Earlier this month, Bite got together with marketing and communications leaders from a handful of multinational and renowned Indian companies in New Delhi. The focal point of the evening was to go over some of the sweeping changes and challenges in the communications landscape today. Bite’s recent report ‘Many Voices, One Message’, based on similar, but more in-depth conversations with marketers around the world, set the stage for an invigorating, varied and reaffirming debate.
From an India perspective, the growth and trend-defying rise of traditional media in terms of circulation, viewership and advertising revenue led most to maintain that there’s still tremendous vitality in the ‘traditional’ dynamics of the mainstream press as a force in society, and in the value of conventional print and broadcast media. We shared some of the report’s conclusions, such as the end of one-way, self-serving conversations, the importance of listening and the breaking down of marketing silos with the increasing proliferation of digital media. Interestingly, the discussion quickly moved to the topic that was top of mind for everyone in the room: social media and today’s era of real-time communications.
While most of the participants found the conclusions of the eConsultancy report as relevant to India as to the rest of world, most agreed that lower (but incrementally growing) internet penetration and usage rates in India meant that most of today’s communications dynamics impacting other markets were certainly coming, but not yet hitting with the same force in India. With over a 100 million internet users in India and 30 million of them using social networks, India’s online market is spooling up to reach scale. India’s vitality and growth comes from the country’s entrepreneurial mindset and the increasing relevance of the private sector. These forces are powerful drivers of change, and also shape the media environment and the communications context. As a result, there’s a tremendous amount of vibrancy in the country, but also chaos and some gaping bottlenecks.
Two more interesting insights from amongst the participants, who represented companies such as 3M, Honeywell, Bharati Retail and the Essar Group, spurred a series of lively conversations. Despite technology’s far reaching implications in the way that we communicate and operate in today’s world, eGovernance still has a long way to go in India. Most administration in the Indian government still runs on paper and most officials still prefer to print their emails! The second point alluded back to social media where a participant felt that digital communications did not work particularly well in the B2B environment — and this comment sparked off a lively and contrarian view that in fact social media would be extremely useful to Indian B2B businesses, especially in tightly focused discussion groups or on niche areas.
All-in-all an interesting, conversation-packed evening. Not only did it affirm many of the findings of our report but also led us to believe that what we’re building at Bite India fits right into the demands and rigour of India’s dynamic communications environment and is consistent to what marketers are generally thinking.
Until our next India roundtable event !