Adgully Exclusive | Cricket + Bollywood makes Max a blockbuster: Gaurav Seth

Max has remained popular over the past 10 years, even as India's entertainment space continued to grow progressively cluttered. A premier entertainment and Hindi movie channel, Max has a wide reach covering over 32 million people all over the country. By having IPL in its set of offerings, Max has garnered even more audience and has reached new levels in terms of popularity as well as TRPs. Speaking exclusively to Adgully, Gaurav Seth, Max's vice-president (marketing) elucidates the channel's growth story.

"It was great to begin my career in India with ESPN, as I was responsible for expanding the sports channel business in the country," said Seth, who has 14 years of industry experience and has worked with organizations such as Zee Network. "Apart from cricket, I was singlehandedly responsible for sports like Formula 1 and the English Premier League. The focus was to create a sporting culture in the market. Then I was with Zee right from the conceptualization of Indian Cricket League, which was a hugely challenging endeavour that afforded great learnings. At Max, the IPLs represent a significant phase."

Seth agreed that the movie business in India had experienced intricate fragmentations with new players coming into the space every other day. Moreover, the GECs are becoming extremely aggressive in acquiring better content. This space has become more competitive than ever. "This poses a lot of problems for us. The only content we have is movies," he said. "Others have a lot of other content. If they go about grabbing that market, it becomes very difficult for us to sustain any new content. From time to time, your brand needs new content to sell. This is where brand differentiations come into play. We have tried to position ourselves as the unique mix of movies and cricket which appeals to consumers. We have been the number 1 channel in the country in movies for the past four years or so."

The media space had evolved tremendously over the past few years, Seth said. The penetration levels in both rural and urban markets have increased prodigiously, triggering a proliferation of channels. "It's not like we are in the pay module where the consumers are paying for channels. Otherwise, it would have been easy," he said. "Every business ” whether it is news or entertainment ” is showing the same thing, only the packaging is different. What catches your eye? The innovativeness with which you market or package your product. There are more options and penetration today."

Seth said that at Max, his focus was clearly on the fact that all day, every day, seven days a week, his channel was giving what people want ' Bollywood movies. "The best of the classics and films from all genres ” I will deliver it to you on your doorstep," he said. "Whatever the kind of the movies, I deliver it to you at your own time. The GECs are, thanks to their superior money power, buying movies at a higher rate and cornering us. However, they cannot show movies all the time. We are a pure movie channel." He said the GECs do not have one key property that Max has ” cricket. "We are bringing the country's twin passions alive, cricket in the form of IPL, and Bollywood movies," he said. "I don't think we have a positioning problem at all. This is what we are, take us or leave us."

What sets Max apart from other payers is popularity, Seth said. "Our weekly reach parameter says that more people sample Max than the other channels," he said. "Our libraries have the popular works of Yash Chopra, Rakesh Roshan and Yash Raj. These are exclusive holdings and do really well for us. We have been there for a while and we have built a certain passionate imagery around us. We have festivals and "behind the shots', which our audience loves. All these factors separate us from the competition. Our templates and feel are different."

Max have been able to get better advertising and provide a different experience to the audience with the acquisition of movies like "3 Idiots', which have a tremendous re-run value, Seth said. "It gives you association with such differentiated experiences," he said. "As for new initiatives, Max is all set to launch the Bachchan Festival around Amitabh Bachchan's birthday next month. Max is known to have done new and novel marketing to capture its consumers. "We are also going to do the highly anticipated and long-overdue brand campaign, where we are going to refresh the idea of "Deewana Bana De'. We will do a film to showcase that idea." In December, a Khan festival will commemorate Sharukh Khan's birthday, Seth said. "We engage in many tactical initiatives on a monthly basis," he said. "Also December onwards, we will start gearing up for IPL."

Over the past couple of months, the channel has gone through the process of becoming completely Hindi. "All tune- in points and promo bands are now in Hindi," Seth said. "Earlier only the voiceovers were in Hindi. This is because 70 percent of India is more comfortable with Hindi. We are a mass channel so it makes sense logically to be in that space. Also, we are conscious of our communication reflecting the values that middle class represents."