Decoding: Comparative analysis of OTT Social media strategies

Social Samosa takes a look at OTT social media strategies with a look at how platforms like ALTBalaji, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix and SonyLIV are building their social media strategies under the lockdown.

The ongoing pandemic has brought about changes in the way people consume content. With outside sources of entertainment like a theatrical or events experience being out of the question, quite a few are left with online sources such as OTT platforms. There are conversations of movies shifting to OTT platforms for theatrical release as the lifting of the lockdown and the return of normalcy remains uncertain. When it comes to social media strategies of OTT platforms, not much has changed on the surface.

However, there seems to be more focus on engagement as well as driving people into watching new as well as old content. We take a look at how some of the prominent OTT platforms are faring on social media with the help of Talkwalker data and observations upon scrolling.

Most of the changes in the social media strategies of OTT platforms are driven by the changes in the content they are offering. They have stepped up their game and evolved as per the needs of the people who are now spending an overwhelming time at home. Let's take a look at varied OTT social media strategies of platforms.

ALTBalaji

AltBalaji mostly has a conversational tone in their social media communication. They regularly post memes as well as CTA posts, seeking engagement with screenshots, dialogues and other collaterals.

Optimised for each platform, the content is mostly amplified in the same tone everywhere. There is a heavy focus on the celebrities featuring in their original shows, especially around the time the show is launched.

Talkwalker data suggests that while ALTBalaji's communication over Facebook constitutes of overarching keywords like streaming, episode, season, waiting and updates, their Twitter communication makes the most of names and handles of people and shows.

Prominent mentions include Ekta Kapoor, Niti Taylor, Sidharth Shukla, Parth Samthaan, Sharman Joshi and Nakuul Kumar. Among hashtags, #BrokenButBeautiful and #WeWantBrokenButBeautifulWithPani were recently used pretty often.

ALTBalaji's communication over Facebook makes use of more emoticons than Twitter. These are mostly positive visuals that emote love, happiness and gratitude, used by the platform to engage with users leaving comments on their Facebook posts.

On Twitter, they get the most engagement on videos, followed by pictures, text and links.

Recently, the account saw a surge in tweets and engagement between April 23 and April 30 when along with tweets about other shows, Mentalhood promotions were going on in full gusto. The platform retweeted the tweets by users appreciating the content as well as replied to engage with them.

Amazon Prime Video India

There are two aspects of the social media strategy of Amazon Prime Video that are prominent even at first glance: Use of screenshots/moments in shows/movies, often the old ones that are being talked about with a touch of nostalgia and participating in trending formats, mostly over Instagram. Most of their posts are the same across platforms, optimised accordingly.

Amazon Prime Video uses Twitter to promote its various offerings. Special focus, expectedly, is on new releases and new content. The platform often tags or mentions the actors and other people involved with the show. There is a strong focus on show/film screenshots to drive the narrative.

Though quite a significant amount of tweets by Amazon Prime Video India are textual in nature, as can be observed while scrolling through the page, the platform gets the most engagement on tweets that include pictures. It is almost five times that of the engagement on videos, Talkwalker data suggests.

A recent peak in their Twitter activity happened after the release of Paatal Lok as users came forward to express their reactions after watching the show.

Most of the retweets by the platform were reserved for celebrities and publishers. For tweets by regular viewers/users, they drove engagement with the help of replies.

Also Read: In-Depth: Decoding Mumbai Police Instagram Strategy

Disney+ Hotstar

Disney+ Hotstar focusses on prompting their cricket and entertainment-related content. The platform has two separate accounts across social media to specifically promote their Premier and VIP offerings. Recently, the most prominent part of their social media presence for Disney+ Hotstar has been dedicated to Home Dancer.

When it comes to communication over Facebook and Twitter, the latter makes use of more specific keywords as the celebrities are tagged and hashtags around them and the shows are prominently used. CTA words like watch/watching and movies are common to both, Talkwalker data suggests.

For Disney+ Hotstar, the data suggest, picture tweets work best. It's almost four times that of textual tweets.

The engagement garnered for video and link tweets is negligible in comparison to that received for picture tweets.

Netflix India

On Twitter, Netflix India is able to garner the highest engagement for tweets that include pictures. It is a little less than double of what the text tweets get, which is almost thrice of what video tweets drive for them.

Netflix India is pretty consistent when it comes to retweets and replies. They often interact with users, often with GIFs. When it comes to retweets, those are considerably rare and almost always informative in regards to new offerings on the platform.

SonyLIV

Among the recent creatives shared by SonyLIV on various social media platforms, there is a consistent universe/star theme. Use of blue, purple and similar hues is pretty common. This is in sync with their new logo and interface that was launched last month.

The platform often shares memes made from their content library.

SonyLIV gets almost the same kind of engagement on tweets that have images or only text. It's almost double that of the engagement garnered for video tweets. CTA related words like tonight and app are used on a regular basis. Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai is one of the most talked-about shows.

One of the most prominent topics being talked about on their social media in recent times is their latest property: Kaun Banega Crorepati. This reflects in Twitter keyword themes with host Amitabh Bachchan and the channel Sony TV being included in the conversation quite often.

To sum up

ALTBalaji, SonyLIV and Netflix often make memes to promote the content available on their platform. Amazon Prime Video India prominently uses screenshots for a similar effect, though the tone is more conversational than humourous. Either way, platforms try to drive engagement this way.

For all platforms considered here, except ALTBalaji, images drive the most engagement on Twitter. ALTBalaji is the only one that gets more engagement on video content. One reason for this could be that they use GIFs while replying to people very often.

Tweets with links drive the least engagement, probably because people don't prefer to leave the platform. SonyLiv is the only platform considered here that gets almost equal engagement on image and text tweets.

Content created by people associated with the show on their profiles is shared by platforms. An example of this would be videos made by Jacqueline Fernandez for Home Dancer being shared by SonyLIV.

All platforms leverage celebrity power to drive conversations, especially on Twitter. It could be visual or a mention/tagging of the handle. The human aspect helps them drive conversations that have subtle CTA as it works better than pushing people towards watching these shows.