How brands can make the most from OTT game as content consumption rises

“In the middle of difficulty lies an opportunity,” Albert Einstein had said.

 While many industries are suffering the brunt of the Covid cage, the over-the-top (OTT) industry is literally going over the top in terms of growth. If we do some number-crunching here, according to an EY and FICCI report, the OTT sector grew by 59% and is set to hit Rs 24 billion by 2021, in India.

And it does not need an Einstein to figure out that amid the current difficult economic scenario, content creators see an opportunity, a sliver of positive news that has lent an impetus to the OTT Industry.

How does, then, the OTT content game bring in new opportunities for marketers and brands?

Let’s look at this new kid on the OTT block — Bollywood.  With the theatres still under lockdown, Bollywood has seen a trend never imagined before — premiere releases of silver screen films on OTT. Here are some industry estimates of the new releases and the deals:

*Laxmmi Bomb (on Disney+ Hotstar) - Rs 125 crore

*Shakuntala Devi on Amazon Prime - Rs 40 crore

*Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil girl on Netflix at Rs 50 crore

*Sadak 2 on Disney+ Hotstar - Rs 70 crore

An excerpt from this report by Media Partners Asia, titled “The future of content and connectivity in India” (released in July 2020), is an indication of the ‘Oh Those Times’ to come.

These are some ‘eyes-wide-open’ investments by OTT platforms that signify how serious these players are. It indicates that producers will prefer selling the content rights to OTT than satellite, forcing consumers to also switch to OTT. After all, consumers follow great content. And brands should follow consumers.

Recently, Vibhu Agarwal, CEO at Ullu Digital, had posted on his Linkedin timeline about how the OTT Industry was valued so low before the pandemic hit, but the past few months forced even the ‘TV traditionalists’ into ‘OTT experimentalists’. He mentioned how Ullu has seen this paradigm shift and how it is witnessing unprecedented growth. He added how this has also put immense pressure on the industry to put out original content to engage and retain the audience, which will be the biggest problem after the lockdown phase.

So, what’s in it for brands?

Besides content buying, the trend of creating original content will also give brands a great opportunity to engage with consumers through OTT content. And mind you, OTT content is far more grounded, customised and real, posing a better platform for brands to partake in the storytelling. Don’t we all recall how Ola did it with Permanent Roommates?

Akansh Gaur

Commenting on the impact of Covid on the content industry, Akansh Gaur, Head, Content Strategy, TVF, said, “The licensing/OTT model will continue to grow, having seen a substantial increase in viewership numbers during the lockdown itself. With mainstream movies too seeing a digital native release, Indian audiences have warmed up to the idea, thus content studios can expect an overall positive impact and continuous demand.”

Talking about the various offerings TVF has for the brands, Gaur said, “The major innovation we're looking at is focusing on creating derivative content from our existing IPs. So character spin-offs, extending the universe to non-fiction formats are a few things that brands are very interested in investing due to audience familiarity and being relatively safer bets.”

The new-age OTT content means a new era of content creation like satellite TV brought in the ’90s, and newer avenues for brands to tell stories.

The OTT platform is now set for unprecedented growth. So will the content. And that's great news for brands and marketers — why? Media Partners Asia’s report reveals that 3X investments to be poured in original content creation by 2025.

This means, a huge canvas for brands to explore, experiment and find a middle path between independent branded content videos and in-content marketing.

The content will adapt itself according to the media platform and the dynamic consumer behaviour. The onset of players like Netflix not just got existing content in one place but also created a path-breaking swing in content creation. A cusp between cinema and digital content, the trend of web-series’ brings back the onset of fresh content, a much-needed break from those nerve-stepping soap operas. It feels like history repeating itself, wherein the 90s had brought in the new-age era of satellite TV with a horde of awesome entertainment, which were a welcome change from DD.

With OTT, now thousands of stories can be told in one go, and not fight for primetime or jostle for TV ratings, where purely the ratings would decide the fate of content.

The game of content has changed. See it unfold.

Brands must play the OTT game considering the below trends in mind

Diversity of content:

A single OTT platform offers a variety of content, genre-wise and format-wise. Long-format films, short films, digital videos, web series, documentaries, docu-series, in all genres like entertainment, sports, news, mythology — the universe is unlimited. Brands have a wider variety of content to associate with.

Local content:

A lot of focus will be there on creating local/regional content, keeping consumers’ taste in mind.

Customised and engaging

Content will be customised, engaging and immersive for consumers, e.g., heard of live polling or interactive experiences?

Regional content/ multilingual with global connect

The same content can be translated and viewed in different languages in the same place instead of switching channels. This is a huge advantage for national brands where fragmentation takes a back-seat. The same content will also have a global appeal for audiences in different countries/time zones. You can call it unity in content diversity!

Interactive

We still don’t have many brands going as viral as the ice bucket challenge, and hence it remains to see how interactive they will get.