Digital media is an exciting space to be in. At Quintype, we constantly breathe in and breathe out the latest trends and possibilities for digital publishing businesses, so that our clients get more and more value from the suite of products we offer. In keeping with this spirit of constantly innovating and charting the future, Quintype recently conducted a webinar on “Digital Media Predictions for 2022”. It was a pleasure to host Mr. Raghav Bahl, one of the visionaries in the Indian media ecosystem, as speaker for the session. Mr. Chirdeep Shetty, CEO, Quintype was also on the panel, for the discussion.
The webinar covered a wide range of topics including ad and subscription revenues, choice of channels and media formats, “creator’s economy”, choice of social media channels, subscription fatigue and micro payments, consolidation of media properties and the increasing importance of technology for media. A brief overview of some of the key insights are summarized below.
For the complete, unabridged version, have a look at this video:
Digital ad revenues dipped during the first wave of the pandemic, as businesses were uncertain of the future. With the subsequent waves of Covid though advertisers have recognized the shift in content consumption patterns to digital. This has resulted in increased ad revenues in 2021. This is possibly a trend that’s here to stay, with the growing inclination to consume digital content. Advertisers need to be mindful though, that they need to advertise across channels and in several formats.
Traffic to digital properties is no longer a function of website presence alone. There are myriad channels and varied forms of content that need to be disseminated across channels, to be an ideal state of digital presence. While niche businesses might want to focus on specific channels, the true power of digital can be leveraged by publishers, only if they utilize multiple channels and multiple content formats.- Raghav Bahl
The recent interest around “creator’s economy” is getting a fillip from the range of digital options available. Creators now have greater opportunities to disseminate value through their intellectual capital and build a digital following. Speaking of digital following, a notable part of which is typically attributed to social media – the choices of social media channels for publishers are many. The ideal way for publishers is to have presence across channels, also to cater to different demographics that have their respective affiliations to specific channels. Again, niche publications might want to focus on specific social media but broadly speaking it’s better to have a presence across different social media channels.
Paywalled content has been a popular topic of discussion in recent times. Knowledge driven value and a credible brand go a long way in making subscriptions a sustainable model. Upcoming publishers too, can have their brand presence in specific digital channels or across specific demographics. The aspect of knowledge driven value naturally means that niche, specialized, vertical-specific content is more likely to attract subscribers. Within the paywall world, resides the reality of “subscription fatigue” that is building up and pushing consumers to remain signed up for a maximum of one or two subscriptions. One-time purchases of premium content is not a very common occurrence and is likely to stay that way since its improbable that a discerning consumer would find specialized unique content catering to her interest, on a very frequent basis.
Consolidation of media is a trend that is likely to continue in the future. The need to cater to multiple interests of the same consumer means that specialized properties would need to be consolidated under the same brand, to orchestrate the required content dissemination.- Raghav Bahl
Almost any discussion these days, entails a conversation on technology. Media is no different, and moreover some of the trends like AI generated content, content and the metaverse are very exciting. Having said that its unlikely that AI would yet be able to replicate the ingenuity that a human mind brings in when it comes to creating content. Speaking of the Metaverse, like all innovation, the success lies in the hands of the consumer. As long as the “Metaverse experiences” are not a strain for the human senses, we are likely to see more and more adoption into this space – with more and more content getting created and consumed in the Metaverse.