How Digital Is Fast Emerging as a Powerful Storytelling Platform

A mere scroll through your social media timelines will tell you that in recent times there has been an explosion of video content. Everyone is talking to their audience by way of videos, more so brands. As smartphone and internet penetration increases in India, the demand for video content on digital is only going up. A report by market research firm Counterpoint shows that India’s smartphone user base topped 300 million in 2016. This number is likely to go up to 520 million by 2020, according to an EY report titled Future of Digital Consumption in India.

Indian consumers are gravitating towards short-form content with the average length of the video viewed being less than 20 minutes. In fact, 62 percent of the content consumed on YouTube is also short-form. Just look around you during your daily commute to or from office and you will find a number of co-passengers happily watching videos on their smartphones.

In this age of information overload and cluttered communication, videos packed with the right amount of emotion and entertainment are scoring over other formats. It’s no surprise that brands are clamouring to cater to the growing demographic of smartphone-wielding Indians who consume content on the go. As a result, the digital medium is attracting more and more advertising money.

For brands these days, a digital video that manages to engage the audience as well as entertain them is par for the course. To this end, brands bring on board celebrities to add value to their communication, get their message across and also to connect better with viewers. While this is definitely a good move, some brands go a step ahead by positioning the celebrity endorser in a role the audience has never seen him before in, thus differentiating themselves from the rest. A case in point being the latest video from Exide Life Insurance featuring India’s most successful captain MS Dhoni. Before we tell you more, watch the video here:

Now, we have seen Dhoni endorse products earlier too. What works beautifully in this case is that you get to see Dhoni the dad and not the cricketer. You see the aggressive sportsman’s vulnerable side. The video is about long-term partnerships, the ones that parents share with their kids. Who better than Dhoni, himself father to 2-year-old Ziva, to talk about it, whose responsibility towards his daughter remains a priority. This overlap of his on-field and off-field personas lends credibility to the brand’s communication and only makes the video more relatable. Dhoni is known for his ability to remain calm under pressure which is what life insurance too is all about.

Talking about this video-led digital campaign Mohit Goel, Director, Marketing, Exide Life Insurance said, “We believe Internet is as big as television today. Hence we decided to launch our brand campaign only on digital media. MS Dhoni’s unparalleled popularity coupled with distinctive story-telling presented as three short films have struck the right chord with our target audience.” He added, “In the past three to four weeks, these digital videos have generated over 50 million views. In addition our social media posts have recorded high engagement rates especially on Twitter.”

For the present-day consumer, it’s all about NOW. If he likes something, he shares it in a blink. That’s how powerful the digital medium is. It not only captures the attention of the viewers, but also lets them instantly react and engage with the content, just as Dhoni’s Exide Life Insurance video has caught everyone’s attention.