S Ravi Kant, CEO, Watches & Accessories, Titan Company talks about the brand’s expectation from the association with ‘The Music Run’. Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Business Head, Kids Entertainment, Viacom18 talks about Viacom18’s maiden 3D stereoscopic animation theatrical, Motu Patlu King of Kings.
RAVI KANT: FASTRACK SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE OF MILLENNIALS, HENCE OUR ASSOCIATION WITH ‘THE MUSIC RUN’
The Music Run’, which has been making waves across 18 countries from The United States of America to Singapore, was held in India for the first time at Bangalore. Fastrack partnered with the music marathon as title sponsors. S Ravi Kant, Chief Executive Officer, Watches & Accessories, Titan Company Limited tells us what the brand hoped to gain by associating with this global event.
THE ASSOCIATION: Being the principal sponsor enabled us to connect with our target audiences in a fun and differentiated manner through running and music. As a brand, that is synonymous with being authentic, self-expressive, edgy and free of boundaries. The association with Baseline Ventures for ‘The Music Run by Fastrack’ was a winning partnership for us. Through this association, Fastrack aims to tap into the youth’s natural desire to create and share; and being part of an experiential event makes a lot of sense for us. Fastrack speaks the language of the young millennials as its products denote energy, excitement and self-expression; which aligns well with the DNA of this event. The global popularity of ‘The Music Run’ reinforces Fastrack’s vision and thoughts for the youth market.
WHY MUSIC RUN? ‘The Music Run’ is the fastest growing event in the mass running and entertainment space globally. More like a party than a run, the runners get to experience the world’s loudest 5 km running course, with more than 120 speakers pumping out the most popular songs voted by participants across five interactive and musicthemed zones; namely Rock, Pop, Old School, Hip Hop and Dance. ‘The Music Run’ is the only crowd-sourced running event in the world.
The run kicks off with performances by popular artistes, to culminate in a fun-filled after-run celebration with gigs from live bands and world class DJs, accompanied by dancers, laser lights, chill-out zones, LED screens, fireworks and exciting give-aways.
(As told to Neeta Nair)
NINA ELAVIA JAIPURIA: IT WILL BE MOTU PATLU’S BIG STRIDE TO THE BIG SCREEN ON OCTOBER 14, 2016
Viacom18 is all set to release Motu Patlu King of Kings, the network’s maiden 3D stereoscopic animation theatrical. Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Nickelodeon have joined hands to create the movie based on the popular Lotpot characters Motu and Patlu. The movie, produced by MAYA, is slated to release on October 14 2016, in Hindi and Tamil, in over 700 screens across India. Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Business Head, Kids Entertainment, Viacom18 tells us more about it.
ON TAKING MOTU PATLU TO THE BIG SCREEN: Motu Patlu contributes to 50% of the ratings for the Nickelodeon franchise. It has a huge fan following and it’s the right time to carry that success onto the silver screen. For Viacom 18, this is an innovation and a big project. What’s going to make all the difference is the entire network coming together and leveraging the might of all of Viacom18 for this.
ON IN-FILM BRANDING & BRAND ASSOCIATIONS: We have left the movie unadulterated. This is our first film and we wanted to ensure that we got it totally right. To weave in a brand in a first attempt would have been tricky. Therefore, we decided to do brand associations but outside of the movie and keep the integrations going on in the Television shows.
ON INVESTMENTS: A large portion of the money has been invested in production as we wanted to ensure that the animation is world-class and emphasis has been placed on the quality of the film. We don’t want to bleed and lose money on this project. We want it to be a commercial success at the cinema and have taken sensible business risks. We will take the movie from the theatre back on to the channel and then leverage it for many years to come.
ON MARKETING: While we will use the entire Viacom18 network, we are also going beyond the traditional marketing vehicles. We have a robust and ambitious plan comprising Print, Radio, Out-of-Home, in addition to Television. We have a separate marketing plan for Chennai.
We are also doing retail partnerships and mall activations. For the first time, you will see blimps of Motu, Patlu and Simba, the lion.
(As told to Simran Sabherwal)
