Exclusive | Vivo is the first in its kind partnership says Viacom's Jaideep Singh

Premium global handset brand Vivo, has forged a strategic marketing and communication partnership with Viacom18 Integrated Network Solutions (INS) as part of its plans to enter the Indian market. INS which is a network division of Viacom18 will now help the world’s leading smart phone brand Vivo to build their brand in the minds of the Indian consumer. it will also foray into the country through Viacom18’s bouquet of iconic brands in the broadcast and live properties during the first phase.

While the one-of-a-kind deal between Viacom18 and Vivo mobile is a global phenomenon with existing network initiatives across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore. It is definitely a novel step in the Indian Media & Entertainment sector. As part of its mandate, INS will put to use large impact live properties and genres such as Music to Comedy catering to various target audiences, and also key broadcast properties of the network across brands. All other marketing and brand communication activities will also be conceived and executed by INS.

To get a deeper insight about this strategic partnership Adgully caught up with Jaideep Singh, Senior Vice President, INS, Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd.

Speaking about the association between the two brands Singh said that, “It has always been a part of our mandate. Ever since we build INS, we built the Live Impact Properties (IP) on one hand and the other being broadcasting with Viacom18; where we work on building strategic partnership with brands. While that entails in giving them brand solutions, leveraging all the assets and platforms, we are helping them launch the brand into India, by using viacom18 broadcast, live, digital and social media assets.”

The engagement with them started about five to six months back, where the first part of their engagement gave them the complete insight of the youth of India, the consumer dynamics, the media and the communication tends into the country. While in the second phase they want to have four split events in live and broadcast using the digital and social media assets of the latter. Singh adds, “Over and above that, we have been giving them association in the PR and communications front, marketing and a little help on the retail activity. Apart from that we are also helping them do their first press event. The media planning is something that we have been taking care of. Basically in this partnership, the complete service that a brand would need is given by INS, which INS is mandated for and we’re working on that. This is first of its kind of deal that a broadcaster is coming together and giving all the services to a brand to launch them into the market. In a similar space we are dealing in a couple of international brands who are looking at launching their brand in the Indian market and few of the Indian brands who want to enter into larger partnership with Viacom. This is the first case study in this case. In couple of months or a year, you will hear a couple of more announcements from our end.”

The portfolio indeed gets stronger. Commenting on the value that it’ll add to the company Singh said that, “When we built INS, the whole idea was to look at building three fronts. One being building our large IPs which is what we have done till now and you are aware of our properties like Supersonics, Bollyland, Chuckle and so on. Such properties get used when brands want to partner with you. When you talk about an association of this size, the benefit to the network, we get a stronger partnership and thereby have the involvement in the interior network in a much larger way. What also adds in is extra revenue stream in terms of consultancy, marketing services, creative services which we provide.

The whole Viacom18 bouquet and digital services will be offered in this platform.

Viacom which has done so many events in the year that passed and the will have many more in the year to come. The roadmap for Viva and Viacom seems to be on the growth mode. Singh added, “Right now we are in the changing stage of most of our large IPs and we have lost 30 to 40 events last year. On the brand solutions space, we are planning to expand our footprint and level altogether. We will be looking close to about 200 events in total. These events are happening under big IPs which have been created, like supersonics has 100, Bollyland has about 30-40 events, we will have award shows, and overall the live portfolio will go to next level altogether. In the brand solutions space with Vivo which is the first thing that we are launching, I see next year, INS is going to have a balance between the live and the brand solutions business, wherein you will see that in brand solutions, trending between, broadcast and live property. And in live we have standalone partnership across many properties to come with the Viacom18 bouquet of services.”

“The deal is a long term one, the first phase is till July next year. And presently we are talking about the second phase already with them and I think we will launch that in a month’s time” added Singh.

Vivo being a one of its kind partnership, the company is already in talks with some other brands and in time to come we will hear about some of the work that they have been doing.

Vivo being a more youthful platform, the partnership plans to have a lot of events. Singh added, “We are across live and broadcast properties, and we are right now also sponsors with MTV Bollyland, there is MTV roadies which has activities which are powered by our partners, comedy nights with Kapil also has sponsorship. When I say we I refer to Vivo which is a sponsor to all these properties.”

The company has seen a 50-60 per cent growth in 2014 which is otherwise a tremendous amount of growth.

The sector has seen a lot of growth over the years. Brands have got a lot of interest in the live space right now. Singh adds, “The challenge is how you make a brand in a live property and present it in a way that the consumers welcome it and the brand becomes a part of the live experience to the consumer. So if one creates the right package giving great experience on digital and on the social front and if that gets extended to a larger audience using the broadcast and the online medium I think you’ve got a very good value proposition for the brand.”

“The anticipated growth for 2015 is a double digit growth.” says Singh. The trends are also equally exciting. Singh added, “I think the IP will be concentrated on and the entertainment or live entertainment is going to go to the next level. There is a lot of interest in festivals, in concerts, in music; music is a driving force there. Comedy is coming up, theatre is coming up, and I think as we move forward, there are quite a few properties in the comedy and theatre space that are coming up. That’s a place to look out for. Alternate music and rock music is something that one should keep an eye on.”

Vivo is not an exclusive partnership. The company has plans to expand with other brands as well. Commenting on the same, Singh says that, “We have partnerships existing with other brands as well. Vivo is a larger partnership where we are doing a lot more. Similarly, we have smaller scale partnerships with couple of other brands, so we will partner with multiple brands in the same category and we will partner with brands across categories as well. If you talk about live, I feel youth brands or brands which are youth sensing are the target clients for us or that’s what we’ve been interested in. when it comes to brand solutions I think every category is open. Viacom as a group is more targeted to the group and we have one of the best audiences sitting there. So we will have an affinity to youth centric brands to anything that we do, as a network and INS as business thereby is potential will always be larger on the youth centric brands.”

Lastly concluding every marketer is looking at targeting tier two and three cities and so is Viacom18. Currently, they have a large presence for their regional channels ETV and also for their MTV Bollyland in tier 2 towns. Singh added, "This year we are going to 20 smaller towns like Indore, Nashik, Guwahati, Lucknow, Ahmadabad, etc. So the tier 2 towns from the mass market perspective or the Bollywood space are a big space to look out for and we will expand our presence. Bollyland will be the face of our market. In our ETV portfolio our ETV market we will be doing live events for our Karnataka, Maharashtra and Bengal market for sure.” By: Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit