Mobility is key in today’s connected world

CABSAT’s first keynote speaker Shahrzad Rafati chose to highlight the key strategies that content creators can use to enhance their prospects.

The Founder and CEO of BroadbandTV Corp. stressed the need to embrace mobile platforms, and drew on the fact that mobile penetration currently rests at 50% in the UAE, and worldwide mobile internet traffic is expected to reach 31% in 2017.

She also discussed the importance of an optimised digital strategy which can draw on specific information to attract an audience. “We work with 15,000 content creators of all sizes, and they feel as if they’ve lost control,” she said. “To regain this control technology must be leveraged; an audience must be understood, digital strategies must be optimised to drive an audience to your destination,” she said.

“It’s important not to forget that online platforms are different to regular ones. Each platform is unique, and needs specific programming. Just because certain content is popular on TV does not mean it will be popular on other platforms,” added Rafati.

She went on to discuss strategies for helping content to catch the users’ eye, “It’s no longer feasible to manually create titles and certain keywords to get content discovered,” she said. “For example, thumbnails are key. They have to be relevant and be able to grab attention, and are not a trivial detail.”

Rafati emphasised the importance of actionable and customisable insights in understanding consumers’ preferences.

“Trends such as the time of the year in which content is viewed, the types of personalities in the content and the type of editing used in the content can all provide valuable insights into what is popular,” she said.

“This kind of information provides crucial insights into user behaviour.”

– James Dartnell