Mobile Innings in the age of digital media convergence

Amplification of brand communication by integrating mobile with traditional media spends is a given. Most studies predict mobile/digital marketing growing at a rapid pace, overshadowing the growth in traditional media advertising.

Increasing reach among the digitally connected consumers, for savvy traditional media players, is not only helping keep existing consumer engaged but also getting the new customers in - leading to growth of industry as a whole.  Prateek N Kumar, CEO & MD, NeoNiche expresses, “Digital technologies, more so mobile platforms have fundamentally altered the nature and function of media in our society, reinventing age-old practices of content consumption and communication. Traditional media that are ready to adapt and change the entire journey of storytelling from ‘Me’ to ‘We’ will stand tall as the mobile platforms will facilitate this entire journey.”

Thanks to fast increasing Internet consumption on mobile, content consumption is becoming an individual activity – instead of one newspaper in the household, every individual in the family is free to consume news from multiple news sites and apps, and family television viewing too is gradually giving way to individuals entertaining themselves on mobile platforms. As media companies are able to reach a segment of one through mobile, targeting is getting sharper – no wonder unlimited hours of content on mobile have opened dozens of opportunities for the content creators.

Not only that, data generated like viewing habits, consumer patterns and content preferences help customise and deliver content as per consumers’ preferences. Suneil Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat expresses, “Mobile intelligence has enabled cross-engagement from offline to online and helped in driving more users to the app and mobile website of the traditional media companies.“ He adds, “With over 85% of Indians having mobile as their main/only device to access the Internet, there will continue to be a lot of creative content from media houses and brands to engage with customers on mobile devices.”

Traditional media industry, to its credit, is reinventing itself with changing consumer preferences. Almost every television channel has a mobile presence and most print publications too are not far behind. Gauging that mobile consumption in rural areas and regional languages has gained momentum – regional media players too are strengthening their mobile presence.

Dhananjay Arora, Founder & CEO, Kwebmaker Digital Agency expresses, “Traditional media is getting all its real time engagement with users on mobile and online. Traditional media companies are evolving to become more and more digital. With real time news, constant updates and mobile notifications, traditional media companies are continuously in communication with their user base. Users are going to be interacting with the traditional media companies on mobile first and then possibly off-line so essentially it’s becoming a ‘mobile-first’ communication and engagement.”

Effective mobile presence through OTT platforms, apps or otherwise does not only mean a more focused reach but better revenues. Chawla expresses, “While ad rates are still 50-70% lower online when compared to print, this additional revenue is definitely helping the media companies.”

Ankit Dhadda, Head of Marketing and Product, Bloomberg|Quint gives an interesting example, “At Bloomberg|Quint our WhatsApp service has seen innovative mobile led solutions for clients like Motilal Oswal & UPI. They have leveraged the platform to drive thousands of users to their platform and provided a new avenue of revenue for us. Currently native advertising units on mobile are huge revenue opportunity for publishers and higher CPM’s on Google AMP pages are also encouraging. Video consumption on mobile especially vertical videos seems to be the next big surge in ad revenues.”

Perhaps, a single measurement currency, or a methodology that can integrate media consumption patterns across traditional and digital media would give the much-desired impetus to traditional media in the mobile space. As mobile steadily emerges as the centerpiece of a multiplatform experience, traditional media would flex its ‘content’ and ‘feet on the street’ muscles to get a bigger chunk of consumers’ mobile time.

We present to you panels that discuss and deliberate multiplatform media consumption, mobile measurement and more at TMMS 2018.