OTT's Code For Marketing During The Great Indian Festival Time

From a festive-focused content lineup to immersive social media campaigns, the Indian OTT platforms are riding high on the ongoing Diwali celebrations, enveloping the audiences with pomp and glory through their diverse and engaging content repertoire. Whether with OTT-only movie releases or a laughter riot with their comedy shows or super-saver subscription plans or international offerings, these platforms are standing tall on their commitments and ensuring a jamboree for online viewers.

“It is the biggest consumption period across all product and service categories and therefore, we have strategised the finest content line-up that will enable brands to plan hyper-personalised marketing campaigns to grow their market shares and brand engagement. The power-packed line-up will appeal to diverse markets and demographics, ensuring rewards for consumers and brands alike,” comments the COO- Revenue of ZEEL, Rajiv Bakshi.

Announcing its binge-fest, Amazon Prime too began the season with the Malayalam remake of one of India’s finest thrillers in Bhramam starring Prithviraj Sukumaran in the lead, followed by Sardar Udham, Dybbuk, One Mic Stand, along with international releases like Justin Bieber: Our World- a documentary that offers an inward look into the life of the global music star Justin Bieber, the teen horror drama I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Maradona: Blessed Dream- a special series based on the life of the all-time great football player Diego Armando Maradona on the service.

These OTT players have certainly gained new consumers during the pandemic, including those who were trying digital services for the first time and forming a digital habit. Retaining these customers as life returns to normal, besides continuously recruiting new customers will be a priority for all. Given that the festive season is traditionally among the highest consumer-spending period in the year, industries curtailed by the pandemic are expected to return to a strong rebound. “The entire digital industry including OTT will benefit from this spending by advertisers. Video-led platforms, be it OTT, social media, or emerging short-video platforms concentrating on regional content and languages are witnessing strong demand from advertisers for their ad inventory,” says a Hungama spokesperson. 

Seizing The Strategy

This is an extra special time for advertisers, platforms and audiences, primarily because the country is stepping out of a harrowing second wave. From a 50-60% increase in viewership during the peak of the pandemic, it is evident that the pandemic has changed peoples’ perspective significantly and addressing that is an essential aspect of marketing for brands going forward. However, these OTT services are seeing a drop of 10% for the past few days as cinemas and workplaces begin to open. 

It is therefore crucial for OTT marketers to plan a prudent strategy around this festive time that ensures a continued subscriber base. Elaborating on the same, Shrenik Gandhi, Co-founder and CEO, White Rivers Media says, “Making the marketing strategies customer-centric can go a long way in earning loyal customers. Videos are highly sought out when it comes to researching particular brands or products. Creating relatable yet informative content for customers can help with conversions. Options for a digital store-like shopping experience, hassle-free payments and instalment solutions, and personalised offers based on secure first-party data or automation can help a brand extract optimum benefits this festive season.”

“In India, OTT platforms should plan to keep in mind the audience,” emphasises Suraj Nambiar, Senior Vice President & West Head, Digitas India. For him, creating data sets with robust information on who they are targeting will be key and bring in their own customers and new customers. “With a connected data hive, OTT platforms can use precision marketing to go after users who are more likely swithers and brand loyalists with different communication specific for that audience,” he suggests when looking to target regular customers, new customers, brand switchers and brand loyalists. 

Nambiar also highlights how these OTT platforms are looking at splitting their spending, “While a lot of channels are moving to the OTT space, we still rely on TV for building awareness at scale. There is no definite answer and the split of the budget will depend on OTT platforms. Platforms with live sports, events will have a disproportionate amount of spends during the event to gain users.”

With the changes in online shopping trends post-pandemic, more people are now researching products via video content online and are becoming more open to exploring new brands. It is imperative for OTT marketers to ensure the content of high quality along with targeted, relevant placement. “Along with focusing on new customers, marketers should also create content for meaningful engagements with existing customers to sustain their loyalty and prevent brand switching. For any marketer, awareness and retention both hold importance. Brands should work with trusted partners and create audience-relevant content like family-based and festive season specials. OTT advertisers must also ensure the safety of campaigns and a fraud-free, risk-free environment,” points Gandhi.