in 294 cities. The coverage area of FM would expand to 75 per cent of the country from 40 percent as of today. With the launch of phase III, radio is expected to provide advertisers a much deeper reach. Once phase III is completed all 839 licenses active in about two years, radio will command 9 percent of ad pie, up from the present 4.4 per cent. As of today, the industry size is Rs. 1800 crore, and it is growing at a CAGR of 15 per cent. Phase III will make the industry more conducive to mergers / acquisitions due to increase in the license period from 10 to 15 years.

Digital Assistants

Shabbir Chunawalla

Siri is the Apple’s digital assistant. Cortana is  Microsoft’s digital assistant. M is being tested by Facebook as digital assistant. Basically these are Artificial Intellegence (AI) platforms. The technology companies collect valuable data about the users when they use the digital assistants. This information serves as input for digital advertising, and keep a user tied up to their system.

Some tech companies give a personality to their digital assistants, e.g. Siri and Cortana. Some build their assistants with no personality, gender or voice, e.g. M and Google’s assistant.

Digital assistants can order flowers or make restaurant. As such, these can be used to guide users to particular products and advertisers.

There is always a possibility — what charms one may become annoying for another.

The Google app makes use of predictive technology known as Google Now. It responds to questions in a female voice.

Encrypted Messaging Apps

Shabbir Chunawalla

There are encryption apps such as Signal, Wickr and Telegram. These encode cell phone messages. Technology companies such as Apple made encryption technology a standard not so, part of its iMessage service. The keys to decode the messages are not held by Apple but by users at each end of the conversation. If this is not so, customers’ confidence is undermined. Even this end-to-end encrypted technology leaves a trail metadata behind.   This can be used to parse who is communicating with whom, when such communication is taking place and where it is taking place. The content is hidden by encryption but not the presence of the communicators. To read the communications, they can hack into a target’s device, what they call at the end point. Encryption is not helpful if the end point that holds the keys is compromised. Encryption has initiated a new debate about security versus privacy.

Ping Digital Network

Shabbir Chunawalla

Young audience is moving away from TV and consumes video on multiple devices providing an opportunity to create digital TV network. Apart from user-generated content, Google too was looking for premium content around 2012.Ping Digital Network launched its first YouTube channel on food called Indian Food Network. It has an inventory of 1000+ videos with 40 home chefs. Across all channels Ping has created 7000 videos. It has launched Music, Life Style and News Channel — Boom Live. Apart from YouTube, Ping puts its content on DailyMotion, another video platform. About 50 per cent traffic comes from mobile devices. It creates content in the utility, information and knowledge category. Advertisers too would like to be associated with such content. Right now, a TV commercial is edited to make a digital ad. Ping monetises its videos with the help of advertisements.

There are pre-roll ads, with strip ads appearing at the bottom of the video, while the video is playing. This accounts for 40 per cent of its revenue. Another 40 per cent comes from product placements in the video itself. The remaining 20 per cent comes from syndication. Ping syndicates its content to many platforms.

The content is of broadcast quality and is made economically. The content must have longer shelf-life.

It is still a nascent market, and there is emphasis on scaling. In the US there are popular digital networks — Awesomeness TV, Maker Studios, Fullscreen. With greater penetration of the smart phone, and the access to 4G, the digital networks would thrive in India.