As businesses struggle to cut through the noise and engage audiences in this era of too much content and insufficient customer attention, video has emerged as the most powerful way to connect with every audience throughout their journey. The advancement in technologies in the world of video innovation is carving a niche that is only set to grow. In a recent interaction with CXOToday, Subhasish Gupta, the Managing Director of Sales, India & SAARC Region at Brightcove, discussed the evolution of video streaming over the years and elaborated on the emerging trends and technologies in the Video-On-Demand ecosystem in India. He further highlighted how businesses could remain at the forefront of building brand affinity and own their digital future with a video-first content strategy. Excerpts.
- What are the trends in the Video-On-Demand ecosystem in India? What are the growth drivers?
Over the years, India has witnessed a radical shift in entertainment consumption. The COVID-19 pandemic paved the way for streaming services, opening new avenues for online video in the industry. Online video content is changing, evolving, and continues to gain traction while it adapts to the latest needs and preferences of consumers. No matter the industry, audience, or objectives, video continues to grab attention, increase engagement, and build connections like no other mode of communication.
The massive internet penetration, expanding proliferation of mobile usage, and the advancement in new technologies leading to developments in online platforms positively outline the growth trajectory of the video-on-demand market. With 5G expected to bring along an increased bandwidth and lower latency, the rollout will welcome high-quality streaming leading to a tremendous spike in the online video market. Additionally, consumers’ demand to view content per convenience and the availability of affordable subscription packages are resulting in video gaining further popularity in India.
The capability of video to influence buyers encourages businesses to transition from traditional business models and leverage well-planned and executed videos to cut through the noise and grab the audience’s attention. Today, video motivates and trains team members, sells products & services, and entertains and informs subscribers. With businesses increasingly looking to target consumers effectively and deliver critical information creatively, short video storytelling formats have emerged as an integral part of content consumption. These modern content delivery methods and the growing online users enrich the VOD market’s contours.
- How can video benefit businesses across industries at every stage of the customer journey?
Businesses today are looking at new and differentiated ways to engage and interact with their consumers. Video’s ability to attract attention, strengthen connections, and secure conversions throughout every step in the customer life cycle has made it a crucial communication channel for businesses across retail, e-commerce, healthcare, ed-tech, sports, etc.
Leading businesses leverage video throughout the buyer’s journey to market products, demonstrate key solution features and benefits, promote events, showcase customer testimonials or reviews, and deliver how-to-use demos to break the clutter. Including video content in emails and the company’s web page to deliver engaging and exclusive customer messages drive mindshare and provide visually appealing experiences for customers that will ultimately benefit sales.
Purposeful content has become vital to generating higher volume, and higher quality leads. By leveraging a robust video platform with advanced analytics and support of the multilingual feature, businesses can develop insights to target specific audiences with personalised content to achieve an optimal outcome.
At Brightcove, we offer a robust Marketplace with a host of integration partners that offer a high level of customised solutions stitched to our video platform based on specific customer use case requirements. These integrations extend our platform and customise our solution to fit the needs of any customer and help them form future video strategies and business decisions.
- How are emerging technologies like AI, ML, and deep video analytics enabling businesses to drive customer engagement more effectively?
The rapid technological advancement is powering the next generation of dynamic customer engagement. Businesses today are increasingly relying on cloud computing, AI, ML, and analytics to engage better with their audiences and monetise their content. Deep video analytics provides insights into video performance, viewer engagement, and ROI. This data further enables them to predict future customer behavior through machine learning models and helps deliver recommendations to drive viewer engagement more effectively.
At Brightcove, we provide an intelligent video platform that enables businesses to deliver broadcast-quality video to viewers worldwide and measure its effectiveness with comprehensive, real-time analytics, including video and viewer insights. Our recent acquisition of Wicket Labs allows us to combine our analytics offering with audience insights to bring additional value to our customers. Brightcove’s platform now provides a deep understanding of customer lifetime values, subscriber cohort analysis, engagement analysis and recommendations, key trends in viewer behaviour, viewed content, and opt-in comparative benchmarks. With these insights, customers use Brightcove’s expertise to make data-driven decisions to improve subscriber acquisition, conversions, engagement, and retention.
- What practices should businesses focus on more to drive faster growth?
The Covid 19 crisis and recovery have transformed businesses forever. Companies have massively accelerated digital adoption to deepen engagement with customers and expand the brand reach. However, to remain competitive in this new business landscape requires new strategies and practices.
With consumers’ move to digital likely to persist, video content has gained significant prominence and has proven to be more engaging than other forms of communication. Hence, businesses need to think and act like media companies and develop high-quality content with the mindset of educating and entertaining audiences. Furthermore, maximizing this content by repurposing it through marketing channels and distributing it through a centralized source like Brightcove CorpTV can enable them to engage and motivate customers and employees.
Using intelligent tools and technologies to create and distribute engaging videos to activate sales funnels is one of the key practices businesses in India must follow to attract new customers and achieve desired outcomes.
- How has video streaming evolved over the years? What are the key monetisation strategies?
The world of entertainment is rapidly transforming, and video has emerged as a key medium of content consumption today. While the pandemic was a catalyst for the rise of streaming services, businesses are recognising the potential of video as an indispensable asset to story tell and entertain customers.
Consumers today continue to have a demanding relationship with their screens. However, their short attention spans and demand for a premium viewing experience are paving the way for high-quality, scalable streaming platforms and services. Additionally, the acceleration of streaming technologies has significantly progressed monetization strategies for service providers.
Undoubtedly, the OTT landscape has seen a significant boost over the past few years, with new players entering the market and competing for audience attention. Hence, today’s consumers have various options to choose from and are highly price sensitive. Determining how to monetize content to drive revenue for these audiences becomes a major decision for OTT businesses. Traditional broadcasters and new media companies are launching more consumer-friendly and flexible subscription models to increase online video viewership. Several players are deploying an ad-funded business model to drive revenue growth, whereas certain companies are offering pay-per-view models by providing timely access to exclusive content. Certain OTT services are also providing ad-supported subscription tiers to attract audiences. This flexible multi-tiered revenue model enables viewers to window certain content, which gently helps move the audience to a subscription model.
Amidst this video streaming revolution, Brightcove is well positioned to pave the way for the best and brightest video innovations that help service providers power their expansion, monetize their videos, and build significant & meaningful connections with their audiences.
