MOBILE — The Next TV

Nitika Doshi
Aug 24, 2017 · 4 min read

What’s the time? Let me check my phone.

Is it going to rain today? Let me check my phone.

Did you see how gorgeous her wedding dress was? Really, let me check my phone.

What a beautiful sunset! Wait, let me get my phone.

Do you want to play Scrabble? Cool, let me get my phone.

Did you pay your phone bill? Oops, let me check my phone.

Did you see who won Master Chef? No, let me check my phone.

It’s true. Our phones are a part of us. It is not some tool or appliance we use for a specific purpose, it is the medium with which we interact with our lives. My teenage cousin spells this out perfectly: “I don’t care if I lose my wallet. But if I lose my phone… It will be the end of the world!”

We use our phones for almost everything. Right from the time we wake up and hit the snooze button on our noisily blinking phone to the time we fall asleep watching “Game of Thrones” on Hotstar. We are becoming a generation of information addicts fueled by smartphones. Brands are constantly leveraging our addiction to ensure their name is constantly on the top of our minds.

Our lives are converging to a 5 inch screen that has the world on a platter. When board games, ticket counters, calculators and books can be made portable through the smartphone, why not the TV?

Watching TV has traditionally been a family affair. The entire family would come together at a particular time to watch their favorite program aired on a particular channel. If you didn’t make it, you would miss it and would have to watch the re-run at another time. It was a revolution when we could record TV programs and watch it on our schedule. Life was a breeze with flexible viewing times and fast-forwarding interrupting advertisements.

With the advent of numerous TV channels, the Internet and of course the smartphone, the ritual of watching TV is becoming less social and more personal. Watching TV anywhere, anytime through mobile apps of TV channels or on YouTube is the new norm.

If brands don’t exist on mobile phones they may not be able to achieve the scale and growth they aspire. Brands need to relentlessly seek the best means possible to meet the demands of their consumers and create a meaningful connection. A mobile device is the customers’ remote control to life and every brand should be a part of that journey.

Brand Building Action Points

Rethink advertising

Consumers watch TV and videos on mobile to escape incessant advertisements that interrupt the viewing experience. Brands need to ensure that there is continuum in viewing content. While watching TV on mobile, advertisements should be kept optional or presented in a way that does not interrupt the viewing experience. Brands could also look at using data analytics to create advertisements that relate to the consumer’s interests.

Go rural

Mobile phone user base has surpassed the sales of consumer goods in rural India owing to the availability of budget smartphones, improved network connectivity and affordable data plans. Owning a mobile phone has become a necessity amongst the aspiring rural youth. May it be offering bite-sized data plans or access to free online TV programs, brands need to tap into this nascent rural market to scale their business and reach a wider consumer base.

Create curated content

Consumers ditch the big screen as the mobile gives them the freedom to watch anything at anytime. A parallel universe of consuming video and TV content has been looming to meet this demand. Content is created for the people, by the people through platforms like YouTube and other social media channels. Brands need to leverage this universe by joining forces with vloggers and bloggers who receive high view ratings online. It would be a very limiting world if we ignore individual creators of content in the space of watching TV.

Build relationships

The Internet has eradicated international borders by bringing everyone closer with a click of a button or tap on the screen. Brands should look at creating a community of people with similar interests who can communicate with each other to share experiences. Brands should welcome consumer scrutiny and use the feedback to improve experience and create positive connections with their consumers.

Be connected, always

Be it online or offline, brands have to be where the consumers are. Social media makes this very easy, as millennials want to be constantly connected with the brands and the people they love. Brands needs to have their presence felt, they need to stand out to be preferred again and again. Creating buzz through teasers on channels like Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube can be extremely effective in keeping the audiences continuously engaged.

Originally published in WPP Millward Brown’s BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Indian Brands.

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