AI is a big driver for growth: Sandhya Devanathan, VP and Head, Meta India

AI is a big driver for growth, noted Sandhya Devanathan, Vice-President and Head, Meta India; Co-Chair Ficci Media and Entertainment Committee, at Ficci Frames, 2024, held in Mumbai.

She talked about the key growth drivers for Meta in a panel discussion over the topic, “Navigating the Future of Media and Entertainment Industry,” moderated by Ashish Pherwani, Partner, Ernst and Young.

Devanathan noted that video has become a dominant form of consumption, with businesses using reels for user engagement.

Tracing the first instances of AI on Meta (formerly Facebook), Devanathan talked about that point in time when news feeds started to look different for each person, powered by AI.

“So AI has been pretty much the fabric of what's held our platforms together and has helped us grow the platform,” she added.

She also commented on how AI is used to power advertisements. Under the same, she talked about Advantage+, the free language models (open source for both research and commercial use) launched by Meta and GenAI.

“An early test that we did said that advertisers save around five hours using Gen AI tools on our platform. That translates to one month's increase in productivity in a year,” she remarked.

She also added how trends were created around reels being shared, be it cricket or any viral event like the recent Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding showdown.

Though reels may be the dominant mode of content consumption on Meta, Devanathan talked about business messaging getting their share of reach as well.

“We're seeing only 60% of Indians message a business, especially on WhatsApp, in the country. So again, that has implications,” she added, emphasising that businesses need to think about reach before picking the short-form video or messaging path, based on how the business wants to communicate and engage with the audiences.

Talking about how digital advertising depicted growth despite the stagnancy that other forms of advertising have shown this year, Devanathan remarked that there are major trends seen to back this.

One of it, she remarked, was the trend of people researching online. “Almost 60% of people research content before they decide what to watch. And 80% of that research is happening online. So it's pretty significant and has implications on your presence across digital platforms, not just phones,” she added.

She affirmed the importance of having digital platforms as a part of the marketing strategy for content to be seen.

The second factor, she noted, was the blurring of differences in consumer behaviour for linear TV and streaming or elsewhere.

“I think it's really important to think about a holistic way in which you're reaching your consumer across all platforms, not just one. And you're seeing that also pan out in the trends that you're seeing in growth,” she added, believing that the M&E sector doesn't use such platforms as effectively as they should.

The third trend she highlighted is content that engages, leading to interactivity. She talked about picking interactive content over passive content

“If you're doing content for engagement via transaction, via interactivity, then you are heading to a very non-standard form of traditional advertising. When you have a platform that provides that,  use it as much as possible.”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com