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Brands, instead of focusing on reach, focus more on quality engagements that are immersive. They do so through stories. SnapChat uses vertical disappearing videos. It is there on Facebook too. Stories have become the primary way to share things with family and friends. Social media is shifting from text-based communications to truly mobile networks. They capture in-the-moment experiences.

In India, the digital agencies mistakenly believe that the visual stories of TV are being seen on smart screens. They are digitally shot and are released on YouTube and later viralised on Twitter and WhatsApp. They are at times promoted on Facebook and Instagram too. But these are different from the stories of the social media.

Clients too do not understand the medium. Most creatives even today are shot in horizontal format. However, the content is eventually viewed and consumed in vertical format. Therefore the content must be shot vertically.

Social media offers a combination of video, text, pictures, blurbs, emojis, doodles and animations. In India, we concentrate on video. Then there are features like ‘highlight’, ‘swipe-up’ and ‘UTM codes’. These provide greater interactivity and brand push. Most digital designers ignore this. Story telling is passe. They should be brand-centric and interactive. They highlight ask-and-sell (tell the travel destination), pre-sell and sell-out.

Griffiths has written The Creative Thinking Handbook. There are three takeaways from the book.

First, creative thinking is ‘thinking outside the box’. How about removing the box altogether? The metaphorical box is made up of our assumptions and biases. To be creative, it is necessary to remove them.

Secondly, more parts of our brain light up when we are daydreaming. There is link between creativity and daydreaming.

Thirdly, optimism is associated with a creative mindset. If you are positive, you are open to take chances. You are likely to get support and you carry on after a mistake occurs.

Creativity and innovation are linked. Creativity is applied in innovation. Apple envisaged a phone without a keyboard — this is a creative idea. The actual creation is an innovation, i.e. an iPhone.

Xerox was highly creative and they had pioneered many elements associated with a P C. Xerox did not publicise these. Steve Jobs realised the potential of their research.

Creativity is difficult to pin down — it is in flux, something transient. It is better to have a definition that makes sense to you. The new ideas are born out of existing knowledge. They are incubated and cultivated. They are combined to form a new neural pathway in the brain. That leads to a personal original thought. The essence of creativity is thus the way existing pieces of knowledge are fused together to bring forward new original ideas.

Advertising business consisting of agencies, brands and advertisers is in a state of flux. It has bright future provided it redefines and reinvents itself. Business is becoming globalized. Communication technology has changed and media has become personalized and fragmented. Big data has entered the scene. Demography changes as the overwhelming young or geriatric population are seen. The metrics of effectiveness are emerging. The content is becoming two-way which was traditionally one-way. It is being measured in real time. Advertising holding companies are reinventing. They add new capabilities and integrate diverse skills. Brands matter, but brand building has changed. Social media and direct distribution can be used to build brands.

Print media ad revenues stand at Rs. 22,121.8 crore in 2018. It is expected to grow to Rs.22,424.3 crore in 2019.

Print is growing because of the credibility it offers in this era of fake news. It continues to be dominant in India, though elsewhere it has suffered. Another reason for growth is the language editions of print media. Print gives well-researched and authentic content. It makes the medium credible.

As India has general elections in 2019, print will attract a larger pie of political campaigning. There is growth in education and real estate advertising. It is a non-intrusive medium. It has higher engagement and thus has better power to influence and drive change. Readership has grown across all age groups.

English newspaper face competition from online media. There is a drop in readership but it is compensated by growth in languages.

In print, we do not press a button, and still it allows us to pause, rewind and fast forward. It engages the power to move with the written word or headline remains intact. Print is sanity and allows sober conversation with the audience.

However, it goes without saying that print is changing fast. A daily newspaper at the door step becomes dated since the digital and electronic media outpace it. It, therefore, has to focus on views, opinions and editorials. It should have entertainment content. Instead of news, we desire its understanding through a newspaper.

It is not possible to scroll, swipe or click away from an interesting ad. People would spend time on it. They should carry back a good, clear impression of the message and brand.

So far Netflix, HBO and Hulu were operating in the streaming entertainment market. Disney, AT & T’s Warner Media and Apple propose to enter this market creating shows which cost as much as the big budget movies.

An episode of streaming entertainment costs $ 8 million-$15 million, thus surpassing the cost of an average TV show. There are additional marketing and miscellaneous expenses. Over many seasons, the total costs may cross $ 150 million, thus equalling the cost of putting a new Spiderman movie in theatrical circuit nationwide.

Initially, an episode of House of Cards (Netflix) used to cost in 2013 $ 4.5, and was considered expensive. These days an episode of Disney’s The Mandorian approaches $ 15 million. Amazon spends $250 million to buy the rights of Lord of the Rings series. There are massive star costs, cost of exotic film locations, state-of-the art special effects. Therefor, budgets shoot up.

In pre-streaming era, the actor salaries were the main cause of the rising costs of the TV shows. The ad revenues were utilised to cover the production costs. The return for a big budget streaming show is still intangible.

Google’s business model depends on ads. A vast majority of Google’s revenue is derived from contextual advertising delivered on search. That type of advertising virtually requires no personal information. It is contextual information, i.e. if you run a search for a particular product, they can show you ads for related products or some other products that will be of interest to you simply based on the most recent query that you ran. They do not need to know who you are or your past behaviour on other websites to run these ads.

They do run interest-based advertising, and in the context of that, there is personal information that is processed.

While doing so, the model provides the strongest privacy protection for users around the world.

As the underlying technology is so dynamic, it is very difficult to envisage a legislation to anticipate the future problems and address them now. There should be data minimisation — the ability to do with less data. There has to be a balance between the interest of users and third-party developers.

Podcast is a word coined by British journalist Ben Hammershey by combining iPod and broadcast. It gained popularity in the West around 2004. These are the audio files which can be streamed or downloaded over the Internet. It fulfills the need for fresh fanny and informative content. It should keep the audience engaged.

IVM podcast in India started in 2015. It targets 18-50 age group. There is Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts and Headfone.

Podcast content is unregulated. It encourages taboo topics, stigmatised issues and uncomfortable conversations. As against this radio content is highly regulated. Podcast fills the gap. Radio is capital intensive business. Producing a podcast requires a portable recorder, a good mike and some editing software. Podcasts are easy to make and economical.

In podcast eco-system, a listener can easily become a creator of content. There are online recording facilities made available.

Podcasts are meant for off-screen consumption. The content moves with you. You can tune in and tune out. You can multi-task.

Since content of podcasts in India is free, it funds itself through ads and brand sponsorships. It is a good medium for targeted advertising.

To stream a podcast, you need a smartphone and specific applications that can be downloaded. In iPhone, podcast is an in-built feature.

Podcasts are mostly in English but are also available in other Indian languages.

Digital Publishing : Podcasting

When you listen to a friction series, an article, interview, a research paper or a piece of music online, it is called podcasting. It is the best way to increase the time spent or what is called engagement. There are hosts who distribute and monetise podcasts. In video dominated world podcasting has immense possibilities in digital publishing.

Apart from podcasting, in digital publishing, there is role too for AI and advertising.

Podcasts Abroad

During the road trips in the USA, you come across podcasts. In fact, podcasting started in the US. The tipping point was Serial in 2014 which traced real life crime cases. It has been extensively downloaded.

Internationally, there are more than 5-lac podcasts. Almost 64 percent plus Americans have listened to at least one podcast. In India too, podcasts have been gaining ground. National Public Radio (NPR) podcasts have been downloaded in 2018 in India by 3-lac plus people. Indian language podcasts are yet to explode.

Revenue models could be multiple sources such as advertising, subscriptions and content marketing.

Podcast listenership is increasing. The FM fare is standard, and hence boring. There is an opportunity here for podcasting. Podcasts are making smartphones smart really.

Podcasts Wave in India

There is a podcast wave in India — NDTV, Network 18, BCCL, Quint and IE are launching podcast services. Podcast audience consists of young influencers. Advertisers are flirting with the medium by setting aside ‘experimental budgets.’ Listening to a podcast is like listening to a person across the table. How to monetise podcasts? Ads could be inserted dynamically as on YouTube. Another way is where the host reads out the ad adding his or her flavour. Third is to use branded conent.

Podcasts are used mainly to build brands and not necessarily for conversions. Dynamic insertions of 15-20 seconds for a month in 150 episodes could cost around Rs. 9 lac. Individual show rates range from Rs 32000 to Rs. 4 lac. Content creators work on ad sharing basis, usually 50:50 with podcast networks.

There are 18 podcast aggrerators, and the medium is fragmented.

There is lack of awareness about the medium, and hence it is difficult to scale up. There are efforts to start regional podcasts. The measurement system for podcasts has not been standardised. These are audio ads and collecting data from aggregators is a manual process.

These are the days of social media memes. Yet the cartoons have survived. They have the power to provoke and shape opinion. Cartoons are inherently an art of ridicule. As an art, it emerged from the streets. It is one-sided communication. In the newsroom, it has been made more gentlemanly. If you fear that the cartoon has the potential to offend, the cartoon is likely to become aseptic and bland. Why to have such a cartoon?

Political cartoons originated in the 18th century London. Colonial India has a thriving tradition of graphic satire. David Low’s cartoons made an impact on the public. Shankar is the father of Indian cartooning.

Cartoonists draw ire across the political spectrum. A cartoon often speaks louder than a 100 editorials. The words and caricatures have to jive. They cannot stand alone. Cartoons have the constraints of space and attention. Within a few square inches, it has to arrest the attention of the audience.

This is a popular TV show which came to an end on Monday, May 20th, 2019. Game of Thrones, apart from its story line is very popular for its larger-than-life locales. It is an epic fantasy saga. It captured the imagination of TV audiences the world over through its 73-episode saga. It is an adaptation of the ongoing book series, A song of Ice and Fire, by George RR Martin. It received 47 Prime Time Emmy Awards, most by any drama series. The show started in 2011 and continued for nine years. It was in its 8th season then, and the concluding part had been shown in a few hours In May 2019.

The story is about power struggle. Every player has to win , because a loss means death here. Every power struggle in history is marked by violence.

It is a story of Westeros empire. It could be decided into two parts. To north Stark of Winterfell ( Rules of North), Rules of Riverland and Rules of Whale and to south Rules of the Westerland,Rules of the Stormland, Rules of the Rich and Rules of Drone. These seven divisions constitute Westeros. The capital is Kings Landing. The King sits on Iron Throne and the plot moves around this throne.

In the previous seven seasons, each division was introduced. Each division is assertive. The weaker families wither away gradually. The three surviving families are Lannister, Stark and Targaryen. Lannister rules Winterfell. Stark and Targaryen have a prolonged fight to survive. The eighth season revolves around these three families.

There are many characters, but none can be called heroes or villains. They respond to contemporary forces. They prove their heroism accordingly. Stark overshines others. They are king-queen and their six children. The king is Eddard Stark. He is friends with Robert, King of Landing. He got Westoros empire with the assistance of Edward Stark. However, the king dies and Stark family faces changing times. The wife of Robert Sercy comes to rule and she tries to finish Stark family. In the struggle, the royal couple, and their two children get killed. The surviving four children Sassa Stark, Aiya Stark, Bryan Stark and John Stark disperse in four different directions. They keep the identity of the Starks alive by struggling. They are the real attraction of Games of Thrones. Another important family is that of Lannister . They are the richest. They keep their rule in fact by using resources. However, repeated attacks have made them fragile. Sarsy Lannister is the Queen of Westeros. However, her position is vulnerable as her two brothers leave her.

Targaryen family is the third most important force. The princess of this family Daenerys Targaryen alone fights valiantly. She has fire breathing dragons. It is difficult to subdue her in warfare. She is known as Mother of Dragon and is a strong claimant for the iron throne.

There is non-human White Walker, a kind of zombies. The Night King rules these zombies. These attack Westeros every 100 hundred years. This time all the clans combine to fight the White Walker and destroy them. Right from the first season, these were advertised as ‘the winter is coming’.

Since the Lumiere brothers first showed their films in 1890s, the projection technology has evolved at a slow pace. Movies were shot on 35 mm film, and projectors cast them on white screen, the humble parda or vinyl screen in dark theatres.

The film reels were assembled from different cans. They were spliced with tape. After every show they were reversed. It was hard work. It was a mechanical past. There was a whir of analague projectors owing to the sprockets locking into their holes, and there was a beam of golden light overhead.

There was a shift to digital technology towards the end of the 20th century. It was a big shift from celluloid to digital. In the last 20 years, projection technology has changed faster than in the whole century before. Digital projectors were introduced around 1999. The resolution was 2K. A decade ago, 4K digital projectors were installed. They show brighter and sharper images. Old timers still feel the analogue projectors gave immersive experience. Though digital projection is faultless, it is synthetic and false. Since projected image is a reflected image, it is more soothing for the eyes.

In 2018, the first LED screen has appeared in partnership with Samsung at PVR in Delhi. It replaces projectors. It is a giant TV screen with high visual quality. It was launched in Korea in 2017. It is called Onyx screen. The LED screen is not affected by ambient lighting. You could view a movie in a non-darkened theatre. Each LED screen costs Rs. 7 crore.