MxMIndia

Tag: NCCS

  • Nielsen- Bobble AI study

    Online chatting surpasses audio & video calling

     

    By Our Staff

     

    Almost seven in 10 respondents say that their chatting activity has increased in the last six months and 67% of those say that it shall remain the same or increase further in the next six months. These and more findings were revealed in the a study conducted by research major Nielsen for Bobble AI, the Conversation Media Marketing (CMM) platform.

     

    The study involved smartphone users both males and females, divided in two categories: 18-30 and 31-40 years conducted over a fortnight: March 2 to 16, 2021. 

     

    Key highlights of the ‘Conversation media’ focused survey report:

    1. Chatting is a daily activity which most of the people (94%) engage in EVERYDAY! Chatting has surpassed audio calling and video calling as the most common way of communication (by a significant margin – 13 percentage points over audio calling). Almost 7 in 10 respondents say that their chatting activity has increased in the last 6 months and 67% of those say that itshall remain the same or increase further in the next 6 months, establishing that chatting is here to stay as the most heavily used communication medium.

     

    2. The awareness and adoption of conversation media formats including emojis, stickers, GIFs across different demographies is very high– 95% users are aware of emojis in NCCS A and 93% in NCCS B and 91% users are using emojis in NCCS A and 84% in NCCS B. Similar pattern is observed for stickers – 92% users are aware of stickers in NCCS A and 85% in NCCS B and 81% users are showing preference for usage of stickers in NCCS A and 71% in NCCS B.

     

    3. Primary reasons for increasing popularity of chatting formats are that ‘its fun to use’ and ‘It helps in expressing oneself better’. The older age group score significantly higher for ‘makes messages easier to understand’.

     

    4. Awareness of re-sharing is similar across different chatting formats, however, the likelihood of re-sharing Emojis are significantly higher than stickers and GIFs.

     

    5. Emojis, Stickers & GIFs make the conversations real and personal as it allows people to express accurately and in a fun way. 80% of users believe that chatting formats make their message easier to understand.

     

    6. Emojis were ranked first as the most preferred chatting format, followed by stickers and GIFs.Moreover, Emojis are more likely to be used for ‘expressing an emotion’ and talk about various daily activities, whereas people prefer to use stickers to send best wishes on birthdays and festivals.

    a. 96% of users claim to use emojis, stickers, gifs to express an emotion (happiness, anger, or sadness to name a few)

    b. 85% of users claim to use these formats to wish on birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, etc.

    c. 81% of users claim to use chatting formats to express or tell something about an activity (eating, running, cooking, etc.)

    d. 70% of users claim to use these chatting formats to talk about trending topics, situations IPL, etc.

     

    7. When given a choice between a branded sticker & an unbranded sticker for specific situations, around 3 in 4 among the surveyed respondents claimed that they are likely to use a branded sticker vis-a-vis an unbranded sticker. Given that chatting is one of the main sources of communication these days and majority of respondents prefer branded stickers, it gives a powerful platform to the brands to advertise themselves and be a part of everyday conversations.

     

    Millennials and Gen-Z chats across platforms are evolving from just plain text to stickers, GIFs and emojis. Various keyboard and messaging platforms now understand what youngsters want and are investing to expand their content offerings in these areas. This, in turn, provides opportunity to brands to explore these unique chatting formats and connect with the intended audience most effectively.

     

    Commenting on the findings of the survey, Ankit Prasad, Founder and CEO, Bobble AI said, “The key findings validate the growing relevance of Conversation Media among GenZies and Millennials in the country and the rising inclination for chatting over any other means of communication. With more and more people working and living remotely and being compelled to multi-task, they are looking for new and innovative ways to express themselves better. Conversation Media like emojis, stickers, GIFs are a fun, engaging way for brands to break the clutter and connect with their audiences.  COVID-19 pandemic has caused gloom and Conversation Media Marketing serves as an opportunity for brands to drive positive impact and influence in the minds of consumers.

     

    The respondents for this survey are spread across 5 Metros across Zones (62%) including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad and non-metro cities (38%) including Patna, Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur. The fieldwork was done in an unbiased manner without intervention from Bobble AI and the quality control procedures were also followed very strictly.

     

  • As an industry we are now in a good ‘TV ratings scam-led’ crisis, writes Shripad Kulkarni

    TV Audience Measurement: Time to Reboot!

     

    By Shripad Kulkarni

     

    Before I get to the theme of this piece, just as a matter of clarification on my views on the crisis: BARC by and large has done justice from all counts. A shot at gaming the system (if indeed there is one) by a media cannot be held against BARC. News and niche genres are indeed not adequately covered by BARC but that’s also a matter of priority, given the budget available.

     

    I believe as an industry we are now in a good ‘TV ratings scam-led’ crisis. Why let a good crisis go waste? Why not set a path to create a TV measurement system of the future ? As they say: Never waste a good crisis! Else, it is headed for Nullity* as I have already expanded in an earlier article. (link).

     

    This is a new look at the crisis as an opportunity. Of how we can move on to a path of the future. With this vision, let’s not go for incremental changes but go for an overhaul. We can’t be in the legacy media mindset any more. We must act with a speed befitting the new media landscape. With a learning mindset of the new digital led media ecosysyem. In my view, there are four things we need to do:

     

    First and foremost, we must address the inadequate representation of the top-end audiences.

    Today NCCS A accounts for about 38% of Mega Metros (5 mn plus pop). Topmost Socio economic classes A1 and A2 are each around 10% of audience in Mega Metros as per IRS. This leads to an underestimate and/ or inadequate audience profiling for the news genre, English and niche long tail genres. Thus channels, programmes aimed at the Top 20% of mega metro audience in terms of buying power can’t be ranked on their viewership. Naturally, luxury or premium lifestyle products have a limited or constrained use of this data. This needs to be addressed, at the very least for Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru which will give a good enough idea of All-India viewership trends.

     

    We need a route map to measure Video viewership instead of Cable TV viewership

    It’s a no-brainer that a significant number of customers are ‘screenagers’. These are not just teenagers but even broader segments moving to Video on Demand via OTT platforms, YouTube, Instagram and other platforms, with mobile as their primary ‘screen’. Zoomers (Age 8-23 years) are the core segment among screenagers and will soon be entering the wider consumer market. We do not have a clear unified picture of their video habits. The challenge is that this is a fresh new evolving ecosystem. It’s nowhere near the current Cable TV ecosystem. So there will not be clear answers. The media stakeholders obviously are different. The user stakeholders are wider than the classical advertising gencies. It will need a big effort to get all stakeholders together, else it will never take off. But without this, we will in any case fail in the long run.

     

    We need an Experimentation Mindset for Hi Tech Audience Measurement

    There have been many initiatives undertaken by BARC in the space of hi-tech solutions for measurement. We possiby need to have an experimentation mindset and explore the area with small scale experiments instead of going in for the elusive all encompassing solution set. After a transparent review by an Industry panel, we should chalk out a series of experiments we will do. These can range from compilation of all data in the space of Video viewership from various primary and secondary sources by a special committee to OTT data, short experiments in collaboration with DTH Operators on return path data and mobile led new measurement technologies. Nothing new in the areas to be explored. It’s a change to a learning and experimentation mindset, actioning smaller experiments.

     

    Last but not the least, bring back the Full Transparency and Inclusivity of Yesteryears

    The first issue here is BARC ownership and control. Majority holding by IBF will have its own avoidable influence, but we must move on with times. The first point of inclusivity here is to drag advertisers into the ecosystem. Far too long they are putting the onus on agencies and media. It will mean also monetory investments by advertisers, as fees paid to agencies is not adequate to support this and TV Channels are already putting enough money on the table. If we want a holistic video viewing, without advertisers’ active participation, its not going to happen. We have to get this done under any circumstances.

     

    Yes, the yesteryears were in a different league of full transparency and inclusivity. Somewhere, we seem to have lost this all important piece of the media measurement puzzle.

     

    The Research of yesteryears had three principles we can adapt. First, the estimation tree from Census to the estimates relesaed to users was very transparent to all industry segment representatives. The estimation tree today is far more complex and needs a refresh at least every couple of years. Second, there was always a solid cross validation by a special team of users from across Agencies. Today, we have far more data points from distribution reach, DTH operators, OTT ranking data and various Internet and Social Media measurement studies. We need to get a new gen validation process periodically. Thirdly and perhaps more importantly, we need to be far more inclusive towards all media genres. All media, all users, long tail media vehicles also must get a hearing AND a solution of say purposive sampling, booster sample, special panel or a hi tech solution or whatever.

     

    In sum, there are three things all of us in the marcom industry must focus on. Firstly, we must try and fix all shortcomings of the current measurement system. Second, we must start experimentation in tune with the unfolding media future with a definitive vision. Lastly, and more importantly, we need to get advertisrs into the ecosystem and get back to the ‘old fashioned’ Industry model of full transparency of the print hay days..

     

    The current TV ratings crises, thus, presents all of us in marcom with an opportunity to choose our future in Video Measurement. Something we need to do fast. With the simple key principles of Agility in the New-Media ecosystem.

     

    Speed. Learn as you go.

    Or be left behind.

     

    We can make a choice.

  • The strength of the Indian SEC is attested to by its utility and durability over the last quarter century, but it may finally be past its 'best by' date. Enter, the NCCS

    Paritosh Joshi: Open Secret: The New Consumer Classification System

    By Paritosh Joshi

     

    How many times a day do you use a phrase beginning “SEC A…”? Yes, dozens. Not surprising either. You are in the business of Media & Communications in India and you have spent absolutely years hearing and using SEC.

     

    Socioeconomic Classification has a storied history as a major tool of market research. SEC, as it is universally abbreviated has several advantages over predecessor systems that were typically based on personal or household income. For one, most respondents have a variety of reasons to be economical with the truth in reporting it. The more wealthy will tend to damp it down, the less fortunate inflate it. For another, it has long been known that income by itself has little predictive value in understanding buying and consumption behaviour. Marketers, market researchers and other social scientists, confronted with the inadequacies of income based systems have long sought, and long been eluded by, the perfect system that can explain consumer behaviour. They began to sense promise when they examined the Chief Wage Earner’s (CWE’s) occupation, though. It became clear that people of similar occupation and occupation level had more in common with one another than those that were dissimilar. Systems evolved that were predicated exclusively on CWE’s occupation. The UK, by way of example, evolved the NS-SEC (National Statistics- Socioeconomic Classification). Some countries; India was among the pioneers; went further, developing systems that used two classification variables. Our system used the CWE’s Occupation and Education to determine the socioeconomic class to which a household belonged.

     

    The strength of the Indian SEC is attested to by its utility and durability over the last quarter century, the system having been launched by the Market Research Society of India (MRSI) back in the mid 1980s.

     

    But here’s the bad news. It is finally past its ‘best by’ date. And nobody has told you.

     

    For the last few years, researchers and statisticians have found it ever harder to explain observed behaviour with the SEC. This triggered a joint exercise between the MRSI and the Media Research Users Council (MRUC), the joint-industry body that publishes the Indian Readership Survey to develop a system to replace the SEC. The joint exercise required a lot of very talented analysts and statisticians to test a range of alternative structures using single or multiple classificatory variables to dice the data. One candidate, the winning candidate, paired Education of CWE with Durables Ownership. A pre-specified list of 11 assets is presented to a respondent and all that the system needs is not the specific items ticked but the number of items ticked. Hard is it might appear prima facie to believe this might have some practical application, you end up with a system with very good discriminating ability. The base dataset used to test the validity of all models in reckoning was successive rounds of the Indian Readership Survey. Voila! The New Consumer Classification System (NCCS) was born.

     

    Now here are some cool things about the NCCS.

     

    It is truly Pan India, covering urban and rural audiences. Unlike SEC that was only for urban India.

     

    It discriminates the most premium audiences much more sharply than the predecessor.

     

    It is naturally adaptable. If the current list of 11 durables is no longer able to discriminate in a few years, it will change the list. Indeed, the system is committed to revisiting the list with a pre-specified periodicity.

     

    While the IRS has now started publishing its tables classified both by SEC and NCCS, very few users seem to have actually started looking critically at the NCCS tables. Don’t you want to be the early adapter?

     

    Paritosh Joshi has been a marketer, a mediaperson and a key officebearer on industry bodies. He is developing an independent media advisory practice. His column, Media Matrix, appears on MxMIndia every Thursday