ad:tech 2014: Consumers switch screens seamlessly - can marketers keep pace?

Consumers are not just becoming screen-agnostic, they’re switching seamlessly from one screen to another. Can marketers keep up? A session moderated by Sanjeev Kapur, CMO and head of customer franchise management, Citi (India), revealed some interesting facets of the problem in connecting to this consumer, on day one of ad:tech 2014 that got underway in Gurgaon on 20 March.

Gurmit Singh, VP and MD, Yahoo India, pointed out that even as the consumer moved between various screens, 90 per cent of companies do not have mobile-friendly content. Nitesh Kripalani, EVP – new media, business development and digital / syndication, Sony Entertainment Television, noted that consumption happens from the screen closest to the consumer. That screen, as we know, is most often the mobile.\

Yet, Shubhodip Pal, CMO, Micromax India highlighted, that mobile is not exploited as much as it could be. “And the biggest reason is RoI. Marketers always look at numbers. My advice is to go for the kill. All screens complement each other.”

Sandeep Aurora, director, marketing and market development, Intel South Asia, questioned how one could decide which screen to put money on. He said, “After a while data becomes irrelevant. You need to feel the pulse of the consumer yourself. We need to design content irrespective of the screen.” Tarun Malik, director and head, media and cloud services, South West Asia, Samsung, made the case for cloud services as the solution for connected marketing across devices and screens.

When asked by moderator Kapur if primetime was dead with the consumer available 24x7, Kripalani disagreed. He said, “Majority of the population doesn’t have access to data, they work 12 hours a day and they do not have anything to do after 6 pm.” However, Pal of Micromax countered, “A lot of people have access to data. It (prime time) is dead, but may not be fully dead.”

On the growth of mobile, and if it would be at the cost of television five years from now, Aurora said, “Mobile might be taking over some forms of communication, but the larger screen would always be required. Even as habits are changing, they will not be completely shifting.”

“While Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will be adapting a mobile-first technology, could India see content being created first for mobile and then translated into TV content?” asked Kapur.
Kripalani ceded that it might happen, but added: “It is only the question of making it profitable and cost recovery. The roadblock is economics.”