93% of users watch 2.17 hours of mobile video daily: Report

R K SWAMY Centre for Study of Indian Markets (CSIM), a think tank that conducts studies to shed light on the Indian market, unveiled an empirical study ‘Recall of Advertising on Digital Video Platforms & Channels.’ This white paper examines how digital video advertising is consumed and its impact on fundamental mind measures like Brand Awareness and recall. This is an independent study of the medium that draws thousands of crores in ad spend. 

Conducted by Hansa Research, wholly-owned subsidiary R K SWAMY Ltd., the study surveyed 3,000 respondents across 10 key markets, namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Patna and Ludhiana. The participants were aged 18–50 years and evenly split across gender and income groups, and interviewed face-to-face. Their mobile devices were checked to validate usage of apps and screen time. 

Watching videos online has emerged as the No. 1 form of entertainment, with 93% of respondents consuming videos on their mobile phones for an average of 2.17 hours per day. Video consumption in regional languages beats English by multiple times. 

Despite the substantial time spent on digital platforms, brand recall is low. On an average, respondents could remember only 1.5 brands.  Of the 600+ brands  recalled in total, only 11 of them were recalled by 3% or more of the respondents. These were primarily online brands or gaming platforms. 

S Narasimhan, EVP and Chief Digital Officer R K SWAMYsaid, “Many respondents had difficulty in remembering and accurately identifying brands. Very few were able to recall specific details of the creative content itself. In the light of major expenditure in Digital Video platforms, this was a disappointment.”

Praveen Nijhara, CEO, Hansa Research Group, said, “While YouTube was highly viewed, the recall of brands on the medium was poor. So was the case with Facebook and Instagram. A significant majority of the respondents report skipping ads and muting them.” 

The study shows that videos received through WhatsApp emerged as the most viewed and shared, confirming strong peer-to-peer sharing.