AgTalk | "Content' is the core of everything: Turner's Benjamin Grubbs

Benjamin Grubbs is the Executive Director of Interactive Media, Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific. Before joining Turner, he has worked with eBay as Marketing Director, Hong Kong and had worked with Yahoo too. At Turner, Mr. Grubbs look after the company's digital business, which includes websites, games, and video on demand, e-commerce and emerging platforms.

Speaking exclusively to Adgully, Benjamin Grubbs, explained us the consumption pattern of digital space in India and worldwide amongst kids and about the challenges that they faced.

Adgully (AG): What are the things according to you, that keep kids engaged?

Benjamin Grubbs (BG): As we see, with the usage of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, the online consumption has increased. Though consumption medium is different, today kids indulge themselves in consuming games, videos, clips, online promotions and contests. So, our focus is much on content that we provide to them and the content that we create. With social networking sites they connect with new friends, applications, games and with this demands are getting raised. We are trying to work more on building content as degree and mediums of consumption differs from consumer to consumer.

AG: How do you see the online consumption pattern of kids in India and kids abroad? Is there any difference?

BG: In general, no there is not much of a difference.The game and the choice is the same in Asia and other parts of the world. Though the way how kids communicate and the nature with they communicate may be different, but in terms of the online consumption pattern they all play games when they are online or when they get time and that's a kind of positive response and the commonality between kids of India and abroad. It's a kind of benefit for us and even for the kids, and game is the category which is the same in Europe, US, India and other parts of the world where you certainly want to get into. Model, typing images, business pattern, genre and communication behind that, may certain change but the way of consumption is the same.

AG: What is the current consumption pattern for kids globally in terms of digital space?

BG: Its more about the games amongst our audience, last year it showed growth of around 12 million which was 3-4 times more than few years ago. We are growing in terms of audience space and the market. The survey and study shows that the peak hours are after school, around 6pm-8 pm the consumption is high through the week and on Saturday Sunday we see jump up. When we look at the consumption during school holidays, its jumps up and during school exam we see it going down. In Australia, during Christmas holidays i.e. from 25th ' 27th its high and goes well throughout. But, once school starts it goes down. On weekend it is strong i.e. during 6pm-8 pm as it peaks up.

AG: The content that is produced for the Television, is the same content showcased for the digital space?

BG: With Ben 10 we looked at the story line which was made for Television and as the digital team we remade the content and filled in the gap which was there while we made the Ben 10 game. That is one of the example that I wanted to discuss. With our work at Turner, we try to work upon content in such a way that children going to expect in games. The good thing about Turner is that, we get good appreciation and the core of everything is all about "content'. So, when we bring this kind of content with initiatives in the market, we can work on different platforms from television to digital. It's all about the show business.

AG: What are the key insights that you focus on before taking any action?

BG: We at Turner, we work with generation which differs from one decade to other. It's not necessary what our young audience (kids) are telling us is the same what they are doing, so what they are doing and watching do matter to us. In terms of our business we do quantitative and qualitative studies, surveys, sampling and data collection to understand what kids do when they are free and what would they expect from us and we try to match with it. Three keys of insights via action are ' Create, Play and Edu- tain. We try to create content which goes with what kids would like and Play is more about games and gaming. Edu-tain is more about what they learn and how they understand the global world and economy. As we ask kids 5 years back about what matters to them the most, what they know about global economy, properties and environment? This research and survey was done by highly dedicated teams in Philippines, India, Australia and in parts of South Asia. With the active data and surveys we studied that the core of reach was that, we connected to them and the human connection that we created through our content which created a positive change. Through Prudential campaign we tried to educate kids in terms of better money management skills in funny and entertaining way, and that was a kind of challenge for us.

AG: How do you see Indian market in terms of online business?

BG: Our television business is strong in India than any other market. India is the biggest market as TV is still there as a strongest medium, that is the kind of benefit from the Indian market we are getting from decades. We are working on brand involvement from last 4 years on active bases.TV fantasia is strong in India than any other market, like Vietnam is not good in terms of TV. What we are doing now is kind of globalising in terms of being digital. It's wrong to say that TV is not there as the medium.

AG: Can you share any innovations done by Turner in the digital space in India and other markets.

BG: About International brands, we worked with Prudential which was a very big initiative in terms of digital space. In terms of execution Prudential did fabulous job, they didn't left any area uncovered. At Prudential it was running on TV, billboard, on road, Hong Kong skyline, PR and with many other things. Other than this, big investments made it a big success. Even US, did well with the Ben 10 games. With India, someway it's our challenge as we are using this medium in a creative way. We are working on shaping up the dialogues; we want to come up with programs not campaigns which would go for a long time. I would love to see something like this in coming years, where there will be programs just for kids.

AG: Any thoughts of launching a show on the digital platform in India?

BG: From our end, we are looking ahead with a program which is not for kids. It's not for kids business but more of digitalisation. It's about channels where audience would see digital component in the online program. The program would be 24x7 and show will be there for 1hour every day a week. For kids business, we are looking at to bring out original content, not from television that we will use online. It would be different from what we used to do earlier.

AG: What plans for 2012 and expectations from Indian market?

BG: In India, we are looking forward for loads of investments; we are working on content part. In terms of market, we expect to see a lot of development and the talent we would be working with. While focusing on global development, we would make such product which should go global. We want people to access more of smartphones, tablets where they can explore lot of things. It's fun to work with such creative challenges. | By Ranjana Gupta [ranjana(at)adgully.com]