Ishtihaar - Digital Media in India – The way to look forward || Gautam Gopal, IIM Shillong || July 2015

Digital Media in India – The way to look forward

Gautam Gopal, IIM Shillong

In Digital Media has changed the way brands think about marketing today. It has increasingly blurred the lines between the traditional media and the digital world and has become a must-have, something a brand can’t live without in this day and age. Every time one thinks about a marketing plan someone invariably pops the question. What are we going to do on Social? Well, what’s the deal with Digital?

And why is so important? Let’s find out. According to estimates  Group M, advertising spends in India are going to grow 12.6 % YOY, of which Digital Advertising spends would account for almost 10%. Well, is this number surprising? Not really. With increasing number of brands going Digital the world of marketing in being churned up for good. Though, let us take a step back and understand what has led to this growth and why are brands banking on Digital Media? There are no straight answers to this question, at best we can only speculate. Two things that make Digital Media tick is the sheer ease of use and its quantifiable nature. With 17% broadband penetration, India does not sound big on Digital. Though, if you dig a little deeper and look at raw numbers, the same 17% it turns out to be a whopping 277 Million, almost thrice the total population of France. This makes the

Digital space a very, very promising medium and is already sitting on a significant piece of the advertising pie. Digital Media has shown a steady growth over the years, according to estimates it is expected to grow by 37% in 2015. What exactly is driving this growth? It’s the trio of Video, Mobile and Social. From 6-sec Vine videos to full fledged 30-min YouTube TV series’ becoming a norm and

a part of pop culture, the video has a huge role to play. So does Mobile and Social. Together, the three have immense potential though, each one of them also poses an enormous challenge in front of marketers. The few who would be able to break through the clutter would be certainly those who strike the right balance in their media mix, express their stories in an increasingly digital world and listen to what their customers have to say. Storytelling becomes crucial, in my opinion and marketers

still have a long way to go before they figure this one out. They eventually would and then there would be the next big thing we’d all be racking our brains over. And then the next. And then a few more. ‘Aur Dikhao, Aur Dikhao’ actually seems to be customers’ favourite catchphrase and we as marketers, we better keep up.