Why Media Insights Matter

As media professionals, let’s admit that we are sometimes seen by marketers as playing more on the backfoot.

Maybe it’s our origin story from the back rooms of advertising agencies in the 80s or maybe it’s because we are more accountant-like with our responsibility towards marketing budgets. For 2 decades now, I’ve seen marketers call us in the room when the campaign is already planned, or saying they’ll brief us once budgets are finalized. Our industry also played its part by limiting conversations to platforms & audiences, doing a great job amplifying campaigns but rarely venturing an opinion on what more we can do

And media CAN do so much more. Think about it. An individual spends a collective 9 hours out of his productive 14 hours on a device/front of his screen, that’s 65% of their waking time! (Source: Statista Q3 2024). They’re choice of device, content, genres, formats, place & time of consumption, company and responses is a behavioral treasure trove, telling us when, whether and how they want to engage with the outside world. And brands.

So, the question is, are we listening? Why not use media as an Insights or Growth driver for a brand, rather than just a last-mile messenger?

Consider this, a Saudi telecom brand wanted to drive users to download its app rather than visit its stores. However, behavior change as we all know is tough, and the prevalent behavior was going to Google Maps & finding the nearest store. Now any Maps search, throws up a bunch of thumbnails and pics about the store, with a review and address. The brand decided to lean into this media and platform behavior instead of fighting it. It collaborated with content creators to visit their stores and create fun content from these locations and upload to Google Maps. With every store search, this character thumbnail popped up with messages asking people to rethink their visit and download the app instead. This created a new media spot for the brand, driving 20% higher app downloads and increased usage.

We have entered the era where media formats can swing fortunes. D2C beauty brands clocking 100cr revenues without celebrity endorsements or 30sec ad creatives have already busted the myth of large branding initiatives. The young college-goer experimenting with instant hair colour, and paraben free skin creams is watching reels, Amazon Mini TV series and travel blogs. What then is the skippable YT ad or GEC media spot meant to achieve. Media coming in last-mile means the video asset is already created and all we are left with is impressions and views with arguable value-addition.

Long commute hours have become a catalyst for music and podcast growth with 4x increase in audio minutes vs 2x for video minutes in last 4 years (Source: Accenture Minutes, Money and Moments in M&E:India). Clearly as humans we don’t tolerate dead time – but instead of the latest chartbuster, how about we get help planning our travel itenaries, or finances or parenting tips and tricks. Where are brands taking a lead in making these new connections that media offers?

Media also plays a role in changing taboos, spreading rituals and inspiring new behaviour in a country as diverse in India. A relative in interior WB who only spoke Bengali, could understand my Hindi because she watches TV dramas on Star Plus – how about a language learning app using this insight? Wedding rituals like Mehendi & Sangeet, which were not originally part of all community celebrations, have now become more commonplace thanks to movies , OTT shows and TV serials – fashion brands can seed new trends via this content and see it blow up!

From listening to music when we study, to playing chess at night to un-wind to making international friends on Roblox – there is no human need or motivation that is not expressed in media. It’s time we connect the dots from opportunity to product-market fit to behavior and give media its rightful place as a growth partner.