Long Live TV: OmniCasting Is Future Driver For Building Brands
I have come across many conversations where people in the industry are talking about the imminent death of TV. Someone even said to look at the digital rights of IPL they give you proof of where we are headed. First of all let me as a media owner say this we are not in the individual business of TV, digital, events, IPs and print - we are in all these businesses. Our business is the business of brands and audiences. We are where our brand attracts audiences.
TV is where the largest audience still is, hence TV advertising is still the biggest chunk of the advertising pie and will continue to be the biggest one .
According to the latest Pitch Madison Advertising Outlook 2023, TV is still dominant even as digital is the fastest-growing vertical, thus catching up quick, but it has some way to go. Let me give you three examples which will show you how TV still builds brands - whether Corporate or Individual brands. Whether it is News TV, GEC or Reality TV, the medium continues to fulfil its role brand building to the hilt.
The first example comes direct from home. I am the founder of exchange4media, and in that role also the founder of the e4m News Broadcasting Awards. I know pretty much all major news anchors in India and a lot of them are friends. When i am out with them I see the kind of fan frenzy and attention they get. Let me give you the example of Sudhir Chaudhary, who now does Black & White and Seedhi Baat on AajTak . Whenever i am with Sudhir in a public space, he pretty much gets mobbed. And how. He is super popular, and even though he himself is big on digital, but TV is what has built the aura and the persona around him, throuh his days at DNA, Zee News and now AajTak. This is the power of News TV.
Second is the fact that I have known some of the celebrities, who have been highly successful entrepreneurs, on Shark Tank. They have been doing extremely well for themselves pre-Shark Tank, but it has been the exposure on TV that has given them celebrity status. Take the case of my friend Aman Gupta of Boat. Aman is now a celebrity in his own right because of Shark Tank driven by his authenticity and the large business in boat he has built. This is the power of GEC.
Third is the example of a young dentist I met, who wanted to be an actress and ended up entering Big Boss on Sony TV. Big Boss has built her celebrity credentials and now at airports, public events and even temples people come up to her wanting a selfie. Soundarya Sharma is even getting called to open new stores and cut ribbons and get paid for the same. This is the power of Reality TV.
Certainly, content from TV gets amplified on digital and vice versa - influencers are getting shows on TV and TV stars are starting online shows. Yet, In the era of OTT and the digital and creator economy, mainstream TV is by far still the most sure-shot way to build a brand and also build credibility. No wonder when startups raise capital and have to build massive brand presence with speed, they still turn to TV.
Let’s see what is happening from a different prism: D2C brands - direct to consumer or digital to the consumer - are going to modern retail trade, general trade and setting up physical brand stores to grow their brand beyond a certain scale. D2C is being built through “Omni” Retail. In a similar manner, TV is the way to go to create an ‘Omni’ Broadcasting approach. Many years back, Amit Khanna, the media veteran, in a chat with me had spoken about ‘round casting’ – this was over a decade ago. ‘Roundcasting’ is now giving way to ‘Omni’ broadcasting.
We as media platforms need to be multi-platform, and ultimately form-neutral and content-led. However, it is a TV that has the halo, aura and scale to build any brand.
For this to happen, TV broadcasters have to reinvent themselves:
If broadcasters are able to align themselves to the emerging paradigm, the world will continue to be their cocoon. TV has been an intrinsic part of the growing up of the past two generations, and in a country like ours where internet penetration is still a few years away from being omnipresent, TV will still be drawing audiences at scale for a few decades to come.
Dr Annurag Batra has been a media commentator and analyst for 22 years and has been writing on business, media and start-ups for the last two decades. He is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of exchange4media and Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of BW Businessworld
Twitter : @anuragbatrayo
