(^26) FEAFEATURETURE
July 22> 2018 [ impactonnet.com ]
W
hile premium platforms like Netflix
depend on subscription for revenue,
other platforms are exploring newer
monetization routes. Indian OTT
platforms are considering advertising routes that are
non-intrusive, thereby giving brands a chance to jump
onto the OTT bandwagon.
With OTT allowing for personal viewing, the canvas
of content becomes much wider allowing producers
more creative liberty beyond the almost formulaic
templates of the broadcast industry currently. This
is beneficial for brands as it allows them to target
audiences more effectively. Elaborating on this,
Jyoti Bansal, CEO, PHD India says, “Once reach and
consumption increases, revenue potential will
follow suit. Depending on how availability
ramps up, this growth could be multiples of
the current numbers. The other factor will
be the localization and regionalisation of
content, with many more players entering
the fray. This will allow more advertisers
the opportunity to use these platforms.”
However, a lot of brands are still testing
the waters when it comes to investing in
OTT-specific content. Agencies are trying to
decode the most effective way to help brands
leverage the OTT space better. Shekhar Banerjee,
Managing Partner, Wavemaker India says, “Today
71% of growth in non-metro and 43% of Indie language
users access entertainment as the first category online.
This clearly indicates that we will see a huge surge of
regional content going forward. Having said so, we
clearly have two different ecosystems evolving, SVOD
is depending more on local+international original
content to grow whereas AVOD is focusing more on
catch-up or extended screen experience. The verdict
is still not out on which model is more sustainable
because local players are very dominant when it
comes to monthly users. However, international
players have a strong paid base of users making it
a great topline story for them. We at Wavemaker
in collaboration with Ogilvy have set up a content
effectiveness lab to understand the impact of long and
short format content. We need such measures before
advertisers dial up investments in online content.”
Brands are looking at the OTT platform with
interest but the challenge before them lies in the
need to reach out to a larger audience. Considering
YouTube is still the best platform for brands to get the
greatest visibility, will OTT platforms help advertisers
reach out to a larger audience through brand
integrations? Varun Duggirala, Co-Founder & Content
Chief, The Glitch says, “The only problem from a brandBRAND INTEGRATIONS AND
MONETIZATION OF OTT PLATFORMS
perspective is that you want to capture all kinds and
lengths of audiences. However, as a platform, OTT is
dependent on who its subscribers are or who visit it
regularly. So, even if a brand is putting up content on
a particular OTT, they would still want to, at some later
point, put it up on other platforms like YouTube or
Facebook where it can reach out to a larger audience.
That acts as a hurdle at some level. From a branded
content perspective, these are still early days, albeit an
interesting spot to explore.”
Meanwhile, content delivery network and cloud service
providers like Akamai are coming up with innovative
solutions to enable OTT platforms deliver maximum
reach. This is what Sandeep Reddy, Country Sales
Manager, Media, Akamai Technologies had to say
about the innovations Akamai is introducing in
the OTT space.
“While the proliferation of the Internet
could bring with it possible challenges,
Akamai innovates to provide solutions to
OTT platforms that enable them to turn
these challenges into opportunities by
delivering consistent, high-quality video
experiences to audiences across screens.”
OTT players are also evaluating
brand integrations and it won’t be long
before brands and OTT players together create
immersive, engaging content while offering the
viewers a non-intrusive experience. Siddhartha Roy,
CEO of Hungama.com says, “We do not have brand
integrations at the moment, but in the future, I am sure
you will see a lot of them. As and when we have the
right placements of brands within our content, we will
obviously be looking at partnerships and opportunities.
Brands are currently evaluating different forms of
content integration. This will be a fairly immersive form
of integration, because the kind of information we can
go back with to the brand about their users and their
products can be extremely interesting from a brand
participation perspective. We will be extremely keen to
look at opportunities.”
Meanwhile, Karan Bedi, CEO, MX Player, is extremely
optimistic about how the platform can work with
brands to create a powerful mix. “Brands have been
working with creators and platforms to both create
and integrate with original content to reach out to
consumers. At MX, we bring a very potent mix to the
table as we can engage with brands on the content,
inventory and platform level, and at huge scale. A brand
can work with us to integrate within a show, as well as
bundle inventory – giving a 360-degree mix. Take that
out to over 175 million MAUs (monthly active users),
and it’s a very powerful mix.”flexibility on either laptops or smartphones, giving full control to
viewers who decide the entry, exit and return to such platforms as
compared to appointment viewing on other platforms. While every
platform has its advantages and disadvantages, OTT as a platform
has indeed emerged as here-to-stay in the digital age.”
Explaining how the OTT platform is the natural progression
towards developing an original content show for the web, allowing it
to transcend all boundaries, Gaurav Verma, Chief Revenue Officer- Red Chillies Entertainment says, “Not every story lends itself to
a theatrical innings because there is that much time, investment,
multiple characters, multiple stories which this platform gives you
the comfort to nurture and develop. With the Internet, reach is global
and so you can cross language and geographical boundaries. That’s
the beauty of the platform. We are creating content for international
diaspora at Red Chillies. Putting it on a platform like Netflix helps
us to reach out to a much wider audience in, say, 180 countries. We
can’t afford to release a film in all locations around the world as cost is
too high but through Netflix or any OTT platform, users around the
world can get access to the film.”@ [email protected]