‘Seamless’ content viewing experience and the ‘medium’ is no longer important are some of the modern day jargons which crop up every now and then, thanks to the rising influence of mobile/app viewing of content.
And the entire idea seems to have reached a crescendo this IPL sea son. Point in case, and a special mention of the rising trend of the ‘play along’ feature which is engaging, intriguing and entertaining to the core.
We remember how ‘deviyos and sajjanos’ played along while watching KBC, which catapulted the last season’s success and popularity to the next level (not to mention ratings). Sony did taste ‘engagement’ blood with KBC and intends to hit gold again with its next big property, Dus Ka Dum.
Dus Ka Dum has an innovative ‘register and play along’ feature which creates a loyal base of audience, the prizes/giveaways help the cause and the ultimate ‘chance to meet Salman’ carrot draws web shenanigans in hordes.
This IPL, Hostar has up the ante. Once on the app, while watching 20-20 entertainment, one can guess the outcome of the game, answer some interesting cricket trivia and also win some cool prizes.
“Bahut maza aata hai yaar… at times more than cricket I get fixated to the game. It’s amazing,” says an avid IPL watcher also a topboss in a content creation company.
Times have changed and ‘evolution’ and ‘innovation’ is key to survive the battle of content.
Linear means are passé and one has to provide multiple diverse engagement options to the highly ‘fleeting’ audience to lure them to stay on. Hotstar’s ‘play along’ hits the ball out of the park, most definitely, for it’s simple, appealing and easy to sink in.
The fact that a couple of million viewers watch the game real time on the app is no big number given the size of this country, however, the gaming feature does help in keeping them hooked and reduce drop-out rate.
Add to that, there are gaming features in Jio and other platforms as well, but Hotstar has cracked it moist laudably.
With mobile revolution and options augmentation, it’s all about ‘engagement’ and ‘stickiness’, be it any form of content or platform. Yeh dil maange more and creators will have to constantly evolve to stay ahead and relevant. Only the smartest will persist.
