Indian ecommerce brand Flipkart and Amazon have locked horns again in an attempt to gain supremacy over Indian consumers with their respective sales and television campaigns.

After Amazon opened fashion photography studio to strengthen ties with brands and creative talent in India, Flipkart moved to partner with India's multiplatform digital content networks, ScoopWhoop (SW) to create a ‘Content Roadblock' to discuss 'mehengaai' (expensive) and engage customers across different categories like fashion and videos.

The Drum spoke with Meghana Bhat, chief strategy officer at ScoopWhoop Media to find out what it aims to achieve out of this campaign for Flipkart. She says: "The idea was to leverage multiple SW properties to convey multiple messages of the campaign. So we communicated the 'mehengaayi' (expensive) proposition using slice of life videos, quizzes are being used to creatively engage with customers for categories like fashion, informational videos convey the biggest offers, and social media posts create constant awareness and hype.

"A content roadblock is designed for brands to capitalize on the immense reach and depth of ScoopWhoop with minimum disruption and maximum impact."

A report published by Google and KPMG titled ‘Indian languages – Defining India’s Internet’ provides a comprehensive overview of the Indian language ecosystem and key behavioral aspects of Indian language internet users.

Indian language internet users will drive the next phase of internet adoption in India and will be more than 2.5 times of English internet user base by 2021. As to what kind of content ScoopWhoop is creating to engage millennials, she says:"Millennials, contrary to the myth are much more than just entertainment seekers. In fact, we're seeing that information has never been more interesting to this audience."

Particularly in the smaller towns, there's a curiosity and hunger to just 'know more'. It’s just about delivering it in a way that's easy to consume and share. And of course, relatable stories of being young in India today continue to excite."

Despite massive digital penetration, print, press and TV have been the mainstay for marketers in India for many years. It is mainly because of the mass reach they offer and the tried and tested effectiveness. This has resulted in evolution of the relationship between brands and content publishers.

"From being considered primarily for PR or as a one-off 'innovation', creators and publishers are now part of every campaign and sometimes at the center of it. There's a better understanding of native content and there's also a growing level of trust which is why we're seeing so much more content that's both worth sharing and effective," according to Bhat.

As to how does ‘reliability’ influence the purchasing power of consumers, she says: "While mass media wasn't looking, young India turned into a connected collective with enormous influence. With a lack of great content options on TV, they turned to digital platforms wherenot only do they have relevant choices but also the option to choose when and how to consume that content."