Mtv Enjoy

MTV Enjoy This is not the end, it is only the beginning,” says Sunil Lulla with cautious optimism. As general manager, MTV India, it is his prerogative to size up the opposition and prepare the battle-lines and strategies in the war between the music channels. For all practical purposes, MTV has drawn first blood and upstaged the upstart. But, Sunil has little time to rest on his laurels. He is off, setting newer goals and strategising long-term plans and looking for new beginnings. But that’s getting ahead of the story. First, the bare facts. In the last two years, MTV’s business has grown four times, its distribution has grown five times and viewership has grown seven times. “That - (growth rates of four, five and seven) is only coincidental, I would have loved it if our growth rates were 20, 30 and 40 times,” guffaws Sunil Lulla. And well he can afford to guffaw. In the race for the musical youth’s heart, soul and pocket, MTV has a clear edge over competitor Channel [V] (see graphs). MTV is now visible in over 9.3 million households in India out of a total cable universe of 18 million households. Their distribution growth rates are significantly higher than industry levels. Sunil Lulla explains how they got where they got. “Indianise, humanise and humourise, these are the three guiding principles of whatever we do at MTV India. When you have Indianised music, humanised your approach to music and added the humour element to the way you are, what you get is the pure joy of watching a hip, happening channel. Presto, you have our catch-line; Enjoy,” he says. Sounds pretty straight forward, which it actually is; in retrospect. This is how it’s supposed to have worked. When MTV entered India in 1995 - Sunil Lulla discounts the earlier avatar of MTV on the STAR network as an aberration, “we were only licencees, then”, he says - sat-delivered music was a monopolistic business. The challenge before Sunil Lulla was clear; strategise to beat the competition. Research indicated that viewers wanted Indian music, but they didn’t believe much in musical compartmentalisation. So, Indianise, Sunil had to. Which was what Channel [V] had done pretty successfully. “What the competition had done, in effect, was create musical ghettos. You had language-specific time bands and our studies showed that our target audience - the 15 to 34 year-olds, listened to music, not languagespecific music. So, we decided to put out a mixed basket of music. So, at any given time in the day, MTV would show Hindi videos, but every now and then we would also slip in an international video. And, so far the move has paid off,” Sunil states. MTV’s current on-air music mix stands at 70-30 in favour of Indian music. The second thing that the channel did was Indianise its VJs, preferring local talent speaking Hinglish with an Indian accent over firang ones. Achieved through the now famous VJ Hunt, the move brought the channel nearer to its target audience. Also the channel took to the road with gusto, creating specific initiatives that ensured channel target-audience interaction on a large scale. The Pepsi-MTV Dance Connection was just one such initiative. The 15-city tour concentrated on the mini-metros and smaller cities of India and addressed the hip-set there. The result, increased ground connectivity and viewership. Step Two involved Humanising the channel, and this involved placing the viewer - and to a lesser extent the cable operator - squarely in the centre of all the channel’s activities. Efforts at humanising the viewer included holding the MTV & Brand Equity Youth Marketing Forum in Mumbai where 250 members of the advertising and marketing fraternity addressed college students; the MTV Aids Awareness campaign and its hugely popular Rock The Vote campaign during the last elections. And what did all this achieve? MTV verily became the voice of Young India. The direct spin-off was a committed target audience that kept coming back for more. And, of course, all this was backed by humour; MTV’s own irreverent brand of it, of course. It took a while catching on, but it is something that one has come to expect from the channel and demand from it as well. But if you were to single out one reason for MTV’s success, it is its total commitment to the Indian music industry. It has helped package Indian film and non-film music in ways that hadn’t been thought of before. The channel was among the first to get on the remix bandwagon, and its tie-up with HMV, Mere Sapnon Ki

Rani, was a multi-platinum seller. The MTV-Times Music Forum was the ideal platform for the music industry to debate on topics that needed to be addressed. Also, of late, the channel has been at the fore-front of the anti-piracy campaign. The music industry, needless to say loves all the attention it is getting. “We are only giving them their due,” says Mishal Verma, Talent & Artist Relations Manager, MTV India. “As a music channel we have to provide the music industry with the ideal platform from where they can do better business.” Never mind the music industry, but MTV is doing good business. The channel plays host to over 100 advertisers and 22 show sponsors. First quarter 1998 ad-sales grew by 140 per cent as compared to 1997 figures, and 1997 itself saw a 100 per cent growth in ad-sales as compared to 1996. “We have a wide base of consumer products being advertised on the channel. Worldwide our business policy is to ensure that No.1, 2 and 3 youth brands are represented on our channel, no matter what the nature of their business. This is no different in India,” says Sunil Lulla. So, it is not surprising that Pepsi, Colgate, Levi’s, Philips, Perfetti, Archies, Coca Cola, Dabur, Elle 18 all advertise on the channel. Why, the channel has even roped in Intel to sponsor a show on the channel. “We are able to attract the best sponsors because we can design programmes to fit their needs better than anybody else,” says Mishal Verma. Nobody is arguing with that, just yet. The challenge, agrees Sunil Lulla, is to keep re-inventing yourself everytime, and time and time again. “My job is that of a flame thrower - igniting passion, directing hot steamy energy and setting fire to the hearts of MTV viewers,” says Sunil. Watch Out!