Technology played a very vital role in enhancing the engagement between content and its consumers. Social media acted as the most critical distributor of content. It enhanced reach and also elicited very helpful feedback from readers/viewers which has helped publishers align their strategy better with consumer expectations. Facebook has now brought in Instant Articles which has created a higher quality user experience. With its fast loading speeding Instant articles has given a real impetus to video consumption on mobile.
Publishers, too showed tremendous innovation with interesting new formats designed specifically for mobile consumption. With tech as the backbone of the domain, we saw the emergence and popularity of interactive content and even gamification of content. Social media channels saw value in quality content and popular platforms have been rethinking and redesigning their strategies to attract publishers.
The gradual shift from the desktop to the handheld also came of age in 2015. There was a palpable rise in consumption of reading and viewing material on mobile devices. This spurred a change in the way content itself was conceived and crafted. I see a lot more innovation on mobile in the days ahead to truly eke out the potential of this vibrant and high-growth platform.
As far as the way forward is concerned, we believe that regional and hyper local content will be the proverbial “next big thing” for the industry. Technology is evolving very rapidly, paving the way for Personalization giving readers content of preference. This trend will be propelled by the growing number of mobile internet users across the country and will unlock advertising opportunities.
As someone who has been working in the domain of content publishing for eons, one observation that I can safely make is that India was lagging behind the rest of the world when it came to television. Be it the formats of our shows or the ways to develop a direct relationship with our viewers. However, it is gladdening to see that in terms of digital content publishing we are matching pace with global leaders. Digital content is fast consolidating its position as mainstream content and with the advent of 4G and better broadband speeds, 2016 is certainly full of promise for the industry.
We hope that in this year more advertisers realize the shift in content consumption patterns and are able to move en masse to mobile where the audiences have already moved. Advertisers and publishers need to come up with creative solutions and mobile-friendly formats to engage with their target markets through non-intrusive ways.
The defining catalyst for all this change, however, will be content itself. It may be an overstated cliché but content truly is king. No matter how innovative the format, how quirky the design or how compelling the marketing strategy, the success of all of these will be driven by impeccable and original content in text, video or audio format. This was a truism in 2015 and will continue to be so in 2016 and a focus on quality is what will yield excellent results for content creators, publishers as well as consumers.
