Can brands afford mobile-only content distribution strategy?

The rise of the mobile phone, or small screen, has forced brands to enter the consumer’s world unlike earlier when the consumers were asked to enter the brand’s world. Mobile now captures 80-85% of digital content consumption compared to desktop and tablets that are way behind at 10% and 5%, respectively.

Explaining how a brand should approach distribution for different screen sizes, Karan Kumar, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer, Fabindia, said, “Needless to say, the distribution strategy will have to be one that does justice to the reality of this ecosystem. Publisher and platform choices will need to reflect this mix.”

According to Shamik Ghosh, Head of Content and Communications, Paisabazaar.com, desktop strategy does not exist anymore. “It is mobile-first and increasingly becoming mobile only. With close to 400 million smartphones and reducing data prices, mobile is where content is being consumed in India,” he said.

Kartikay Mehta, Vice-President, Sales, Unibic Foods India, also feels that desktop content would play little or no role in the near future as mobile data in India is cheapest and it is going to be a game-changer in planning content.

While content distribution strategy has become mobile-first, desktop and tablet audiences are no less important. Content creators and platforms have to deploy specialised skill set for all the three channels and they cannot ignore tablet users even though they are 1-2% because they are the decision makers.

“Every platform is better at performing some role than the other. The content strategy and content format need to do justice and play to the strength of each platform, individually. It is lazy to believe that cross-platform content portability is efficient. Barring some exceptions, fundamentally it is not. The sooner marketers realise this, the better it would be for campaign efficacy and efficiency,” said Fabindia’s Kumar.

Darshan Bhatt, Director, India, South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Goquest Digital Studios, believes that this is the age of multiple screens and so there will always be a cat-and-mouse game in trying to catch where the consumer is.

“When it comes to content distribution, it is never the case of either/or, we have to be constantly present where the target audience is. There are different content pieces that an advertiser needs to run using different platforms – finally the brand objective needs to be met,” Bhatt said.

Addressing it as a different distribution strategy between big and small screens, Bhatt said, “First and foremost, the most important difference is the duration. You can go longer on the big screen as compared to the small screen. The mobile is not the best medium to view long-form content as notifications, calls, messages, etc., are intrusive and make the viewing uncomfortable.”

“Secondly, the tonality of the content is very different as the mobile (small screen) is meant for personalised viewing as compared to a large screen where the viewing is usually meant for more than one person. In the end, it needs to be reiterated that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will just not work in this day and age of multiple screens,” Bhatt said.

According to content discovery and distribution platform Outbrain’s India head Sandeep Balani, mobile, desktop and tablets need to be considered independently. But Balani cautioned that while marketers increasingly need to be mobile-centric, they should not be mobile-only. “Ultimately as a brand, you need to be where your customers are and give them the right content, in the right format, in the right place. Understanding how your customers engage with content across the different platforms will help you decide how to manage your campaigns accordingly,” he said.

Conversion by Platform, Weekday. Travel Content - UK. Source: Outbrain.

If you consider for instance travel consumption habits in the UK, desktop converts the best during the week but mobile rules on weekends.

“People used to engage with content differently depending on what device they are on. If brands want to truly connect with their audience, they need to deliver relevant content in the right format across devices,” advised Balani.