A professional with 16 years of experienecein integrated marketing, strategy and analytics, Sabia currently heads the marketing department at Merlin Entertainments

Digitalization is reshaping entertainment businesses across the world. This wasn't the case a few years ago. As consumer behaviour undergoes massive change, the major brands have shifted their focus to the online sec-tor. Today, audiences have newer ways to consume entertainment; be it through smartphones, connected TVs or tablets. These digital tools, along with social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others are rapidly becoming the consumers' preferred choice. Clearly, digitalization is giving us access to platforms, wherein instant feedbacks can be shared. This two-way communication model has made conversation even faster, convenient and interesting for both consumers and businesses.

It is, thus, vital for brands to craft new creative campaigns periodically, which could potentially satiate consumers' changing needs and address their problems. Rapid digitalization has brought increased competition. It has never been so important for brands to popularize their products for an increased recall. Creating a well-crafted advertisement is, there-fore, what is called for when it comes to pulling-in and educating consumers. Short and creative ads convince the wider public to buy the product or subscribe to the service that is being advertised.

The digital wave has made entertainment experiences more appealing to consumers; brands now have more innovative ways to promote their services throughout consumer groups. All they need is to create an interesting invite and post it on various social media platforms. They can also conduct polls or quizzes online to increase consumer engagement. Such online invitations attract more people and help them make faster decisions when it comes to instantly booking and visiting places. That way, news-letters are also an effective way to educate consumers on the company's new offerings and products.

The world is embracing these digital innovations. And brands must utilize the power of these newer plat-forms. These channels have a great potential to interest audiences and, thus, catch more attention backed by unbreakable connectivity and accessibility; be it Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn, all display ads according to consumers' likes and interest. Gone are the days when people abhorred long ads. Today, we relish ads because they have turned shorter, engaging and entertaining.

Today, the major chunk of an advertising budget is reserved for digital marketing and the remainder for traditional marketing. Brands not only help entertainment companies to develop goodwill with consumers, but also conquer customer loyalty. The Indian advertising industry is projected to be the second fastest growing advertising market in Asia after China. It is, therefore, an extremely important practice of every organization working towards brand building. From being a small-scale business, it has emerged as one of the leading industries of the nation with the latest trends, unique campaigns and impactful results. An increasing number of entertainment companies are utilizing insights collected from consumers' social media usage, partnerships with brands and in-house data collection staff to enhance their accuracy in articulating the crux of their message. This further helps perform more precise targeting in TV and video campaign strategies.

Remember, to make more people choose your entertainment business over the others, brands will always play a crucial role in understanding the entire business scenario and, hence, come-out with exciting offerings. What's more important here is to create a balance between both traditional and digital platforms to reach wider audiences. Advertising and entertainment businesses, thus, will require a perfect mix of both, to offer highly personalized experiences to consumers.