Exclusive | ACK Media's Manas Mohan, betting big on NGM's 125th anniversary issue

National Geographic, official magazine of the National Geographic Society is all set to celebrate the launch of their 125th anniversary issue in October 2013. ACK Media in partnership with IBH is the distributor of the magazine in India. A collector’s item, the 125th anniversary issue will be devoted to photography and the long history of this reputed magazine.

In conversation with Adgully, Manas Mohan, COO, ACK Media & Publishing Director National Geographic Magazine, India spoke about this popular and widely read magazine, the upcoming anniversary issue and also about his golden years with ACK media.

Adgully (AG): You joined ACK Media in year 2010. How would you view your journey since your association with the two big properties viz. ACK Media & National Geographic? 

Manas Mohan (MM): The journey is very exciting. This is a fantastic mix of working with two amazing brands and yet reinventing them to make them commercially larger and socially relevant brands and brands that will transcend the massive upheavals that are happening in the current play off between form and function.

AG: Having been at the helm of affairs in the National Geographic business, advertising sales and brand- marketing function including licensing and merchandising could you share the new publishing trends observed by you lately in the e-commerce business?

MM: I have to start by stating the obvious: ecommerce follow the same logic as any other commerce. It relies on two pillars: Creation or Curation. You could be creating a unique product or platform that will make it useful for customers. On the other hand you could be creating a store (real, virtual, in-media) which showcases or recommends a carefully selected basket of products or services. You have to then attract the Target Group via communication, at a cost that the business can afford in the long run.

Publishing, more than ever, continues to rely on these two pillars of creation and curation. E-commerce adds a new paradigm of combining form and function like never before. The most obvious trends in presenting content on e-platforms and converting that offering into a commercially viable business is the ‘size’ of data consumed from page size stories to paragraph-size stories, from curated knowledge to click through knowledge. In classical publishing, a good writer would present information that was built-up from several sources, presenting a holistic perspective on a subject. Now, the trend is to present ‘linked snapshots’. Read a paragraph, and click through to the next ‘snapshot’ in any direction that one likes. There is no limit to how much, or how little, a consumer may consume. The challenge that emanates from this is two-fold: (a) quality of content (creation or ‘curated knowledge’) can take a beating and (b) the monetizability of the content. The consumer in India is not paying for content. Only advertising money is fuelling the commercial activity.

The big opportunity is publishing brands fuelling merchandise purchase. Hence published content will create the eco-system that can generate sales of licensed products. E-commerce has made this transition smoother and crisper. That is the great opportunity that India is just about waking up to.

AG: ACK Media is celebrating the launch of National Geographic Magazine’s 125th anniversary issue in October 2013.  Please brief us about the NGM journey in India, since the time of its inception and elaborate on this milestone in the history of the world’s most trusted magazine?

MM: The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, D.C., on January 13, 1888, by a group of 33 of the city’s scientific and intellectual leaders who had gathered to consider ‘the advisability of organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge’.

Today, 125 years after its founding, the Society is one of the world’s largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions, reaching nearly a half-billion people each month. With a mission to inspire people to care about the planet, the multimedia organization reflects the world and explores new frontiers through its magazines, television programs, films, music and radio, books, DVDs, maps, exhibitions, live events, interactive media, travel and education programs and merchandise.

AG: Please share with us the success of NGM which has been achieved in terms of its current readership?

MM: NGM with 40,000 subscriptions and another 25,000 sell through in retail commands a large base.

AG: What benefits do brands gain by associating with NGM and in turn how does this association benefit NGM too?

MM: Advertising brands will look for 2 primary attributes in any media brand that they would advertise in:

1) The target group and the attitude of the target group to the media brand – this is where NGM scores the highest possible marks. Initiative Media, in a research paper published for NGS in Europe, highlighted the fact that business leaders (assumedly across the world) love to read NGM as a serious recreation, when their minds are open to new thoughts and ideas. Advertisers in NGM gain from this attitude of its readers. In addition, NG has reinvented itself to engage the customers in several activities including Photography workshops, Expeditions, Merchandise, etc. Advertisers have the opportunity to ride on these engagement platforms and connect at a deeper level with its consumers.

2) The size of the target group – NGM is one of the most subscribed magazines in India, and sells nearly 75,000 copies in India. Very few other premium brands can offer this kind of quality reach in India.

AG: Could you share a little on the marketing strategies, activities and launch plan that have been initiated by NGM recently?

MM:  In celebration of the iconic yellow border’s 125th anniversary, we are planning a string of activities which would include extensive media coverage on Television and online channels. Retail activation will be focused at airports. For brand recall we will invest in marketing programs including contests on radio, panel discussions, and consumer promotions in print, online, social media and on ground events. We have displays across some of the premier retail stores around the country and with IBH; we will activate several of our important newsstand partners.

AG: With digital and social platforms making space in your marketing plans, how will these platforms be utilized at National Geographic?

MM: Digital is my great white hope. Digital media will fuel the revenues once print advertising plateaus out. Currently, the digital platform of NGM adds 20 per cent of revenues to the kitty while NGTI’s (digital) revenue is lower at eight per cent. Right now, yes. But I hope, as we march ahead, this trend will change and we will innovate specifically for the digital medium. Clearly, the engagement model has to work. A lot of eyeballs are going into digital. So, we have to continuously feed the digital space. 

AG : Isn't digital space, with blogs and other websites, emerging as a competition to your print product?

MM: We are getting a lot more people into the ecosystem by making them read online. The blogs and other sites are adding to it since they also tend to talk about stories or links that lead to our magazines and articles in it.

AG: Could you share with us plans and strategies which are likely to be initiated in the near future? Any ongoing projects you are presently working on?

MM: Apart from significantly growing the reach of NGM across consumers in India, we will also reach out to schools and other educational institutions. The other big point in our agenda is taking the magazine into the digital format and growing that business. Probably the most critical business solution would be to work with some likeminded brands and create customer engagement platforms that will cut through the clutter of above the line advertising and generate loyal customers for all participating brands.

We have done this exercise with our Tinkle magazine where we have created an advertising platform for Lifebuoy. We will offer highly innovative in-magazine and on ground activations with other brands that care for the planet we live on.

National Geographic continuously redefines the standard of excellence with superior editorial product, world-renowned photography, brand recognition, and consumer trust and we will continue to partner with cutting edge expeditions and initiatives in the travel, tourism and adventure spaces to bring to the country stories that few other media brands will be able to conceive of and to support the society’s mission of ‘inspiring people to care about the planet’.

For the record, Manas Mohan has over 17 years of experience in Marketing, Communications, Media, Branding, Advertising, Promotions and Sales. He also looks after, The National Geographic business in India which includes all aspects of advertising sales, marketing and the editorial segment of National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Traveller, natgeo.co.in and natgeotraveller. An MBA from Lucknow University, along with advanced management diploma from ISB, Hyderabad, he has also worked as the Director & Head of Marketing at Reader’s Digest.  Earlier, at Wunderman and at Lintas Direct, he handled some of the best brands as his clients - Tata Sky, Jet Airways, FedEx, ICICI Prudential, Tata AIG, Castrol, etc. At Discovery Channel, he played a pivotal role in brand advertising and the school contact programs across India.