The Mobile Boom in India may Inspire many to talk about how it has changed Media Consumption, but Rohit Bhargava from Ogilvy has a Contrarian View. 4Ps B&M finds out his Opinion on A few other trends as well
“I write a blog about influential marketing. I work at Ogilvy. I have a personality. I wrote a book on why personality matters.” This is how Rohit Bhargava, Executive Vice-President, Global Strategy at Ogilvy, likes to define himself at twitter. Bhargava is the founding member of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence team, which is apparently the world’s largest global network of social media strategists. He has a personal marketing blog – just to say that it is a popular blog would be belittling the fact that it has been ranked by AdAge as one of the top 25 marketing blogs in the world. If that was not enough for his claim to fame, his bestselling book, ‘Personality Not Included’ has been published across the world in eight different languages. If you were to chance upon his blog, you will find a section where he likes to describe himself in the form of various bios, like a one line bio, a short bio, a 100 word bio, then a 100-ish word bio and finally a full bio. Not only has he led marketing strategies for brands like Intel, Pepsi, Lenovo, Seiko and Unilever, he has also worked on marketing campaigns for brands like Arnotts, Subaru, Malaysia Airlines, Kelloggs and Maggi. To cut to the chase, 4Ps B&M caught up with him to bring to you straight from the horse’s mouth, the inside story of the trends shaping media consumption in mainland India viz-a-viz the rest of the world.
‘Content curation’ and ‘entrepreneurial journalism’, how do you see them as important factors in shaping media consumption trends in India or elsewhere?
Journalism is evolving in ways that no one could have imagined around five or 10 years ago. In a world where anyone can publish information instantly, the role of journalism is becoming more entrepreneurial and curated. For example, when citizens post videos experiencing a typhoon, those are the journalists who actually watch these videos and validate them as a source of authenticated news. On the other side, now you have more and more people with journalism training and experience choosing to take the more entrepreneurial road of creating their own media properties and building their own audiences.
There are many trends which have surfaced in the last five years. But what is that most remarkable trend that you think has played a vital role in shaping media consumption over the past couple of years?
The democratization of expertise has been the single biggest trend shaping the consumption of media over the past five years, and also the belief in that media. Everyone is an expert in something, and now you can share that expertise online with the whole world. That means that the media we all read is no longer limited to just a small subset of “official” media publications. Everyone influences everyone else, because we can all read and consume media created by one another.
According to you, what will be the most interesting medium to watch out for, as a trend in shaping media consumption in India and the rest of the world?
The sheer volume of people in each new generation in India has created a natural pressure to stand out. This pressure will lead more and more people to try and build their own personal profiles through creating their own media online. In a truly flat society, anyone can be found and succeed regardless of where they are born or what economic class they fit into. Your place of birth no longer determines your potential future success. Innovation can come from anywhere.
We often hear that India missed the era of pagers and straight away got into mobiles. How do you think that affected media consumption in India?
Actually, I think media consumption will be the one thing that is ‘least’ affected by the mobile technology in India because many people who are now discovering the particular technology are already familiar with print newspapers, televisions and radio. The point is, they already have established patterns for consuming media and they are unlikely to throw that away for what is still a substandard reading experience on a very small screen. Instead, I think the real impact of mobile immediately will come from the people who first access the Internet over mobile devices and use mobile devices to send and receive payments. Those applications are much more likely to drive the growth and adoption of mobile devices. As larger form mobile devices such as tablets start to make their way into the larger base of the market, we may start to see this change.
“I write a blog about influential marketing. I work at Ogilvy. I have a personality. I wrote a book on why personality matters.” This is how Rohit Bhargava, Executive Vice-President, Global Strategy at Ogilvy, likes to define himself at twitter. Bhargava is the founding member of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence team, which is apparently the world’s largest global network of social media strategists. He has a personal marketing blog – just to say that it is a popular blog would be belittling the fact that it has been ranked by AdAge as one of the top 25 marketing blogs in the world. If that was not enough for his claim to fame, his bestselling book, ‘Personality Not Included’ has been published across the world in eight different languages. If you were to chance upon his blog, you will find a section where he likes to describe himself in the form of various bios, like a one line bio, a short bio, a 100 word bio, then a 100-ish word bio and finally a full bio. Not only has he led marketing strategies for brands like Intel, Pepsi, Lenovo, Seiko and Unilever, he has also worked on marketing campaigns for brands like Arnotts, Subaru, Malaysia Airlines, Kelloggs and Maggi. To cut to the chase, 4Ps B&M caught up with him to bring to you straight from the horse’s mouth, the inside story of the trends shaping media consumption in mainland India viz-a-viz the rest of the world.
‘Content curation’ and ‘entrepreneurial journalism’, how do you see them as important factors in shaping media consumption trends in India or elsewhere?
Journalism is evolving in ways that no one could have imagined around five or 10 years ago. In a world where anyone can publish information instantly, the role of journalism is becoming more entrepreneurial and curated. For example, when citizens post videos experiencing a typhoon, those are the journalists who actually watch these videos and validate them as a source of authenticated news. On the other side, now you have more and more people with journalism training and experience choosing to take the more entrepreneurial road of creating their own media properties and building their own audiences.
There are many trends which have surfaced in the last five years. But what is that most remarkable trend that you think has played a vital role in shaping media consumption over the past couple of years?
The democratization of expertise has been the single biggest trend shaping the consumption of media over the past five years, and also the belief in that media. Everyone is an expert in something, and now you can share that expertise online with the whole world. That means that the media we all read is no longer limited to just a small subset of “official” media publications. Everyone influences everyone else, because we can all read and consume media created by one another.
According to you, what will be the most interesting medium to watch out for, as a trend in shaping media consumption in India and the rest of the world?
The sheer volume of people in each new generation in India has created a natural pressure to stand out. This pressure will lead more and more people to try and build their own personal profiles through creating their own media online. In a truly flat society, anyone can be found and succeed regardless of where they are born or what economic class they fit into. Your place of birth no longer determines your potential future success. Innovation can come from anywhere.
We often hear that India missed the era of pagers and straight away got into mobiles. How do you think that affected media consumption in India?
Actually, I think media consumption will be the one thing that is ‘least’ affected by the mobile technology in India because many people who are now discovering the particular technology are already familiar with print newspapers, televisions and radio. The point is, they already have established patterns for consuming media and they are unlikely to throw that away for what is still a substandard reading experience on a very small screen. Instead, I think the real impact of mobile immediately will come from the people who first access the Internet over mobile devices and use mobile devices to send and receive payments. Those applications are much more likely to drive the growth and adoption of mobile devices. As larger form mobile devices such as tablets start to make their way into the larger base of the market, we may start to see this change.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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