How Bharti Airtel is using content to improve stickiness and consumer spend

At a time when consumers are talking about jumping on to the 5G bandwagon, ensuring consumer satisfaction and unstinting loyalty to the brand are some challenges for mobile operators

With tremendous product parity in the telecom industry, consumer loyalty is at an all-time low. A widespread, pan-India mobile network and data packages at unbelievable prices are no longer the product or service differentiators. For operators these are hygiene at a time when consumers are talking about jumping on to the 5G bandwagon. In such a scenario, how do operators ensure, first, consumer satisfaction and second, unstinting loyalty to the brand? One way is to focus on offering consumers a bouquet of content that improves stickiness and increases the opportunity for the consumer to spend. Telecom leader Airtel has upped the ante with a series of initiatives over the last 10 days or so.

Airtel is pressing ahead with a multi-pronged content strategy. The focus is on offering compelling content offerings for subscribers on its network. For example, its tie-up with Amazon is aimed at providing a wider choice to its subscribers. Airtel is offering one year of Amazon Prime membership to its postpaid customers availing Infinity plans priced at Rs 499. With access to Prime Video, customers can choose from a broad selection of movies, TV shows, stand-up comedies, kids’ programming and Amazon Prime Originals. Alongside, Airtel subscribers will also have access to over 11 million Prime eligible products, early and exclusive deals, discounts while shopping on Amazon.in.

Meanwhile, its service Wynk Music is targeted at Airtel as well as non-Airtel users. The objective is to drive traffic on its network by encouraging its own users to consume more data (videos etc.) and at the same time get non-users on board to consume its select products and services like Wynk Music — the OTT (over-the-top) music app. Wynk Music has a collection of over three million songs, including popular music in 12 Indian regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and Kannada.

Airtel has also rolled out a new version of the Airtel TV app for iOS and Android platforms. The new Airtel TV app offers a wider content bouquet and sports a new user interface. It features 300 live TV channels, 6,000-plus movies, popular Indian and international shows. The operator has incorporated a large catalogue of regional content to cater to the preferences of regional customers.

       Upping The Ante

• Airtel’s tie-up with Amazon is aimed at providing subscribers a wider choice, while its service Wynk Music caters to both Airtel and non-Airtel users. It has also rolled out a new version of Airtel TV app
• Airtel is leveraging its decades-old relationship with users to better understand their viewing preferences
• The operator is also leveraging technology like machine learning and artificial intelligence to better engage users through personalisation

“With data pricing becoming fairly affordable, videos are becoming a large-scale use case. We think of ourselves as a mass aggregator of content through partnerships with various content creators in different genres and languages. The focus is on ensuring users get access to aggregated content in a seamless and intuitive manner,” says Sameer Batra, chief executive officer, Airtel Wynk.

But some questions remain: With most players playing up the “content” card, how does Airtel plan to differentiate its content? What are the levers it can press as a distribution platform to push content? Importantly, what does it take for an operator to curate, manage and deliver content that can hold existing subscribers and get more people into the network’s fold?

On the content side, Airtel is leveraging its decades-old relationship with users to better understand their viewing preferences. For example, sustained interactions with users revealed that consumers lacked access to a large screen. And they would like to add a TV-like screen to their mobile. This is the insight that powered Airtel TV. Similarly, the operator’s tie-up with Amazon Prime has been fuelled by user demand to access long-format original videos and Hollywood movies.

According to Batra, the company is focused on picking up human insights to be able to offer the right kind of content to every user. The emphasis is on ensuring a user doesn’t have to hop on to different platforms as she watches A or B content. Through aggregation and original creation content of all types have to be made available to a user on the same platform.

Even as Airtel curates content for users, the operator is leveraging technology like machine learning and artificial intelligence to better engage users through personalisation. For example, once a user starts listening to the Wynk app, the platform feeds user choices into the content and the next time around, a listener would see more targeted music options, say in the form of a wider collection of Kishore Kumar songs or similar music in the same genre. 

Personalisation is playing a significant role in bringing back people on Wynk Music with a listener spending 75 minutes a day on the app.

As an independent distribution platform operators including Airtel have distinct advantages. Alliances with music labels and original content creators help these two stakeholders address issues around piracy in a more legitimate manner. Music labels are keen on partnering platforms that are secure, says Batra. 

At the same time, the large distribution muscle and might of Airtel network across small towns and villages help brand partners unlock larger reach issues.
 

The advantage that Airtel has through content partnerships is that it is able to offer content to users for free (to those who have access to data packs). 

The operator is optimistic that once it is able to create sampling awareness by offering users free content, it will gradually reach a point where it can build scale (a large user base) and be in a position where it can have conversation around how best to monetise content.

Industry currently has different monetisation models. The likes of Amazon and Netflix are subscription-based offerings. Some content is available for free and some is put behind the paywall. Then there is an advertisement-led model where a player builds scale by putting together a larger user base. Airtel is keen on trying out a potential model where it gains scale and offers content that is a mix of free and paid content. And to differentiate its offerings from competitors, Airtel is looking at offering an exclusive layer of original content over and above free content. And yes, this exclusive layer of content will come at a price.