Digital Trends in India in 2020–5 Key Takeaways from the Social Beat Digital Leaders Summit
On the 23rd of January, I attended the Social Beat Digital Leadership Summit in Mumbai. It was an extremely well-organised event with leaders from several industries and companies, including Google, Facebook, Marico, Sugar Cosmetics, mFine, Wonderchef — among many others. Here are my 5 key takeaways (and some of my own thoughts) for brands looking to grow their digital presence while onboarding the next billion users successfully:
1. There’s (still) huge scope for growth
While a lot has been said and written about India’s digital growth and consumption since the introduction of Jio, there’s still a lot more to come in 2020. According to the KPMG-Google report on “Defining India’s Internet” and other data from a presentation made by Google, the number of monthly active users (MAU) of the internet is going to increase from 450 million to 650 million. At the same time, the number of smartphone users accessing the internet is going to increase from 300 million to 500 million. Even more importantly, 1 in 2 users coming online is from rural India, while 1 in 4 users coming online from Rural India is a woman.
The presentation made by Facebook had some equally mind-boggling numbers: 328 million people access Facebook on mobile in India, 400 million Indians use WhatsApp, and 1 billion stories are shared daily worldwide on the Facebook apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp — all of which have their own “stories” feature)
2. The 3M’s that used to define India’s digital users no longer apply
For the longest time, it could be said that most digital users in India are males, millennials and from metro cities. However, that seems to be changing. According to the data presented by Google, by the end of 2020 40% of Indian’s online will be women, 77% will be from non-metros and 33% will be non-millennials. This is translating to e-commerce as well and is likely to define the future of most digital-focused companies that launch in India for the next decade.
3. The growth of new internet users in India is defined by the 3 V’s
While the 3M’s no longer apply, they’ve been replaced by the 3V’s — Voice, Video and Vernacular. These 3 words should be on the top of every digital company’s priority list for the foreseeable future. Drawing from the data presented by Google again, there’s been a 270% growth in voice searches year-on-year. Importantly, a majority of these voice searches are now taking place in Hindi. YouTube has over 265 million unique users every single month. Probably the most striking statistic is that 95% of video consumption happens in local languages.
As the number of internet users in India increases, the amount of vernacular content being produced is going to skyrocket. It is essential that companies and agencies begin developing their content, including the websites, apps, social media creatives and ads, videos, in local languages. Growth in India is defined by numbers — and these numbers lie outside the tier 1 and 2 cities. Remember — 1 in 2 new users of the internet are from rural India.
4. Design for Digital
Brands need to design for digital — this means they need to create platform and device-specific creatives. What works on Facebook may not work on Instagram, and what works on Instagram probably will not work on TikTok. Moreover, what works on a laptop may not work on a phone and that may not work on a tablet. Design for the device and the platform. A video on a laptop can — and should — be in landscape orientation. Content/videos created primarily for a mobile device needs to be vertical.
It is also important to remember that people are flooded by content all day long and attention spans are decreasing. According to data from Facebook, attention spans are even lower when content is being consumed on a mobile device. People tend to consume content 35% faster when they’re viewing it on mobile — that means if someone watches a video for 2.5 seconds on a computer, they’d only watch it for 1.7 seconds on mobile.
5. There are two kings: Customer and Content
If I had a penny for every time I heard someone say “content is king” or that the “customer is king” I’d probably be retired and writing this on an island somewhere in the Maldives. One thing that’s becoming increasingly clear though is that both content and customer ARE kings.
In terms of content, a phrase used by the representative from Marico stuck with me — “clutter-breaking content.” A lot of digital content today looks the same. Brands and agencies are increasingly using templates or repurposing the same designs in various ways. Sugar Cosmetics is a brand that seems to have differentiated well — both in terms of product design as well as marketing content. They recognised that the existing players in the market all had a round design for lipstick and made their lipstick square. They also put their logo/name on their black lipstick in white text. This means that every time it was photographed around other lipsticks, theirs was the only one that stood out — and the only one where you could easily recognise the brand. They also chose a mosaic pattern design for their creatives — this gave them a distinct visual identity.
Do something different — not only will this give you a distinct visual identity in the long term, but it will also help gain attention in the short term.
When it comes to customers, it is becoming increasingly easier to talk to your customers and connect with them on a personal level. This makes it easier for brands to give feedback — and brands must reply to it and take it into consideration. It’s pretty much the golden rule of being successful: build a product that people want, and you are maximising your chances of success.
Translate this personalisation into your digital marketing as well — brands can show different ads to different audiences depending on age, location, interests. Make the most of it and personalise the content as much as possible.
This also means that establishing trust is both easier than ever and more important than ever. Consumers have infinite choices — they’re likely to go with the products and companies that they trust the most. One method that brands are using to this is by explaining every single ingredient that goes into their products and explaining why each of them is necessary. Mamaearth is an example of a brand that does this, and also a brand that has formed a very strong bond with their customers in a very short time.
While there wasn’t too much discussion about platforms at the event, it’s clear that consumers consume content outside of the Facebook and Google ecosystems as well. TikTok is the best example of this — as of a few months ago, they had 120 million monthly active users in India. Brands need to stay on top of the latest platforms and trends and understand how best to use them. Simply recycling content made for other platforms isn’t very effective.
One thing that’s clear for sure is that 2020 is going to be an extremely exciting year for digital India — would love to hear comments/opinions on what you think is important for digital brands in 2020!
https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/in/pdf/2017/04/Indian-languages-Defining-Indias-Internet.pdf
