One size doesn’t fit all — 3 content imperatives

As we enter 2017, it is a good time to do some fresh thinking — although these days, most of what we believe is fresh, has perhaps already been proposed by someone, on some platform, somewhere. Therefore, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I will try to air my views on how I feel the content business could change in 2017. I promise to keep it short.

Who’s the audience? This question has yet to be answered satisfactorily. Because even as there are many writings dissecting how digital is going to change the world of content, most of these either approach it from a monetisation point of view or assume an almost homogenous audience. But when you look at data, it is anything but.

For example, there are three areas no one is really talking about:

1) Are we creating enough relevant content to make the young, post-millennial crowd care about important issues?

2) Are we really serving women content that is more than just television soaps and fashion tips?

3) How do we introduce meaningful content to millions of new rural internet users?

Each of these has distinct content requirements. Each of them needs to be reached and engaged with in different ways.

Getting the youth to care

Millennials, rather post-millennials are hot property for most marketers. But they are a difficult and fickle demographic too.

The need is to present substantive information to them in an engaging, contextual, approachable, and unbiased manner.

Established mainstream media houses rolled up their sleeves to ride this wave. So have the new digitally-native disruptors like ScoopWhoop, along with a bunch of social-media powered viral content players like The Logical Indian, Political Indian, etc.

However, most of the content being churned out is fairly shallow — relying primarily on entertainment or culturally popular tropes to attract traffic. The audience is not being viewed as a serious information consumer, but rather as a tool to achieve virality.

But data indicates a hunger for information: 80 percent of youth (18-24-year-olds) use the internet as the first source of information (as per Google State of Mobile Internet Report, 2016). The report also states that the youth also spends on an average at least half an hour every day browsing for information and that 55 percent of them research online before any buying decision.

What we need to realise is that these will be consumers of serious content tomorrow; part of the decision-making process.

How? Use popular themes/memes, explainers, infographics, engaging multimedia versions, community involvement, etc. Organisations that can speak to and empower this section may find a whole new market for themselves to occupy and mine.

How you distribute is also important — for instance, Snapchat and Instagram might be better ways to express short-form information than to expect people to come to a website.

Who is serving the ladies?

In my opinion, women have been underserved and taken for granted by most content outlets for far too long. It has stayed limited to entertainment and fashion. Why is it that we can’t think of leveraging content in a way that it brings millions of women into the fold of news, information, and problem-solving, in a meaningful and empowering manner?

Women need breadth of information from a trusted source with which they can engage. The daily range of information that women look for is wider than men. For example, typically a man looks for general news, politics, sports, and gadgets/tech, whereas a woman, is not only interested in news and politics, but also career, health, family, parenting, lifestyle, wellness, etc.

However, the way they interact with information is different — it is not a second-by-second pinging on their phones, but fewer and more substantial pieces of content that attract them. Similarly, because the sense of community among women is stronger, sourcing content through a network of contributors will lead to more interaction, engagement, and trust.

The time is ripe for a digital product that can be informative and empower the growing woman digital user.

After all, it is a significant market segment, which is growing phenomenally. According to data by Google Survey India, in association with Pew Research & ShesConnected, about 60 million women are online in India, of which over 24 million access the internet daily.

Also, importantly, 75 percent are in the 15-34 age group. Moreover, the Google State of Mobile Internet Report, 2016 states that both working women (approx. growth rate 100 percent) and non-working women (approx. growth rate 250 percent) are among the fastest growing segments of internet users in India.

Is there anything for rural India?

Without any doubt, this is the next frontier of digital growth. The need for quality information is paramount, but most content producers are more than happy churning out low-quality entertainment content or sensationalistic news that will get advertisers reach.

If we go by a BCG report, then the number of connected rural consumers is likely to increase from about 120 million in 2015 to almost 315 million in 2020, a jump of almost 30 percent every year. This means almost half of all connected Indians will be rural users. Further, more than 60 percent of rural users have been online for less than two years, which means most rural users are still relatively immature digitally, and their usage patterns can be expected to evolve as they gain experience.

This is the opportunity. But, how can a primarily urban media deliver this in the correct tonality and maintain empathy?

By viewing rural India as a real place, not as the stereotype that mainstream media does. Rural content doesn’t only mean farming-related issues and folk-art-related entertainment. People in rural India are as just curious about the rest of the world as they are about governance, infrastructure, career, healthcare, and gender issues, etc.

This could be well achieved through a network of citizen journalists from every block and panchayat. This could be interspersed by expert contributors on issues that involve personal health, career, etc. And to close the loop, position as a tool for better governance and information source for local authorities. (This model is being executed well by Gaon Connection in UP)

Further, for the purposes of rural India, a destination website might not be a wise strategy. Instead, a strong WhatsApp and social media strategy should be key. Creating an early beachhead through meaningful content should be of paramount importance to any content business. And, yes, monetisation will not be an elusive goal.