Why is it challenging for brands to sustain long-term content-led IPs?

Content marketing, when done consistently in the long run, fetches maximum results. Brands know this fact well and have tried to create some really impactful content properties. But not many have been able to sustain them for some or the other reason. For example, TVF Tripling, Pitchers, Permanent Roommates, Cheers and Coke Studio India are some fantastic content IPs (intellectual properties) created by brands. The brands that made these series were only able to do either for a single season or a few seasons even after having such unique concepts. The audience hugely appreciated these content initiatives but the brands were not able to continue these content series for long.

There isn't any marketer who wouldn't aspire to create content IP like the way Red Bull does. In fact, Red Bull is known more for its content now than its drink. But why aren't many marketers able to create such long-lasting content properties? BuzzInContent.com caught up with content marketing practitioners to understand the various challenges in creating long-term content IPs and how can one overcome them.

Some brands in India, though, have been able to run long-term content IPs successfully. For example, Royal Stag Large Short Films, Asian Paints' Where the Heart is and McDowell's No.1 Yaari Jams, Volkswagen's The Driving Force. It takes faith, consistency, diligence and long-term vision for the brands to run such long-term content IPs.

Aashutosh Katre

Aashutosh Katre, Director and Stuart Little at Yellow Seed, believes a content IP works when people find it so relevant that everybody is just hooked on to it. But he says a content IP has to be self-sustaining at one point of time. It's only when the idea doesn't remain self-sustaining, and user traction reduces, then a brand takes a marketing call to shut it.

Katre said, “A brand will only keep an IP idea alive if it adds to the brand index. If it has gone out of the mind of consumers, then why would a marketer continue to push it? Although one can't know beforehand know if an IP idea would work in the long run or not. It's just like a long-term campaign. In the long term, a brand's IP will keep evolving as per the preference of consumers."

Volkswagen is the only car manufacturer in India to have an in-house motorsport team, Volkswagen Motorsport India (VMI), and for the past 11 years has been running its annual flagship racing event – the one-make series. Driving a nascent sport event comes with its share of challenges, including building engaging content to ensure a captive audience over a dedicated period. 

Sirish Vissa

Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India, said, "As a brand, to demystify the unique sport of motorsport, we co-created a six-episode docu-series called 'the Driving Force', which gives an insider's view into the Indian motorsport world, showcases the silent heroes of the sport and highlights their shared values for the thrilling sport."

Prashanth Challapalli

According to Prashanth Challapalli, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Gravity Integrated, one of the biggest challenges due to which the brands are not able to sustain content IPs for the long term is that they don't define what the content is supposed to achieve for them. "Usually, the trend has been that the brands tie up with 3-4 big content creation companies and do one season, 10 episodes and don't even know how it impacted business. The content companies have got a lot out of it. They have got a name, fame and money. But what has the brand got out of it? Has it helped it sell more? Has it helped it build brand equity better?"

Therefore, he suggested that all brands need to have a content strategy document ready before they embark on their content marketing journeys. "You can't create content and then figure out what the ROI should be. It would be best if you had ROI objective set in place for the content to achieve and that's when you create content," he added.

Pawan Sarda

Pawan Sarda, Group Head, Digital, Future Group, said that while long-term content IPs help fetch brand loyalty and engagement, the large part of the challenge would be the cost of creating it. It adds a lot to the equity of the brand, but ROI becomes difficult to measure.

Soumini Sridhara Paul

Soumini Sridhara Paul, Vice-President, Hungama Artist Aloud, said, "The cost that goes into creating long-term content and the recovery of that through distribution is a challenge. With any content, you have production, talent and marketing cost. There is so much happening in the content space that it's challenging for anyone to sustain it."

Many times there are brands that have the kind of budgets to continue a content IP run in the long run, but are still not successful. Coke Studio in India was launched on the back of the success of Coke Studio Pakistan. A lot of hype was created around the show, and it also got appreciation in its early days in India. Eventually, it has been close to 2-3 years that the brand hasn't created new seasons of the show.

"What might have happened that you try to create a similar IP from which you have high expectations. When you are not able to stand to that level, it becomes challenging to keep the consumer engaged," said Sridhara.

Because holding consumer attention is an uphill task, Sridhara suggested that brands creating IPs in the form of seasons must market their shows well and create hype around them before making a comeback. "Even when you come back, you need to bring uniqueness to the season to hold the consumer attention because the same consumer is watching a show, music video or web series within that small attention span. The beauty of sustaining a content IP is not just sustaining or bringing in the previous audience, but also a new audience. Every time you need to bring something new to the content. For example, Big Boss, no matter how much people crib about it, they do wait for the next season."

To foresee what kind of content the consumers would like and not like, the brands need to have first-party data analytics capabilities with them. Challapalli said, "Without data analytics capabilities, how would the brands even analyse whether a piece of content would work for them or not? They end up falling back on the same method which everyone is pursuing, which is the number of views. Today, if you spend money, you can get 100 million views. It shouldn't be the parameter on which you judge whether your content is working. We know a content piece is working only when you have seen people talking about it. That's the true parameter for me how content really succeeds, whether it is branded related content IPs or content on OTT platform."

Vishesh Sharma

According to Vishesh Sharma, Head, Corporate Communications and Content Marketing, Angel Broking, content IPs need to stay relevant throughout. One has to constantly gauge what your consumers want and how better he/she can cater to those needs. "It could be in terms of the format, language, or any other factor at play. For instance, five years ago, personalisation was a key differentiator in the market. Today, it is the baseline for all brands, products, services, and initiatives. The market keeps on changing itself. So, you have to keep reinventing your offerings to align better with those needs. This is the true challenge that any brand faces."

Do brands give up too soon?

Sridhara answered, "At the end of the day, brands are here for business. The brands need to have a commercial sense of the investment if they would be able to reap the benefit from it. The fact remains that whatever you are doing needs to have a commercial sense. Now it's a business call if you are seeing that happening in six months or over the years. You need to keep the cost prudent and diligent so that you aren't burning money every year."

It's essential that when a content IP is being developed, all the stakeholders in the company should be involved in it. A lot of times, when the CMO moves on from the company, his project gets stalled because the organisation has not got into it. It's just the CMO who was doing it.

Before one starts a content IP, he/she needs to have all the stakeholders like senior management and whoever is funding it to agree to it. Challapalli said, "You need to put down everything around the content and how you will achieve it on a paper and get it signed off before commissioning the property. If your content IP is not helping in the business building, then there is a problem with your IP. You can run a season in Rs 2-3 crore, but then after that what?"