Month: May 2017

TV Channel

Shabbir Chunawalla

The capital costs to start a TV station are not much these days. About Rs. 250 crores are needed in all, and the equipment used to broadcast and edit is getting cheaper every year. The large outdoor broadcast vans (OBVs) are gone and are replaced by hand-held devices with multiple SIM cards that can transmit the content to the studio as efficiently.

The running costs can be curtailed further by being clear about what the content is intended to achieve. Some TV networks used to employ up to 1000 staff. However, these days the primary offering of the channels is opinion and not reportage. Citizen journalists also contribute material. A channel can be run with a smaller staff. Content can be solicited from the viewers.

The important time band is 8-11 pm. The rest of the day can have any content. An anchor during prime time can do journalism which is polite questioning or take a personal position and opinion. A news channel has become appointment viewing just as sports match and serials are.

Digital Campaign

Shabbir Chunawalla

Marketers too see the change in consumer behaviour. However, though they find the youngsters going digital, they are risk averse. An executive will not be fired for an ineffective TV commercial, but if money is placed on the new media and does not produce results, the executive will face music. This is changing slowly.

There is a lot of flexibility on digital platforms. There are digital tools to get insights and turn them into compelling stories. In some digital ads, the brand is put upfront, which could be a hook. As against this, in TV commercial the brand is put at the end. If the captioning is early on in the ad, that attracts the audience. If the sound is mute, the captioning can help people draw in. What tends to work best are the super-long form or super short, 15 to 60 seconds.

Requisites of Native Advertising

Shabbir Chunawalla

A brand has to generate trust and loyalty and this is facilitated by the user generated content (UGC) in native advertising. There can be polls on the social media or contests. Native ads should be kept short and sweet. It does not mean that the brands cannot put the message across. They do by using strong headlines and relevant content. Native advertising is designed specially for mobile traffic, say for Instagram and Snapchat. Even if the content cannot be read on the small screen, they are likely to click on it and get the full message. As far as possible, native advertising should be designed for the platform it is used on. Social media are great platforms for native ads but they are cluttered. Publishers make available live video, 360-degree videos and virtual reality (VR). Consumers can now experience the content. The content becomes more engaging. Display advertising is being replaced by native advertising. The New York Times and BuzzFeed are monetising exclusively through native advertising. There are FTC guidelines for native advertising. The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) is working for the standardisation of native advertising practices. Standardisation is the foundation of programmatic buying and selling.

BARC in Digital Measurement

Shabbir Chunawalla

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) proposes a phased roll out of its digital measurement service called EKAM. It is Sanskrit for One. A portfolio of products will be launched–Ekam Pulse, Ekam Beam, Ekam Stream, Ekam Ad Scan and Ekam Integra.

The first digital offering will be EKAM Pulse which will measure video ad campaigns.

EKAM Beam, the next product, will measure linear broadcast on a digital device. Linear broadcast is streaming of TV content on services like Jio TV. Similarly where TV content is available on a device other than TV set.

EKAM stream will measure non-linear and pure play digital content. N0n-linear broadcasts are offered on OTT platforms like Hotstar, Voot or Sony Liv. Here there is a library of TV content which can be viewed by a consumer at any time, not only when it airs on TV. Pure Play digital includes content on platforms like Netflix, YouTube or Facebook. It is not content created for telecast on TV.

EKAM Ad Scan will give an overview of digital ads in India. It will show where ad money is being spent and sectorwise contribution to ads.

EKAM Integra will give common robust, independent audience numbers and will provide accurate incremental reach figures.

BARC will integrate TV data and digital video data with single source panels.

It will be de-duplicated. De-duplication refers to the unique reach which can be achieved by combining multiple platforms. It eliminates duplicate viewers on multiple platforms. The final figure of reach is more reliable for advertisers.

Advertising planning is facilitated. An advertiser wishes to reach a niche audience. Such an advertiser can opt in for multiple platforms. An advertiser wants to reach a larger audience. He can study the overlap between platforms. He can add an additional platform to achieve video reach. It reduces advertising waste and spillage.

E-Commerce

Shabbir Chunawalla

The seeds of e-commerce were sown way back in 1971 when the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network ( ARPANET ) was used to arrange a sale of an undetermined quantity of cannabis between students at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence  Laboratory and MIT. It could be called ‘a seminal occasion in the history of e-commerce.’  However, it was eight years later, in 1979, that the first online shopping system was displayed. UK-based Michael Aldrich’s invention started as a cross between a modern-day B2B and B2C model. Two years later, ( 1981 ), Thomson Holidays became the first B2B platform for online shopping. Amazon, eBay and Alibaba emerged much later.

In India, there were several start ups — JustDial, MakeMyTrip, InMobi, RedBus, FlipKart, Snapdeal, Paytm and Pepperfry. To begin with there was Rediff  era of the late 1990s and the government’s IRCTC portal. Since then e-commerce has carved out a path for itself in India.

FlipKart’s first customer was V V K Chandra. It was 21 October, 2007. There was a little beep on the computer screen informing the Bansals that they had their first hit. It was a young man from a small town called Mahbubnagar in AP, now Telangana. Chandra ran a small company for web consulting. He was fond of books, and was scouting for John Wood’s book — Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, but was not getting it anywhere.

Chandra did not know that his request for the book has created a stir of excitement in an apartment in faraway Bengaluru. Two anxious pair of eyes gazed at the order from their very first customer. Binny Bansal located a copy at a store in Indiranagar ( Bengaluru ) borrowed money from a friend as he had forgotten his wallet and Flipkart’s first product was packed and delivered.

In June 2011, a village in North India decided to change its name from Shivanagar to Snapdeal.com Nagar. That was in return for the Snapdeal founders donating. 15 hand pumps to the village. The villages got what they most wanted — water.

Content is the King

Shabbir Chunawalla

This is an old belief. It is not a well-defined axiom. To begin with content was never king. Differentiated content was king. There is competition between content and connections. There are connections among people, across products  and across functional initiatives. These connections are leveraged. Consumers may take to your product not because of quality or price but because it connects people with each other. Product connections are important too. When CD sales declines there emerged iPods and MP3 broadband internet and music concerts. The concerts were priced low as an incentive for people to go and buy the CD. Later, free music emerged. It was incentivising users to go to live events. This is an illustration of product complements. The value of a product goes up whenever there is a complement.

Apple, Facebook and Amazon gained success by connecting users or products. They now play in content space, but content is not their core business. It is a product complement. They would like to make it cheap and widely available.

Readers pay for content as long as it is differentiated. Readers do not pay for similar content. Still readers could be ready to pay for its complements. Young consumers are reluctant to pay for music, but are ready to pay for hardware, smartphones, live events and internet access.