Networking is working
The year 2008 witnessed great growth for social media, sharing and
networking properties and applications. More than 60% of the Indian
internet users are using one of the social media platforms. We are
witnessing a co-existence of global, local and niche based social
networking platforms. Besides broadbased networks, categories such as
professional, education, entertainment and games will emerge as strong
growth drivers for the social media. The second aspect that emerged in
2008 was the fact that young users in the age group of 18 to 24 from
tier II and tier III cities began to aggressively enrol into social
networking platforms. This is a healthy trend, given that social
networking satisfies key needs of this young population besides
enabling them to express across borders. The growth in this segment is
also fuelled by the increasing internet penetration in tier I and tier
II cities across India. The third key trend is an emergence of
integration between social networking and casual gaming. Across social
media platforms, multi player games such as chess, word games such as
Scrabble and various fantasy games have created an important context
for forming new relationships and at the same time increasing
engagement level between friends. Users profiles are tightly integrated
as they play games among friends, thereby creating a strong viral
force. We anticipate more and more users to consume casual games in a
social networking context, rather than on a games only website. The
fourth and very healthy trend is the fact that marketers are beginning
to use social media to intimately communicate their message, engage
with their target audience and, at the same time, leverage the power of
viral on networking platforms. Social media has provided a new
interactive platform to brands to get connected with consumers, and
also get a complete mapping of the impact of the campaign with the
features of number of views and participation. Brands have started
identifying online platform, which is catering to the right target
audience and are together creating a platform, which is interactive and
has engagement factor with the audience. It s a paradigm shift from the
conventional banner ads in the online media to a more interactive
approach. Also average time spent by a consumer over a conventional
medium is very low compared to the average time spent by the consumer
on new age online media. Clearly, social media has brought a shift from
buying boring banners to the advent of advertiser branded interactive
applications. Also the entertainment industry has woken up to this
exponential growth of online social media. Movie producers have started
leveraging social media to promote their movies and engage with the
audience. For instance, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was promoted across
Facebook, ibibo and youtube. On ibibo.com, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi had more
than half a million views for its clips. More than 5000 participants
joined the talent contest on Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi application, clearly
demonstrating the power of viral on the social networking space.
Companies and brands such as Levers, Nokia, Idea Cellular, Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO),
Tata Sky etc have all started using social media and gaming to engage
with their audiences. An example for this is an application launched
recently on ibibo, Cornetto Sing Ur Dil , which enables users to sing
straight from their mobile phones, publish the song on their profiles
and dedicate the song to someone they love . The application, within a
period of 30 days witnessed 10,000 singers, dedicating to 50,000 of
their friends and loved ones. This is a clear indicator of a user
becoming a marketer for the brands. Advertisers have started balancing
their ad spends between the online and conventional media. Also past
years have seen growth in the online ad networks, which helps in doing
a viral online campaign. To sum up, 2008 has been a remarkable year as
consumer, advertisers and the entertainment industry have been able to
realise the growing popularity of online space. We expect this to
continue at a much faster pace in the coming year.
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