Digital growth unstoppable, vernacular videos and content integration to lead advertising: Shamsuddin Jasani, Isobar

The advertising industry is going through a tectonic shift and whatever was relevant for marketers till now would not be the mainstay next year, feels Shamsuddin Jasani, Group MD, Isobar.

Jasani feels the explosion of broadband-based video streaming services (also known as OTT services) would eventually lead to moving of advertising monies from TV to these newer platforms, with focus on languages other than English. Jasani feels the upcoming Jio Broadband, which would be as cheap as Jio mobile data, would revolutionise the pattern of TV consumption by normal households who’ll move from appointment-based to on-demand services.

With digital marketing clearly starting to figure prominently in the marketing strategies of most brands, more and more brands are rolling out digital-only marketing initiatives in a bid to appeal to the millennials.

While it is true that traditional media still accounts for much of a brand’s marketing monies, digital today accounts for anywhere between 15-30% of any major brand’s marketing spend.

In a chat with BestMediaInfo.com, Jasani spoke about the prominent digital market trends that he saw in 2018 and the ones that will continue onto 2019.

Falling data prices and shifting TV monies:

According to Jasani, 2018 has gained because of the ‘Jio revolution’. “Jio was launched in late 2016 and the data prices crashed in 2017, so 2018 really gained from that fall in data prices as everyone now has access to internet,” said Jasani.

The Jio revolution saw video consumption go through the roof. So, advertising budgets are also following that shift because now people are consuming more video. What this also means is that a lot of TV monies are going to shift to video.

“Earlier, what used to happen is that digital was predominantly used for performance marketing and even though there were brand monies, they were digital-specific brand monies. But now, because of the reach of video, a lot of television inventory can be substituted with video,” added Jasani.

Vernacular content:

Jasani also believes that vernacular exploded in 2018 and will continue to grow through 2019.

“Till 2017, it was predominantly English language which was being accessed for digital. But since 2018, a lot more local language content is being created and consumed. This is going to be a very important focus in 2019 because it will also bring in the next wave of people coming on to digital,” said Jasani.

We are pretty much at a saturation point as far as English-speaking and understanding audience is concerned, and therefore the next leg of growth for digital is expected to come in from small towns and cities. Also, the growth will be through people who are just coming on to digital through mobile phones.

“This means is the investments in digital are increasing. Every year digital is growing at a CAGR of 30-35% and this growth is not going to slow down, the pace is only going to quicken up,” said Jasani.

Content marketing:

Jasani predicts that when Jio comes up with Jio broadband, it will change the way people view television from appointment viewership to more and more on-demand viewership.

“More and more importance will be placed on content marketing going forward. So, in 2019, we will see a lot of content integrations. Content is going to become very important and ad-funded content is going to become even more important. With the exposure of video, there are the regular advertising inventories but with people switching on to Prime, which comes at Rs 999 for an entire year and with no ads, how can brands reach their consumers? The only answer is through content integration,” said Jasani.

Voice may become the only command

Jasani also predicts that the time people spend watching their screens is going to decrease. The trend has already seen a steady increase in China and may finally pick up in India as Android has improved its software for all Indian languages.

“Voice is something that is not only going to change marketing but also how people consume content. From 2019, people’s screen time on mobiles will start going down because people will do less tapping on phones and do the searches by voice,” concluded Jasani.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com