Media is Media as long as it engages consumers – Shefalika Saxena, CMO, Microsoft India

Shefalika Saxena, CMO, Microsoft India

Do you remember when newspapers were black and white and red all over; when radios were family affair and everyone watched television together. Remember the days when time ticked slowly, when 5 minutes were not instantly as old as five years ago. Today an average smart phone user checks his/her phone 150 times a day. 98% of SMS are opened within a minute of receiving them. Real time is right now, everything else is history. Time today has lost its linearity. Remember when clouds belong to the sky, tweets were bird, avatars belong to Vishnu and Pandora unleashed mayhem instead of music.

IT crowd changed the rule of the game quite completely by introducing a sticky new communication landscape, a highly addictive one and most of us are probably hooked to it. IT crowd gave a digital mega phone to around 2 billion people around the world and that smashed boundaries with respect to content creation, consumption and advocacy. Today you can’t just read an encyclopedia, you can write one. 90% of all data that exist in the world today from the start of recorded history was created in the last two years. Data volume and Data velocity are both increasing exponentially. We have 4 questions in relation to data which are: How should I get that information? How would I understand that information? How do I action that information? & how would I protect that information?

In India there are 150 million digital citizens and they are spending 58 hours a week online. There are 1.7 billion video views in a month. We are number 2 country for linkedIn, number 3 country for Facebook and number 6 country for twitter and that too with less than 10% digital connectivity which is slower than in most part of the world. Democratization of content has unleashed massive confusion. Confusion is a prelude to clarity. Today’s rule number one: Consume me; this is the new age of narcissism. Don’t judge me until you know me. Don’t underestimate me until you challenge me and don’t you dare talk about me until you talked to me. Rule no. two: Copyright is not protected but right to copy is. Everyone wants to go viral. Sharing is now profitable. Free is often a surer path to revenue than paid. Personal egos are much bigger today that brand egos and that forced the marketers and advertisers to learn new humility. Communication has morphed from monologue to dialogue to conversation that’s truly boundary less. 44% of consumers want to be engaged in brand conversation. Listening therefore is just as important as talking. Social media is the new currency. Don’t just build connection, build business with connections.

Traditional media is a thing of the past, TV and print media are still heavyweight with over 2/3rd of our spending. Digital is just a small slice on top. What’s losing relevance is not the digital media but the labels. Media is simply media as long as it is engaging the consumers; we can’t divide it into new or old. Media is constantly evolving and it is turning into a more competitive and real time game. It is a virtual cycle of cross creation and collaboration. You can’t just be a specialist in TV or in print media. We have to think about all media platforms and connect them laterally. Idea fluidity is critical for communication strategy. When the physical and digital world collides that’s what lead to powerful synergy.

Authentic credible differentiated relevance is the key to relationships. So, find that emotional heart beat and link to it. That’s what differentiated personal custom relevance means. Technology is a great enabler for this across all the media platforms. In India 0.3% of GDP is spent on media and it has lot of room to grow. Indian marketing and entertainment market grew at 18% in last year. TV will be the fastest growing market in the world. Print media will grow at 12%. Radio will grow at 17%, digital will grow at 25% and mobile market will grow at whopping 70%. It is a great time to be in marketing. Stay calm, keep advertising but do engage.