A new app for long-form, vertical videos from Instagram recently made its debut. The IGTV Network, as it is called, is a new concept in video sharing and viewing platforms, and is set to give birth to a contemporary new star: You.

Accessible both on the Instagram app and through a stand-alone IGTV app, the content on IGTV will not be created just by some of the world’s top-followed creators and stars. Anyone with a mobile phone will be able to launch an IGTV channel.

Shrenik Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of digital marketing company White Rivers Media, says, “IGTV looks promising, to say the least. It is not the first time that Facebook has been inspired by a successful feature of another social network. Vertical videos are currently being consumed across Snapchat Stories and on other platforms, and it makes logical sense to have a collection of them.”

Noting that video content consumption numbers in India are creating waves across the world, Gandhi says consumption has grown five times here in the last one year alone. “Data consumption numbers have gone up from 25 crore GB a month to 125 crore GB a month in the last year. By 2020, India is expected to become the second largest online video viewing audience globally,” he adds.

Instagram currently has 60 million users in India. According to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence, it is estimated to be worth $1,000 billion, if it were a stand-alone company.

Though viral content creators’ videos would be among the first videos to hit IGTV, they are not the only ones about to have some fun. Once the Instagram app is updated, and the new feature incorporated, all users will be able to connect with their Instagram account and upload long-form video content, which can go on for an hour, all live on their own IGTV channel.

Roopak Saluja, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of digital marketing agency The 120 Media Collective, said, “Over the past few months, Instagram has been working hard to bring in more advertising dollars. IGTV is a power move in this direction. With the rapid increase in long-form consumption, this will massively bump up the average time spent on the platform. It also gives brands and influencers a wider array of integration opportunities.”

Saluja added, “At a strategic level, Facebook is trying to up the ante in its battle for video dominance against Google and YouTube. With the tepid response to the launch of Facebook Watch, IGTV gives them yet another horse to bet on.”

Instagram launched several new features last year. According to agencies, the most popular was ‘Stories’. With IGTV, Instagram is looking to take on rivals in the social media space, they say, and open up opportunities to bring in more advertisers as longer videos can accommodate more ads. Pooja Gururaj, Lead - Channel and Social Media at digital agency VML India, says, “The launch of IGTV is not only an evolution in Instagram, but also in the video-viewing patterns of digital behaviour.”

A pattern that is on the rise here.

Smartphone usage

Aiding digital behaviour is the rise in smartphones.

In India, 337 million people, or more than a quarter of the population, will be using smartphones in 2018, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast. The number of users in India is set to grow by nearly 16 per cent this year, the highest growth rate of any country in the world, the study shows.

While TV has cornered the majority of ad spending, in recent years, smartphone’s wider use has led to a rise in mobile ad spend and its double-digit growth is expected to continue. eMarketer’s study shows that mobile ad outlays in India will rise by 75 per cent in 2018, accounting for over half of digital spend.

Big numbers

Instagram has hit a billion users, and White Rivers’ Gandhi says IGTV would be a great value addition to existing users.

“Some 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day, so it will be an uphill task for IGTV to break the glass ceiling and compete with YouTube. But within the next quarter, if IGTV becomes a part of the consideration set as well for video consumption, it is a good start. A dominant video platform will definitely be the next big thing for the network, and help it win the big active users battle.”

From ‘Dancing Uncle’ to ‘Boy speaks 20 languages’, India is a country full of talent, which makes it a big content creator, he adds.

“India has seen some really great YouTube stars. With Facebook’s aggression towards the newly launched platform, we are set to see not only the traditional YouTubers, but also a new wave of stars who will be showcasing their talent to the world at large,” he adds.

Advertisers are also seizing the moment. VML’s Gururaj says, “One of the strongest implications of IGTV for advertisers is a new facet of collaboration with content creators. IGTV has also been pitched (in the announcement) as a place not for all videos, but the best videos. This hints at how seriously they are taking the ‘For You’ and ‘Popular’ sections of the app, making it more suggestive and intuitive. And so, for content creators to advertise and collaborate seems to be the best bet.”

Pointing out an interesting twist to IGTV, Gururaj adds, “By following a channel on IGTV, you follow them on Instagram, and thankfully, vice versa. This only means that the community that an advertiser has built on Instagram is naturally the community you start with on IGTV as well. This definitely helps brands and content creators to get to it immediately.”

Local content

Instagram is to reportedly build ad revenue opportunities for content creators, making the new feature in IGTV not only desirable for content creators but also advertisers.

IGTV has a ready user base, as most of the social network is within the app ecosystem. Marketers point out that content that will be pushed out by creators and influencers on IGTV is bound to attract eyeballs.

As advertisers look to harness the rising power of social media, a digital agency has found that local content clicks.

Vidooly, a video analytics marketing company, found there are over 400 million monthly active Indian YouTube viewers. In its report on emerging viewership trends in India on YouTube, the agency noted that currently, Indian content on YouTube is a big hit. Telugu videos, especially from the Tollywood industry, are the most viewed in the entertainment category. With over 183 million views, the Telugu movie Sarrainodu’s digital premiere on YouTube in 2017 has become the highest viewed and most liked Indian film of all time, said the agency.

Analysing Indian users’ viewership behaviour on YouTube across nine most popular categories in the last six months, Vidooly found entertainment videos were the most popular, especially those involving songs and dance. “A single video in the Entertainment category gets 10,000 views on an average, while a video in the Style category gets about 8,000 views. Videos involving pets and animals follow in the third spot with 7,000 views,” the agency said in a report.

Emerging forms of video content such as virtual reality and augmented reality have surged in popularity, added the agency, due to affordable access to technology like Google Cardboard.

Time is also of the essence. Instagram launched Instagram Stories, similar to Snapchat, which was the only platform doing vertical format and disappearing videos.

Experts say while a 3-6 second video works best on Facebook, long-format video content works well on YouTube. On Instagram, 15 seconds of content works really well, while with IGTV, content can go on for an hour.

However, VML’s Gururaj adds a note of caution: “We still need to see just how open the audience is to download yet another app and stay active on it. Actionable links in description, more video cover space, coveted search features and basic analytics definitely give hope for effective marketing efforts, but advertisers will have to unlearn and learn new video consumption patterns, formats and even themes of this platform.”

While content creators “seem to already be going big on the app,” VML’s Gururaj insists, “we will have to wait and see” what the audience makes of it.

Related Topics