“The market is expanding faster than expected and more brands are going digital”

“The market is expanding faster than expected and more brands are going digital”

year ender

As 2014 comes to an end and as the media and entertainment industry bids adieu to the year, company executives are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to listing down the achievements it has attracted throughout the year. 

On the same lines is Vdopia, a programmatic buying and selling platform for mobile and online video advertising. It tags itself as a pioneer in mobile and online video advertising, enabling major brands to engage their desired audiences in premium content environments around the world. 

Vdopia SVP-APAC Preetesh Chouhan pens down the major digital happenings in the year 2014 for Vdopia and the entire industry and also the future of digital platforms in the coming year.

Major digital happenings…

Digital Video Revolution - 

•             Video viewing on PCs has almost doubled in three years in India. (source - comScore)

•             India now has over 59 million video viewers. (source - comScore)

•             73 per cent online audience now watch digital video. (Source - eMarketer)

•             The share of video in internet data traffic is expected to rise from 41 per cent in 2011-12 to 64 per cent in 2016-17. (Source - Assocham and Deloitte)

Emergence of specialised apps -

•             App downloads in India likely to cross nine billion by 2015 (Source - Assocham -Deloitte)

•             Mobile TV registered a 400 per cent growth rate in viewership. 

m-commerce revolution India -

•             India has reached 50 million digital buyers. (eMarketer)

•             1 out of 3 customers of Flipkart arrive via mobile.

•             33 per cent of Flipkart revenue originates via mobile based transactions. (Flipkart)

•             60 per cent of all orders received by Snapdeal originate on mobile phones. (Snapdeal)

Micro-video multiplied -

•             Micro-video ads can transcend the mobile, tablet, PC and even TV gap, could eventually result in micro-video becoming the most portable video format across screens.
Television is going digital:

•             Television content is no longer being consumed only within the four walls of the viewer’s living room.

•             TV remains one of the primary modes of communication reaching out to 60 per cent of the population, online videos are witnessing a steady surge in consumption even as internet penetration in India currently stands at about 16 per cent.

Coke Studio, for example. While the latest season of the show on MTV received lukewarm response on TV, it went on to garner more than 54 million views on YouTube and across social media platforms.

•             By 2018-end, India’s internet user base is expected to touch 494 million as against 938 million TV viewers.

Marketers in India are leveraging digital marketing -

•    96 per cent of the Indian marketers have high confidence in the ability of digital marketing to drive competitive advantage. It is among the highest in Asia-Pacific APAC with only Australia leading with 97 per cent.

•    Indian marketers believe that the key driver to adopting digital is a growing internet population (70 per cent in India against 59 per cent in APAC).

The big achievements for Vdopia…

•    Launched Chocolate, a global programmatic buying and selling platform exclusively for mobile video advertising. 

•    After major metros and cities, Vdopia’s reach has expanded to tier 2 cities, tier 3 cities and small towns.

Lessons learnt…

•    The market is expanding faster than expected and more brands are going digital. The demand has grown for new category of content and rich media video ad formats for better engagement. Like, travel, auto, humour, lifestytle, how-to videos etc.

•    With 70 per cent growth in Asia Pacific, programmatic is the future. 

Future of digital platforms in 2015…

Digital India program - The Indian government’s $17 billion ambitious Digital India programme has the potential to be a game changer for the country. (Source - Forrester)
P.S. - Currently, nearly 74 per cent of the population has mobile phones, most of which though is in the hands of urban India. 

Focus on mobile content - In 2014 out of 885million mobile users, 185 million are mobile internet users. (IDC and India Digital Review). It's a changing world, and businesses absolutely need to focus on ways they can give their marketing efforts a mobile component.

Focus on Content - Content has been an integral part of digital marketing strategies for a few years now, but with so much of it out there, your content needs to be better and smarter. Content that's relevant and interesting isn't just a good idea, it's a requirement. 

Programmatic advertising will be understood by the majority of marketers – More than two-thirds of marketers are now using programmatic in one form or other shows programmatic might have become mainstream over the course of 2014. It's a safe bet that this trend will continue in 2015 as more marketers realise the benefits of programmatic in their paid media programmes (Media Week).

Clients will dictate the future of programmatic - Fundamentally, we believe the future of programmatic market landscape will be driven by the clients’ diverse characteristics and needs. Clients are either transactional or not, large or small, international or local, e-merchants or brick and mortar, large media spenders or not.

Spending on RTB display advertising will accelerate - Spending on real time-bidded display advertising will accelerate at a 59 per cent compound annual growth rate through 2016, making in the fastest growing segment of digital advertising over the next few years. (IDC)

 

(These are purely personal views of Vdopia SVP-APAC Preetesh Chouhan and indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)