The recently held India Kids Summit Season 5 turned out to be a huge success where an array of esteemed industry professionals gathered to have insightful conversations about kids and their role in entertaining industry, rising trends and other things.
One such panel went on to discuss the shift from traditional TV to digital/online, as they also talked about tapping the changes of marketing spends.
Mr. Ron Crasto, Founder of Redfox Mediacorp moderated the session with Mr. Tarak Bhattacharya, Executive Director & CEO of Mad Over Donuts; Mr. Janardan Pandey, Founder, Nett Value Media & Director – Metier Media; Mr. Mohit Ahuja, President, Gozoop Group, and Mr. Gaurav Balani, Deputy General Manager (DGM)- Marketing, Infiniti Mall.
Mr. Crasto: To just give an analogy, TV is being ditched as the old wife and digital is seemingly the new wife. How do all of you feel the shift has happened and how are you dealing with it?
Mr. Bhattacharya: Things have shifted incredibly well. For us, because we are taking about food; it is an emotion and online food ordering is at its peak. Because food represents empathy. With us, we don’t do television at all. Even 10 years ago, we believed it isn’t the route we want to take. We aren’t into content that caters to TV at all. The maximum we do is sampling in retail stores and events, and al on. Talking about kids, we have talked into how we see every kid wanting to be a chef and posting videos and other such fun content on social media. Kid influencers is a huge category and we have been working with some of them, who basically create content about food. We don’t fire influencers, but surely deal with them.
Mr. Pandey– Brands are loyal to audiences. And even though technological advancements happen, the brands continue to cater to their audiences in an updated way. Back then, broadcasters would dictate the kind of content going up and it would be incredibly expensive as well. If would be like you have to pay for 1000 people to get a reach of 100 people. Today, the situation is entirely different and more independent. So many influencers out there have a larger following than some channels as well. TG is becoming redundant with its own character. For FSI and education, influencers are powerful. So, brands indeed have so many options when it comes to reaching the maximum set of people, and with the rise in kid influencers, there is a bigger audience to reach to, as well.
Mr. Ahuja- Life is difficult for ad agencies. We want to constantly make superior content, and I strongly believe content is king. I would also say that if TV, today, comes up with superior content, you might see a momentary shift there as well. And I do agree that this shift from traditional TV to digital has begun but you can’t use social media to Target kids early on. The OTT penetration is slow in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. For instance, if you want to sell Parle G, you have to sell it through TV. Digital is increasing its niche but TV is still important. When it comes to us and kid influencers, we do take a look at a few of them but maintain a rootmap. We work with them but levitate towards what adults do.
Mr. Balani- With us, people come for experience. Kids watch cartoons on TV and here, they interact with the characters at live events. For us, the revenue model is derived from about 50% coming from events and such plans, and about 30% comes from digital. We believe in the human touch and feel. But yes, social media is extra boost we get. For instances, when people come and tag us on Instagram, others see it and come to experience it. An array of movie promotions and TV promos take place and it’s great because you get live reactions of the audience. For us, newspaper and radio is also a huge channel that we work with. TV used to be important but there is no traction anymore. Digital definitely takes over that. And finally, talking about kid influencers, we call and interact with multiple influencers depending on the event happening. It gives good traction.
Mr. Crasto: I have to ask this because I am curious. How have you adapted to the use of AI (artificial intelligence) and how much does it help you?
Mr. Bhattacharya- We have done AI. For us, it does bucketing. We have created filters and AR features on the apps, in order to create an experience for the cheese. Food is all about seeing and eating. It is too early to see how much of a difference it actually makes but AI is here to stay for sure.
Mr. Ahuja- For lifestyle, we have also been dabbling with AI but it is in nascent stages. We are toying with ideas for kids’ brands, but not implemented yet.
Mr. Bulani- We, overall don’t use AI. But there are stores in our mall who do that. Many of them, in a rather advanced way too. Bhr we are doing something for loyalty program and might use AI for it soon.
Mr. Pandey- I guess, knowingly or unknowingly, we are all users of AI. But when it comes to our company, we haven’t used it yet.
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