Video to combat shorter attention spans : CII-KPMG report

Industry body, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and KPMG in India unveiled a report titled 'Digital - The New Normal of Marketing', at the CII National Marketing Summit, which brings out valuable information on Indian digitisation and the shift from traditional to digital marketing.

Some of the key findings of the report were:

Video is the new data format

The digital consumer's attention span has now come down to 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2007. Marketers are expected to direct their content strategists to curate short videos that create a greater impact on the consumer's mind while holding their attention till the end. Live streaming videos are interactive, immersive and cost-effective.

Omni-channel the only channel

Omni-channel experiences and touch points are essential in the digitally charged marketplace Healthcare, automotive, insurance, retail and manufacturing companies are experimenting on various IoT use cases to enhance the consumer experience.

Wearable is durable

Wearables provide a new dimension from a data perspective. Using the galvanic skin sensors and gyroscopes that are in-built in these devices, marketers can continuously monitor the customer's physiological and behavioral data.

In peers we trust

Authenticity, relevance, and value are increasingly important parameters for content creation and distribution Customers trust user-generated content and give more weightage to peer recommendations and reviews than to professionally curated content.

The Native place

Native ads are being used increasingly to combat mobile and desktop ad blocking. They blend in and appear as content that would normally and deliver value and relevance to the consumer and do not hinder user experience of the website even while monetising.

The report estimated that, India is one of the fastest growing advertising markets globally with an estimated growth of 15.5 per cent in 2016, driven by a large consumer base and a burgeoning e-commerce industry. Although the share of digital advertising spend remains low at 12.7 percent in 2016, it is one of the fastest growing media at an expected CAGR of 33.5 per cent (2015-2020) to cross INR 255 billion in 2020.

Of the total digital advertisement spends, 'search and display' commands the largest share.

"Mobile is being rapidly adopted and marketers have an incredible opportunity to enhance the game of digital communication and deliver great customer experiences at each point of the journey," said Thomas Varghese, Chairman, CII National Committee on Marketing and CEO-Textile Business, Aditya Birla Group. “There have been silent and not so silent changes around us that are changing the way marketing will be done. Singularity, connected systems, Cognitive and AI will create a world where the marketer will be marketing not only to humans but the 'self-thinking' machines,” said Rachna Nath, Partner and Head, Digital Consulting, KPMG in India.