 |
| Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash |
In a country where the median age group is 28.8 years[1],
it is not surprising that most people turn to digital entertainment rather than
traditional forms like television and movies. The widespread availability of
mobile devices makes it easy, convenient, and inexpensive to access a myriad of
OTT channels, social media networks, online gaming platforms, and music
streaming services.
Businesses, marketers and brand managers know that digital
ad spending gets them the biggest bang for the buck and, therefore, have begun
to spend more on that segment than traditional ones. This is especially true of
digital entertainment that corners more than half of India’s ad spend. In fact,
according to estimates made by industry, digital advertising could exceed a
figure of Rs.70,000 crores ($8.4
billion) by 2026.[2]
The Rise and Rise of Digital Entertainment
There are several compelling reasons for this to have
happened. The humongous smartphone
penetration and the massive internet connectivity available in terms of
sheer number of people with that kind of access make digital advertising the
obvious first choice for brand managers across industries. With 85.5% of Indian
households possessing at least one smartphone and 86.3% households boasting
on-premise internet access, it is a no-brainer that most people have extensive
access to digital entertainment.[3]
India’s youth-driven
demographics comprising millennials, Gen Zers and digital natives are
highly engaged with the large number of digital entertainment platforms and
channels they have round-the-clock access to. That is in a sense a captive
audience or almost low-hanging fruit for most marketers and brand managers.
Social Media
platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, YouTube[4]
and so on are an integral part of people’s daily lives in India making them
very amenable as platforms for digital advertising. With the average Indian
spending more than two and a half hours a day on accessing social media
channels, advertisers know that they have a good thing going by placing their
ads there.
Besides digital advertising achieves greater penetration in smaller cities and towns across India,
what with the growing popularity of vernacular entertainment content. This
helps marketers and advertisers create very successful localised digital ad
campaigns.
Add to that the fact that digital advertising not only
returns better ROI on every rupee spent, but can also be monitored closely
allowing modification and course correction based on performance and you can
see why it is going to grow exponentially in the coming year and beyond.
Going forward one can look forward to a bonanza for both
Indian entertainment content creators and the digital advertising industry,
given the sheer size of the expected ad spend. Good times are certainly here
for these two industries and will only get better as the digitisation bandwagon
continues to roll on.
[1] https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/india-population/
[2] https://www.cnbctv18.com/entertainment/digital-entertainment-now-drives-over-half-of-indias-ad-spend-ib-secretary-19628370.htm
[3] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2132330
[4] https://www.google.com/search?q=average+time+spent+by+indians+on+social+media&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN1066IN1066&oq=Average+amount+of+time+spent+by+Indians+on+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgBEAAYFhgeMgYIABBFGDkyCAgBEAAYFhgeMg0IAhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBBAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBRAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgcIBhAAGO8FMgcIBxAAGO8FMgcICBAAGO8FMgoICRAAGIAEGKIE0gEJMjM3ODRqMGo0qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
