Video, Voice, Vernacular to deepen Internet landscape in 2019: Prasad Shejale

With 2018 drawing to a close, Prasad Shejale, Co-founder and CEO, Logicserve Digital, looks into the future to highlight the trends that will dominate the digital landscape in 2019. 

2018 has been eventful for us in more ways than one. We have had a very successful year, going by the kind of response and support we have received from the industry for our work. With a record 68 awards in total, we have been recognised by prestigious platforms such as CMO Asia, CDO Converge, Drivers of Digital (DOD) and the like. Our capabilities across media strategy, integrated campaign strategy, display marketing, video strategy have been awarded and we have seen success across BFSI, Healthcare, Travel &Tourism and Consumer Durables. 

From an industry point of view 2018 set the stage for three Vs (as Google puts it) – Video, Voice and Vernacular – to deepen the Internet landscape beyond ‘Metro, Millennial and Male’. Here are my thoughts on what will win in 2019. 

Personalisation and responsible advertising 

All leading companies have personalisation at the heart of their strategy. Reportedly, more than 30 per cent of Amazon’s revenue is attributed to personal recommendations. Around 75 per cent of Netflix’s rentals are driven by personalised suggestions. Google’s search results are increasingly personalised. Observing these companies through their growth journeys has been a great learning experience. It has helped evolve the concept of ‘responsible advertising’, which, in my opinion, will create a big differentiator for brands in 2019. It has been established that we live very fast lives and are victims to constant tech-based distractions and exposure to multiple screen at once. 

According to Time magazine, the average human attention span is now just 8 seconds, which is lower than the 9-second attention span of a goldfish. It was supposedly 12 seconds in 2000, but this has dropped to a whooping 4 seconds! From the point-of-view of brands, this brings in the need to be absolutely relevant and crisp so as to not infringe on their attention or time. 

While this is one key aspect of responsibility, it is also equally important to be cognizant of how ‘personal’ you get. The ground rule always is to let users control how and how much of their information to leverage. Transparency and consent are prerequisites for building brand trust. 

Narrowing the human interaction gap 

There will arise an urgent need for brands and digital marketing agencies to address the human interaction gap with consumers. While it’s great to acknowledge the digital transformation wave we are cruising on, it would be a disaster to leave the anchor of human touch behind at the shores. While we are allowing emerging technologies like Neural Networks, AI, IoT, Chatbots, AR/VR, etc., to understand us and predict us to create seamless experiences, the stickiness of a customer relies on human relationships. 

Enriching the customer experience 

Most importantly, 2019 will demand undivided attention on the customer experience journey. Speaking to a consumer with the attention span poorer than a goldfish has left brands to resort to ‘snack ads’ in the video format. Even with the humble 6-second ads, it may be worthwhile to evaluate if brands should topple the campaign process which usually starts with preparing the ground, moves on to the big reveal and then finishes with sustenance activities. With increasing competition and an evolved audience, brands could literally ‘cut a long story short’ and begin with the big reveal and strengthen brand resonance with sustenance activities. 2019 is definitely going to be an interesting year!