According to BCG ‘Shaping the Industry at a Time of Disruption’ report, there are 250 Million digital consumers today in India; the number is expected to shoot up to 600 Million by 2020.
Speaking on the growth of digital, Tara Kapur, Executive Producer, Supari Studio, said, “I believe 2016 will be the year where we see a lot more innovation and experimentation with digital technology in the Indian marketing landscape. Digital storytelling in India is represented by linear, long format films, but in 2016, I think we will be seeing a lot more formats being explored in India on the digital platform.”
Carat mentioned in its Advertising Spend Forecast report that digital media spend is predicted at double digit growth levels of +15.7 per cent in 2015 and +14.3 per cent in 2016, while the Indian advertising market is buoyant as growth prospects in the country remain high at +11 per cent in 2015 and +12 per cent in 2016.
There is no doubt that the permeation of technology touching every life in one way or the other has only enhanced opportunities. But, with these opportunities emerge the need for brands to become more responsible, transparent and for digital communication to enable them to be more useful.
Piyush Mishra, Founder, Pure Advertising opined that year 2015 has been quite challenging in respect to consumer sentiments but off lately it’s been also an eventful year for various home grown brands such as Intex, Patanjali Ayurveda etc. and of course ecommerce industry.
Social media advertising went to new levels – right from Facebook going beyond just number of fans to a focus on engagements and lead generation capabilities, Twitter opened up its advertising options keeping conservative budgets in mind.
Speaking about the emerging trends in online video consumption, Hitesh Chhabra, Co-Founder & CIO, The Garage Communications, said, “Due to the new Auto play feature of videos in Facebook, we will see lot of advertisers placing their audio video content on Facebook. It is going to be cost effective especially to those brands which don’t have big budgets to run the TVCs on National media.”
Content took new turns. While story telling has been closely related to social media over the past few years, visual and video story telling formats picked up pace, with brands creating long and short form content to cater to various demographics.
“Technology is moving way too rapidly in Western markets with brands already integrating 360 degree video, augmented and virtual reality, interactivity and wearable in their digital content strategies. This is something that Indian marketers can no longer ignore and will begin to explore in the year to come,” added Kapur.
Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in association with IMRB International, mentioned in their study that the online advertising market in India touched Rs 3,575 Crore by March 2015, a 30 per cent rise from Rs 2,750 Crore in March 2014.
“Advertising media spends would increase in 2016 vis a vis 2015. Digital advertising would gain more prominence in 2016.There has been lot of learning’s in e-tailing and corrections have been taken by large e-tailers to improve on their ROI. Year 2016 seems to be promising and will witness rise in consumer sentiments, concluded Mishra.
