Amita Srivastava, National Head – Account Planning, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited

The media landscape in the past few years has not only witnessed new changes and developments, but has also witnessed a revolution in communication techniques with the advent of digital media. The overall landscape has under gone a paradigm shift over the recent years, resulting in the change in content consumption patterns.

The Changing Landscape

The traditional forms of media like Print, Television and Radio had been ruling the media space for decades now, but have also been forced to recognize the digital storm and make some significant changes to stay relevant for the consumers of today. New age media and social media platforms have emerged as a revolutionary medium, helping brands cater to their communication needs, keeping their swift growth and reach in mind.

"With 19 years of experience in managing media for brands, Amita has exposure across multiple categories spanning start-ups especially in the e-commerce space, education, personal care,cosmetics, auto, finance, hospitality, oral care, luggage,"    

The content is now becoming media agnostic and is being designed with digital exposure in  mind as well. For brand communication, social media is another platform which has been added in every brands media universe because of its vast reach. In 2014, Facebook India crossed the 100 million user mark, and it is already at 195 million now which shows its consumer friendly nature hence making it easier for brands to scale faster. 

As the media landscape is evolving, communication is becoming more strategic in nature. The media industry is in the process of embracing and adapting new technologies, be it the Face book Live tool or 360 degree videos (Virtual Reality)or even Exploring the various aspects of news reporting by maximizing such tools, thereby continuing to explore how, where and when content is being consumed by audiences.

In a scenario where media and content is witnessing some or the other development with every passing day, a media consultant needs to be equipped with all the latest happenings with regards to not just traditional,but also new age media. To put everything into perspective, as the media landscape changes, the media consulting sector is becoming more and more relevant in the over all scheme of things.

With over 460 million internet users, India is the second largest online market, ranked after China. There are now 684 million unique mobile users in India, of whom more than 370 million access the internet and by 2018, mobile users are projected to increase to 775.5 million (almost 60 percent of the population). Traditional media houses are slowly venturing into digital. Digital media lies at the heart of the new media environment, manifesting in various forms including audio, visuals, web blogs,social networks,ng, podcasts,web shows and RSS feeds. These social tools have become a part of everyday communication, making the landscape dynamic and vibrant. There is a lot of data big data which is available on the audience’s consumption patterns and solutions – both content and media – are being designed for brands keeping those nuances in mind. There is a continuous flow of information captured at the most micro levels for brands to use and create strategic differentiation from others in the category.

Being a part of the same media ecosystem, we believe we are in a position to understand the paradigm shift in the content consumption patterns. Keeping this in mind, media houses have changed their content strategies to tailor to the unique audience requirements. Most brands in the radio as well as television space are tailoring their respective communication strategies to appeal to the unique tastes and preferences of our audiences. There are multiple OTT and VoD platforms available in India now.

And broadcasters are looking to get into serious content  tie ups – like live streaming big ticket sports which used to be a reason for staying glued to TV; but now you can get it on your mobile. Apart from this, there is content now which is available only digitally – Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, Voot, EROS Now are all examples of emerging and here to stay tech entertainment.

Digital inventory including sponsorships is being sold separate from the traditional format media. For this, there has to be a focus on specially planning for digital media for the brands.We see this reflected in the media spend patterns as well. In fact, digital advertising has grown 6 times over 2010-15. And was 13 percent of the total ad pie. This is slated to grow to 25 percent by 2020. (Source: KPMG FICCI Report 2016).

In the current era where content makes or breaks a brand, media consultants play a crucial role in strategizing the whole communication process. With cut throat competition, every brand is trying to leverage the current media landscape to be positioned in a manner in which they are able to stand out from the rest. In this game of brand communication, media consultants help build brand value, maintaining brand vitality, and establishing brand credibility.Newer services have been added by various consultancies  under their umbrella which includes crisis management, digital engagement, social media communication and more. The Indian ad revenue is expected to reach Rs 994 billion by 2020 as per the report by KPMG FICCI 2016. Taking all the factors elucidated above into consideration, media consultancy is arguably the most important cog in the media communication wheel.