As BrandWagon celebrates its seventh anniversary, we raise seven big questions for the media world. Seven luminaries from the media, marketing and advertising world answer these existential questions. Can broadcasters in India build a sustainable subscription model? Will print survive the onslaught of digital? Who will win the e-commerce race? For digital content companies, what will be the game changer ? content or technology? Will organised retail continue to be relevant in the changing landscape? Will the ubiquitous mobile phone be the final victor in the fight for eyeballs and ad dollars? Can the traditional marketing communications structure deliver in the changed scenario where media consumption is increasingly shifting online? Kishore Biyani, Bhaskar Das, Raghav Bahl, Mahesh Murthy, Raj Nayak, CVL Srinivas and Anubhav Nayyar outline the winning tactics in a changing media landscape.
In a world gone digital, the media landscape has undergone a complete transformation. People are accessing content on the move, using multiple platforms and devices and sharing self-produced content. Digital technology is continuously changing the way people create, manage, monetize, distribute, and consume information. The change has had repurcussions for legacy players. The first to feel the heat was the print media. In the West, the print companies are struggling hard to keep afloat. While the scene is not that bleak in India, readership has been declining with the younger customer, the darling of marketers, increasingly going online for her daily dose of news and entertainment. Television also finds itself in the line of fire as online videos gain popularity. Social media today is the new distribution channel; it?s where consumers socialize and connect with each other. Micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter are increasingly becoming consumers? first port of call for news and information, with advertising monies following suit. Media owners, media buyers and advertisers find themselves in a new world where old tools used for effective targeting of audiences seem to have gone blunt. To add to their woes, they have to grapple with an increasingly fickle consumer who refuses to be a silent spectator and demands to mould the world of media herself. In the midst of this mayhem, many other experiments are happening, e-commerce being one of them. Riding the ubiquity of the internet, a bunch of young and hungry entrepreneurs are giving brick-and-mortar retailers a scare as amply demonstrated by the resounding success of India?s e-commerce posterboy Flipkart?s Big Billion Day this month even as global e-commerce giant Amazon readies for the long haul.
It is in this backdrop that BrandWagon examines the current media landscape and wonders aloud on the feasibility of the old and new streams meeting to develop a new ecosystem. As BrandWagon celebrates its seventh anniversary, we raise seven big questions for the
media world. Will print survive the onslaught of digital? Can broadcasters in India build a sustainable subscription model? Who will win the e-commerce race? Will organized retail continue to be relevant in the changing landscape? Can
the traditional marketing communications structure deliver in the changed scenario where media consumption is increasingly shifting online? For digital content companies, what will be the game changer?content or technology? Will the ubiquitous mobile phone be the final victor in the fight for eyeballs and ad dollars? Answering these existential questions are seven visionaries of the media, marketing and advertising world. While each of them put forth their arguments, the underlying message is that it?s not the time to stand still and ponder but to take the bull by its horns; it is time to rethink and reboot.
Televison: Raj Nayak – Get ready for the revolution
The Indian broadcast industry is at the cusp of a major revolution in the way the offering will be consumed and monetized going forward. The Indian broadcast industry is still significantly dependent on the advertising model, and for the industry to grow and compete with its contemporaries in the developed world, all the stakeholders need to drive certain key action points.:
A 100% implementation of the Digital Addressability System (DAS) is a must for broadcasters to be able to successfully monetize a subscription model.
Support of the government, ministry of information and broadcasting and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which has the mandate to oversee the functioning of the television industry support is extremely critical for this to be a successful model. While information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar is already talking about limiting advertising on pay channels, this can be feasible only once the real implementation of digitisation takes place where the broadcaster along with others start getting their fair share of revenue. This has to be addressed first for the broadcast revenue model to change to a subscription led one, as in most other developed countries.
Indigenisation of set top boxes should be addressed aggressively, as it will significantly dial up the DAS process for both the multi system operator (MSOs) and the local cable operators (LCOs) as well as benefitting the end consumer. ?
A structured consolidation amongst the MSOs and LCOs will benefit the broadcasters, as long as it does not give birth to a monopolistic regime. ?
Consumer awareness programmes would be very important. After all, the content is being created for the consumer, and the more the subscription model is in favour of the broadcaster, the better the content that can be created to cater to the consumer. Higher distribution revenue would result in higher investment in content creation, which will be from a perspective of creating higher consumer delight.
n The broadcaster also has to invest significantly in customised premium content and in its specific brand imagery to create its demand in the consumer?s mind. We have already witnessed channels such as Star World Premiere and most HD feeds of the other broadcasters specifically catering to this need gap, and going forward this will emerge into a much larger segment of business for broadcasters.
n The broadcaster in the DAS world also has to be careful about the pricing and packaging of its offerings.
n All broadcasters, along with the support of all the other stakeholders, should push for increasing the average revenue per user (ARPUs). India has one of the lowest ARPUs in the world ? so this becomes a big challenge for all the stakeholders which they have to jointly address to ensure that the industry grows significantly. ?
Inter-portability of set top boxes is another important step, as at the heart of it is consumer benefit.
Additionally, in this super-fast developing world of digital, broadcasters have to look beyond the traditional subscription model. As the digital world grows and people start consuming content in a very different way from how it is done in a traditional model, it will be imperative for broadcasters to customize the monetization model. Going forward, no broadcaster can even think of ignoring this part of the business model.
The author is CEO of Colors
Print: Bhaskar Das – Upgrade not just update
In 1979, British pop music band The Buggles sang, ?Video killed the Radio Star?. The song relates to concerns about mixed attitudes towards 20th-century inventions and machines for the media arts. In the 21st century, not much has changed? and we still worry about what happens when technology takes over. The internet did after all kill the telegram, didn?t it?
However, it is important to note that in the space of news and information dissemination, evolution has proved that news will always travel across, in more ways than one. So, there can be no reason for conflict that pegs itself on the premise of either/or.
It?s not the ?end of the old?. It?s the complete convergence of ?old? and ?new?: Bluntly put, there is no war between formats ?print or digital or TV or radio?. The war (if there was one) would be and should be to fight for the attention of the evolving ?reading? consumer. It is the consumer?s trajectory that one needs to follow, and by that logic alone, be where the consumer is at. Given that we are all part of an era of the social media deluge, one needs to best acknowledge that the consumer herself is the broadcaster. Then, as a media platform, we need to stop being a broadcaster and become a broad-catcher.
Connected audience. Monetising trust, not control over the medium: Today, everything happens at the crux of digital breaking stories with an exception of so-called ?exclusives?. The newspaper needs to take on the more evolved role?of validation and trust. Surfeit of sources has commoditised content but the core rationale for consumption of news remains unchanged?to make people feel secure. And not once but on a regular basis, in multiple ways, anytime and anywhere. In an era of trust-famine?you are as good as your last ?trusted move?.
It?s not about news but an ecosystem: The business of news and the ecosystem it dwells in then needs to go past being a brick-and-mortar ?updater? (digital already does that by its virtue of being available 24×7); to becoming an ?upgrader? in a way that it becomes instrumental in reading the consumer?s life and helps her make life?s crucial decisions. It is a model that brings the focus to where it should be?the reading consumer, who we need to attract, engage, provide with an experience and become an active participant in the process.
Convergent thinking, divergent offering:The business model further needs to find a way to compliment formats, increase synergies, measure deliverables, encourage co-creation and interactivity and champion prosumership. The idea is to cease being a destination brand and evolve into a service company. In short, we need to incrementally become custodians of ?intelligence? and not mere news.
In my humblest opinion, there can be no print without digital to amplify it with speed. And no digital without print to lend it gravitas. And there can be neither without the reading consumer to consume it measure for measure. There is no either/or. Only ?and?.
The author is Group CEO of Zee Media Corporation Ltd
E-Commerce: Mahesh Murthy – Stand out or fade out
A little while ago, Flipkart announced with much glee and fanfare that it had raised a total of $1.7 billion (around R10,000 crore), and hence by implication was bound to win the broad e-commerce business in India. The very next morning, Jeff Bezos poured water on that dream by saying he was
putting $2 billion into Amazon India, and they instead were going all out to win this country of ours.
Somewhere hiding under the tables as the big money boys fling all these ?mine?s bigger than yours? at each other are the 50,000 or so regular e-commerce merchants in India, wondering if they?re going to have any future at all unless they also have a billion dollars in their bank accounts.
I met with one of the big men of Indian business the
other day; a billionaire by any means and an owner of several large businesses, and he openly wondered whether his companies had a future given Amazon?s and Flipkart?s moves in India.
The truth is that success in e-commerce isn?t necessarily about money. Yes, if you choose to be in some undifferentiated business where you?re selling the same things that others do, then you?ll have to fight either by differentiating on some other aspect – like service or delivery – or you?ll have to discount.
And discounting is what kills online businesses. I believe the recent one-day sale cost Flipkart a net loss of a few hundred crores of rupees. Amazon?s and Snapdeal?s week-long sales might cost them less. Worse, this discounting doesn?t build any loyalty to the retailer.
It just trains the consumer to search wider for cheaper deals.
So if all you want to do is sell the same things that others do, you?ll need very deep pockets. Because each firm here is indulging in last-man standing fiery attacks on each other. While consumers will temporarily win, the companies will likely die because at some time or the other they will run out of money to lose.
But if you do want to sell something special and differentiated, then e-commerce can be a fantastic way to build a great business.
One of my investee companies has built a R10 crore top line business that?s breaking even at a total investment of R2.5 crore. Another start-up I advised built a customer base in 86 countries sitting in a small office in Janakpuri in West Delhi, starting with a capital of zero.
At the other end, another investee RedBus built a business worth more than R800 crore in GMV on an investment of some R30 crore.
Why is it so hard for us to differentiate? Perhaps because it?s not really in our culture, much though we talk with pride of jugaad. We?re taught from a young age to think like others, dress like others, study like others, get a job like others. Our history in business, especially during the license raj, was also to start the same businesses others did overseas.
Many entrepreneurs also come to me and tell me how their business is the Indian version of this or that. I believe, increasingly so, that there?s a very small chance of success of a me-too company, especially in the digital realm. If people can buy from the original, why will they buy from you?
So I do believe there are numerous e-commerce businesses one can start without a lot of money. You have to be super-differentiated and remark-worthy to build such a business. And if you can?t be fit like this, well, you have to have a very fat bank balance, indeed. And even then, there?s little chance of long-term survival.
The author is an investor and marketing consultant
Mobile: Anubhav Nayyar – World in thy hands
THE number of mobile devices today is higher than the number of people in the world. Mobile has become the biggest game changer, allowing people to stay in touch with their loved ones, anywhere, anytime. Competition and innovation in the mobile market is driving affordability, thereby increasing the mobile penetration across towns and income groups. Mobile is no longer a luxury. It?s a basic necessity.
Internet connectivity on the mobile is a trend that has been growing at an exponential pace. This coupled with the rapid increase in smartphone penetration has helped people gain 24/7 access to the internet. Mobiles today have not only become the primary source for accessing the internet, but also the gateway for all communication and interaction.
This constant mobile usage has led to the rise of a conversation economy where people want to stay connected and converse with those they care about. We also see a paradigm shift in the way people communicate today. There is a gradual shift in how mobile consumption is evolving from voice to data as well.
Therein enters the phenomenon of instant messaging (IM) and voice over internet protocol (VOIP)?an industry that is currently exploding in India and growing at a very rapid pace. Consumer adoption has been very high and this trend is present across the country. People want conversations to be real time, fun and designed in a way where they can exchange content instantly. Simplicity of use along with consumer relevant features is at the heart of these products.
While many of these apps are freely available across mobile, desktops and tablets, most of the usage comes from the mobile; a further testimony to how mobile is the key source of all internet traffic in India.
This constant growth in mobile traffic has meant that mobile has become a key destination for all brands to reach their target audience. Mobile advertising is still nascent in India, but has been growing rapidly over the last few years. Companies and brands are increasingly realising that mobile is no longer just another platform but in fact the key gateway to all its users. The biggest success factor for Viber is that it?s an app that has been designed first for a mobile, and then taken across devices. Similarly, brands and companies must look at designing their communication keeping in mind the mobile interface and not try and fit existing communication.
In India, the mobile phone is still awaiting its due and while there has been rapid growth in mobile advertising expenditures, it still forms a very small percentage of the advertising pie. Having said that, it?s only a matter of time when companies and various brands actually
start implementing the simple mantra ? mobile first!
The author is country head, Viber India
Retail: Kishore Biyani – Religion of commerce
GOD is omnipresent. In fact, all religions of the world agree that one can worship god from wherever a devotee wants to ? home, park, forest or temples. And yet, eschew-ing the comfort and convenience of their homes, devotees flock to temple towns, churches, mosques and mausoleums. It is inside the temples of the gods and amidst the hustle and bustle of other fellow worshippers that devotees find themselves closest to god.
We all live in the age of consumerism. Technology and innovation drives the advent of new products that fascinate us, bring new benefits to us and makes them more and more accessible day by day. In fact, every society consumes more and more with the passage of time. In this age of consumerism, shops are the temples. It is within these shopping environments ? whether located within neighbourhoods, high streets or malls ? consumers find what they need or aspire for. And like in temples wherein the sole attraction isn?t just the worshipping of the gods, it is in the physical shopping environments that people find the public space where they can meet, eat and celebrate along with their friends, family and fellow shoppers. There is more to physical retail than just choosing a product and paying for it. To imagine a world without physical shopping environments is probably similar to imagining a world without faith in god ? a near impossibility.
E-commerce or the opportunity for consumers to shop from computers began almost two decades back in the United States. Darrell Rigby from Bain & Company writes in the Harvard Business Review that even in the United States, online sales account for only 6% of total retail sales (and that?s excluding fuel and food services). AT Kearney in a report titled On Solid Ground puts forth a similar estimate and suggests, ?Of the 30 possible multi-channel journeys, the most common is one in which online is used solely for initial product discovery and the store is preferred for trial, purchase, pick-up and returns.?
Surely, e-commerce commands a significantly higher mindshare compared to its actual marketshare.
Having said that, there is no denying of the fact that technology is going to play a larger and transformative role in the way we shop and consume. It is in the nature of technology to bring about change and those who are agile enough to embrace it and combine it with their existing strengths are the ones who become the winners and harbingers of change. As Rigby and the AT Kearney report point out, half of e-commerce sales are captured by physical retailers or brick-and-mortar retailers who are leveraging technology to sell online. In fact, among the 100 largest online retailers tracked by Deloitte, barely a few are pure e-commerce players.
Beyond the perceived divide of online and offline sales, the world of retailing is witnessing the advent of omni-channel retailing. Omni-channel retailing is about giving customers a seamless experience across both the physical and digital world. Retailers are racing to build technology enabled platforms that allow customers to order from anywhere (homes, from within stores, while they are traveling), on any platform (shops, mobile, laptops) and get the merchandise anywhere (at the store, at their doorstep or at collection points). Physical stores are rapidly chang-ing by using technology to provide new experiences, choices and options to customers ? whether through integrating access to social media and information on digital displays at store racks, augmented reality, smart carts or technology-enabled trial rooms.
Simultaneously, large e-commerce players are also experimenting with new techniques and initiatives. In the United States, the likes of eBay or Amazon are experimenting with physical stores to augment the digital experience. New partnerships are evolving outside the United States. China?s second-largest e-commerce player Tencent and search giant Baidu recently formed a tripartite partnership with the country?s largest mall operator Dalian Wanda to combine the physical and digital world. In India, we have just formed a transformative partnership with Amazon to leverage the synergies of the physical and digital world for the benefit of consumers.
The world of retailing is changing rapidly. Physical retailers are in the midst of transforming their stores, business platforms and the experience they provide to consumers. The stores of the future will be vastly different from what they are today. And in much the same way, e-commerce and online shopping portals too will have to transform not just their business model but also the experience they provide to their customers.
The author is Group CEO, Future Group
Digital: Raghav Bahl – News is dead, long live news
JUST three months ago, I was a regular media guy, doing a lot of television and a bit of collateral digital product around the edges. If a big story broke, and we got lucky with pictures and sharp talking heads, people flipped on the box, ratings zoomed, 30-sec commercials crammed into the slack, ad dollars flowed in, and at the end of the month, we collected affiliate cable fees from paying subscribers, even if nothing else broke in the rest of the month. Cash flows were strong, operating margins were 25%-plus, and life, as I never tired of repeating, was good.
And then I exited my TV-and-a-bit-of-the-web company. People got in touch saying, “Hey, let’s do some new TV”; I looked around and asked “what kind of new TV? It’s the same ? make a show, chuck it at an audience, straight, linear and uncomplaining. So where’s this ‘complex thing’ that people keep on talking about?” Somebody yelled incognito, “The complex thing is on digital, man, where it’s all two-way, non-linear, seamless and really complicated. Go, figure it out!”
So let’s look at what digital ?wisdom? says. In popular web parlance, news is a commodity, just a lot of freely available ?air?. It blows at you from all sides ? on Twitter, on Facebook, on Flipboard to whom you once revealed all the topics that interest you, from literature to lingerie. And since these algorithms are ?intelligent?, please don?t be surprised if you begin to get, at first slowly and then in a torrent, much more lingerie than literature!
More seriously, that?s the first law of the digital world?machines will curate the best stuff from the World Wide Web and write it up in bite size cards, which will then be flung on hand held devices. If you are a political junkie, you will get a Twitter like stream of stories about Obama, Modi, Xi and Putin. If you are a movie buff, get ready to consort with Kangana and Kate Moss. If you love the tech thing, boy, you are in for a ?curated deluge? of exotic stories.
So, is the human editor extinct? Have long-form original news reports become dinosaurs? Is the hand held news app algorithm the new printing press? Should we just forget about that ?big exclusive story? and get flirty with hi-tech codes? Is that the mantra to build a great new media empire?
Mercifully, the exclusive is not dead. Original content is still the elixir of journalism. But it has to evolve. It must be shorter, sharper, exquisitely worded, aimed at the millenials. Along with that, it has to be “surrounded” by a lot of curated writing which amplifies, enhances, enriches, explains ?and all of this is unapologetically ?repurposed? from existing expert material, a sort of ?walky talky toggled wiki link? that is just there, to be readily consumed, much like organic salads around the entree. Finally, there is plenty of sparkling water and diet Coke, in the form of ?aggregated articles? and ?user comments? picked/plucked right off the internet slot machine.
Secondly, the ?journalistic scoop? will become like the stunning paparazzi pictures of today, written by enterprising, driven, fearless and intrusive loners; news organisations will not have the wherewithal to put multiple boots on the ground, but this paparazzi journalist will venture where institutions would fear to tread; and he/she will syndicate this earth shaking story to the highest bidding publisher, who shall further curate and aggregate around the ?original exclusive?, in a Twitter-like stream of searchable, archiveable, opinionated editorials. That will be the exhilarating journalism of the hand held age.
As for revenues, they shall come in the form of embedded branded content, unimpeachably identified and attractively produced. The 30-second commercial will die; native advertising shall thrive, and the hybrid, ethical ?advertising editor? will be born!
Finally, are there many such hand-held news pioneers out there? Is there anybody significant? Oh you bet! There are many tech savvy journalists with a burning gleam in their eyes – except that these future giants, born in pigeonholes, are just about learning to fly.
The author is founder, Quintillion Media
Media buying: CVL Srinivas – Spotting the frenemy
This is an exciting time for media. We are right in the middle of a great transition period where marketers are not only shifting investment to new media, but are also looking at smarter ways to maximise the impact of traditional media. Media consumption habits are changing. As consumers toggle multiple screens, the lines between content and advertising are blurring as rapidly as the line between different types of screens. Consumer research methodologies are struggling to keep pace. Social listening is providing richer and deeper insights into what consumers want and don’t want. The mobile phone is making it easier to not only target consumers more effectively but close the loop in a communication plan. Traditional advertising formats are giving way to packets of branded content. A lot of brand communication is moving ‘in stream’. And soon we will see programmatic media buying start changing the way ads are placed. In this context it is interesting to examine what a future media agency will look like.
Agency talent and structures
The digital disruption is forcing agencies to take a re-look at their talent pools and structures. We will soon see flatter, leaner and more client centric teams replace hierarchical, functional and silo based structures. Digital, content and data will all get integrated into the core service for any agency to stay relevant in the future. This will form the new core of the agency product. Agencies will need to attract a lot more talent from digital, content and data streams and face the challenge of managing extremely heterogenous teams. We will have a lot more young agency leaders as it is time for the digital natives to start leading agency businesses.
Investments in technology
For agencies to exist and thrive in the future, technology needs to be harnessed a lot more than at present. Rather than get dis-intermediated by technology, agencies must redefine their business model by smartly leveraging it. For too long, media agencies have relied on manual systems for media planning, buying and implementation. If we can deploy a lot more technology to manage the commoditised part of the business and reinvest into stronger teams, more digital, content, data solutions, we have a chance to not just survive but thrive. Technology can play a greater role redefining the media product, make it more data centric and digitally charged.
Bringing it all together
True innovation in marketing will come from our ability to not only capture large amounts of consumer data, but also convert this data into actionable insights and relevant content. More technology needs more creativity. The media agency of the future will perhaps resemble a newsroom, driven by data and analytics, on strong technology platforms operated by a mix of creative talent and data scientists. All parts of the value chain, be it gleaning the relevant insights, choosing the right vehicles for messaging, using the relevant content format, measuring the right metric and feeding back into the system, will need to work in a seamless manner to ensure no transmission loss at any stage. We will see the reintegration of the advertising and media service in some form.
The author is CEO, GroupM South Asia. The views expressed are personal
