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CONTENTS
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36
UAE UPDATES
BRAND MARKETING
BRIEFS 08 MARKET PULSE - Abu Dhabi as an Entertainment Hub: An Interview with Reeva Bains, Flash Entertainment 10 - The Market for the Scariest Place to Glo 11 IN FOCUS - The Making of Kristina Fidelskaya Presents Sensation Dubai 2016 12 PHOTO FEATURE - A Glimpse into the First Ever ILEA Quiz Night Dubai 14 FEATURE - 3 Newly Launched Purpose-Built Venues in the UAE 16
BRIEFS 34 COVER STORY - Activation Fails! 36 MARKET PULSE - Associations, Ambassadors, IPL & More 42 CUE CARDS BY SUSHMA GAIKWAD - Festive Season Madness and You 43 IN FOCUS - Lakmé Fashion Week W/F 2016 Roundup: 15 Sponsors, 92 Designers, 2 Agencies + More 46 - EO2 Strikes the Perfect Balance of Tech & Star Power@ Asus Zenvolution 48 FEATURE - ExM Catch-Up With Aldo, Jack Daniel’s, Radio Mirchi & Godrej Security Solutions 50 PHOTO FEATURE - A Big Splash! 52 - Vibgyor Creates a Thematic Experience Zone, Art Gallery & More @Huwaei P9 Launch 53
ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS 20 MARKET PULSE - 7th Edition, 3 Cities, A Weekend To Remember: What’s on the Cards@BACARDI NH7 Weekender 2016 22 - We are the World: An Interview with Sabbas Joseph on The Global Citizen Festival India 23 IN FOCUS - Insomniac, OML & Budweiser to Bring Electric Daisy Carnival to India: Here is What You Can Expect 24 FEATURE - A Filmy Affair: Bollywood Music Project’s Debut Edition 26 - The Mumbai Ballard Estate 28 PHOTO FEATURE - Stills from the 4th Edition of Comic Con India, Hyderabad 30 - The Largest Indoor Dandiya Festival at Dome by SRK Exotic Eventz & Sparsh 31
M.I.C.E BRIEFS 56 IN FOCUS - Mantra Events Manages the 10th Edition of Sanofi India ‘Super Achievers Awards’ 58 - Beauty All the Way! 60 - CMS Asia 2016: A Content Rich Experience 62 FEATURE - Round-up: The 600+ Participant MICE Programmes 64 - India’s Nightlife is Here to Stay 66
Disclaimer: i. Experiential Marketing magazine is published by EVENTFAQS Media. Pvt. Ltd. with RNI Registration MAHENG/2010/35733. ii. Every effort is made to ensure that the magazine’s content is correct. However, the publisher accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions. iii. All material published in this magazine is copyright protected. Unauthorised reproduction in part or full is forbidden. iv. The publisher takes no responsibility for content used in advertisements and advertorials. It is assumed the advertiser has rights to use the content. v. The publisher takes no responsibility for photographs and information published in features which comes from external sources such as PR agencies, direct sources, etc. It is assumed that the parties involved have the right to provide the information for publishing purposes. vi. Any dispute/error liable vis-a-vis this magazine is strictly restricted to local jurisdiction in Mumbai only.
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FROM THE EDITOR
28 INDUSTRY WATCH BRIEFS 70 MARKET PULSE - The ‘Story’ of Passion, Leadership and Proliferate Offerings 71 EEMA ROUNDUP 72 IN FOCUS - Fountainhead MKTG Bags Delhi Festival Tender Valued INR 15 Cr.: The Complete Story 75 - The Stage is Set! 76
TECHNOLOGY BRIEFS 78 IN FOCUS - Laqshya Live Experiences Manages 3D Mapping Experience, Tech Integration & More @Autodesk University 2016 80 FEATURE - What’s New in Sound, Staging and Event Technologies 82
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Brand Activation is second nature to the experiential industry. No matter what genre or segment of the LIVE / Experiential industry one associates themselves strongest with, there has been a need to activate a brand on-ground. To find audiences where they prefer to spend time, and then give them enough reason to spare a few minutes for your brand. Having said that, it seems that most reasons for ‘activation fails’ are realised while or after the activity culminates. It’s challenging enough that customers’ consumption patterns of media and messages are evolving by the day. To pin-point an activation fail and acknowledge room for improvising, is the first step in the right direction. While speaking with the experts it was encouraging to see that willingness to change and improve is as much of a positive quality as knowing the medium of activation well. And most times this very attitude to try something new, wins better results for the planner, brand and customer! karishma@eventfaqs.com
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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 VOLUME 7 ISSUE 5 EDITOR & HEAD - BRAND & CONTENT KARISHMA HUNDALANI karishma@eventfaqs.com
PUBLISHER & BUSINESS HEAD VISHAL NAGDEV vishal@eventfaqs.com
EDITORIAL TEAM RACHAEL RAJAN rrajan@eventfaqs.com +91 9766 071741 KANIKA MEHTA kanika@eventfaqs.com +91 98100 18658 SHANTANU JAIN shantanu@eventfaqs.com +91 99908 81440
CFO & DIRECTOR JIMMY CHOUDHARY jimmy@eventfaqs.com +91 9821428197
CIRCULATION RAMESH PATIL ramesh@eventfaqs.com +91 22 26300673 ADMIN & ACCOUNTS NILESH PAWAR accounts@eventfaqs.com +91 22 26330674 SAMEET ELKAR admin.mumbai@eventfaqs.com +91 9769 306799 AKASH GUPTA admin.delhi@eventfaqs.com +91 9911755871 GRAPHIC DESIGN VINAYA PRASHANTH vinayaprashanth@gmail.com PRASAD KARAMBAT
GENERAL MANAGER LIZANN PINTO lizann@eventfaqs.com +91 98339 96461 MARKETING SERVICES TEAM SONAL GUPTA sonal@eventfaqs.com +91 98338 85521 JAMES J. HUFFA james@eventfaqs.com +971 56 600 9767 RADHIKA SETHI radhika@eventfaqs.com +91 99206 61129 ANUP SHARMA anup@eventfaqs.com +91 99300 89557 MARKETING OPERATIONS TEAM KRITI JAIN kriti@eventfaqs.com +91 9911696980 REBECCA FERNANDES rebecca@eventfaqs.com +91 9833993885 CHARMI JANANI charmi@eventfaqs.com +91 9920574595 ZAFAR KHAN zafar@eventfaqs.com +91 9004839027
Experiential Marketing is a bi-monthly magazine published by EVENTFAQS Media - A multichannel business platform focussed on the MICE, Entertainment & LIVE Marketing industry. Visit www.eventfaqs.com for more details. For subscription enquiry: info@eventfaqs.com Editor: Karishma Jamnu Hundalani. This issue contains 88 pages including covers.
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Printed & published by: Vishal Vashulal Nagdev on behalf of (or owned by) EVENTFAQS Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at VSSU Graphics, Unit # 36, Ideal Industrial Estate Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel-West, Mumbai 400013, Maharashtra, India, and published at EVENTFAQS Media Pvt. Ltd. 112, 1st Floor, Embassy Centre 207, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021, Maharashtra, India.
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BRIEFS
UAE
The Hotel Show Dubai 2016 by DMG Events Highlights Trends in Dubai’s Hospitality Industry Organised by DMG Events, The Hotel Show took place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from September 17 to 19. The conference featured over 85 international speakers. Co-located with The Leisure Show, the event was attended by hospitality professionals across commercial and non-commercial outlets including; hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars, clubs, cafes, hospitals, public institutions and food service. Gary Williams, Event Director, DMG Events Hospitality and Leisure Portfolio said, “As the UAE grows closer to becoming one of the world’s leading destinations for leisure and entertainment, the gates to Dubai Parks and Resorts and IMG Worlds of Adventure will open. In 17 years, The Hotel Show Dubai has developed with the market, witnessing significant diversification and growth.”
Gary Williams Event Director
DMG Events Hospitality and Liesure Portfolio
Oberoi Middle East Events Set to Present Sonu Nigam Live in Dubai this November Oberoi Middle East (OME) Events is one of the most prolific event houses of the Emirates. On November 18, 2016 they will bring singer Sonu Nigam to the city of Dubai. The event produced and promoted by OME Events with state-of-the-art production, will be staged at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. Nigam remarked, “I love coming back to Dubai because the audience is so attentive and appreciative of even the most delicate of musical nuances. Naresh Oberoi Ji and I have always believed in raising the bar of Live entertainment to the highest level and giving the audience much more than they expect from us every time.”
Yanni Set to Sizzle Abu Dhabi with a Live Performance! Award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist - Yanni, made his first Abu Dhabi appearance at the du Forum, Yas Island, on Friday, September 30. The Greek artist enchanted fans with a brand new show including new compositions from his latest album ‘Sensuous Chill’. Flash Entertainment continues to raise entertainment standards by bringing top talent to the capital. Yanni says: “This album represents several years of collaboration with some of the brightest artists in the world! That is what brings the uniqueness, the beauty and the color on this album - I wanted to create a sensuous and melodious environment for the listener.”
ADNEC Launches Phase II of Expansion of Al Ain Convention Centre Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) has announced the commencement of the second phase of expansion of Al Ain Convention Centre (AACC). The current phase of expansion will see AACC increase in area by 8 per cent, to register 14,000 sq. m in total. The expansion is scheduled for completion by early 2017.
Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri Acting Group CEO, ADNEC
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Humaid Matar Al Dhaheri, Acting Group CEO of ADNEC, said: “The launch of phase II of Al Ain Convention Centre is aligned to ADNEC’s ongoing strategy to upgrade and boost the efficiency of all our subsidiary entities within the Group. Through such efforts we can ensure that our world-class venues remain competitive and relevant in attracting major local and international exhibitions and events to the Emirate.”
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BRIEFS
UAE
16th World Cardiology Congress to Take Place in Dubai The 16th World Cardiology Congress will take place from December 08-10, 2016 at Dubai, UAE. Organized by OMICS Group Conferences, the conference will bring together world-class professors, scientists and cardiologists to discuss strategies for disease remediation for heart. The conference is designed to provide diverse and current education that will keep medical professionals abreast of the issues affecting the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The conference will be organized around the theme ‘Emphasizing Challenges in Cardio Research’. World Cardiology 2016 anticipates more than 200-300 participants around the globe with thought provoking keynote lectures, oral presentations and poster presentations.
IMG Worlds of Adventure Dubai Now Open; Offers Customised Programmes and Deals for MICE/Groups The much awaited IMG Worlds of Adventure Dubai opened its doors on August 31, becoming the first international mega-themed park to open in Dubai. Wholly owned by the Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari Group and managed by IMG Worlds, the park is set to redefine the modern theme park experience in Dubai. Ilyas Galadari and Mustafa Galadari, Executive Co-Chairmen and Owners, the Ilyas & Mustfa Galadari Group said, “This marks a great achievement for everyone at the Ilyas & Mustafa Galadari Group and we would like to thank everyone who has been part of this epic journey.” Lennard Otto Chief Executive Officer
IMG Worlds of Adventure
Lennard Otto, Chief Executive Officer, IMG Worlds of Adventure added, “We expect to host over 4.5 million people in our first year of operation, transforming the entertainment and leisure industry forever. We look forward to welcoming everyone in the coming days, weeks and months.”
Showtech Chooses Event Show Asia for Debut Engagement with the Indian Market For over 18 years, Showtech, one of the UAE’s leading production and technical support companies, has successfully set the standard for managing International Concerts, Conferences, Corporate Events, Fashion Shows and Product Launches. Its decision to engage with the Indian market at Event Show Asia came as part of the agency’s broader goal of expanding its reach and overall impact. Event Show Asia took place on June 24 and 25 at Pullman & Novotel, New Delhi Aerocity, alongside the WOW Awards and Convention Asia 2016. Shaji George, Founder and CEO, Showtech remarked, “Most of our clients are event management companies. The success of each event is a compliment in itself. We are truly honoured, however, when the end user compliments our client for a job well done.”
Shaji George Founder and CEO, Showtech
Young CEO Brings Events and Tech Agency to Dubai Design District
Shenin Hamid Founder & CEO
Inspire Group ME
Shenin Hamid, Founder & CEO of Inspire Group ME, a well-established Event Management and Technology agency in the UAE – announced that her company is poised for an exciting move to Dubai’s chic Design District on September 10. Hamid began Inspire as a small ‘in-house’ venture and progressively built a keen reputation and portfolio with Fortune 500’s and multi-nationals around the Middle East, and even expanded its services to handle innovative tech and virtual reality infused campaigns for brands. With a clientele and work that is primarily focused in Dubai though, the company’s move to the emirate was only a matter of time. “D3 is one of the prime locations in Dubai you just can’t miss. This is where creativity comes together and that’s where we want to be,” says Ms. Hamid.
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UPDATES FROM THE UAE / IN FOCUS
Abu Dhabi as an Entertainment Hub: an Interview with Reeva Bains, Flash Entertainment In this interview, Reeva Bains, VP Marketing and Communications, Flash Entertainment discusses Abu Dhabi’s market for large-scale concerts, productions and festivals, sharing how Flash has achieved success in the region. By: Rachael Rajan Known for their outstanding large-scale concerts and productions in the region, UAE-based Flash Entertainment’s repertoire of concerts features the biggest names in music. In addition, the agency is also known for conceptualising a variety of festivals including Yasalam, Abu Dhabi Science Festival, and Qasr Al Hosn Festival. In this interview, Reeva Bains, VP Marketing and Communications, Flash Entertainment talks about Abu Dhabi as an entertainment hub, Flash’s own work, and what’s involved in producing really large events. When planning large scale concerts, what are a few things every entertainment company must keep in mind? The entire process entails a tremendous amount of expertise in every aspect including project management, operations, logistics, marketing, finance, sponsorship, human resources and legal. One of the very first elements however is to understand your target market and deliver events that will resonate and appeal to them. In order to do this, we have invested in research about our audience psychographics, and based on past event feedback and market insights we aim to deliver on these expectations. Keeping in mind regional demand and international trends the artist is selected. Flash then mobilizes its very talented in-house team of professionals that are able to deliver on each and every detail of an event – the full 360 degree event cycle. Other factors to keep in mind include the local conditions such as regulations, stakeholders, competitive landscape and infrastructure available to make the events happen. What are some of the risks involved? Every event comes with possible shortcomings. Forecasting these possible scenarios is a standard practice that we follow for all the events we organize and produce. We have a team of more than 50 individuals, all expert in their field and having operated in the region for over 7 years we can anticipate and calculate most of the risks that could arise and have a number of contingency plans in place. What particular challenges and opportunities does the UAE market pose to organising concerts like these? 10
The UAE market has come a long way from when we first started eight years ago. When our first Justin Timberlake concert took place, it was a new experience in the Emirates from venue, security and health and safety – it was a blank page. Taking up this challenge, Flash has worked closely with the local government, and suppliers to develop a sophisticated network and process of running large-scale events in the region. Through continuous dedication and passion coupled with leadership and experience, we have invested in developing the entertainment industry as a whole and are proud of having created a platform to position Abu Dhabi as an international entertainment hub. The infrastructure we now have available is aligned with best practice standards nationally and internationally. In addition, the region can be seen as a mosaic for differing cultural views. UAE now boasts more than 200 nationalities, making it a truly international, contemporary and cosmopolitan place to live and operate as a business. We see this as an opportunity to inspire, engage and entertain as many people as possible through a variety of event genres, sizes and themes around the year. It is a great chance for us to grow, challenging us to constantly stay relevant introducing fresh line-ups and concepts. Briefly tell us about what kind of partnerships an entertainment/event company must create locally/nationally in order to execute concerts of the scale done by Flash in the UAE. Flash Entertainment has a large network of partners and suppliers who contribute towards making each event possible and successful. These range from the police, security, logistics, to technical teams as well as creative suppliers. Flash Entertainment works closely with key sponsors for each event and has long term relationships such as du, the venue naming rights sponsor for the two of the most popular venues in Abu Dhabi – the du Arena and du Forum. Moreover, we work closely with government entities and councils to ensure we are aligned in making Abu Dhabi an international entertainment hub and a tourism destination. Many such entities act as our clients including the Executive Affairs Authority, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, Abu Dhabi Technology and
Reeva Bains, VP Marketing and Communications, Flash Entertainment
Development Committee, Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Education Council. We work closely with international partners in order to bring the best talent and content to the UAE. Our most recent development is our joint venture with Live Nation Middle East in bringing Russell Peters to Dubai for two sell out shows in January. This was the first collaboration between the two companies and its success paves the way for additional events that will excite regional audiences. Elaborate on some of the key areas of Flash Entertainment’s expertise when it comes to large entertainment events? Flash has entertained more than 6 million people in its tenure. From city-wide festivals to community events, concerts to world class sporting events, theatrical show productions to cultural events across the region, Flash Entertainment offers 360 degree event solutions that include conception, planning, project management, execution, stakeholder alignment and best in class delivery standards. We embody excellence by creating events that (1) engage and inspire audiences and (2) position Abu Dhabi as the region’s foremost entertainment hub. Flash Entertainment have worked with no small number of world-class acts with artists such as The Rolling Stones, JAY-Z, The Who, Eminem, Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Bon Jovi, Prince, Blur, Enrique Iglesias, Pharrell Williams amongst many others. In addition, Flash is the creator and producer of some of the most highly anticipated annual festivals in the calendar – Yasalam, Abu Dhabi Science Festival, Abu Dhabi Summer Season and sports events such as the FIFA Club World Cup, Mubadala World Tennis Championship, Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu World Championship as well as cultural events Qasr Al Hosn Festival and most recently the UAE’s 44th National Day official celebration.
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UPDATES FROM UAE / MARKET PULSE
The Market for the Scariest Place to Glo Pach Ang, Founder and Managing Director, RedFilo Events
The 2nd Edition of NeoRun - The Scariest Place to GLO by RedFilo Events will take Place in Abu Dhabi on October 28. Pach Ang, Founder and Managing Director, RedFilo Events talks about the production of this fun night run. BY: RACHAEL RAJAN
TICKETS ON SALE THURSDAY 1 ST SEPTEMBER
A Halloween-themed, UV-paint filled fun night run, NeoRun – The Scariest Place To GLO is an annual event that started last year in Abu Dhabi, a variant of NeoRun which took place in Dubai. Produced by RedFilo Events, the second edition of the event is set to take place at Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi on October 28, 2016. NeoRun invites participants of all ages to dress in costumes and participate in this run which features multiple GLO-tastic zones. NeoRunners are sprayed with UV paint, as they journey along the 5 km party route, through the GLO-tastic zones to the Enigma After Party. Here’s what Pach Ang, Founder and Managing Director, RedFilo Events had to tell ExM about the upcoming edition of the property.
How does NeoRun fit in with and contribute to Abu Dhabi’s culture? NeoRun falls in line with the UAE’s growing focus on living a healthy lifestyle, as it promotes health, sportertainment, and community fun. NeoRun provides a pathway for an increase in healthier events for teens and young adults in the Middle East. Talk about the choice of venue for NeoRun. What does Zayed Sports City offer? Zayed Sports City is the perfect location for NeoRun as it is central in Abu Dhabi and well-known for its sporting activities. Additionally, its natural environment, surrounded by trees and winding roads, and darkness add to the Halloween theme and enhances the GLO-tastic UV effect.
NeoRun has a very unique format and is a combination of a sporting event and a party. Comment on the market in the UAE, and in Abu Dhabi in particular for events like these. There is a lack of unique events in this market with mass teen participation. In particular, NeoRun provides a space that is open to all ages where they are able to participate at the event as a family to promote healthy lifestyle in a fun way. Remark upon the growth of the property since it first started. We have seen a great increase in attendees since the first NEORUN. This year, we are targeting more NeoRunners, including different locations at the venue, and enhancing our GLO-tastic zones.
The RedFilo Team
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UPDATES FROM THE UAE / IN FOCUS
The Making of Kristina Fidelskaya Presents Sensation Dubai 2016 Envie Events, the producer of Sensation Dubai 2016, is all set to exceed expectations with the already enormously successful dance music festival: an all new venue, a terrific line-up, and a great concept! By: Rachael Rajan
The line-up for the third edition of Kristina Fidelskaya Presents Sensation Dubai has been announced and includes six celebrated artists/duos in the EDM world. This special edition event of ‘Fashion Meets Music’ will take place on November 11 at the Bab al Shams Event Arena, Dubai. Set to witness around 20,000 people attend, this will be the biggest edition of Sensation Dubai so far.
“Our Team is delighted to host the 3rd Edition of Sensation Dubai in its unique venue, The Bab Al Shams Event Arena in the heart of Desert.”
A leading event production company in the UAE, Envie Events produces and promotes innovative Dance Music Events, with annual partnerships with properties including Sensation, Tomorrowland, WMC Miami, and Summer Clubbing Ibiza. Once again, Envie Events is hosting Sensation Dubai, taking it to the next level in every way.
The event will is also set to feature a dedicated Kristina Fidelskaya ‘front row’ area.
KRISTINA FIDELSKAYA Sensation Dubai 2016 is presented by Dubai fashion brand Kristina Fidelskaya, an association that’s giving the hugely popular festival a new edge. While this is the third consecutive year of Sensation Dubai, it is the first time that ‘Fashion Meets Music’. This new concept will lend the festival a fashion focus, and will also be manifest in an exclusive white capsule collection specially designed and inspired by the show, where the brand will release Women and Men’s T-Shirts as a limited edition. The association will lend the festival a new character, allowing for synergies between music and fashion to come through at the event. Speaking of the collaboration between Sensation Dubai and the brand, Rahim Shah, Executive Director, Kristina Fidelskaya says, “We are excited to announce that we will be present at Sensation Dubai this year, with a great new concept making fashion a core part of the concert and dressing the musical scene in true KF style.” 12
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Mohamed El Aghoury
General Manager, Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa
On the association, Nicolas Vandenabeele, Marketing Director, Envie Events says, “Partnering up with Kristina Fidelskaya has one underlying theme: Fashion meets Music. The mythical location of Bab Al Shams Event Arena will be transformed into ‘The Desert Dome’ where fashion meets music for an ultimate nightlife experience.” THE ALL NEW VENUE This is also the first time that Sensation Dubai will take place at Bab Al Shams Event Arena, as the last two editions both took place at Meydan. Also a Meydan property, the venue is located less than an hour’s drive away from Downtown Dubai. Talking about the decision to move Sensation Dubai to a new venue, Vandenabeele observes, “Meydan is a very special venue for us. It has successfully delivered great events for us in the last two years – exceeding our expectations. However, as event producers and organisers who are here to make a difference in the music industry with a powerful strong impact, it is our utmost priority to ensure that each coming event, is better, more special and unique than the previous one. We believe in constant innovation and flux – driving us to take bigger risks and bolder decisions as
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UPDATES FROM THE UAE / IN FOCUS we grow. So for Sensation this year, we decided it was time to give the people of Dubai a pleasant surprise. We wanted to get the people into the heart of Dubai’s desert. What better way to have the biggest celebration of Dubai in its treasured heart – Bab al Shams Event Arena.”
fans as we can see from the reactions online. They are my favourite and were my personal suggestion for this edition so I’m glad we made so many people happy by booking them.”
SPONSORS AND PARTNERS Appreciating what the other sponsors and partners on board for Sensation The Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Dubai 2016 bring to the table, Spa, located right next to the venue, is Vandenabeele adds, “We are lucky offering attendants of Sensation Dubai enough to have FOX Networks 2016 a package to provide Group and Channel 4 music the ultimate Sensation television as our biggest experience. This includes media partners for Sensation. “An electronic dance music show of 3 nights’ stay including Envie Events was found this multitude has multiple layers of breakfast, a Sensation Deluxe on the belief that sincere preparations that go behind the scenes entrance ticket, Al Hadheerah relationships turn into great Dinner, Al Forsan Brunch and partnerships which give way to make it truly a unique experience. The Pool Party, a Special Sensation to strong teams. Our shows whole experience is always an unpredictable are supported by a dynamic gift, and airport pick up and drop off. team including Al Laith, yet spectacular journey, that we at Envie Gearhouse, Creative Events embark on with every project with a PRG “Our Team is delighted Technology, Gulf Show very supportive and creative team” to host the 3rd Edition of Power, Gulf Event Solutions, Sensation Dubai in its unique TEVENT, MMI, PMI, Red Bull, venue, The Bab Al Shams Platinumlist… just to name Nicolas Vandenabeele Event Arena in the heart of a few and with the support Marketing Director, Envie Events Desert,” remarks Mohamed El of Meydan group. Without Aghoury, General Manager, the support of these strong Bab Al Shams Desert Resort teams, it would be very hard & Spa. for us to do what we do. We together seamlessly to provide a consider all our partners family and PRODUCTION AND PLANNING unique experience – one that we together as one, we unite to achieve Envie Events is responsible for hope will create great memories for a shared objective: giving Dubai the producing this mega-event, and is our fans.” ultimate nightlife experiences, one coordinating with numerous partners after the other.” and sponsors to deliver a truly THE LINE-UP spectacular experience. The line-up includes six world class A highly anticipated event that’s made artists - Mr. White, Dutch DJ YAX.X & a name for itself for its awesome Elaborating on the various aspects the Belgian DJ Sem Thomasson, Dutch staging and great acts, Sensation entertainment production company DJ, and energetic house duo Sunnery Dubai 2016 is going to be one of is managing in order to produce James & Ryan Marciano, Dutch Turkish Sensation’s greatest events yet. To the an amazing show that expands on DJ and producer Ummet Ozcan, rolling dunes it is! what the property has delivered in Grammy award winning DJ and the last two editions, Vandenabeele producer Afrojack and the Egyptian reveals, “An electronic dance music trance music duo Aly & Fila. show of this multitude has multiple layers of preparations that go Describing the process Envie behind the scenes to make it truly a Events followed in selecting artists, unique experience. From getting the Vandenabeele says, “In deciding the venue ready, to building the stage, line-up, we typically see the global preparing marketing strategies, and regional popularity/relevance of effective communication, sound artists and their standing in the EDM systems, setting up lighting, food and world. We also take into consideration, bars – the whole experience is always feedback and popular demands of an unpredictable yet spectacular our fans. For instance, we added upon journey, that we at Envie Events popular demand the impeccable embark on with every project with a Trance duo in the Sensation linevery supportive and creative team. up for a change. Trance music has We start our planning with deciding not been included in the line-up for the theme of the show, the date, many years and we wanted to make the venue, the line-up and then go a change. Aly & Fila are one of the into final details of the floor plan, finest trance producers in the music ticket pricing and categories, media industry today and they are from this exposure, food and beverages, etc. region and immensely popular. This Ultimately all these tiers are combined has been widely appreciated by our SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
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UPDATES FROM THE UAE / PHOTO FEATURE
A Glimpse into the First Ever ILEA Quiz Night Dubai The first International Live Events Association (ILEA) events industry quiz night took place on September 6 in Dubai, and had 140 participants from 23 teams.
The first edition of the International Live Events Association (ILEA) Events Industry Quiz Night, e-IQ, took place on September 6 at The Baggot at McGettigan’s JLT, Dubai. With a full range of questions about events that took place in different rounds on a variety of topics, the event had a total of 140 participants from the following event agencies, production houses, vendors, wedding management firms and venues: Custard Communications, Viceroy Hotel, The Fairmont Palm, Dan Bolton Consultancy, Jack Morton, The Fridge, Informa, Action Impact, Balloons & More, Infinity Arabia, Neumann & Mueller, IBS Group, Elements Catering, 117 Live, Maestra, eTouches, EFM Management, Arabian Wedding Academy, Showforce, Jumeirah Group, ESP International, 3DB, and Kempinski Palm Jumeirah.
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UPDATES FROM THE UAE / FEATURE
Dubai Opera
Jasper Hope Chief Executive of Dubai Opera
Dubai Parks and Resorts
3 Newly Launched Purpose-Built Venues in Dubai The last few years have witnessed a spate of announcements on new purpose-built entertainment venues to be developed in the UAE, predominantly in Dubai. While announcements of even more venues continue to keep the entertainment space exciting, three much-awaited ones have opened their doors in Dubai in the last few months/ are set to do so very soon: The Autism Rocks Arena, Dubai Parks and Resorts, and Dubai Opera. The opening up of all three venues confirms that the region is committed to growing its already successful events and entertainment industry, and that much can be expected in the next few years: more large-scale events and concerts, a variety of top-quality programs, a boost to tourism, and the establishment of Dubai as a globally recognised cultural hub. Here, we explore what each of these venues has to offer, what each one is doing to attract audiences and entertainment producers, and how each one envisions themselves as a unique contributor to and participant in this thriving industry.
1. DUBAI OPERA
Overview A radiant centre of culture and arts in Dubai and the shining pearl of The Opera District, Dubai Opera passionately embraces its role as the creative heart of the city, producing and hosting the finest, most authentic, and engaging performing arts experiences from Dubai and the world. The iconic dhow-shaped building of Dubai Opera is a masterpiece of contemporary design, and a stylish tribute to Dubai’s maritime history. Ongoing and upcoming shows at Dubai Opera include Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Sara Baras, Anoushka Shankar, Ballet for Life, Ballet Gala, Les Miserables, The Nutcracker on Ice, Slava’s Snowshow, Cats and Westside Story Location Dubai Opera is located at what’s billed as ‘the most prestigious square kilometre in the world’ in Downtown Dubai, The Opera District. A sophisticated cultural hub, the Opera District contains luxury hotels and service-apartments, 48 16
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waterfront promenades, a retail plaza, parks and other recreational venues including Opera Grand. Hotels around Dubai Opera include Taj Dubai, The Palace Downtown Dubai, The Address Dubai Mall, Ramada Downtown Dubai, Sofitel Dubai Downtown, Manzil Downtown Dubai, and more. Event Venues The building’s exquisite design, by architect Janus Rostock, gives the exceptional ability to transform into three modes; from a theatre into a concert hall, and into a ‘flat floor’ mode becoming a banquet or event hall. This seamless flexibility enables Dubai Opera to host a wide variety of performances and events including theatre, opera, ballet, orchestras, concerts, fashion shows, live entertainment, conferences, galleries and art exhibitions. In Theatre mode, the space is suitable for largescale drama productions, musicals, ballets, lectures, and conferences, seating up to 2,000 people, depending on configuration. When transformed into a concert hall, a series of towers and reflectors on stage and overhead are designed to create an acoustic shell around the orchestra, enabling an impeccable acoustic environment for a perfect sound quality. The building’s unique architecture allows to also host a variety of events such as weddings, trade shows, art galleries and exhibitions, receptions and parties, using its “flat floor” mode. Dubai Opera also boasts a number of spaces and venues, including a stunning rooftop restaurant and sky garden with views of The Dubai Fountain and the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. With its unique 2000-seat multi-format theatre, Dubai Opera is a definitive international destination for performing arts and world-class entertainment productions. From the Management Following the success of the opening evening, Jasper Hope, Chief Executive of Dubai Opera said, “It was a musical moment in history. Dubai Opera looked stunningly beautiful tonight and those fortunate enough to be inside can confirm it sounded spectacular with a wonderful performance by the legendary Plácido Domingo.
We are very much looking forward to welcoming many more people to the venue over the next few days, weeks and months and firmly intend for Dubai Opera to make a major and lasting contribution for the future.”
2. DUBAI PARKS AND RESORTS Overview A property of DXB Entertainments, Dubai Parks and Resorts is set to become the Middle East’s largest multi-themed leisure and entertainment destination, and will open on October 31 with LEGOLAND Dubai and Riverland Dubai, the retail dining and entertainment district. Location Dubai Parks and Resorts is located in Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road, Opposite Palm Jebel Ali, equidistant to Dubai and Abu Dhabi International Airports. Hotels at the Sheikh Zayed Road include Four Points by Sheraton, the Sheraton Grand Hotel, and Conrad Dubai, among others. Event Venues DPR will comprise three separate theme parks to begin with: Motiongate Dubai, a Hollywood movie inspired theme park concept; LEGOLAND Dubai, the first LEGOLAND theme park in the Middle East; and Bollywood Parks Dubai, a first-of-its-kind entertainment destination that will showcase the authentic Bollywood movie experience. It is home to LEGOLAND Water Park, the region’s first water park catering to families with children aged 2-12. Expected to open in late 2019, Six Flags Dubai will be destination’s fourth theme park and the region’s first Six Flags theme park. The entire destination will be connected by Riverland™ Dubai, a uniquely themed retail and dining destination at the heart of Dubai Parks and Resorts, and guests can stay at the Lapita Hotel, a Polynesian themed family hotel part of the Marriott Autograph Collection Bollywood Parks Dubai, LEGOLAND Water Park and the Lapita Hotel will open to the public on November 15 while Motiongage Dubai will premiere on December 16.
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Raed Kajoor Al Nuaimi CEO, DXB Entertainments PJSC
Riverland Dubai offers over 50 themed retail, dining, and entertainment experiences set across a waterfront district. From the Management On the features of DPR, Raed Kajoor Al Nuaimi, CEO, DXB Entertainments PJSC, the owner of Dubai Parks and Resorts, says, “Building the Middle East’s largest integrated theme park destination in three years has been an incredible experience. With over 100 rides and attractions spread across 25 million square feet of land, we are focused on delivering a destination which exceeds international standards on every level – from guest experience to state-of-the-art rides and attractions and the highest of safety standards – and we want to make sure we take the time to get everything just right and launch a destination the UAE and our shareholders can be truly proud of. We have a long term vision to redefine the leisure and entertainment industry in the region and, as DXB Entertainments, we have plans to expand our portfolio of amazing family attractions and experiences. We believe there is great potential in the region for future growth of the entertainment industry and we want to be at the forefront, spearheading this expansion.”
3. THE AUTISM ROCKS ARENA Overview A purpose-built 21,000 capacity temporary venue, the Autism Rocks Arena, was launched by 117 Live with Nicki Minaj in March 2016 and will host a 24 month schedule of top international talent before the completion of the permanent venue in 2018. Upcoming events at the Autism Rocks Arena include Popcon Dubai, to take place from October 27-29; Elton John Live in Dubai on December 15; Chic featuring Nile Rogers on December 23; as well as a few festivals to be announced soon. Past events have included Gabriel Iglesias in June, Morris Day & The Time in May, Flo Rida and Tyga in April and Nicki Minaj in March. Location The Autism Rocks Arena is located at Outlet City Dubai, on Al Ain Road. The Dubai Outlet Mall is a shopping mall located in Dubailand, featuring over 240 stores. The Retail and Entertainment World, where this is located also features Dubai Lifestyle City.
Thomas Ovesen CEO, 117 Live
The Autism Rocks Arena
While the venue is located in a part of the city still being developed, the Dubai Outlet Mall operates a shuttle bus from hotels in Jumeirah, Dubai Marina, Sheikh Zayed Road, Bur Dubai and Deira. Event Venues The Autism Rocks Arena is a 21,000+ capacity temporary venue with the following features: • 80,000 square metre arena • On a maximum capacity event no one will be more than 70m from the stage • 1,800k elevated multi-level VIP Platform • Over 350 meters of F&B service • 100 meter long cross arena zip line • 44m (W) X 16M (H) international standard stage • 4,000 car parking spaces From the Management Talking to ExM on how the features come together to make planning events extremely advantageous for organisers and producers, Thomas Ovesen, CEO, 117 Live said, “Once the outer perimeter fencing, grand stands, VIP platforms, stage, generators, etc. have been installed for the season, each and every event will benefit from a shorter build up and break down operation and thus cash in on major savings which hopefully will help more organisers put on more events that what we currently see. The pool of event organisers have reduced over the past year and although by starting 117 Live, I have helped, adding a new serious and committed show producer to this declining pool. We still need many more new operators to get back into putting on shows for us to reach parity with cities around the world when it comes to volume and frequency of live entertainment performances on offer!” Speaking in-depth on the impact a purposebuilt venue can have on a destination, and what marketing activities can build such impact, Thomas Ovesen talks to ExM Magazine. A purpose-built venue like The Autism Rocks Arena is bound to stimulate the entertainment economy, offering even greater avenues for events to take place. Destination marketing experiences a positive impact as well, as a new venue entails more shows, productions, and events that can draw in more visitors to the city. The Autism Rocks Arena is a one-of-a-kind, purpose built event venue. How do you
see a venue like this contributing to the entertainment economy of Dubai? Each and every event staged anywhere in the Dubai area adds valuable benefits to the city, its residents, it economy and of course its visitors. Ours being a large-scale venue and with our calendar of programming stretching well into 2018, means we can assure the market of more than 15 major shows and at least 250,000 fans visiting the venue. And so beyond the millions of dirhams invested with local suppliers, we will drive a large volume of guests to our venue, guests that will also be spending money using taxis, public transportation, dining at the city’s restaurants, shopping malls and for the out-oftowners, staying in the city’s hotels. What are the plans to attract audiences from across the globe to the concerts / shows at the Arena? As we have been moving more of our event promotions away from conventional media with limited reach beyond the city (like radio) and onto digital and social media, we have already increased the international awareness for our shows, and with new event properties like ‘Fiesta de los Muertos’ and the many top artists we will be putting on show at Autism Rocks Arena, there is no doubt regional and international fans will be travelling to Dubai to attend these events. Our sister company The Audience will be activating such global promotions utilising some of their 6500 influencers and as we eventually become non-dependent on conventional and lesser reaching media more fans from outside of dubai should be aware of our events and with new fan club offerings planned even more so! What are the plans to market the Arena to organisers of large-scale, entertainment events, such that it has diverse programming through the year? Programming in general, and diverse and multiplatform programming in particular is key to the success of our venue. Non-English concerts and shows, theatre productions and of course even non music based events will be part of our content target list. Once we move from the current temp open air venue and into our next phase roofed venue, the event volume will increase to approximately 50 per annum. This in itself will require a broader spectre of event formats and genres than what we currently see here.
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Showhouse Sets the Stage for 7th Vogue Beauty Awards with Katrina, Karisma & Mahira The 2016 Vogue Beauty Awards were held at Taj Lands Ends, Mumbai on July 27. This was the 7th instalment of the annual property, which is organized by Vogue India. Showhouse Events that has been putting together the Vogue Beauty Awards since the past 4 years, once again weaved its magic with the theme ‘Tropical Glam’. Debarti Banarjee, Account Manager, Events & Films, Showhouse Events shared, “Inspired from this edition’s theme, the stage had a ‘tropical glam’ look - with elements aesthetically adapted from the event’s invite. The stage was designed keeping Vogue as a brand in mind, which intended to make the stage look classy and glamorous, at the same time, not to overdo the elements.”
Badshah Rocks Mirchi LIVE Friendship Day Concert @ Gardens Galleria, Noida Gardens Galleria, ECL’s premium high-end mixed-use retail and hospitality development in Noida, celebrated Friendship Day with singers Badshah and Arjun Kunungo LIVE in concert on August 6. The Mirchi LIVE concert saw #BabyKoBadshahPasandHai audience grooving to latest hits in Bollywood and regional music.
Munish Baldev Retail Head
Entertainment City Limited
Munish Baldev, Retail Head, Entertainment City Limited (ECL), said, “Badshah, today, is one of the most popular music composers and singers in the country. Several of his songs have been immense hits with music lovers across the country, which was why we decided to host him at Gardens Galleria. The response we received to the concert was overwhelming, and gives us the impetus to hold more such events in the future for Noida residents.”
LuvIt Chocolates Presents Radio City Super Singer Season 8; Partners with Akira Radio City 91.1 organised Radio City Super Singer Season 8, this time taking the contest to 8 more cities. With this eighth season, Radio City Super Singer reached out to an audience of a whopping 5 crore people across 28 cities. The presenting partner for this edition was LuvIt Chocolates, while the property had also associated with Akira, starring Sonakshi Sinha to promote the event. Super Singer Season 8 invited participants to audition in different cities while the finale will take place in September. The entire property was managed in-house. The theme this year of ‘Jinki Rag Rag Mein Hai Singing’ took forward the brand proposition of Rag Rag Mein Daude City.
Candid Marketing Manages Press Launch for SET India’s Upcoming Show Super Dancer Candid Marketing, a strategic brand activation & full function agency executed the press launch for Sony Entertainment’s upcoming show, Super Dancer at Reliance Studios, Mumbai. The grand launch event was executed flawlessly and complimented by a splendid and appealing set designed by Team Candid which was the highlight of the event. Actress Shilpa Shetty, Choreographer Geeta Kapur and Bollywood Director Anurag Basu, who will judge the show, were also present at the launch event to interact with the audiences. Over 150 media professionals attended the launch event.
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GS Entertainment Launches ‘Manasi – the Ideal Woman’ at Asilo, Mumbai GS Entertainment organized and managed the album launch of ‘Manasi– The Ideal Woman’ at Asilo, The St. Regis Hotel, Mumbai on August 16. Expressing his appreciation to all the partners of the event, Juspreet Walia, Director, GS Entertainment said, “Special thanks to everyone who made this launch event possible: Asilo, The St. Regis Hotel, Sanam Sippy, Diageo, CIROC, Francesca Smith for the Francesca outfit, SOUND.COM, Warren D’Souza, Sound Engineer Joel D’Cruz, Manasi’s band The Hot Shots - Shannon Pereira (Lead Guitar), Ruell Barretto (Bass), Prathamesh Kandalkar (Percussion), Nigel Rajaratnam (Keyboards, Saxophone, Melodica), Mandar Mane and Parveen Bhatia.”
Juspreet Singh Walia Director, GS Entertainment
AGP World Produces Comedy Show ‘Jason Byrne is Propped Up’ in 3 Cities Entertainment production company AGP World recently brought down Irish comedian Jason Byrne for his first India tour, where he presented his new act ‘Jason Byrne is Propped Up’. Prior to the events for the public, AGP World staged two exclusive experiences, one at Sofitel Mumbai on September 14 and the other at Trident, Gurgaon on September 15 for its corporate clients, HNW families, as part of a collaboration between the hotel and AGP World.
Ashvin Gidwani Producer & M.D, AGP World
‘Jason Byrne is Propped Up’ is a completely original production, high on audience interaction and the use of a variety of props. “Both shows were well received and as I would put forth ‘it rocked’”, remarked an elated Ashvin D. Gidwani, Producer & M.D, AGP World.
Sunburn Arena To Host Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike In Mumbai & Hyderabad For the 10th anniversary of Sunburn, the music festival collaborated with a number of global artists and DJs, including Dyro and New World Sound. And the latest to come on-board are the world’s most popular DJs Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. #SunburnArena will be hosting the duo in Hyderabad (October 8) and Mumbai (October 9), where they will be accompanied by the mysterious DJ/ producer Marshmello & Sunburn’s Resident DJ Shaan. ‘#SunburnArena with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike’ is co-presented by Gionee & Renault, and is in partnership with Kingfisher Premium & Smirnoff Experience. Other brands that have associated themselves with the tour are Ray Ban, fbb, Skybags, SpiceJet, Bookmyshow, PVR Cinemas and 9xO.
Ayushmann Khuranna & Sunidhi Chauhan Enthrall Their US & Canada Fans Multi-faceted Ayushmann Khuranna rocked the cities of the US and Canada with his band, ‘Ayushmann Bhava’ from July 8 to 24. ‘Ayushmann Live in Concert 2016’ was organised in Orlando (July 8), Houston (July 9), Toronto (July 10), Washington DC (July 15), Los Angeles (July 16), San Jose (July 17), Dallas (July 22), Seattle (July 23) and Vancouver (July 24). Canvas Talent was the artist management agency of the 16-day tour that was promoted by Shri Balaji Entertainment.
Ayushmann Khurana
Ayushman Khurrana said, “The US Canada tour was a life changing experience. The desi diaspora seven seas away is so connected with the Hindi films and music. Performing with Sunidhi was an absolute honour. She’s a livewire on stage.”
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7TH EDITION, 3 CITIES, A WEEKEND TO REMEMBER: What’s on Cards @BACARDI NH7 Weekender 2016
Touted as the happiest music festival, BACARDI NH7 Weekender 2016 is returning for its seventh edition and has massive plans in store for its audiences. The music festival which is an intellectual property of Mumbaibased event agency Only Much Louder (OML) will travel to 3 cities this year for its main edition festivals and 5 cities for its special edition festivals wherein music fans will get a chance to live the NH7 Weekender experience for one day. In this exclusive feature at ExM, we bring to you the latest information on dates, schedule and artist lineup for the 7th edition of BACARDI NH7 Weekender 2016. MAIN EDITION CITIES One of the most anticipated events on the country’s music calendar, BACARDI NH7 Weekender will once again kick off its journey with Shillong on October 21-22 following its successful debut last year. Also in 2016, the festival will make its debut into to the city of Nizams – Hyderabad on November 5-6. The festival will then travel to Pune on December 2-4 for its seventh homecoming, this time, to redefine the whole Weekender experience. SPECIAL EDITION Music fans in other cities have a reason to rejoice too, the festival this year will introduce its special edition - BACARDI NH7 Weekender Express to the cities of Kolkata, Jaipur, Pondicherry, Nagpur, and Mysore. Complete with the BACARDI Arena and an array of breakthrough artists, the one-day edition will give fans a preview of what the BACARDI NH7 Weekender experience is like. The festival also has plans for several build-up gigs across popular venues in the country. 22
WEEKENDER HOUSE PARTIES Additionally, fans of the festival will get a chance to host their own BACARDI NH7 Weekender House Parties. With 100 curated house parties in the offering, BACARDÍ and Only Much Louder will give select fans the gear to throw their own awesome Weekender parties. Speaking about the 7th edition of the festival Vijay Nair, CEO, Only Much Louder says, “Every year we aim to give fans something new as part of the BACARDI NH7 Weekender experience - whether that’s taking it to new cities, or introducing new stages and features, or adding something new to the festival’s canon - and this year is no different. We’re incredibly proud to be able to take the quintessential festival experience to Hyderabad for the first time this year and to be able to touch new cities like Jaipur, Pondicherry, Nagpur and Mysore as part of the BACARDI NH7 Weekender Express. There’s a lot more surprises in store on the road to the festival and we can’t wait to share all the details with fans in the coming weeks. Of course, there are some surprises you’ll only discover once you walk through the festival gates.“ ARTIST LINEUP The seventh edition of the festival is returning with some of the most prominent global names including Steven Wilson, DJ Premier, Jose Gonzalez, Vertical Horizon, RAC (DJ Set) and Anoushka Shankar. Amongst the Indian contingent, Shankar Mahadevan presents ‘My Country, My Music’, Papon, Indian Ocean, Shri, Skyharbor, Farhan Live, Prateek Kuhad and Nucleya will lead the way. Here is a complete line-up of Artists slated to perform at the upcoming edition of BACARDI NH7 Weekender 2016.
Vijay Nair CEO, Only Much Louder
the festival visits, and this year, we’re bringing fans some of our strongest lineups yet. We know that music fans aren’t defined by their love for just one genre, which is why we design our lineups with the hope that not only will you find something you love already, you’ll also discover your new favorites for the next few years.” With multiple new additions into the format and an exciting lineup for the main edition, one can’t help but eagerly anticipate to witness and submit themselves to the Weekender experience again. However, with all live music festivals upping their game this year, it is only for time to tell if BACARDI NH7 Weekender will be able to truly deliver happiest weekend experiences to music fans and enthusiasts.
Talking about the lineup of the festival, Vijay Nair, CEO of Only Much Louder, said, “Keeping the lineup of the festival fresh every year is one of the most interesting challenges we have while putting together the BACARDI NH7 Weekender. The lineup is curated individually for every place
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We Are The World! An Interview with Sabbas Joseph on The Global Citizen Festival India. By: Rachael Rajan Ever since it was confirmed that Coldplay will perform in Mumbai, the Global Citizen Festival India, set to take place on November 19 in Mumbai, has to be the most talked of upcoming LIVE event in India. While unsurprisingly and not undeservedly, that remains the focal point of the media’s and everyone’s attention, the Global Citizen Festival is about so much more; and, in this exclusive interview with Sabbas Joseph, Director, Wizcraft International, we explore more! Tell us more about Wizcraft’s association with the Global Citizen Festival in India. The Global Education Leadership Foundation and the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation are the drivers of the Global Citizen India initiative. And they brought on Wizcraft as partners to co-create the project and produce the event with them. So we work with them on driving the initiative. The Global Education Leadership Foundation is an initiative started by Shiv Khemka, who is the Vice Chairman of the Sun Group. The Foundation runs a leadership development programme that works at the grassroots level to build ethical and altruistic leaders who have a bias towards decision-making. And so they run an education program on leadership and ethics at around 7000 schools across the country, and from that they’ve curated a team of leaders who are members of the Leadership Development Programme. So, as part of the LDP, these leaders are involved in the Global Citizen India initiative. And they work with us and lead on multiple fronts along with our team to be able to develop the entire project. Tell us more about Global Citizen India…. Global Citizen India is the first major eventinitiative that Global Citizen (US) is taking outside of America. Global Citizen India is a movement to get the world rid of extreme poverty. Over 270 million Indians are living in extreme poverty. Global Citizen Festival India would be held annually in a 15-year journey with the target being to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. The focus of the inaugural edition is on three of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation. The belief is that together we can change the status quo. Together we can get rid of extreme poverty. Change begins with me. #Shuruaat Hoon Main is our war cry.
How will the various Indian and international acts come together at the event? Performances by celebrities are alternated with policy makers, leaders and corporates coming on stage to make commitments about what they would be implementing over the next few years in order to meet the Global Citizen India’s goals. Wizcraft has been responsible for enlisting the artists and performances for the event. There are celebrities featuring in different performances — you’ve got singers, you’ve got film actors, and the entire content is a combination of entertainment, NGO presentations, messaging, speeches, and commitments that are made on stage – commitments that are far-reaching, and would create an impact over the next few years. It is a concert of accountability, where people go on stage to make commitments to drive social change. Commitments are identified by the TGELF advocacy teams working with NGOs; corporates, state governments and international bodies are making commitments in this regard and then work together to implement it simultaneously. The entertainment is a part of all this. You’ve got a 100,000 people there in the audience and so you’ve got performances by Amir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, A.R Rahman, Abhijeet Singh, among others; and there’s of course Coldplay and Jay Z. There will also be collaborations between Indian and international artists coming together. As we get closer to the event, we will make further announcements regarding this. A relatively few number of tickets are actually being sold, while the rest are free. How does this work for an event of this scale? Tickets are priced at INR 5000 onward, and there are only about 12,000 tickets going up on sale. When you’ve got just that small a number being sold, people who are paying for tickets and attending, must be able to pay a sufficient amount so that the costs are met, and 80% of the tickets remain free. The idea for so many free tickets is that people can win those after committing and taking social actions. And then, of course, we also have sponsorships to make this viable.
Sabbas Joseph Director, Wizcraft International
So who are the various sponsors and how do these associations tie in with the overall goal of the event? Sponsorships, television rights, and digital rights play a key role in the success of the event. Colors Viacom 18 is the presenting sponsor, while UPL is the Powered By sponsor. The project enjoys a strategic relationship with Viacom18, The Times of India group, the Maharashtra government and the United Nations. There is also Google, Unilever and Voot who have the digital content rights. These are clients who have already entered the initiative, and they are not supporting it merely as another entertainment event sponsorship. Unilever is already doing a lot of work in the area of health and sanitation through their Swachch Aadat campaign. Google is addressing the issue of gender equality through economic opportunity. So, each of the partners that have come in have clear objectives and are aligned with the larger agenda of the Global Citizen India initiative. Remark upon the response you have received to various announcements, especially the announcement of Coldplay performing? The response has been phenomenal. I don’t think any event prior to this except Michael Jackson received this kind of a response. You’ve had reams of newspapers being written, multiple television stories, the online world went berserk and twitteratti opened new chapters in communication. You can get a sense of the response from a few statistics — the Global Citizen site literally had more than a million registrations within three days; we now have more than 4 million social actions; the tickets that went on sale were sold out within minutes; and the action journeys that have been committed and done by people over the last few days have already beaten the 10 million mark. So quite clearly, it’s been a huge success by any stretch of imagination. I don’t think many people expected this phenomenal response, and everyone was pleasantly surprised. We are in the midst of the third Action Journey which is focused on Gender Equality. The response has been exciting and the possibility of Popular culture and public policy working together presents an opportunity for strong communication and a convincing message: Change is Possible!
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EDC INDIA
Insomniac, OML & Budweiser Partner to bring Electric Daisy Carnival to India: Here is What You Can Expect
November promises to be a historic month for electronic music lovers in the country as Insomniac and OML in partnership with Budweiser are set to bring Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), one of the biggest electronic music festivals in the world to India. The first-ever edition of this Vegasstyle festival will be held in Delhi on the 12th and 13th of November at the Buddh International Circuit, with one of the largest line-ups of International and Indian artists ever witnessed in the country. A multidimensional music experience, EDC combines the world’s most renowned electronic music talent with mesmerizing production and sound design that is sure to overwhelm fans with its sheer scale, creativity and overall immersive experience. HISTORY Since its inception in 1996, EDC has traveled to various venues across the United States (California, Florida, Nevada, New York) as well as other countries including Mexico, the UK, and Brazil. The largest music festival in North America, EDC was dubbed the “American Ibiza” in 2010. This carnival began as a one-day event in Los Angeles, welcoming a crowd of 5,000 dance music lovers in its first year and over the past 20 years, EDC has grown into a global phenomenon, hosting over 400,000 fans over three days in Las Vegas this past June. THE ORGANISERS SPEAK “I finally get to share the news that EDC will find a new home in Delhi, India, this fall,” said Pasquale Rotella, Founder and CEO of Insomniac. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the country’s colorful and exotic culture. I know it’s a place where the magic of EDC can come alive in a truly unique way, and we’ve got amazing partners in Only Much Louder (OML) and Budweiser who can help make that happen.” Talking about bringing EDC to India Vijay Nair, CEO, OML Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, says, “There are very few festivals that every EDM fan in the world talks about. Once I witnessed EDC in Las Vegas, I could see why. I have never seen a festival of this scale so beautifully executed. We can’t wait to bring that experience to Indian fans and blow their minds.”
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ASSOCIATION WITH BUDWEISER Speaking about the festival, Kartikeya Sharma, Marketing Director, AB InBev, India & South East Asia, said, “This is truly an important year for Budweiser as we continue to shape the electronic music culture in the country. We kick started this year with a promise of ensuring authentic music experiences for Indian audiences and we are happy to deliver on this once again by helping bring one of the world’s largest music festivals to India for the very first time. We are happy to partner with Insomniac and OML and look forward to successfully pull off the largest electronic music festival of the year.” Interestingly, the brand also looks forward to executing some engaging on-ground activations at the EDC India with its latest brand campaign ‘Always Brewing”. The campaign derives its genesis from the brand’s core principles of freedom, authenticity and ambition, and engages with today’s generation- who, like the brand, are infused with the drive of constant progress and perfection. It is speculated that the brand will be effectively using Virtual Reality (VR) to connect with its ultimate target audience the Millennials. Speaking about the campaign, Sharma adds, “Electronic music culture in India is very dynamic and millennials are extremely keen to explore newer music experiences. Owing to its rich legacy of brewing authentic music culture globally, Budweiser, is leading and shaping this new wave of electronic music culture in India. ‘Always Brewing’ is an attempt to strengthen our relationship with our target audience by introducing them to newer experiences in the evolving world of music.” LINEUP OF THE FESTIVAL EDC India revealed the lineup of its performing artists in 2 phases. The first phase included prominent international acts including Alesso, Afrojack, R3hab, Steve Aoki, Tommy Trash and Yellow Claw as well as some of the biggest Indian names like Anish Sood, Arjun Vagale, B.R.E.E.D, BLOT!, Dualist Inquiry, Lost Stories, Nucleya, Pearl, Sandunes, Sartek, Shaan, Sickflip, Sound Avtar and Zaeden.
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Pasquale Rotella, Founder and CEO, Insomniac
The second phase of the line-up revealed that cuttingedge progressive psytrance producer AU/D10/GRAMME, trap, hip-hop, electronic producer Brillz, Crunkstep artist Crizzly, trance legends Ferry Corsten and Markus Schulz, Indian psychedelic trance producers Spinal Fusion and Starlab, drum and bass duo The Upbeats, and Israeli trance champion Vini Vici will also be joining the EDM party. In conclusion, we can say that EDC India promises to be the most unique EDM festival of the country so far. It is reported that the carnival will have 3 main stages-kineticFIELD, circuitGROUNDS and neonGARDEN and will be ‘the’ place to be at for music and art lovers, as the festival ground will play host to some of the biggest and the most creative art installations.
Kartikeya Sharma, Marketing Director AB InBev, India & South East Asia
How will the carnival pan out on the final day is a question that only time can answer, but at the moment one thing is crystal clear, the market for EDM festivals in the country just got bigger and the fight amongst the festivals just got more intense. Winners in this situation are the consumers that are in for newer and more entertaining experiences ahead.
Vijay Nair, CEO, OML Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.
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A FILMY AFFAIR: BOLLYWOOD MUSIC PROJECT’S DEBUT EDITION The multi-genre, multi-stage festival was held on September 30 and October 1, 2016 at JIO Gardens, BKC, Mumbai, with Radius Developers as Presenting Sponsor and Hungama as Title Sponsor. The first edition of Asia’s biggest Bollywood music festival ‘Bollywood Music Project’ made us groove to the most happening filmy tracks of all time. Put together by Event Capital & TM Talent Management, the 2-day extravaganza collaborated with 30 Bollywood music icons to create an experience that was quintessentially Bollywood. The multi-genre, multistage festival was held on September 30 and October 1, 2016 at JIO Gardens, BKC, Mumbai. How the Idea was Born Film songs are the life and soul of music listeners in India – whether these be the masses tuned into radio
Deepak Choudhary Founder and Director, Event Capital
stations across the country, revellers at just about any Indian wedding, or just students hoping to recognise popular tunes at their next college fest. It seems surprising then that most music festivals in the country cater predominantly to rock or EDM. Well, the guys at Event Capital and TM Talent Management definitely thought so!! And so we have the first Bollywood music festival. Talking about the new property, Deepak Choudhary, Founder and Director, Event Capital says, “India today celebrates over 20 music festivals in the electronic and Indie music space, and Bollywood music acts are now a regular feature in these festivals. That got us thinking, and we questioned why Bollywood does not have a festival of its own. When 67% of music streams across streaming platforms is Bollywood, and Ticketmaster data worldwide shows us that Bollywood concerts 48 26
are top sellers from Wembley to Vancouver, we felt that it was a need gap that has to be filled. When TM Talent Management approached us with the idea, we saw merit through our scale lens and decided this is the next big thing in Music: Bollywood presented in a festival format in an alternative and experimental culture. Moreover, it makes great concept and business sense for us as a part of our core business of live event IPs.” Sharing on the process which led to the idea for this new festival, Swaroop Banerjee, CEO, Event Capital notes, “The Bollywood Music Project is a joint initiative by TM Talent Management and Event Capital. Since Bollywood didn’t have a music festival of its own - that’s how the idea came in. We have numerous Bollywood artists doing solo global tours like Arijit Singh and AR Rahman, but we didn’t have a festival which represents these legends on a common platform. The reason it’s named Bollywood Music Project is because it’s going to be bigger and better in the future. Mumbai will be the host city forever, but in the later years, we will take the format globally, especially to the Middle East.” This joint property of Event Capital and TM Talent Management sees both parties draw from their respective areas of expertise to create something truly phenomenal. Tarsame Mittal, Founder, TM Talent Management adds, “Tarsame Mittal, Founder, TM Talent Management added, “Music is the DNA of TM Talent Management. We breathe music and believe that Bollywood Music is the most popular genre in India. It has equal following around the globe as well. With BMP, we wish to present a unique live musical experience with Bollywood Music. We are fortunate to have a great support in this maiden venture from artists like Rekha Ji, Hariharan, SajidWajid and Sunny MR who is our core advisory, and are working very closely on the project.”
The Format and The Lineup Talking about the format and the genres of music the festival featured, Banerjee observed, “The 2 days were epic; we saw music legends doing experimental stuff; there was a stage for alternative music, another for experimental music and the main stage for commercial music.” The line-up was a mix of established and emerging talent from across the Indian music arena, and included Amit Trivedi; Sonakshi Sinha; Aditi Singh Sharma; Mohammed Irfan; Bhoomi Trivedi; Arijit Singh; Joe Alvares; Badshah; Rekha Bhardwaj; Neha Bhasin; Sajid Wajid; and more.
Swaroop Banerjee CEO, Event Capital
Sponsors Radius Developers was the Presenting Sponsor and Hungama the Title Sponsor of the first ever Bollywood Music Project. Speaking about Hungama’s association with the festival, Siddhartha Roy, CEO, Hungama. com says, “We are extremely excited to have partnered with the largest multi-genre Bollywood music festival and showcase it live across all our destinations - Hungama Music, Hungama Play, our social platforms and more. We created unique programming properties around the festival offering our consumers an enhanced, immersive experience. This included a special playlist by the artists for the artists, an exclusive curtain raiser episode with key artists giving a sneak-peak into the event line-up, etc. To make the live experience interactive and engaging, a Hungama host took viewers behind
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partnered with Event Capital and TM Talent Management in the debut year to provide a single platform to established and new home-grown artists to engage with our stakeholders and community at a first of its kind global music festival.”
Tarsame Mittal Founder, TM Talent Management
the scenes and gave them exclusive developments from the festival. We also offered our consumers a special opportunity to be a part of the live event at Mumbai. The digital experience of the festival was larger than ever seen before.” On Radius Developers’ decision to associate with Bollywood Music Project, Ashish Shah, COO, Radius Developers remarks, “At Radius, we believe in curating lifetime experiences for our customers, stakeholders and the community at large, where life in its various aspects and elements can evolve. Music, especially Bollywood, has the power that has brought people together across the world. Our association with Asia’s largest Bollywood music festival - Bollywood Music Project is a committed endeavour towards reinforcing our vision to engage with society outside the infrastructure realm. We are pleased to have
In addition to Radius and Hungama, the festival also had an impressive list of associate sponsors and production partners. Associate sponsors included Banking Partner Bank of Baroda; Beverage Partner Bisleri Pop; Green Energy Partner Indian Oil; Media Partner 9XM and 9XJalwa; and Radio Partner RED FM. Production partners were Multiplex Partner INOX; Merchandise Partner The Souled Store; Digital Partner Miss Malini; Entertainment Partner GlamSham.com; Trade Media Partner RadioandMusic.com; Music School Partner The True School of Music; Ambient Media Partner Khushi Advertising; Offline Ticketing Partner live Fiesta; Engagement Partner Exchange4more; Mall Partner Inorbit; Community Partner EVENTFAQS; and Supported by Laqshya Media.
Siddhartha Roy CEO, Hungama.com
by staging 30 Bollywood musical icons across 3 stages with assorted genres of music for two consecutive days. We witnessed a huge number of happy people and amazing music.” The two-day festival was a feast for all fans of Bollywood and lovers of the great and extremely far-reaching music that emanates from the movies. The performances were tightly packed and executed beautifully, and more importantly they witnessed a completely enthralled audience, proving just how right the organisers were in sensing a void in India’s music festival scene.
The Response Mittal observed, “Over a billion people across the globe listen to Bollywood music, but there has never been a solely Bollywood music festival. And, therefore we thought of bringing them under one big canopy SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
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ENTERTAINMENT
The Mumbai Ballard Estate Host to a magnificent entertainment extravaganza, a larger than life event venue & everything in between.
The Ballard Estate is an old European style business district situated in South of Mumbai next to the Fort, walking distance from CST (VT) Station. Named after Colonel J. A. Ballard, a founder of Mumbai Port Trust, the district is a one of its kind locale near the commercial hub of Mumbai that is widely popular across the country for a variety of reasons. Not only is the Ballard Estate the host to a premier cultural and the entertainment extravaganza, The Mumbai’s Ballard Estate Festival but the district is also a perfect outdoor street venue to host an array of public / corporate events and live entertainment. The estate is currently owned, exclusively programmed and managed for all weekends as a part of Mumbai’s Ballard Estate Festival, a property by Ferriswheel Entertainment- one of biggest event management agencies in the country 48 28
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today. Here is what it has to offer to its audiences and the event planning & management fraternity.
event & activation requirement, taken care by Ferriswheel Entertainment Pvt Ltd.
The Venue Menu
Therefore, by choosing Ballard Estate as the venue for their next event, event managers need not worry about external venue security, sanitation, housekeeping, mandatory event licenses/permissions and health & safety protocols which include Fire extinguishers, Firemen, Medical team with Doctors, nurses, and paramedical equipment. An additional key feature of this venue is the and ample parking space.
The Ballard Estate has a lot to offer to corporate and social event planners in the form of an incredible event venue. The buildings and facades are designed keeping in mind the thorough use of authentic European Renaissance aesthetics are built in the Edwardian neoclassical architecture format. The overall estate has a vivacious “London feel” to it and is also referred to as “London-like” by the locals. Coming down to the technicalities, the complete space is available to event planners for live entertainment and corporate events, equipped with multiple inbuilt electricity points, on ground facilities & support, for a large
It is a one of the first in such outdoor offerings within the sub-continent where roads with such rich heritage as the surrounding/background around are closed and made available to event organizers, which is fairly more of a widespread concept of street festivals in the western world. It definitely
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reflects the positive and forward mindset of the city administration and Mumbai Port Trust. Mumbai’s Ballard Estate Festival What good is an event venue if it hosts no exciting events? Ferriswheel Entertainment understands this hence the entertainment and excitement at the Mumbai Ballard Estate Festival never fails to amaze. The festival is a true celebration of alternate cultures through conceptualization and curation of immersive experiences with a variety of activities, entertainment, art exhibitions, retail pop-ups and scrumptious food on the offer. Ferriswheel Entertainment is slated to deliver three of their own IPs; Worldfest’s fourth edition, Lensation Photography Exhibit & Awards, and Funonym - a one of its kind international Children’s festival as showcases at Mumbai’s Ballard Estate Festival (MBEF) The festival in its 1st season has been the host to some breathtaking on-stage performances, Heritage walks, Hoverboard & Segway rides, Street performances, BMX Stunt riders, flash mobs and a dedicated
kids zone. Along with the offerings of the 1st season, the 2nd season will also host the silent open air cinema zone connected via wireless headsets, hover board rides, and a large spacious play area for children with more activities, apart from this the festival is also pet friendly, with a special pet fest on one of the weekends, making it the ultimate entertainment destination to be at, on the last weekend of every month from October through May. To conclude, the Mumbai Ballard Estate is not only an entertainment destination for families or the youth or just an exciting venue for events. It is a beautiful amalgamation of both that can be effectively used to create never before seen experiences for the modern event audiences. After all, it is only the best of experiences that truly stay with them forever.
Press Testimonials Street Carnival to liven up weekends at Ballard Estate - TOI C’mon Arty, Let’s go party at the Mumbai’s Ballard Estate Festival - Mid-Day New Ballast for Ballard Estate - Mumbai Mirror A carnival of food, music, stalls and revelry at Ballard Estate - Hindustan Times Ballard Estate Festival to be Mumbai’s weekend hangout hot spot - The Times of India The reinvention of Ballard Estate - The Asian Age Limited weekends are available for event organizers. To pick them up as showcases or inquiry please connect with Devendra Banerjee on devendra@ ferriswheel.in / +91 9769187979 to know more.
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ENTERTAINMENT / PHOTO FEATURE
Stills From The 4th Edition of Comic Con India, Hyderabad Taking places across 4 cities, the Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi editions will take place in October, November and December, respectively.
Comic Con India hosted pop culture event ‘Alto Hyderabad Comic Con 2016’ on September 24 and 25 at Hitex Exhibition Centre, Hyderabad. The show hosted a spectacular lineup of events including special international guest appearances, exclusive experiential & gaming zones, an artist alley, fans sessions, cosplay, book launches and more. This first leg of the festival will be followed by the Mumbai Film & Comic Con on Oct 22 - 23 and the Banglore Comic Con on Nov 12 - 13. This year’s Comic Con India editions will come to a close with the Delhi Comic Con scheduled to be held on Dec 9 - 11, 2016. 48 30
“4 years in Hyderabad and the fans in the city never disappoint! We at Comic Con India wish to thank them for their enthusiasm for helping us make this the best weekend of the year. As always we’ll be back next year bigger & better!” Jatin Varma
Founder, Comic Con India
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Mazhar Nadiadwala (R)
The Largest Indoor Dandiya Festival at DOME by SRK Exotic Eventz & Sparsh Dome @ NSCI SVP Stadium, in collaboration with SRK Exotic Eventz & Entertainment & Sparsh – RSBL, celebrated Navratri by organizing the largest indoor Dandiya festival, Dome Raas Garba from October 7 – 9. DOME showcased a larger than life experience with a fusion of traditional Garba with Bollywoodstyle Dandiya played with special colourful LED dandiya sticks, impromptu contests for the participants and more. Mazhar Nadiadwala, Director, Dome said, “Dome has hosted and organized numerous large scale events such as Broadway shows, international gigs, concerts and sporting events. We are delighted to have partaken in the Navratri festivities by providing an exceptionally well-organised experience to Dandiya enthusiasts. Starting off with the Raas Garba and Dandiya Festival, Dome hopes to set a benchmark for many more bespoke festive events in the future that will provide an enriched entertaining experience to all our patrons”. SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
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BRIEFS
BRAND MARKETING
RMAI Ayurvet Flame Student Awards 2016 Celebrates The Best Summer Projects in Rural Marketing Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI) concluded the 10th edition of Ayurvet Flame Student Awards on September 24 at Hyatt Regency, Ahmedabad. The award program was a showcase of the best summer projects and case studies by the top B-school students in this sector. Sanjay Kaul President RMAI, said, “We are delighted to see many breakthrough case studies by premier B-schools in Rural Domain, especially in agribusiness sector. We are glad to honor these students for applying innovative tools and putting in great efforts to find and recommending some relevant solutions to the interning organizations.”
Sanjay Kaul President RMAI
Jack Daniel’s Celebrates its 150th Anniversary in Mumbai with a Barrel Hunt Jack Daniel’s selected Mumbai as one of the 150 cities chosen for the Jack Daniel’s Barrel Hunt, a global scavenger hunt unites Friends of Jack across the world. Held on August 20 in the city, the barrel hunt celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Jack Daniel distillery. 150 handcrafted whiskey barrels are being hidden across the globe at historic and cultural sites, visiting more than 50 countries in 90 days.
Jeff Arnett
“The barrel is key to crafting Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey as it accounts for 100 percent of its color and 70 to 80 percent of its flavor,” said Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller Jeff Arnett. “It’s an important part of our process that’s remained unchanged for 150 years, and that
Jack Daniel’s Master Distiller
Snapdeal to Light Up Diwali with a 200 Crore 360 Degree Marketing Campaign In the run up to Diwali, Snapdeal announced that it will be spending more than 200 Crores INR on a 360° marketing campaign over 60 days. The campaign has been launched on TV, YouTube, print, digital and social media, as well as outdoors on billboards and external installations. Kanika Kalra, Vice President - Marketing, Snapdeal said, “Diwali is the most relevant shopping season in India and we have decided to leverage this opportunity to strengthen our distinct position in consumers’ minds. It is not just advertising, but our whole ecosystem is gearing for the season.”
Kanika Kalra Vice President-Marketing, Snapdeal
QED Launches Colgate Maxfresh PowerFreeze Featuring Ranveer Singh Colgate Maxfresh PowerFreeze was launched by brand ambassador and Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh at the Oberoi Mall, Mumbai on Aug 22. The superstar made a dramatic entry and took the fans by surprise, as he danced with a troupe to the Maxfresh song before unveiling the toothpaste.
Pratik Bhandari Head Marketing (West)
QED Communications
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QED Communications was the event partner of the product launch, where the setup looked like ice crystals with subtle branding. Pratik Bhandari, Head Marketing (West), QED Communications said, “The challenge for any agency is to launch the product in the presence of a strong media contingent as well as consumers at a live event in a mall with a celebrity, viz. an uncontrolled environment, creating all the energy required to send the viewing public into a frenzy.”
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Fashion and Art Come Together at ALDO’s #ARTANDSOLES Fall 2016 Collection Launch Event @ Palladium Aldo held its Fall ’16 collection launch event, hosted by actress Yami Gautam, where unique artworks were specially created in collaboration with renowned artist, Jahangir Asgar Jani. The event took place on September 2 at The Palladium in Mumbai. Tushar Ved, President, Major Brands India Pvt Ltd said, “We are thrilled to launch the Fall Collection in collaboration with Jahangir Asgar Jani. The collection is beautifully depicted through his artwork which is a confluence of fashion and art. We are also extremely happy to have the lovely Yami Gautam with us who is an ardent Aldo fan.”
Tushar Ved President
Major Brands India Pvt Ltd
Vibgyor Brand Services Manages NYX Professional Makeup’s First Store Launch in India L’Oreal Professionnal recently launched its make up artistry brand NYX Professional Makeup in India on August 27 at Shoppers Stop Bandra, Mumbai. Vibgyor Brand Services was roped in to manage the brand’s debut in the country.
Haardik Joshi Branch Head
Vibgyor Brand Services
The store opened its doors to eager fans who had queued up outside the store since early morning to be among the first 100 to get their hands on NYX merchandise. Haardik Joshi, Branch Head, Vibgyor Brand Services - Mumbai said, “We designed each element of the launch, from 3D installations to giving makeovers to the crowd, to creating photo-op zones. We are planning for many more store launches & activations of the brand.”
TOAST Uses Futuristic Elements at ARROW’s Smart Shirts Unveil by Ayushman Khurrana Arvind Lifestyle Brands and ARROW announced the launch of Smart Shirts that claim to be a gadget garment made with 100% cotton. For the occasion, an extravagant launch was designed by TOAST on August 9 at The St. Regis Mumbai. Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana was brought on board for this event. Anika Goyal, Client Servicing Lead, TOAST Events said, We have partnered with Arrow in the past for the 4-in-1 and now being able to launch another futuristic product for Arrow is really a privilege. Arrow team and TOAST team were aligned in the way we imagined the launch and hence it was a seamless execution from concept to the actual event.”
Anika Goyal Client Servicing Lead at TOAST
15th Edition of the Family Fun Car Drive by Rashi Entertainment Concludes on a Joyous Note An intellectual property of Rashi Entertainment, the fun filled ‘15th Family Fun Car Drive’ was back with a bang in Delhi exclusively for Hyundai Elite i20 customers. The rally was flagged off from The Grand, Vasant Kunj, on September 25.
Rajeev Jain Director, Rashi Entertainment
Rajeev Jain, Director, Rashi Entertainment said, “This splendid annual rally organized by us has become a much hunted after event for all car lovers. It’s a proud moment that in the 15 years since its inception, this rally has become bigger & brighter. This intellectual property of Rashi Entertainment is being there in the market for last 15 years and has had every automobile company as its partner during this remarkable journey.”
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ACTIVATION FAILS! ExM talks to leading brand marketers, agencies and venues on reasons why activations in India fail! By: Shantanu Jain and Rachael Rajan Picture this, if you will – the sweltering heat, a bazaar, a booth, a handful of sweaty teenagers all in red T-Shirts and caps hard-selling you the latest consumer durable item or lipstick or car, evidently unconvinced themselves. This was what the typical brand activation in India looked like 15 years ago, a format used indiscriminately by luxury brands and low-end brands alike, across segments and across industries. Now, move that booth with the same kids in the same T-Shirts selling the same products into any one of the many malls we have in metros and cities across the country. Well, granted, the setting is markedly different. But not much else has changed, at least for the bulk of activations that take place every festive season. And yet, the same does not hold true for experiential marketing in India on the whole. The first ever ‘Trends in Experiential Marketing’ research unveiled at the ExM Summit of the WOW Awards and Convention Asia 2016 revealed various interesting statistics on the significance of Experiential as part of Brand Marketing in India. The study highlighted 3 important points: » 52% of marketers invest around 5-10% of their marketing budget in Experiential which mainly consists of brand activations and standalone events. » 6% marketers stated that their annual spends in experiential marketing was over 40% of their annual marketing budget. (Brand Segments included Fashion, Retail, Consumer Goods, Real Estate, etc.) » Marketers from the Telecommunication, Automobile and Fashion/Retail segments believe their experiential marketing budget is expected to increase another 10-15% by next year.
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The findings are a clear reflection of how the importance of brand activations is increasing rapidly, and how brands are shifting a greater chunk of their marketing budget in this direction. And, even though brands do activations throughout the year, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that most of these brands do not truly thrive on the power of Experiential till the festive season of September-December strikes. The reason? Well, this time of the year has great significance for the typical Indian household as most important festivals — Diwali, Dussehra, Puja, Dhanteras — take place then. It’s a time when families celebrate by buying gifts for each other and going on annual shopping sprees, wish lists in hand. However, despite waiting for months to strike when the iron is hottest, many brands fail miserably in engaging their target audiences through brand activations. In this exclusive feature, we at ExM try to find out how and why brand activations fail. HOW ABOUT A CONCEPT! To clock in an unbiased opinion, we reached out to 3 prominent brands that are high on brand activations and cover all major age-groups (as target audience) and product categories Kokuyo Camlin (high on activations with kids), Vanesa (high on activation with Millennials), and Philips (high on activations with adults & mature professionals). The marketers we spoke to agree with us that a successful activation needs to reflect the marketing goals that drive a business, with the same level of seriousness that other experiential, digital or ATL promotions do.
“Concept is the core of any brand activation and is extremely crucial. The idea of any activation has to be good, because if the idea itself is faulty no matter how much you retweet it, or promote it, it will just end up eating up the reputation of your brand,” notes Amit Tiwari, Director Marketing, Indian Subcontinent – Brand, Communication & Digital, Philips - Philips India. While brands and the agencies they get on board to manage various aspects of their marketing tend to put a whole lot of thought and really use their imagination to plan a great 360-degree marketing campaign, come up with a great ad, launch a new product and even execute excellent brand integrations with sports and entertainment IPs, when it comes to activations, it’s not surprising for the whole concept to be extremely lacklustre. Talking about why activations fail, Saumitra Prasad, CMO, Camlin remarks, “This happens when the activations are not strategic and not amplified. Most effort should go in developing the concept of a promotion. It is as important as developing a creative brief for a new TV commercial.” Bringing an agency point of view to the table, Anjali Pasricha, Director, CS Direkt adds, “Activations build coherent brands by offering their consumers a complete brand experience with the company, be it face-to-face or digital. Activations bring consumers closer to a brand. We find that success of any activation lies in its relevance to the consumer. It’s not about flash mobs, Apps, technology. It is all about ‘What’s in it for me?’ Conceptualizing an activation is not an easy task. There are many elements that have to be considered before going ahead with pitching a plan to any client. Our team at CS
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BRAND BRAND MARKETING MARKETING / COVER / IN FOCUS STORY more than just the people you directly connect with. So you have to put their experience at the centre. If they go away without having experienced anything memorable, then you haven’t made that mark.”
“Most effort should go in developing the concept of a promotion. It is as important as developing a creative brief for a new TV commercial.” Saumitra Prasad CMO, Camlin
Direkt studies the brand and its various aspects and how it has affected the target audience in the past.” There is often no well-developed core concept to the typical activation one encounters at a mall on a weekend, even in the festive season. We can all remember that we were engaged by a brand while out shopping, but there’s nothing to define it as an especially positive experience. From talking to numerous agencies and brands, and keenly following activations in the country, we also get the sense that agencies are not unwilling or unable to come up with great ideas for activations. Often they are limited by the extremely mundane brief a brand provides them, together with a limited budget. Activations are somehow not treated by a lot of brands as in any way related to the same realm of creativity as other forms of marketing. For many, it’s still not very much more than a couple of promoters at a booth. Even retail outlets and malls that offer a range of possibilities for activations on their premises, don’t always see these being used to maximum effect. Amit Sawant, Head of Marketing, Communications and Strategy at High Street Phoenix and Palladium notes, “Experiential marketing is all about the experience. You have to give consumers an experience. With activations, each person you directly reach will share their experience with at least 20 more people, and they with another 3 more. So the reach is a lot
It goes without saying that while having no concept for an activation doesn’t do much for your brand, you can do even worse by having a concept that’s not thought through or isn’t clearly linked to a long-term marketing strategy. It’s important to not suspend an awareness of what you want your brand to be about simply for the sake of a sales-driven activation or any activation, for that matter. Pasricha goes on, “Since brand activations drive transparency in a meaningful way, it has to be carefully thought through and managed. A couple of No No’s I can think of are: firstly, insensitive ideas like the Walmart campaign on ‘Fat Girl Costume’; secondly, a bad customer experience on site, like with United Airline’s ‘Not a guitar hero’; and of course irrelevance: Mass Luxury… Really? A tie up between a mass retailer and a luxury brand!” Saurabh Gupta, Marketing Head, Vanesa (Denver & Envy 1000) adds, “Concept is the heart of any brand activation. If your concept is clumsy, no amount of investment for a fancy activity will bring you the desired result.” Since a great concept lies at the core of a memorable experience, it follows that any brand that approaches an activation like a sale, equating marketing efforts with sales, is bound to not make an impression. Of course, if the goal is only to sell, and your price is right, you may achieve your shortterm goal. But activations should be conceived of as an opportunity to connect and to provide an experience. BEING AT THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME Every marketer knows that what works in America may not work in India, and what works in South India won’t necessarily work in North India, and so on. We won’t go on about India’s vast diversity here, but it’s important to note that despite it, the central goal of any brand remains the same no matter where it goes – to generate new consumers.
“You have to give consumers an experience. With activations, each person you directly reach will share their experience with at least 20 more people, and they with another 3 more.” Amit Sawant
Head of Marketing, Communications and
Strategy at High Street Phoenix and Palladium
Tiwari observes, “Geography has a big role to play in brand activations. In a dynamic marketing ecosystem like today, one can’t just simply come up with a PAN India activation idea and expect it to do wonders. An activation idea for Chennai will not work in a mall in Delhi. One needs to understand that the demographics in each geographical region is different and hence tailor make activations that will work in that area. Even the most amazing idea will not appeal if executed in front of audiences that do not connect with it.” Reinforcing this idea, Gupta adds, “Geography is very important for a successful brand activation. A beautiful concept and thoroughly engaging brand activation is bound to fail if not done at the correct place. An activation tailor-made for a Delhi audience will not work for an audience in a semi-rural state. To capture that market, you need to understand the audience there. Hence, for a brand activation to be successful one needs to choose their geography intelligently and customize their activity around it.” Another crucial point is that for a lot of industries and brands, newer markets have opened up in Tier2 and 3 cities, as well as in regions earlier not targeted as much – for instance, the North East and Jammu & Kashmir, among others. This means that the
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BRAND MARKETING / COVER STORY unique challenges to planning a successful activation.
“In a dynamic marketing ecosystem like today, one can’t just simply come up with a PAN India activation idea and expect it to do wonders. Amit Tiwari Director Marketing, Indian Subcontinent–Brand, Communication & Digital, Philips–Philips India
scope of marketing activities has also increased, with brands looking for ways to increase awareness among new consumers. Pasricha says, “Regional markets are beginning to evolve. This gives us many reasons to enter such markets and leverage the brand value and market size via various surveys. Regional campaigns are challenging, not to mention factoring in vernacular requirements. In such cases, it is necessary to have a team who are ready to adapt to the various challenges. We at CS Direkt make sure that our team members assigned to a particular project understand the region where the planned activation is to be set up. They are savvy and smart people who are aware of their checklists and numerous facets that the job entails them to deliver. They are able and strong leaders in their own field.” What’s also of significance to planning an activation across geographies, is how you time your activation based on local and regional festivals; and also how you develop your idea to provide the perfect experience to your TG. Prasad remarks, “In today’s world, brand activations can be executed in any geography and at any scale. However, the brand has to select markets based on its objectives.” Other than regional markets, even metros can pose their own set of 48 38
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“Activations require the complete support of the environment: permissions, transportation, local authorities support. Why go far: Delhi is the one of the most challenging cities for an activation with No Entry timings, Marked VIP areas, Mobile branding restrictions, exorbitant Mall rentals, politically sensitive, Traffic issues, and VIP Movements. All this makes a marketers’ job difficult in generating great and innovative ideas,” says Pasricha. Essentially, a Pan-India activation should not be undertaken without due diligence. Also, the objectives for activating have to be clear. For some, a failed activation is closely tied up with not activating at the right place at the right time. Pradyumn Tandon, Founder & Director, The Brand Brewery adds, “Whenever a brand launches a product in the market it is an end result of a lot of market study. The brand understands that there is a gap in the market and then creates a product to fill in that gap. Similarly, the job of an agency is to correctly identify these places where the gaps are occurring, go to those locations and target the right person at the right time. This is the recipe of a successful brand activation. Any brand or agency that deviates from this market insight ends up with an unsuccessful brand activation.” WHY ACTIVATE? Nearly every marketer we spoke to said that a brand needs to be clear about its reasons and objectives for conducting an activation. It can’t be a go-with-flow, holiday-time thing, nor can it be something haphazardly put together to achieve sales targets. While this is closely connected to having a concept that will resonate with your TG, it is not quite the same thing. A concept will draw from what the brand is about, tell a story, refer to the current environment, and so on. But the reasons for activating will dictate how the concept develops to begin with. Gupta points out, “I think that biggest brand activation failures happen when brand objective and activation activity do not come together. Brands always have an objective when they
“Brands always have an objective when they want to activate but it is also very important that the objective is aptly supported by elements like the right target audiences, the ideal venue and understanding of the product & consumer psyche.” Saurabh Gupta
Marketing Head, Vanesa (Denver & Envy 1000)
want to activate but it is also very important that the objective is aptly supported by elements like the right target audiences, the ideal venue and understanding of the product & consumer psyche. For our brand the target audience is the age bracket of 16-30. Hence, for our activations to be successful they have to be tailored accordingly keeping in mind the ideal location, activity and understanding of our prospective consumers in mind.” Tiwari adds, “For a brand activation to be successful, the synergy has to be correct both between a client and an agency as well as different elements that come together to create a successful brand engagement proposition. Many marketers do brand activation simply following the notion that it will beef up their sales. However, for a brand activation to be successful they need to clearly outline its objectives and the end result that they want.” Reasons for activating can be to increase brand awareness, to educate the TG on a product, to drive sales, to maximise visibility, to showcase new offerings, to collect data, or a combination of these. Clearly identifying a main goal and related goals of an activation will streamline the process of developing a concept, defining a territory, choosing a venue, selecting touch-points and more.
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BRAND MARKETING / IN FOCUS BRAND MARKETING / COVER STORY However, which mall or cinema, and even the decision to go with one of these has to be made taking into account goals and objectives already highlighted at an earlier stage. At the same time, this has to be among the first things to be decided when figuring out a concept.
“The venue is a very important aspect of activations since it forms a platform which facilitates the brand visibility and interaction in the right target group.” Benu Sehgal
Senior Vice President, DLF Place, Saket
VENUES FOR ACTIVATING Malls, cinemas and retail complexes are the most favoured venues for city activations by brands from diverse sectors – automobiles, FMCG, consumer durables and electronics, fashion, real estate, sports equipment, and entertainment. Highlighting aspects of a mall that make it an appropriate venue for brand activations in the context of activities done at DLF Place, Saket, one of Delhi’s malls, Benu Sehgal, Senior Vice President, DLF Place, Saket comments, “The venue is a very important aspect of activations since it forms a platform which facilitates the brand visibility and interaction in the right target group. The profiling and psychographics of the audience visiting the venue has to be relevant to the brand, only then will the activation be successful. DLF Place forms for an ideal venue for renowned national and international brands as it is located in the heart of South Delhi, in the vicinity of affluent residential areas and office spaces, and thereby has a very valuable and discerning customer base, and a daily footfall of between 25k-35k per day for a weekday and over 45k per day for a weekend. DLF Place has partnered with many top of the line brands such as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Jaguar, DC, Harley Davidson, Grazia, So Delhi, Vodafone, Ihaatdelhi and many more for such activations.”
If a brand has a store in a given mall, and the whole idea is to do an activation here, then the venue decision is something that’s already made, and all ideas that follow need to use this information as advantageously as possible. Pasricha points out, “Location and venue is the next step in the planning and processing of any activation. In most cases we suggest venue options along with detailed descriptions and recce reports. If our clients specify any venue, we offer to send our production team for a recce and a plan of action. This helps us in preparing for upcoming challenges.” Prasad reveals, “Venue is critical and should be selected keeping the TG and concept in mind. For Camlin Kidzania has turned out to be a very successful venue.” Sawant adds, “A venue has to be selected taking into consideration your product and your audience. In some cases, heritage venues like Gateway of India may be a better option than a mall. However for a brand with luxury products with prices that start from 30 to 40 K, being in an open venue for the general public won’t work.” Looking at who your TG is and the extent to which they are present at a given venue is crucial. Budget brands doing activations surrounded by luxury retail stores and a small number of consumers unwilling to be engaged makes no sense. The same goes for luxury brands doing activations in venues catering to a large consumer base with lower spending power. Tandon says, “Choice of a venue is very important for a brand activation. One can have an amazing setup and technologies integration for a premium brand activation, but if the venue is unsuitable then none of it will make sense for the brand or appeal to the audiences.” Pasricha adds, “Choosing the right venue plays an important role;
“Digital media is an impeccable tool for a brand activation as it helps brands amplifying a brand activation across different regions with utmost ease and this is the reason that we love using it.” Pradyumn Tandon
Founder & Director, The Brand Brewery
however, certain strategies have to be built around the venue. In such cases, we propose elements that must fit the requirements. We conceptualize the event / activity to suit the needs of the client and propose to deliver a setup post detailed recce reports. In February 2015, CS Direkt was given the task to handle the Valentine’s Week promotions for Forum Mall, Bengaluru. The idea was to attract shoppers to take part in activities inside the mall area. The client wanted to popularize the mall and attract new shoppers. The décor and setup CS Direkt proposed was a perfect fit for the occasion.” Talking about the advantages of activating at a mall, Sawant points out, “One of the greatest advantages of doing your activation at a mall is the security you have. With an activation reaching so many people, often with celebrities at the centre, the requirements for security are great. With a mall, this is something already ensured by the venue, right from bag frisks to the number of personnel present.” Sehgal adds, “Marketing of the event or activation is very crucial to its success and turn-out. We at DLF Place, promote the activations much in advance though digital, print and onground mediums besides live posts and streaming of the activity.”
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BRAND MARKETING / COVER STORY engaging, live and ability to go viral.” Tandon adds, “Digital media is an impeccable tool for a brand activation as it helps brands amplifying a brand activation across different regions with utmost ease and this is the reason that we love using it. Digital truly gives a platform to brands for showcasing when and how they are reaching out to their target audiences and what is it that they are offering.”
“Training and development is given to the staff who finally interact with prospective TG. We at CS Direkt hold learning and development sessions for all our team members.” Anjali Pasricha Director, CS Direkt
While different malls do offer brands a range of audiences to reach and shoppers who are already there in order to be engaged by brands, sometimes a brand may decide to go with a completely different venue. Tiwari remarks, “For me choice of the activation venue depends on the idea and audience that we are targeting. These days a lot of brands activate at the Navratri Garba and Dandiya festivals which mainly is attended by young crowd with age group of 1530. Now, at such an event it makes sense for a youth brand to activate and engage the audiences. But what usually happens is home appliance brands or kitchen brands also activate at such events, which is a weak venue for them.” DIGITAL INTEGRATION If there’s one thing that’s changed the most when it comes to activations in India, it’s the reach a brand has, thanks to social media. No longer is an activation limited to the few hundreds or even thousands of people your promoters meet. Other than what the brand itself does to amplify an activity online, even word-of-mouth functions on a whole new level with social media. Naturally, this offers brands a great opportunity to digitally integrate any activity they do, and reach millions in their TG who it is physically impossible to reach through a single activation. Says Prasad, “Digital media is most apt to compliment brand activation effort as it has all elements of being 48 40
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The flipside to this is obvious. As great as the opportunity to succeed is, so is the possibility that your activation will fail. While not achieving coverts or garnering the response you were going for would be a failure in itself, bad publicity can be a nightmare. So what are the makings of excellent digital integration for a brand activation? The first would of course have to be that the activation itself is well-planned and worth talking about. Attempts to generate buzz about absolutely nothing is only going to annoy your TG and make your brand look lame. Then, of course, the integration needs to be seamless, tags need to be used consistently, and posts need to be well-timed. A digital strategy must be planned together with the activation and not treated as an after-thought. If you take control of what you put out there, the off-chance of someone else digitally sabotaging your activation drastically reduces. Pasricha says, “All our brand activation ideas are focused on bridging the worlds of digital and tangible brand activation in Experiential and retail environment. We need to close the loop on all marketing communication via bespoke, innovative digital campaigns that people can engage with physically, yet act as a conversation starter by driving traction online. A recent example is the event that we managed with Xbox Microsoft co-hosted by Lamborghini, which also saw members from Throttle 97, one of India’s biggest supercar clubs, duking it out on the virtual playground with avid gamers.” Gupta elaborates, “Digital is without a doubt flavour of the season. Today brands do a lot of prank videos, activation amplification on digital and it beautifully works for them as it helps in re-creating that experience and not just pushing it. Content is the king today and brands can create beautiful narratives for themselves by sharing
content on platforms like Whatsapp, Youtube, Facebook and others as this is where the audience is today.” Despite the ubiquity of social media as an aspect of an activation, there is definitely a place for a brand to step back and question whether using digital really takes an activation forward. It’s important for digital to not get in the way of a great experience. Tiwari says, “I personally feel that these days’ people are force-feeding digital into any and every brand activation. Digital is a boon for any brand activation; however, for that to work its integration should be seamless and encouraging the target audiences. Today the idea of taking selfies has been beaten to death by multiple brands. Custodians and agencies should understand that everything does not need to have a digital leg for it. I recently observed that a fragrance brand through an activation was asking audiences to take selfies after experiencing the product. In such circumstances-digital integration makes little sense as the product has to be experienced and that experience cannot be passed on digitally.” TOUCH-POINTS Putting a customer’s experience at the centre of an activation means that your touch-points have to be perfectly equipped to interact with the TG in a way that makes them want to engage your brand. Nothing can ruin the impact of a great activation the way inadequately trained promoters who are not knowledgeable about a product can. Promoters need to be aware that for those few hours, they are the face of the brand, more important for your success than even your brand ambassador. Talking about crucial touch-points at an activation, Tiwari lists what he thinks are important: » Area has to be selected according to the audience profile. » The ambiance has to be favourable. » The Idea has to be clutter-breaking. » Staff managing the activation have to be courteous and completely understand the product and idea themselves. Sehgal, who witnesses a lot of brand activations at DLF Place, Saket, adds, “Promoters play a significant part in
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BRAND MARKETING / IN FOCUS BRAND MARKETING / COVER STORY the activation as well. The brand must ensure that they bring in promoters with a pleasant personality with good soft skills and communication skills. Besides being well-groomed, they must be well-trained with good brand and product knowledge. They should have a good client interaction and should be able to address customer queries in an effective manner. Promoter interaction at this point is very crucial in building a positive brand image in the mind of consumer.” Pasricha remarks, “Promoting the brand in advance will make sure more touch-points interact with the product. Experiential marketers follow a simple thumb rule where pre-hype is mandatory while conceptualizing any promotional activation or experiential activity. Understanding the brand and the TG is very important. However, the brand custodians play a pivotal role in ensuring that the right message is passed from them to the agency who will pass on the same message to the TG.”
Tandon says, “In my opinion, the idea, content and objective of a brand activation has to be the first few touchpoints for a brand campaigns. One cannot just say I want to a mall activation and build their activation activity around it. One needs to have a clear objective behind an activation and then everything else comes into picture.” Agencies who do a lot of activations will prioritise the training of promoters in order to reflect an awareness of the brand. Prasad comments, “Promoters become the face of the brand to the consumers and hence their training is very critical”. Pasricha adds, “Training and development is given to the staff who finally interact with prospective TG. We at CS Direkt hold learning and development sessions for all our team members. All the training sessions are
department specific and detailed out. Our team members make sure that understanding of the brand is first shared with the client before we set out to deliver a project.” Neatly summing all the elements that can lead to activation fails, Sehgal tell us, “Well, a successful activation starts with having a clear objective and the working towards achieving the same. The entire activity has to be planned around the objective or the challenge area. The activity must be engaging, interactive and should be of relevance it the brand as well as its target group. The presentation/set up/ promoters are all vital elements forming the activity and hence, must be high quality. The promoters should have the right soft skills, communication skills, pleasant personality and good product knowledge to make the activity worthwhile. The venue must able to provide quality footfall for the activity as well. Failing in being able to achieve any of the above mentioned aspects would not form for a successful activation.”
THE ExM ACTIVATION CHECKLIST Looking at activation fails in the country and what Indian marketers, event agencies and venues in India make of them, ExM has come up with a checklist you can use every time you plan an activation. This is a great tool to not lose track of the various facets that comprise an activation, ensuring that everything you put out there draws from an awesome concept born from clearly delineated goals. 1. The objective of my activation is: » To increase brand awareness/visibility » To boost sales » To launch a new product/showcase new range or product » To educate about brand/product features » To generate positive word-of-mouth/online conversations » To collect data 2. I will measure the success of my activation: » I have defined desirable outcomes » I have quantified results expected per outcome. » I have set a system to collect results achieved through the activity 3. My concept is: » Fresh and interesting » Reflects an understanding of the psyche of my TG » Will resonate in the geographical region where I want to conduct my activation
4. My activation is well-timed: » I have checked on public/bank/festive holidays and evaluated how it will affect the activity/attendance » I have cross checked weather reports » I have checked the schedule of the touch-points I desire to carry out the activity in 5. The venue for my activation: » Witnesses the footfall I’m looking for » Draws in my TG » Provides the right ambience for my activation » Has the kind of space I want » Is equipped for technological innovations I want to use » Has the required security » Provides support for activations 6. My touch-points: » Are well selected after scanning all options » My promoters know my product » My promoters are friendly and create a good impression 7. The Digital Integration for my activation is: » Planned in advance » In line with the goals of my activation » Does not come in the way of the activity itself » Will make my activation look good » Uses the right platforms in the right way » Will help me stay in control of my brand’s image
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BRAND ACTIVATION / MARKET PULSE
Associations, Ambassadors, IPL & More In an exclusive conversation with ExM, Keshav Bansal, Director, Intex Technologies talks about the marketing mix of the brand, its experiential marketing strategy and what one can expect from the Intex stable in the year ahead. By: Shantanu Jain The smartphone market in India has never been more competitive. While brands like Apple and Samsung are gung-ho about achieving market leadership, there are no fewer than 42 other brands that are also desperately seeking means to penetrate the second biggest smartphone market in the world. In such a stiff marketing ecosystem, Intex is one brand which has slowly but steadily made its mark on the hearts of Indian consumers on the basis of its affordable and durable offerings, and a vibrant marketing strategy. In an exclusive conversation with EVENTFAQS, Keshav Bansal, Director, Intex Technologies talks about the marketing mix of the brand, their ExM strategy and what one can expect from the Intex stable in the year ahead. What is the marketing strategy of Intex and what constitutes its marketing mix? Intex thrives on its ability to constantly innovate and challenge market dynamics. Being in the consumer facing business, we understand the critical role of marketing. Be it ATL, BTL or Digital marketing, we have tried to use them judiciously and strategically. With an aggressive focus on ATL activities, Intex has increased its visibility by being part of and sponsoring major sporting events like IPL 2014, India-South Africa 2015 series, in-film promotions, reality shows and GECs. Festive seasons are the other peak time when Intex is active with ATL campaigns. In our segment, Tier 2 & 3 cities play a vital role and it’s very important for us to reach out to the customers in these markets. Considering consumer behaviour and buying habits, we have regional brand ambassadors for South markets on board to promote our mobiles, ie. Mahesh Babu in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Sudeep in Karnataka and Suriya in Tamil Nadu. Farhan Akhtar is our National brand ambassador for the mobile segment. In order to reach out to customers for consumer durable market, we recently roped in legendary actress, Madhuri Dixit as our brand ambassador for the consumer durable segment – Washing Machines & Refrigerators. India has young demographics & mostly cricket lovers. Therefore, to further strengthen our brand’s association with youngsters - Intex acquired 42
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Keshav Bansal, Director, Intex Technologies
the Gujarat Lions IPL team last year. Gujarat Lions team proved to be a great springboard to reach out to existing and new consumers across the country and provided a platform for some innovative marketing across mediums, especially digital and social media.
leverage the occasion for creating the desired consumer connect. The aim here is to a part of the celebrations, create a connect with the consumers and develop a long term relationship. We have strong relationships with distributors, dealers and retailers who are the torchbearers for brand Intex.
This year we are heavily focusing on cricket associations, digital marketing and ground-level visibility. Besides this, the brand will be noticeable largely on television this year.
How much of your marketing budget do you allocate to experiential marketing? Being a consumer facing brand, experiential marketing becomes very important for us. We need to be connected with our consumers and for this various initiatives and activities have to be planned throughout the year, both at national and regional level. Considering this importance, experiential marketing forms a considerable part of our entire marketing mix. Between 30-40% of the budget is usually attributed to experiential marketing, which differentiates us from rest of the competition.
Intex now owns the Gujarat Lions IPL team which made its debut this year. How did the brand amplify its presence at the IPL and how has the IPL association benefited the brand? Cricket is considered a religion in India and the biggest platform for the youth today. Since Intex is into the B2C (business to consumer) segment, the target audience is exactly the same. It made a lot of sense for us and gives us another platform to reach out to our customers. Intex has been associated with the IPL and with cricket for some time now, but with owning the Gujarat Lions we have further strengthened the association and made it more meaningful. IPL is the biggest sports extravaganza and the biggest platform to connect with the youth of the country. Associating with a platform like IPL has already helped us immensely in creating a buzz for the brand at a national level and in generating a lot of positivity among consumers. Considering it as a marketing masterstroke, we further expect this association to not only strengthen our connect with the IPL audience in India and across the globe, but also to catapult the perception of brand Intex beyond the realms of technology.
What can the consumers expect from the brand in the year ahead? Being an Indian brand, we have always brought innovative products at competitive prices for all. Since its inception, Intex has positioned itself as a brand that empowers masses with the latest technology at affordable price points. Intex thrives on its ability to constantly innovate and challenge market dynamics. In the face of increasing consumer demand in India and the company’s strong emphasis on innovation, the company has plans to focus on more innovative products in both the mobile and consumer durables segment, provide more & more value-added services, active after-sales service, and a finance scheme to connect with consumers.
How relevant is experiential marketing for Intex and what have been some of your recent on-ground initiatives? Brand Intex is connected with the consumers onground. Besides having a traditional approach to marketing, to build regional connect, we participate in all festivals. Garba during Navraatri in Gujarat, Baisakhi in Punjab, Durga Puja in West Bengal, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Ganpati Visarjan in Maharashtra, Onam in Kerala are the few examples of India festivals where we
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BRAND MARKETING / CUE CARDS
Festive Season Madness and You
We go through most of our lives by letting circumstances manipulate our path and dictate our destiny. How wonderful it would be if life had a set of cue cards that introduce concepts and enable us to navigate our way to meet our dreams! These Cue Cards provide a few insights and explore the possibilities of self expression and career growth to experience fulfilment in life.
BY: SUSHMA GAIKWAD, CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, ICE GLOBAL As we step into ‘Season time’ of 2016, work has already caught up with us. Most of us find ourselves under siege with stress and deadlines and some of us have hit the glass ceiling to suffocate on the notion of lost priorities. Deadlines seem short and days seem shorter, meals are less important than that cup of Coffee or Red Bull. We live on adrenalin and slip from one project to another as if on auto pilot. These cue cards are dedicated to the busy season before us and are designed to empower us with ease in this exciting, engaging and highly disruptive season of events. CUE CARD 1
Centre the Self. Spend the first 15 minutes of the morning in silence. Breathe, look out of the window and sip that first cup of tea. Nothing works more than beginning the day in stillness. Do this even if you have not slept all night and been at a set-up or an event. At dawn, grab some time to centre the self in ease. CUE CARD 2
Get Organised. Put everything down on a sheet of paper and keep ticking off the tasks as you get them done. You feel more in control every time a task is ticked off the list and this feeling of accomplishment creates a ripple effect in levels of your productivity. List down personal tasks as well and do not be restricted by only those related to work. Ensure that the birthday gift for your loved ones finds its way onto your list.
CUE CARD 3
Ask for Help! We tend to delegate work easily and yet at times we’re overwhelmed, we hesitate to ask for help from those who actually can be of help. Yes, of course the key is to recognise stress as it builds up and be aware of the reasons that have generated unease. Once the root cause is identified, evaluate your resources and engage external resources for help if required. CUE CARD 4
10 Minute Breaks. This is a spectacular method to enhance productivity. We often find ourselves lost and swimming in a sea of tasks. We move hastily from one meeting to another, sometimes chasing our own tails and burning the midnight oil almost every night. Our system is over-run and it is important to give it a breather with periodic breaks. Take 10 minutes every couple of hours to recharge those batteries. Ideally engage in a conversation (not about work) or sit down silently to grab those moments of respite. This method is extremely effective and recommended by experts to heighten productivity at work.
of the body and its needs especially when it is performing at its peak. The usual expectation in this season is for the body to defy normal conditions; hence, it is extremely important to treat it with care. Start by consciously being aware of the excesses and supplement the need to indulge with a sip of crystal clear H2O. IN CONCLUSION Our life is a set of cues, so let’s step into this season completely aware of the choices we make. Extraordinary results depend on these conscious choices!
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IN FOCUS
LAKMÉ FASHION WEEK W/F 2016 ROUNDUP: 15 SPONSORS, 92 DESIGNERS, 2 AGENCIES + MORE
The 17th edition of Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) kicked-off on August 24 with a stellar lineup of 92 designers and 15 sponsors. The five-day fashion affair joined hands with 70 EMG for this year’s winter-festive edition, hosted at the St. Regis Mumbai. The fashion week got off to a spectacular start with the opening show by Tarun Tahiliani in association with LYF Mobiles, while Sabyasachi was the grand finale designer for the week that concluded on August 28 at Mehboob Studios. The 5-day event saw multiple Bollywood celebrities such as Kareena Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ranbir Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut, Shraddha Kapoor, Emraan Hashmi, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Sushant Singh Rajput, Malaika Arora and Dia Mirza, sashaying down the ramp as showstoppers for various designers. The highlight of Lakme Fashion Week W/F 2016 was the event being high on brand associations. The fashion week associated with a host of corporates and brands, including the Etihad Airways that presented Manish Malhotra’s off-site show at ITC Grand Central, Mumbai on Day 1. The fashion event also roped in Entertainment Bay to transform the grandeur of the runway into a Virtual Reality (VR) experience. Other sponsors that were brought onboard for LFW W/F’16 included: Lakmé (Title Sponsor), LYF (Associate Sponsor), DHL (Co-Sponsor), The Etihad Airways (Co-Sponsor), TRESemmé (Co-Sponsor), 6 Degree (Talent Partner- 6Degree show), INIFD (Official Knowledge Partner), Reliance Trends (Official Partner), Monaco Tourism (Official Partner), The St. Regis Mumbai (The St. Regis Mumbai), and Hotstar (Official Live Streaming Partner). Tulsi Silks, Vedica, aLL- The Plus Size Store and Hamleys were amongst the showcase partners. Lakmé Fashion Week (LFW) is collectively organized by beauty brand Lakmé and IMG Reliance. Every year, the bi-annual event rolls out its spring / summer and winter/ festive editions, drawing participation from an army of fashion pundits and brands. 46
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ASUS ZENVOLUTION
EO2 Events Strikes the Perfect Balance of Tech & Star Power @Asus Zenvolution
Glitz, glamour and gadgets took centre stage at the Pullman Hotel in New Delhi on August 17, 2016 as EO2 events executed a one-of-a-kind mega launch event - Asus Zenvolution. The first among a series of worldwide launches for Asus’s new Zenphone 3 and Transformer product ranges, the event struck a perfect balance of technology and glamour integration at a launch event. EO2 Events won the mandate to execute the mega gadget launch post a multi-agency pitch to Asus India. The Asus Zenvolution focused on the brand’s latest range of smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Being the kick-starter to the international launch event series, the highlight of the agency’s creative plan was the opening sequence itself, as they roped in a renowned content agency from Russia to put together a mystifying visual experience through scrim projection and interactive elements. Risheeta Agrawal, Creative Director, EO2 Events says, “We also roped in fashion designers Shivan & Narresh to put together a collection inspired by the new metallic and gold finishing of the products. We felt that Shivan & Narresh with their unique fashion and style would be the perfect partnership for this launch. A unique and futuristic fashion show sequence marked the launch of the products.” The set of the launch event displayed a 100ft ramp with tier seating on both sides to bring in an international fashion week vibe. Long LED walls on all sides of the ballroom ensured an immersive experience for the attendees. Each and every second of the event was carefully mapped out through music and heavy visuals, with an aim to seamlessly execute an event that would wow the audience and clients, alike. The launch event was hosted by Gunjan Utreja also saw Asus India brand ambassador Sonakshi Sinha sashaying down the ramp and unveiling the Asus Zenfone 3. The Bollywood diva also spent time talking about the new product range from Asus. Commenting on the success of the project, Rishabh Agrawal - Creative Director, EO2 Events said, “Our association with Asus goes way back where we organised most of their biggest launch events in the past; so expectations from Asus are always at an extreme high since they know we understand their needs very well. The main challenge of this event was that this is the first time Asus was moving completely away from the budget phone zone and entering a higher more sophisticated league. The Zenfone 3 series is high fashion, sleek, elegant and justifiably expensive. From a brand that has been loved in the market because of its great pricing, we knew this launch was going to be a challenge. In a way, we were rebranding what Asus now stands for through this event.”
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Rishabh Agarwal
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ExM Catch-Up with Aldo, Jack Daniel’s, Radio Mirchi & Godrej Security Solutions In each issue ExM catches up with 4 brands that are rocking their Experiential strategies, to allow readers a sneak-peak! By: Shantanu Jain In this exclusive feature, we at ExM take a deep dive into the marketing strategy of 4 brands: ALDO, Jack Daniel’s, Radio Mirchi & Godrej Security Solutions by speaking to their respective custodians about the relevance of experiential marketing, upcoming campaigns, target audiences and more.
GODREJ SECURITY SOLUTIONS Godrej Security Solutions recently launched the Goldilocks ‘Your Personal Locker’ marketing campaign. In a conversation with ExM, Mehernosh Pithawalla, Head - Marketing, Sales and Innovation, Godrej Security Solutions talks about the company’s BTL activities and events. What is the Experiential Marketing strategy of Godrej Security Solutions? Godrej Security Solutions’ (GSS) technologically advanced products are derived from a philosophy of continual design-led innovation. The same philosophy applies to the way we engage with our consumers. GSS’s experiential marketing strategy aims to deliver high-impact brand experiences that complement our above-the-line campaigns. To build greater awareness of the need for personal lockers, we have flagged off highimpact, on-ground promotions and activations. This includes safety campaigns covering an entire city; activations in high profile clubs, marriage halls, gyms, jogging parks and malls, corporate parks and banks, and during festivals; canopy and mobile van road shows; promotions in multibrand outlets; local exhibitions; participation in trade and influencer meets; and mass leaflet insertions. Looking at women consumers, GSS participated in the Times Women’s Drive as ‘Everyday Security Partner’. For the launch of the new versions of the personal locker Goldilocks, GSS also held press conferences across key metro cities. What is the ATL TO BTL Marketing mix that Godrej Security Solutions thrives on? If you look at the numbers, the category penetration of the home safes category is very low – it is just 2.5% of Indian households. Our broad objective for undertaking ATL campaign is to increase awareness levels in consumers. We don’t use fear psychosis to market our products; instead, we design our campaigns such that they 48 50
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have a humorous take and communicate the importance of securing one’s valuables in a quirky manner. Our current segment-wise BTL strategy involves targeting people going for vacations, newly married couples, people buying jewelry, people setting up a new home, and people staying in areas with high crime rates. We also target customers during festivals and the beginning of the financial year, and places where bank-locker penetration is low. We tie up with marriage exhibitions and halls and also conduct activations at corporate parks. Other than that, we do roadshows in jewelry markets and associate with the Bullion Association for promotions at jewelry stores. We also target home-buyers by associating with new residential societies through our Colony Contact Programme, and by setting up canopy activations in areas with higher crime rates.
RADIO MIRCHI Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, one of the premier radio station brands in the country, recently launched a week-long ‘Mirchi Degree’ campaign at Miranda College in Delhi University. The initiative is a first of its kind and is rolled out to make the students believe that it is not only the formal degree that will take them to heights, but the unconventional talent that is hidden in them and their own passion. In an exclusive tête-à-tête, Nitin Singh, Senior Vice President, Radio Mirchi spoke to ExM about the Mirchi Degree campaign, the upcoming BTL campaigns by the brand and competition with rival radio stations. What is the newly launched Mirchi Degree campaign all about and how was it conceptualized? In the admission season, especially in Delhi, what happens is that people focus too much on cut-offs, as a result of which there are a lot of students who are disappointed that they did not make the cut. So, through the campaign what we tried to convey to the youth is — follow your passion and not just qualifications. What we are doing as part of the initiative on-air is we are showcasing youth icons and stories of how they followed their passion and not their degrees
Mehernosh Pithawalla
and are doing well in life. These icons have been awarded the Mirchi Degree. So the entire idea of the campaign is that we want youngsters to aspire for the Mirchi Degree and not just college degrees. Along with the on-air activity, we have also taken the campaign on-ground by creating a swanky Volvo bus which is running in the north campus in Delhi University currently and will soon be seen in other parts of the capital. The bus is for transportation obviously, but it also has a dedicated space where you can record your talent and if our RJ’s love your passion they will ask you to come on-air and share it with the rest of the city. What are some of the other upcoming experiential campaigns that we can expect from the Mirchi stable? We have not finalized it yet, but we are currently working on a comprehensive marketing plan for the upcoming Navratri festival. Also, we will be doing something new around Pujo. All of these campaigns will have a local touch as well as the message of optimism which is the crux of our brand ethos. What is the differentiating factor in Mirchi’s marketing strategy that sets you apart from other competing brands in your category? I think one of the biggest things that set us apart from our competition is the kind of message that we are putting out there. We are talking about happiness, internal success and optimism and we are doing this in a far better way than others as it is a bigger market for us. The fact that we are reaching out to the target audience and invoking their passions through our initiatives speaks a great deal about the success of our initiatives. We connect better with the youth and this has been reflected in all the studies done by us. This is also the reason why advertisers also give us a thumbs-up. What is the marketing mix for Radio Mirchi and how much of your marketing spends do you solely devote to experiential campaigns? At Radio Mirchi our whole philosophy is that Mirchi is everywhere whether it is ATL, BTL, Airport Radio or even at malls. Our plan is not limited to any medium and that is the reason we don’t
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allocate spends on a fixed ratio basis. However, time and again we bring on partners to help us amplify what we are trying to do. An estimate of 20% to 30% of our marketing money is what we put into BTL campaigns.
core values to our consumers. Not many people know that our relationship with music goes all the way back to our founder Mr. Jack himself. He knew that good music and good whiskey had a way of bringing people together.
Who executes these campaigns for Radio Mirchi? Is there a partner agency that you regularly work with? We are very clear that we want to engage with professionals only. Therefore, almost everything we do is routed through agencies who are experts and we get them along to execute campaigns for us. Working with the best agencies matters a great deal to us and we decide on which agency to go with depending on the campaign and expertise required for it.
We also celebrate Mr. Jack’s Birthday in India during the month of September as it is done across the world, giving consumers a chance to know and engage with the brand better.
JACK DANIEL’S Jack Daniel’s, a premier brand of Tennessee whiskey is amongst the top selling alcohols, not just in the country but across the world. Produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee by the Jack Daniel Distillery and owned by the Brown-Forman Corporation since 1956, Jack Daniel’s marketing strategy in India has been thriving on experiential since its very entry into the market in 1997. In their most recent on-ground initiative, the brand unveiled a global whiskey barrel hunt which celebrated its 150th anniversary. In an exclusive conversation with ExM, Vineet Agrawal, Head of Marketing - Indian Subcontinent and Maldives, Brown-Forman Worldwide talks about the marketing strategy of the brand and the relevance of experiential marketing for it. How is Jack Daniel’s leveraging on experiential marketing in the Indian market? On-ground marketing is a key part of our marketing mix because of its customer centric communication, low spillover and, above all, the ability to deliver a complete brand experience in a responsible manner. The premiumisation of the retail and on-premise environment has given brands a great platform to create relevant brand experiences which are meaningful and memorable. Music has been one of our key communication platforms globally, helping us take the brand’s
To tap into the increasing demand for whiskey cocktails in India, we launched a “Whiskey Cocktails – Made with Jack” festival across the country last year and the response has been very encouraging Is there any specific agency that works with you for curating your BTL campaigns? Not one, but we have multiple agency partners working with us in the digital, media, PR and BTL space to drive our marketing strategy and growth. What are the upcoming brand campaigns that one can expect from the Jack Daniel’s stable in the year ahead? The year 2016 truly marks a landmark year for Jack Daniel’s as the distillery celebrates its 150th anniversary and as part of the celebrations, Jack Daniel’s is looking forward to delighting its fans all over the world in some very special ways. Headlining the celebrations was the first-ever worldwide whiskey barrel hunt – the ‘Jack Daniel’s Barrel Hunt’. Apart from the global barrel hunt, there are many other planned initiatives including limited edition bottles, themed on-ground events, special duty free promotions and social media outreach among others.
ALDO Aldo, one of the leading international brands in fashion footwear and accessories recently had its fall ‘16 collection launch event on September 2 at The Palladium, Lower Parel, in Mumbai. The event was high on glamour and saw unique fashion installations and the presence of multiple Bollywood celebrities.
Tushar Ved, President, Major Brands India talks about the marketing mix he hopes to thrive on, the target audience for the brand and its overall marketing strategy. With a multitude of fashion brands already existing in the country, what is the market strategy of ALDO in India? ALDO has been one of the most sought after brand for Fashion footwear and accessories, we are growing aggressively and expanding our reach so that the product is available in pockets of the country where we see huge potential. So you will get to hear of our new stores opening up shortly. Do you have a specific age bracket or a target market the brand caters to? ALDO as a brand has always focused on the style quotient and the product offering. We always bank on the fact that we sell fashion and trends so we cater to all who are connoisseurs of fashion. I would also like to mention that we have a huge market in the age group of 25-45. What is the media mix that you use for your marketing campaigns? Digital, Social, Events, Print and PR is the booming media mix currently. We always look forward to using a 360-degree media approach. What is the brand’s plan for experiential marketing? Do we see ALDO associating with or creating new fashion properties? Yes, in the time to come we will constantly come up with new properties like how we recently announced ART AND SOLES association. Our intent is to be seen as a brand that is really innovative and constantly reinventing. Any campaigns in the pipeline for the upcoming festive season ahead? We are looking forward to the holiday collection launch and a Shop and Win driven activation which will be announced shortly.
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A BIG SPLASH! The launch event at AER Bar & Lounge, Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai featured a press meet followed by a glamourous launch party. Celebrities in attendance included Emraan Hashmi, Bhumi Pednekar, and more. International fast fashion brand Splash celebrated its Autumn Winter 2016 collection launch on August 19 with a party in Mumbai at AER Bar & Lounge, Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai. The event was held to announce the launch of Splash’s new Autumn/ Winter collection and to familiarize the audience with various offerings from Splash.
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“Achieving the required finish and intricacies were demanding as there were a lot of small elements and detailing that defined each brand collection. Since the event was to host Mr. Beig in India after a long time, it was essential to create a celebratory experience where he could meet, interact and host the who’s who of the Fashion and Entertainment Industry.” Nischal Reddy
Client Servicing Lead, Toast Events
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Vibgyor Creates a Thematic Experience Zone, Art Gallery & More @Huawei P9 Launch By: Shantanu Jain Vibgyor Brand Services won a multi-agency pitch to manage and execute the launch of P9, Huawei’s premium flagship smartphone at Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi on August 17. Since the product Huawei P9 takes smartphone photography to a new level with a dual-lens rear camera, the design of the event was based on the international theme #ChangeTheWayYouSeeTheWorld and #OO, a campaign that highlights this feature brought to India by Huawei’s collaboration with leica, using technology that combines monochrome and color in the final output of the photograph giving it more depth and clarity. The event also saw Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), India’s apex industry body for fashion, announce its partnership with Huawei P9. Commenting on the success of the launch event, P Sanjeev, Vice President - Sales, Huawei India said, “Vibgyor has put up a great show with flawless execution and excellent teamwork under the able leadership of Ankur. All our partners have really appreciated the event.”
Peter Zhai
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A Beautiful Evening in Jaipur Hosted by the Speaker of Lok Sabha for BRICS Women Parliamentarians The BRICS Women Parliamentarians’ Enablers for Achieving SDG’s Forum 2016, a two day meet, unfolded in the capital city of Jaipur in Rajasthan on August 20. 42 delegates from BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) joined the Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje for this two-day event. Delivering the inaugural speech, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said, “The BRICS countries together comprise 43 per cent of the world population, contributing 37 per cent of the world GDP. The success of the SDGs will be heavily dependent on their successful implementation in the BRICS countries.” Gitikka Ganju Dhar was the emcee for this event managed by Wizcraft International.
Gitikka Ganju Dhar M.C.
Tamarind Global Manages Viacom18 Media Change Leaders Conference in Bhutan Viacom18 wanted to host their annual Media Change Leaders Conference in Bhutan and the mandate to manage the entire conference as well as the hospitality of the participants was handed over to Tamarind Global.
Mahesh Shirodkar MD, Tamarind Global
120 guests from various hubs first gathered at the Hyatt Regency, Kolkata, where they enjoyed local delicacies and entertainment provided by a local band. From here they were transported to the land of monasteries, mountains and mystery – Bhutan. The conference was spread between Hyatt Regency Kolkata, Le Meridien Paro and Taj Tashi, Thimpu, the latter being the final destination. Since Bhutan is known universally as THE place of happiness, the celebration was themed “Happy Party” with positive and cheerful décor elements.
The India International Jewellery Expo Steals the Show with 70EMG’s Grand Setup Adding another notch to its repertoire of luxury events, 70EMG produced yet another edition of the India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) in Mumbai. Organised by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) India, the exhibition was held at Bombay Exhibition Centre (August 4 to 8) and The Lalit Hotel (August 5 to 8). The expo was designed by Atelier Anonyme. As per reports, this year’s IIJS had 35000+ attendees, 1200 stalls and 900 exhibitors. International delegates from countries like Belgium, Italy, Israel, Thailand, Turkey and UAE participated in the B2B platform to learn about the latest in the Indian jewellery segment.
Decoding the Indian Exhibition Industry Ecosystem with Udo Schuertzmann, ITEI With close to 25 years of experience in the exhibition organizing space, and having worked with the likes of Messe Frankfurt, Reed Exhibitions, Miller Freeman & Messe Dusseldorf and others, Udo Schuertzmann is one of the few industry veterans who has closely watched the exhibition industry evolve globally.
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In an interview with ExM, Scheurtzmann shared, “Health and safety is a big topic of concern for exhibition organizers as we are dealing with heavy machines and different natured products on a regular basis. As a result of which, me and a couple of other big exhibition organizers are trying to create an action plan which can be followed while organizing exhibitions. Another bigger challenge is the lack of good exhibition venues and fair grounds in the country.”
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E3 Integrated Adds the Greek Touch to Kotak Life Insurance CEO Circle Awards 2016 E3 Integrated Events managed the Kotak Life Insurance CEO Circle Awards 2016 on August 9 at The Intercontinental, in Athens. The audience of the event consisted of 300 partners of the brand. The main objective behind the awards night was to motivate the chief agencies of the brand. Tushar Maheshwari, Owner, E3 Integrated Events said, “This was the second time in a row that we have been associated with Kotak Life Insurance as their event partner. It was an absolute pleasure to work for them. It is always a challenge to create new experiences for your clients and with this event we have managed to do that successfully, as the response from the attendees is amazing.”
Tushar Maheshwari Owner, E3 Integrated Events
Moving Heads Takes Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Gold Club Convention to Thailand Reliance Nippon Life Insurance recently held their Gold Club Convention in Pattaya, Thailand, with their event partner Moving Heads managing the proceedings. 50 top Reliance Nippon Insurance Advisors from across India travelled to Thailand and were treated to a culturally rich experience wrapped in an oriental theme.
Hostess Angela Rebello
The evening was hosted by Angela Rebello. Starting with the lion dance, the programme featured the Thousand Hands act showcasing traditional Thai art, and magic tricks by a quick change performer. The Oriental décor, created in sync with the destination, featured the most recognizable Thai elements spiced up with a bright colour palette -- creating an eye-catching yet classy mash-up.
Anil Kapoor Graces the Mphasis Annual R & R 2016 Dubai - By Geometry Global Encompass Network Mphasis hosted its 7th Annual Rewards & Recognition Program at the Conrad Hotel, Dubai from July 11 to 13. With a theme of ‘Unleashing the Best of the Next’, the Mphasis Annual R & R 2016 Dubai was executed by Geometry Global Encompass Network for the 2nd year in succession. Rajat Vats, Client Servicing Senior Manager, Encompass Events said, “Dubai was a challenge considering the city was resuming work after a 10-day long EID holiday. Teams from both sides put in a fabulous effort to make this event possible. It was great to see that all the delegates enjoyed and the work put in by the team was well appreciated. We look forward to take this relation a long way.”
Rajat Vats Client Servicing Sr. Manager Encompass Events
Salt Pulls Off 2-Day Conference for PRI at Kingdom of Dreams and JW Marriott Salt Experiences and Management delivered the 2-day Pernod-Ricard India (PRI) Conference, which took place at the Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon on July 14 and at JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity on July 15. Salt built on the concepts ‘Exceeding’, ‘Excellence’ and ‘Expertise’ to coin the theme ‘Xcelerate’. From Day One the guests were made to experience and immerse in the true spirit of India at the Kingdom of Dreams, into the next day’s business and motivational sessions. Day Two began on a starry note with Navjot Singh Siddhu as one of the motivational speakers. The evening ended on a musical note as KK wooed the audience with his power-packed and mesmerizing songs.
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/ IN FOCUS Sanofi India ‘Super Achievers Awards’ is an annual awards property by brand Sanofi that recognizes and acknowledges the top performers from the brand side for the year. The property being in its 10th edition had to be grander than ever this time, and hence a multi-agency pitch was called on by Sanofi to select an agency that can organize this extravaganza at a foreign locale.
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Mantra Events Manages the 10th Edition of Sanofi India ‘Super Achievers Awards’
Mantra Events won the pitch and was handed over the mandate to organise the event in Bangkok, Thailand. The event was held on August 21 at Hotel Avani, Riverside. Talking about the brief received for the event, Pathik Chandarana, Jt. Director, Mantra Events & Promotions said, “This year the brand wanted the stage design to be more dynamic & technology driven and hence, we designed a full LED set-up where all the LED screens were hung from the truss. There were about 430 guests, and generally when you do an event for so many people with roundtable seating, the guests sitting behind don’t feel connected to the stage. Also, there were about 230 winners and we had to complete the entire
“We also used a drone camera for the video shoot. To make the LED look more dynamic we had customized various looks for the screen. When guests entered the venue, what astonished them was how we had created an animated backdrop of Bangkok’s skyline on the LED.” Rajiv Madhani Jt. Director, Mantra Events & Promotions
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“This year the brand wanted the stage design to be more dynamic & technology driven and hence, we designed a full LED set-up where all the LED screens were hung from the truss.” Pathik Chandarana
Jt. Director, Mantra Events & Promotions
show with awards, entertainment, and the speech in less than 3 hrs. To manage all this in time the winners had to be seated at a place from where they could quickly reach the stage. So, we designed the stage in a triangular shape and revamped the seating style totally. Sharing other highlights of the event Rajiv Madhani, Jt. Director, Mantra Events & Promotions added, “We also used a drone camera for the video shoot. To make the LED look more dynamic we had customized various looks for the screen. When guests entered the venue, what astonished them was how we had created an animated backdrop of Bangkok’s skyline on the LED.” The entertainment for the evening constituted of an aerial act performance by Thailand’s Got Talent champions of the year 2002. Additionally, various other dance acts (Flamenco, Hawaiian, etc.) spruced up the evening. The audience at the event was also engaged through photo-ops with various local props in the pre-function area. Siddharth Kannan was the host for the evening and he managed to bring his A-game to the event once again, thoroughly entertaining the audience with his one-liners and wit.
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/ IN FOCUS On August 8 and 9, Professional Beauty India took place at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi where the show was launched in 2012. Later, on September 26 and 27, Mumbai played host to the annual event as well. With 312+ exhibitors, over 750 VIP’s, 40 international artists, 30,000 trade visitors and around 400 crores’ worth of business done so far, this year’s Professional Beauty Expos were bigger, better and packed with ideas. The demo stage at each edition was packed as top hair and make-up artists shared the secrets of the trade; Renee Melek from Wahl, Vipul Chudasama and Bina Punjabi from Ikonic, Jawed Habib from Jawed Habib Salons, Tara Moghaddam from Kryolan, Reema Gupta from Olaplex and Shivani Sharma from Lure Nails, amongst others enticed and entertained the awe-inspired audience. The A-listers of the beauty and hairdressing industry came together alongside other industry professionals, brands, manufacturers, and
Beauty All the Way! The Mumbai and Delhi editions of Professional Beauty India took place in August and September, respectively, witnessing 312+ exhibitors, over 750 VIP’s, 40 international artists, 30,000 trade visitors and around 400 crores’ worth of business. suppliers to contribute to the development and growth of this industry. With product launches, B2B meetings, educational seminars, make-up and hair competitions, top exhibiting brands and show exclusive discounts, Professional Beauty India was the perfect destination for industry experts and buyers alike. The Legacy of Professional Beauty India When Professional Beauty India launched in India, its aim was to assist Indian and international brands develop and expand in the market, explore new opportunities and reach potential buyers with the help of shows, which still remains its USP. Elaborating on what sets Professional Beauty India apart from other beauty exhibitions in the country, Vikas Vij, Managing Director, Professional Beauty India says, “Though Professional Beauty started off in India 5 years back, we as a beauty trade exhibition have over 30 years of experience across six countries. Being the only authentic international beauty and cosmetics trade expo in the country, we have a good understanding about market trends, how they evolve over time and how 60
different people and cultures respond to these developments. With the help of our global teams and our constant quest to help brands launch in the Indian markets, we’re able to replicate the international success of our shows, which makes us the most successful and raved about beauty exhibition in the country.” India’s Market for Beauty Exhibitions Over the last few years, the Indian Beauty & Wellness Industry has evolved leaps and bounds. Corporates such as HUL, P&G, etc. are now also displaying interest in entering the Indian scene, along with the traditional importers and distributors who laid the early foundations of this industry. Professional Beauty and other expos have been significant contributors to this development and growth over the last 5 years. They act as the key platform to bring the industry together — from students to CEO’s of major salon chains and manufacturers. The expo becomes an annual opportunity for Professional Beauty’s exhibitors to introduce new products and technologies, and thus educating buyers on the latest trends hitting the market. Vij observes, “Change has been a constant with us and the markets we’ve operated in. The beauty and wellness industry is becoming more organised, professional and expanding rapidly because of stricter regulations, more educated and discerning clients and international brands entering the market. We came in with a 5 year vision to become the main meeting place for the industry, giving India what it lacked before. And we’ve achieved that, allowing the industry to expand and grow accordingly.” Challenges in Execution Catering to a wide range of audience profiles — from skin experts to hairstylists and makeup artists to spa professionals — takes the top spot on Professional Beauty’s major challenges while putting together an expo for the Indian beauty industry. Vij elaborates, “Communication is tricky when advertising to such a wide audience and we finetune it for the different profiles, who cut across various parts of India — from major metros such as Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai to small towns such as Nashik, Guwahati, Raipur and Coimbatore.” In the case of metros, people are well aware about technology and stay updated with industry trends; however Professional Beauty India feels there is a need to educate people from small towns. And so shows aim to bridge this gap. Being the leading international show in the country, the challenge extends to educating buyers and sellers about how to productively make use of exhibitions to benefit and grow their businesses. New Marketing Goals of the 2016 Edition With the vision to constantly introduce new ideas and innovations, Professional Beauty India
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introduced makeup and nail competitions in their shows. The Delhi Show saw two national level competitions for hair and makeup artists — hosted by AIHBA (All India Hair and Beauty Association), plus VTCT (Vocational Vocational Training Charitable Trust) and Make-Up Studio. The Mumbai expo saw global hair show Salon International making its India debut as ‘Salon India’, where top Indian and International hair artists delivered exhilarating hair shows and educational seminars on cutting and styling trends to “inspire today’s hairdresser”. Mumbai also hosted the very first nail competition in the region — The Nail Premiere League — with its focus on congregating and recognising talented nail technicians in the country. Vij says, “We at Professional Beauty continually strive to advance the beauty industry by providing a medium for professionals to come together, showcase their skills, avail exclusive discounts, keep updated with the market trends and sharpen their client offerings, and because of that we constantly look to introduce new ideas and innovations. Our major goal for this year was to further provide young talented professionals a platform to showcase their skills and talents in front of expert professionals. All in all, it’s an exciting year for us at Professional Beauty India and we can’t wait for our audiences to see what we have up our sleeves for them.” Sponsors The Title Partner for the expo was Wahl India, the world’s leading clipper company and the Associate Partner was Ikonic, the cutting edge provider of professional hair styling tools and accessories and
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hairstylists and nail technicians from across the country to compete against each other for the top spots in the competitions. Sponsors were joined by leading Indian and international brands like Aroma Magic, Cuccio, It’s Skin, Looks Academy, Macadamia, Make-up Revolution, Nubar, Olaplex, Shahnaz Husaain, Aryanveda, Olivia, Temptu and many more who exhibited their products and innovations at the show alongside LTA who officially launched their Delhi training academy at Professional Beauty. Plans to Expand
“We came in with a 5 year vision to become the main meeting place for the industry, giving India what it lacked before. And we’ve achieved that, allowing the industry to expand and grow accordingly.” Vikas Vij
Managing Director, Professional Beauty India
Kryolan, the award-winning professional make-up brand as the expo’s Official Make-Up Partner. The expo also saw the hosting of AIHBA’s North India Hair and Beauty Awards, while VTCT and Make-Up Studio hosted their annual make-up competition bringing together hundreds of participants, all in all a fantastic opportunity for make-up artists,
Launched in London in 1989, Professional Beauty is one of the largest beauty trade exhibitions in United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa and now in India. Having mastered the art of bringing India’s Beauty & Wellness Industry together, Professional Beauty India is all set to expand further. Vij says, “Globally, we have exhibitions in U.K., Ireland, South Africa and Middle East. In India, we have four shows in metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata) and over the next couple of years are looking to expand to more cities in India and across South Asia. Our aim is to facilitate the growth and development of this very young industry across the region moving it much closer to fulfilling its full potential. Later this year, we’ll be announcing our new shows for 2017, so keep your eyes peeled for that!”
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The rapid expansion of digital and social media has altered Content Marketing in unexpected ways, presenting new opportunities for brands, publishers, agency partners and independent creators alike — CMS Asia 2016 offered a platform to explore these, as well as touch upon softer aspects like Quality of Content and the Art of Storytelling for today’s consumers who access multiple platforms simultaneously.
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CMS ASIA 2016 A Content-Rich Experience Speakers engaged 300+ delegates at the third edition of Content Marketing Summit Asia 2016 in Mumbai, while Awards were Handed Out in 5 Categories.
Content Marketing Summit (CMS) Asia concluded its 3rd annual edition on September 23 at Trident BKC, Mumbai with over 300 delegates from Marketing, Publishing & Agency communities. The conference had around 30 speakers with back to back sessions scheduled through the day, including 3 panels where brands, publishers and agency partners discussed the need of content marketing to reach new-age consumers. This was the first time this conference was organized in Mumbai after two successful editions in New Delhi. In the last two editions, CMS Asia, had over 80 speakers from across the globe — from agencies to publishers and practitioners, content producers, and marketers in multiple categories. Leading content marketing companies like Taboola, Outbrain, Yahoo, Wisden, Zirca & ACMA have continually supported the event since its debut edition in Delhi. Speakers at CMS Asia 2016 Things were set on fire right from the word go. Amarjit Batra, CEO of OLX and the first keynote speaker spoke of how content has become the most important element in marketing today. Sandeep Bhushan of Facebook also emphasized how now is the perfect time to explore content marketing. Flipkart’s Senjam Raj Sekhar mesmerized the audience with Flipkart’s way of storytelling. Using Salman Khan’s dialogues from blockbusters, Ashish Patil of Yashraj Films demonstrated how to be a ‘Sultan’ of content marketing. Rohtash Mal of EM3 Agri Services, the second keynote speaker encouraged marketing professionals to find a strong purpose to their marketing activities. The conference hall was full right from the Summit Chairperson RP Singh’s Opening Address. With active social media conversations on throughout the day, CMS Asia’s hash tag #CMSAsia2016 was one of the most trending topics of the day.
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CMS Asia Awards The CMS Asia Awards across 5 categories were also announced on the same day. Y-Films from YRF walked away with Content Marketing Agency of the Year & Content Marketing Innovator of the Year Awards. Brooke Bond’s Six Pack Band was declared Content Marketing Campaign of the Year, which was also created by Y-Films. Content Marketing Brand of the Year was awarded to Nescafe, while comedian Kapil Sharma was declared Content Marketing Personality of the Year. The Response The organisers received the response they expected, and plan to grow the property in the future as well. “I am personally satisfied with the response to 3rd edition as we continue to raise the bar every year. It’s a great feeling as the producer of this event that we were able to live up to the expectations of attendees. Unlike other events, we focus only on great content with almost zero sponsored sessions so that CMS Asia becomes a platform to learn for every one rather than a platform to sell services. We have also ensured for the last 3 years that no complimentary passes are issued assuming that there are people who are always willing to pay for good content,” said RP Singh, Conference Producer & Chairperson, while announcing that the next edition will be held at Delhi NCR. On associating with CMS, Hemant Arora, Business Head - Branded Content, Sr. VP & Head Sales News Cluster, Times Network added, “We at Times Network Content Marketing were really glad to associate with CMS Asia 2016. It stood out as an event and a gathering of those who have recognized or are aspirational of the fact that Content Marketing is the next stage of traditional marketing. I was personally impressed with the choice of topics, the expert speakers & an appreciative audience. The event was organized meticulously and it delivered on all counts. We hope to continue our partnership with CMS Asia in future as well because we jointly feel that Content Marketing as a discipline is here to grow in times to come.” The conference had Sirez as Principal Partner, while it was Powered By ET Now. VML tied up with the event as the Associate Partner and there were more than 15 other partners on board.
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Amarjit Batra, CEO, OLX
Ashish Patil, Yashraj Films
Brand Panel Discussion
Gautam Bhimani & Sambit Bal
Hemant Arora, Business Head-Branded Content, Sr. VP & Head Sales News Cluster, Times Network
RP Singh, Conference Chairperson
Sandeep Bhushan, Facebook
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Round-up: The 600+ Participant MICE Programme With most corporate houses today working hard towards converting themselves into a multinational giant, their choice of an ideal MICE destination too has evolved from smaller domestic destinations to exotic and unexplored locales around the world. Here we bring to you, lessons from the 3 recently concluded Incentives and Conferences involving a large number of diverse participants.
Fountainhead takes 300 Ultratech Dealers + Spouses to Vienna, Zagreb and Venice
through various activities like The UltraChef Contest, Bollywood Tambola, Suron Ke Champion, etc. At a grand celebratory event in Zagreb, the renowned iPad magician Christoph Wilke amazed the guests with his tech illusions while multifaceted performers of UltraTech’s Got Talent set the stage on fire. The celebrations continued at Vienna with a mega entertainment night featuring the best of Indian and International talent. Hosted by actor Gaurav Kapoor, the felicitation ceremony saw an array of
Fountainhead MKTG, the experiential marketing agency from Dentsu Aegis Network, recently conceptualized and executed a 9-day long incentive trip in Europe for 300 UltraTech Channel Partners along with their spouses. Having been successfully executed the events for UltraTech for the past 4 years, Fountainhead once again bagged the multi-agency pitch due to its creative ideas and expertise. Titled as ‘UltraTech Champion of Champions’, the trip featured the class of Europe and the essence of India. Don’t Hesitate to Mix Indian and International Entertainment This incentive trip is an excellent example of how choosing exotic locales as destinations doesn’t mean you cannot have any of the tried and tested entertainment that goes down so well with Indian audiences. While the exotic locale does offer a great back-drop, plenty of sight-seeing opportunities, as well as novel entertainment acts that are a pleasant change, by no means should an agency feel the theme or the setting of the trip will be ruined by acts from India, or entertainment that’s essentially Indian. This trip combined both kinds really well. The three-city tour, covering Venice (Italy), Zagreb (Croatia) and Vienna (Austria), started on September 9 with a Venetian carnival-style welcome for the partners. Along with visits to famous sights, the partners were also engaged 48 64
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Payal Babbar, AVP – Brand Communication, UltraTech Cement Ltd.
performances by as many as 50 artists including Ganesh Hegde, Benny Dayal and Neeti Mohan who brought alive the magic of Bollywood, while international acts by Britain’s Got Talent fame Pyroterra and Signature left the audience spellbound. It was one of the few times when the continent of Europe witnessed so many Bollywood stars together at a corporate show. Fountainhead MKTG set a benchmark by transforming a conventional exhibition hall into a grand celebratory setting with a massive stage of 140 ft. Additionally, a customized digital app was also created to keep all the guests up to date about the line-up of activities. Payal Babbar, AVP – Brand Communication, UltraTech Cement Ltd. said, “Fountainhead MKTG helped deliver our landmark and the most esteemed event of the year – Champion of Champions, the International Stockists Conference 2016. Fountainhead was responsible for the all-round engagement of all Invitees
which spanned from meetings, day activities and contests through the day and events in the evening. The five events executed by Fountainhead MKTG looked fabulous and the team ensured a great audience experience from start to finish. In terms of planning and execution, the Fountainhead team brought to the table great ideas and expertise for the events and guest engagement. The entire team was involved right from the beginning and worked as a part of our own team, seamlessly. Despite working round the clock, the full team always had a lot of energy and were always willing to explore new ideas to create a better experience, despite many challenges. I thank their whole team for helping us deliver an amazing experience and many memories that will be remembered by our channel partners for a long time.”
Tamarind Manages 900 CREDAI Association Members in Shanghai The 16th National Convention (NATCON) of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) was hosted in Shanghai, China from August 3 to 5. The annual conference had about 900 delegates and was put together by Tamarind Global at Kerry Hotel Pudong. India’s top real estate magnets, bankers, government officials, media professionals and film personalities attended the 3-day event. Customise Your Setups Just because your trip is taking place in a new country doesn’t mean you should use venues exactly as they come. Go about planning your setup the same way that we transform venues in India to suit our requirements. Further, have great partners at your destination to help with flawless execution from arrival to departure. The setup for the CREDAI conference saw a massive stage with 4 projector screens and 2 LED screens of 190 feet in total built to ensure uniform visibility for all guests. Also, an exhibition area
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Engage4more honours 850 top-performers of SBI Life Insurance in Thailand
Mahesh Shirodkar Managing Director, Tamarind Global
with a setup of 47 octonorm and fabricated stalls was built in the adjoining ballroom. Speaking about the experience, Mahesh Shirodkar, Managing Director, Tamarind Global said, “For Tamarind Global, the journey commenced way back in January 2016, starting with jaunt trips to Shanghai, choosing the perfect hotel that would play host to the event of this large turnout and selecting the perfect highlight for the gala evening for the convention. In the months leading from January, all the tireless work finally showed in the flawless manner in which the event was executed, be it the meet & greet as the delegates stepped down into the 2 airports of Shanghai, smooth baggage handling, checkingin groups of people, as they arrived into any of the hotels, registrations for the meet and handing over bags and badges, as well as ensuring the taste of Indian food in all meals. The delegates were also provided with enough options of their preferred cuisine and assistance in navigating around Shanghai, including checkout and airport drop-offs.”
engage4more executed a unique extravaganza in Thailand – Jewels of The Crown, for 850 topperforming certified insurance agents of SBI Life Insurance. The 850 agents are certified by Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), an independent association of the world’s leading life-insurance and financial services professionals. Keep Things Grand with Gala Evenings and Grand Ceremonies Don’t lose sight of the fact that your client has opted for an exotic venue in order to make a grand gesture. This has to be reflected in the activities and events planned out as well, which can’t be restricted to sight-seeing and other visits. One of the best ways to deliver on this is to host Gala evenings and Ceremonies that feature an array of entertainment that highlights the purpose of the trip. To commensurate the achievements of the group, engage4more ensured a gala celebration that lasted over 2 days in Pattaya and culminated in a grand closing ceremony on August 11 at the Siam Niramit Grand Theatre in Bangkok, which has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest proscenium arch. engage4more managed the entire event on a turnkey basis, right from identity creation for the contest, creation of all marketing communication collaterals, audio visuals, event logistics
Nishant Parashar Founder and Director, engage4more
management and ensuring that the entire experience was in sync with the theme. One of the highlights was the ceremony beginning with representative agents from the 14 circles performing an energetic march-past holding their respective flags to the beats of their regional music. Nishant Parashar, Founder and Director, engage4more added, “We were given the mandate of making a million-dollar experience for these esteemed agents certified by the Million Dollar Round Table Association. My team went all out considering the importance of the event and I am so glad to see the quality of project delivery, and a happy client with happy guests”.
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Lamp lighting ceremony with the Advisory Board and Aaditya Thackeray
Nightlife Scene Riyaaz Amlani (Moderator), Priyank Sukhija, Shivkaran Singh, Nevil Timbadia, Pankil Shah, Manu Chandra, Carlton Braganza, Khodu Irani, Imrun Sethi
International Speaker-Alan Miller Night Time Industries Association, London
International Speaker-Bradley Drummond Speaking at India Nightlife Convention & Awards 2016
India’s Nightlife is Here to Stay! The success of the debut edition of the India Nightlife Convention and Awards is evident in the sponsors and partners the organisers had on board, the excellent speakers, the presence of top industry professionals, and the great reviews that followed the event. The first ever India Nightlife Convention and Awards (INCA) was held on September 25 and 26, 2016. This intellectual property of Kickstart Entertainment and an initiative of NRAI was created to bring together and recognize one of India’s most vibrant and fastest growing industries - Nightlife. Both days of INCA were graced by the presence of esteemed professionals, politicians and celebrities who commended the Nightlife industry for its contributions to the country’s economy. Day One began with a customary lighting of the lamp followed by a dynamic opening speech by Riyaaz Amlani, President, NRAI. Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray, the keynote rhetorician at the convention, came up on stage next and discussed his plans to help revive the nightlife of the city through amending necessary laws and lobbying for Mumbai 24X7. Bollywood star Imran Khan who challenged the state government 5 years ago by filing a Public 48 66
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Interest Litigation (PIL), expressed his support for the improvement of the nightlife culture on the second day of the convention. SPEAKERS The two-day convention saw key speakers from the industry covering various interesting aspects of Nightlife. Riyaaz Amlani, President, NRAI said, “India is a country with 701 million individuals under the age of 30 and need a figure to represent their thoughts and views. I am greatly encouraged by the positive step being taken by the Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray supporting our industry and the youth, lobbying for 24X7 nightlife in Mumbai. This is the necessary impetus required to take our industry to the next level in terms of revenue, tourism and safety and security of the nightlife patrons.” The key speakers at the convention were Bradley Drummond, Solutions Manager, Harman Nightlife; Ewan Gunn, Diageo Global Whisky Master; Alan Miller, Chairman & Founder,
Night Time Industries Association; and Lutz Leichsenring, Club Commission Berlin. KEY INDUSTRY INSIGHTS Through the 2 days, INCA hosted panel discussions and had individuals share their stories. The convention covered various topics like differentiation of products, programming sessions about the live music scene, sound solutions for existing and new places, discussions about crafted beer and how liquor brands can help you build your business, pop up clubs, the rising trend of speakeasies and the new Indian palette. International speakers took delegates through how to create a creative nightlife footprint, and how to set parameters for all industry partners, how sound and lighting systems around the world are being used to make a difference to each space or nightclub. INCA was a great step away from the glitz and glam of what nightlife seems to be about, instilling in all attendees that it’s the work and
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David DeSouza winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at India Nightlife Convention & Awards 2016
Riyaaz Amlani, Lutz Leichsenring, Aman Anand and Jay Singh at India Nightlife Convention & Awards 2016
Social winning the Bar of the Year at India Nightlife Convention & Awards 2016
Trilogy winning the Best Nightclub at India Nightlife Convention & Awards 2016
teams behind the venues that run the places and the nightlife scene of our cities. THE AWARDS The convention was followed by the awards on the night of September 26, recognizing the best from the bar and nightlife industry. Seen attending the awards were leading professionals from the nightlife industry, while a hint of glamour was lent to the event by stars and celebrities who were seen cheering their favourite bars, nightclubs and music acts. Spotted on the red carpet were Varun Dhawan, Purab Kholi, Dino Morea, Arjan Bajwa, Siddharth Kapoor, Minissha Lamba, Mohommed Morani, Devraj Sanyal, Anu Malik, Sameer Kocchar, Bosco Martis, Narayani Shastri, Ken Ghosh, Vikram Raizada, Carlton Braganza, Pankil Shah, DJ Clement, Zorawar Kalra, Rajeev Samant, Vicky Ratnani, Ryan and Keenan Tham, Reshma Merchant, Manasi Scott, Tanuj Garg, Akashdeep Sabir, Fernando Pinto, Priyank Sukhija Freyan Bhathena, Nitesh Chhapru, Karan Bawa, Ash Chandler, Natasha Suri, Tapur Chaterjee, Salil Chaturvedi, Owen Roncon, Sameer Kochchar, Narayani Shastri and many more. The event was hosted by Kubra Sait and Nitin Mirani.
Also seen present were members of the Advisory Board including Riyaaz Amlani, President, NRAI & CEO/MD, Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt Ltd; AD Singh, Owner, Olive Bar & Kitchen Pvt Ltd; Dilip Joshi, Consultant for Restaurants, bars, nightclubs &amp, Lounges; Kishore DF, Director, Another Drop Hospitality; David D’Souza, Owner, Tito’s Goa; and Jay Singh, CoFounder and Executive Director, JSM Corporation Pvt Ltd; Gaurav Gupta, Danke Exim India Pvt Ltd; and Aman Anand, Director INCA / Kickstart Entertainment. After the Awards, the guests proceeded to party till the early hours of the morning, dancing to the DJ’s eclectic tunes. RESPONSE AND TAKING THE PROPERTY FORWARD Talking about having organised the first edition of INCA, Aman Anand, Director, Kickstart Entertainment said, “We are proud to have presented a huge prospect to the industry enthusiasts, helping them gain insights from the personal experiences of Indian and Internationally renowned speakers, as well as felicitating the best in the bar and nightlife industry. The event attracted attendees from across India and assisted the nightlife peers to connect and develop a larger and more focused social network.”
On the response to it and plans for growth, Nemish Sanghvi, COO, Kickstart Entertainment added, “The response was overwhelming; to see 350 people ready for a business convention on Sunday morning was outstanding. The business of nightlife is growing and we as a platform will only be there to consolidate, gratify and adhere to best practices across the genre. INCA 2017 is going to be bigger, brighter and better! “ Talking of growing the property, Anand added, “These were baby steps to start for the first year but with few learnings and trimming up of mistakes, we are sure to be the best the country has ever seen in the nightlife space. We are going to add exhibition focused areas for brands related to the nightlife business along with mentorship programmes. We are also coming up with something very interesting for DJ’s.” PARTNERS AND SPONSORS Appreciating partners and sponsors of the first ever INCA, Anand and Sanghvi said, “We would like to thank all our sponsors who supported us in our endeavours, especially in Year One: Danke, Johnnie Walker - The Journey, Harman, Dine Out, Miss Malini, Universal Music, Aspri Spirits, Marim bula, Ernst & Young, id8 media Solutions, A Brand New Day, Neo Juris, Rain or Shine, Alpha Q, Headset Productions, EVENTFAQS, and Chandon.
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Danke Presents Being Beertastic-Rahul Singh-The Beer Cafe, Gaurav Gupta-Danke, Sandeep Singh-Bira, Rahul Mehra-Gateway Brewery, Singh-Bira, Rahul Mehra-Gateway Brewery
Venue Programming-Kenneth Lobo, Sohail Arora-KRUNK, Tej BrarOML, Naveen Deshpande-Mixtape, Dev Bhatia- UNMUTE, Sandy Singh-Euriska, Singh- Bira, Rahul Mehra-Gateway Brewery
AD SIngh
Aaditya Thackeray
RAVING REVIEWS “I’ve known Aman for over a decade now, ever since he waxed lyrical about a new music festival he was creating at Percept. That festival, of course, became the World famous ‘Sunburn’. It was therefore no surprise to see the success of the India Nightlife Convention and Awards earlier this week. He seems to have an amazing ability to create fabulous new IP’s and then to bring in the best possible people to help them become successful. The Awards party on Monday evening was to my mind one of the best parties I’ve been to all year in India. Some of the best, funniest and most entrepreneurial people that I’ve seen together in one room for many a year. I am absolutely certain that the event is going to go on and become one of the largest and most important events in its industry vertical, not to mention one of the best parties of the year.” - Martin Da Costa. Founder & CEO - 70 EMG “I’ve known Aman since he was a DJ in Goa. He then started his career with us at Fountainhead and went on to chart his journey. I believe this is the start of something big. These awards go a long way in legitimising the nightlife business. I’m so proud of the way this was conceived and executed. Finally I can tell my mom what I do.” - Owen Roncon, Co-Founder, Fountainhead Marketing “For a country buzzing with entertainment we need to recognise the pioneers. The convention and awards are a perfect platform for the industry.” - Roshan Abbas Founder / Director Encompass “Way to go! Wish you and INCA all the very best. Much needed and awaited recognition for an industry that works 24x7 to make everyone happy.” - Harinder Singh, Managing Director, Percept
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Riyaaz Amlani, President of NRAI, Actor Varun Dhawan and Aman Anand Director at Kickstart Entertainment at India Nightlife Convention & Awards 2016
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BRIEFS
INDUSTRY WATCH
Wizcraft Commemorates 27-Year Journey with an All New Brand Identity After 27 years of creating world-class experiences with dedication and passion, Wizcraft welcomes a new phase by launching their new logo, which has the colour blue all over, along with the multi-colored star that represents vibrant energy, which has always been an integral part of its identity. Founder Directors of Wizcraft – Andre Timmins, Sabbas Joseph and Viraf Sarkari jointly commented, “We are at the threshold of the future and the time has come to take the first step towards embracing the limitless possibilities that lie before us. Our new logo represents the diversity, dynamics, confidence, reliability and trust, and coolness that is synonymous with the brand philosophy of Wizcraft.”
Andre Timmins, Sabbas Joseph and Viraf Sarkari Founder Directors, Wizcraft
ThinkXQ Debuts with Disney Merchandise Launch for Setner’s Orka Brand in Bangalore ThinkXQ, the latest entrant into the Indian Events & Experiential Marketing Industry, made a successful debut with the Disney Merchandise Launch for Setner’s Orka brand of Bean Bags, at The Lalit Ashok in Bangalore. Led from the front by Akshay Chawla, Former Vice President at Showtime Group, the ThinkXQ team resonates his enthusiastic energy, which translates into their work as well.
Chandan Kumar CEO and Founder Setner Group
“The team was always present with great ideas and managed critical aspects of the conference like Presentation Content, Merchandise planning and placement, Hotel and Guest coordination, very effectively. I would recommend ThinkXQ to all my clients and partners and look forward to working with them for our international events very soon,” said Chandan Kumar, CEO and Founder, Setner Group.
Shashank Gawade Appointed as Executive Vice President, Percept Activ Percept One has recently announced the appointment of Shashank Gawade as Executive Vice President, Percept Activ, with effect from September 6. Gawade’s mandate is to create a new benchmark of innovation and creativity in the marcom space that drives tangible value for brands including Percept One clients. Gawade said, “I am ecstatic to contribute to Percept One at this point of my career and build a holistic marketing communication services delivery and strengthening the experiential marketing arm at Percept Activ. There’s a lot for us to offer by synergizing services from the Percept bouquet, to drive value for brands that we work with.”
Shashank Gawade Executive Vice President PerceptActiv
Costa Cruises Enter Indian Market; Homeport Cruises Start from Mumbai in December 2016 European cruising company Costa Cruises announced the launch of their Costa neoClassica in India at a press conference in Mumbai on July 18. The homeport cruises will debut later this year, with a series of weekly sailings from Mumbai to Goa, Cochin, Maldives, and Colombo, between Dec 16, 2016 and Mar 18, 2017.
Buhdy Bok President of
Costa Group Asia
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Speaking about the launch, Buhdy Bok, President of Costa Group Asia said, “We are delighted to bring cruising to Indians at their doorstep. For many travellers, the holiday often starts after some sort of a long journey. Now like never before, Indians will have the opportunity to start holidaying — right from their door-step — from India’s largest metropolis, Mumbai.”
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‘STORY’ of Passion, Leadership and Proliferate Offerings By: Shantanu Jain In an industry that thrives on change and dynamism, there is something so comfortably unvarying about the experiential marketing agency STORY and what it offers to its target audiences. We realized it the minute we entered the company’s office in Naraina; a place brimming with thumping energy and positive synergy at the same time, and we wondered what makes STORY one of the top event agencies of the country? Was it the swanky interiors of the office or the happy and contented faces of the employees we met? Well, the answers came unraveling as we met Amit Gupta, Director and Business Head of STORY. One look at the honcho and you will realize he is completely different from other event managers in the country. His calmness as he takes us for a tour of his office speaks a lot — the agency is not led by him but instead by sheer creativity and satisfaction, one that can only be achieved if you are driven by passion and nothing else. We begin hurling questions at him; Story has successfully completed 10 years in the event industry. What do you think distinguishes you from your competitors? Amit takes a long breath and blurts out with a satisfied smile, “Creativity.” He adds, “Events is not a business for us. In fact it is a medium to showcase our creativity and that is what we are known for amongst our clients. The fact that our clients have been rock steady with us since the very beginning and that we have never felt the need to have a business development team says a lot about our work. We are a creative agency before being an event agency and that is what our clients love about us.” THRIVING ON TECHNOLOGY Interestingly, creativity is not the only thing that STORY is popular for. A deep dive into most of their previous events will tell you how the agency has constantly innovated with technology to create never seen before experiences at events. The agency boasts of in-house technology capabilities and has also customized tech innovations for multiple brands over the years.
Speaking on this, Amit says, “We realized the importance of technology 3 years back and have never looked back since then. In the modern marketing ecosystem you need to serve newness to your audiences and that can only be achieved through appropriate technological innovations that can create stunning moments at your events. We are constantly in the process of creating newer technologies for events as we fervently believe that is the future.” THE WAY FORWARD Additionally, STORY has also increased its offerings to match the demands of a modern day marketer. The agency is currently working on collaborations with the best in neighboring industries and also expanding operations into international markets like US & Europe. “Gone are the days when one would go to a marketer and say we have everything to offer you just for the greed of picking up that business or open a new vertical everyday to meet the market demands. Today the agency is smart but the client is smarter. We at STORY have done a lot of collaborations this year, and area of collaboration is tourism & travel, tech integration, digital and PR agency and a reputed exhibition organizer. The idea is to provide more and best possible services to our clients without compromising on the quality or making false claims or retrenching your own employees for financial gains”, adds Amit. IP’S DRIVEN BY PASSION Yes, employees are the backbone of any organization and the work culture at STORY celebrates this phenomenon. In fact the agency has launched multiple event IPs, which are a result of the inherent passion of its employees. Amit elaborates on the same by saying, “Every person has the right to live life the way he or she wants to and everyone has a hobby or dream that they are most passionate about. We at STORY wanted to create IPs and realized that any project is driven by zealousness and hence, if an employee is passionate about singing then he is the best person to drive an IP about singing. This way, his
“The fact that our clients have been rock steady with us since the very beginning and that we have never felt the need to have a business development team says a lot about our work. We are a creative agency before being an event agency and that is what our clients love about us.” Amit Gupta
Director and Business Head of STORY
work benefits him and the agency as well. With the same thought process we have launched two new IPs called White Collar Rock and White Collar Cricket. Both properties are doing tremendously well and we now look forward to creating dance and art-related event properties.” Completing 10 years in the events industry is no ordinary feat and we asked Amit if there was a piece of advice he would give to budding professionals in the industry. Amit politely smiles and adds, “You really can’t gauge your capacity on the basis of what you have done before; you have to believe that you are limitless - it’s only then you will be able to deliver limitless experiences.” He says so and pauses to take a sip of water, as we wrap up this fantastic tête-à-tête with him.
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INDUSTRY WATCH / EEMA ROUNDUP
Breaking Barriers with the Power of Shared Learning and Mutual Growth By: Shantanu Jain
Siddhartha Ganerwala
EEMA South Team
The past few months have seen a lot of development in and around the Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA). Not only did a new leadership team take charge of the industry body, but also EEMA South Factor in Hyderabad gave everyone a chance to learn from the experiences of top industry specialists from South India. And with details of EEMAX Global 2016 already out, things couldn’t be more exciting. In this feature, we give you the lowdown on The EEMA South Factor, details on EEMAX Global 2016 and a tête-à-tête with EEMA President, Sabbas Joseph. EEMA SOUTH FACTOR The 3rd edition of the EEMA South Factor was organized on July 23 and 24, 2016 at the Lahari Resorts in Hyderabad. The industry forum saw top event and wedding planners, artists, and supply chain vendors from 48 72
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Sagar Pingali
South India come together on one platform to learn from and network with peers. The convention was flagged off with a keynote address by EEMA President Sabbas Joseph who highlighted the huge opportunities in South India for the events industry. He said, “South is the land filled with big opportunity for the events industry as you have the best convention centres and the most distinguished audiences. One film in South India can earn so much from just one state than a Hindi film would make from the entire country. The passion, honesty, sincerity and love you see in the output from the South is truly unique.” EEMA South Factor also saw leaders of the South Events Industry discuss and deliberate on issues that concern the fraternity as a whole. Panel discussions on subjects like ‘The Growing Criticality of Safety Management in Events’, ‘Importance of Event Insurance’,
‘Brand India and its Potential for Events’, ‘Marathons & Runs - Their Growth and Opportunities’, ‘Music Licensing - Untangling the Jumble’ and ‘The Opportunities in LIVE Arena’ were organized. In attendance were top industry leaders like Warren D’Souza, Founder and Managing Director, Sound. com; Gaurang Swarge, Director, Natura Outdoor Education & Training Solutions; Cherish Tota, Director, Total Recall; Noted speaker and Author Birad Rajaram Yajnik; Ankur Kalra, MD, Vibgyor Brand Services; Lavin Uthappa, Managing Director, Liquidspace Entertainment; Vijay Amritraj, Co-Founder, Voila Events; Naidu Darapaneni, Co-Founder & CEO, MeraEvents; Anant Srivastava, DGM, Sony Music; Rakhi Kankaria, Director, Rachnaoutsav Events; Siddhartha Ganeriwala, Director, Aura Integrated; and Sagar Pingali, Director, Cat Pro Events and others.
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INDUSTRY BRAND WATCH MARKETING / EEMA/ ROUNDUP IN FOCUS ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE PRESIDENT The EEMA All Hands Meet organized on July 30 at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi saw the members of the new leadership team of the Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) come together on one platform to discuss ideas on shaping the future of the Indian events industry. In an exclusive conversation with ExM, Sabbas Joseph, President, EEMA talked about the expectations from the new leadership team, working towards driving in the best talent in the industry and his message to the entire events fraternity. What are your expectations from the new leadership team at EEMA? The new leadership team at EEMA
Sabbas Joseph
has come in with a fresh perspective and it is a more energized perspective of what the future of events is going to be all about. The growth and development that the event industry has seen in the last few years, we would like that to be scaled up 5 times over in the next 2 years and that’s the momentum the national leadership team has committed themselves to. What are the changes one can expect in the event industry now with the new leadership team coming in? The perspective that I have is that the event industry believes in itself and the world around us too has begun to believe in the power of events and the fact that the event industry is here to stay. Event industry today is being given its true place in the sun and I can see the new leadership taking ownership and driving it to another level over the next couple of years. In many ways, the new leadership team is committed to engaging with the entire ecosystem of clients
and industry partners be it in the production, artist engagement, media, or the venue space in the fraternity. So, around the events industry, we want to build an ecosystem that sees the same direction and that works with us hand in hand to build a positive future for the industry as a whole. So can we help build convention centres? Can we help build hotels that are integrated for events? Can we build health and safety paradigm for light, sound, and other core businesses? Can we begin to look at insurance from a different perspective? Can we look at an external-facing community that talks to the world about events? Can we look at propagating, communicating and strongly advocating the event experience for communicators and marketers? So it’s a very different and energized EEMA that you will see today and thereafter. What’s also interesting is that EEMA is looking at enriching experiences in each state. There are leaders this time who have taken up different states and would like to create the same engagement paradigm in each of their states. They will bring national learning to the state and listen to the state and bring their issues to national leadership so that we are able to enhance the delivery experience for the entire industry. The event industry that you see today is only the beginning of a new event industry you will see emerging over the next 4-5 years. Is there any message you would like to convey to the members of the entire Indian events industry? We in the events industry today have a unique opportunity to be able to contribute to our country be it in the form of creating an event tourism paradigm or skill development or by having the opportunity to get the youth into an industry and provide jobs and opportunities. If we dedicate ourselves to doing that, not only would we have served our industry well, but we would have served India and the future well, too. What we in EEMA have constantly been talking about is that ‘We are EEMA and We are the Change!’ But this year we are saying ‘We in EEMA are the Change Makers’ and we are going to do more today than we did yesterday.
THE GLOBAL EXPOSURE AT EEMAX GLOBAL The Event and Entertainment Management Association is set to host the 8th edition of the EEMAX GLOBAL Conclave & Awards, from October 17-19, 2016, at the Sahara Star Hotel, Mumbai. The endeavour through EEMAX Awards 2016 is to identify, celebrate and honour the best events and experiential marketing initiatives from around the world, while the EEMAX Conclave promises to be a world-class thought leadership summit and a superlative networking opportunity for the industry. Speaking about the conclave, Sabbas Joseph, the President of the association said, “The award ceremony this year has 88 awards across 30 categories including brand activation, intellectual property, social, CSR,
corporate education, etc. We have planned for a stringent international jury that will evaluate global agencies on their work in the past financial year. We are an industry, whose time has come and we would like to share our growth with the world. We are very excited to take India to the world and likewise bring the world to India.” Mandeep Singh, General Secretary, EEMA added, “We can proudly say that the organized event industry in India has grown exponentially over the last two decades to more than $8,00,00,00 with several 1000 entities operating in this space in various segments and levels across 100+ cities. We collectively employ 15,00,000 people, provide income to more than 50 Lakh households, make a meaningful impact on prestigious private and government-led projects, manage the visits of various global dignitaries and provide experiential marketing solutions to the world’s leading brands, e.g. Coke, Samsung, Apple, Nike, Nestle, Harley Davidson, Toyota, Standard Chartered Bank, etc.”
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Fountainhead MKTG Bags Delhi Festival Tender Valued INR 15 Cr: The Complete Story By: Shantanu Jain It was at EEMGAINE 2016 when Minister of Tourism for Government of Delhi, Kapil Mishra had announced that his government was in the process of creating the first ever ‘Delhi Festival’, and requested event agencies to partner and support the festival. And, living up to its promise, the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) on July 2, 2016, released an Expression of Interest (EOI) for hire of an event management agency to manage The Delhi Festival 2016.
And out of the 8 agencies, only 6 made it to the final presentation round. These 6 agencies were — Geometry Global Encompass Network, Ferriswheel Entertainment, ThoT Media, Fountainhead MKTG, World Wide Media and Promodome in consortium with Touchwood Group. Rahul Bhasin
The objective of this EOI was to solicit proposals in a bid process that would lead to the selection of the organizing agency of the Delhi Festival. The value of the tender was 15 Crore INR and the selected agency would be required to conceptualize, plan, design, execute and deliver the event on a turnkey basis. ABOUT THE FESTIVAL The first ever Delhi Festival is slated to be organized between October-November 2016 with an objective to position Delhi as a vibrant, progressive and diverse city to travel to, and also to increase a sense of belonging and pride amongst its citizens. The overall theme of the festival will be – ‘Celebrating The Many Delhi’s Within Delhi.’ The EOI document shared by the DTTDC revealed that the Delhi Festival will not be yet another typical festival celebrated through performances by prominent artists at a centralized area of the city. Instead, the festival will have 10 mini festivals under it, with each catering to a different set of people. Additionally, the festival will also have 2 largescale events for the Women of Delhi, The Youth of Delhi and the Unsung Heroes of Delhi.
These 6 agencies then made their respective presentations in front of the Delhi government officials post which the final round of selection, the financial bid, was opened to zero down on the executing agency for the Delhi festival. FOUNTAINHEAD MKTG BAGS DELHI FESTIVAL TENDER On August 26, 2016 the sources from Delhi Government confirmed that Fountainhead MKTG defeated the other 5 agencies in the race to bag the tender of the Delhi Festival, scheduled to take place in November this year. Speaking on the same, Rahul Bhasin, Advisor to the Chief Minister (Tourism) at Government of NCT of Delhi said, “We saw some really great concepts for the festival through the presentation process and it was a very close fight between Fountainhead MKTG, Ferriswheel Entertainment and ThOT media. But towards the end the financial bid was opened and the tender was awarded to Fountainhead MKTG. Now we are looking forward to an amazing Delhi Festival 2016.”
CLASH OF THE AGENCIES On August 17, 2016 sources from the Delhi government confirmed that a total of 17 event management companies responded to the EOI, from which 8 agencies qualified for the submission of the technical bid. SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
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Following the recent launch of the book ‘Staged’ at the WOW Awards and Convention Asia 2016, Deepak Choudhary, Co-Founder & Director, Event Capital together with Whistling Woods International organised a panel discussion featuring Event Gurus at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai. The panel was followed by a presentation of the book to students attending the discussion. The event was designed so that in addition to showcasing the book, students were also provided a learning experience by bringing great event industry leaders right to their own campus. The book offers not just exciting stories live from backstage, but also important insights on the size of the industry and the scope of its engagement, from these event gurus who have shaped the business of live events in India, from its inception to the current form, over the last two decades.
IN FOCUS
‘STAGED’ BOOK LAUNCH
THE STAGE IS SET! Deepak Choudhary’s book ‘Staged’ was launched at WOW Asia 2016 in July, and is now being presented at institutes around the country together with an innovative panel discussion of industry stalwarts featured in the book.
On the panel were Sabbas Joseph, President, EEMA and Director, Wizcraft International Entertainment; Andre Timmins, Director, Wizcraft International Entertainment; Manish Gandhi, COO & Executive Director, Asia Business Exhibitions & Conferences Ltd.; Martin Da Costa, CEO, Seventy Event Media Group; Mohomed Morani, Director, Cineyug Group of Companies; and Roshan Abbas, Managing Director, Geometry Global Encompass Network. The panel discussion focused on trends of the events industry, event management as a growing career option and its endless possibilities with respect to scale and the need for events in every aspect of life. Providing his opinion of the book, Roshan Abbas, Managing Director, Geometry Global Encompass Network said, “The event world has all the makings of a Bollywood blockbuster. In these pages you have action, emotion, drama, thrills and a lot of song and dance. These are stories to inspire the next generation of experiential storytellers.” Also reviewing the book, Mohomed Morani, Director, Cineyug Group of Companies added, “It is very gratifying to see the ‘Events and Entertainment’ industry having a historic moment with the launch of ‘Staged’. It captures the legacy, hard work, determination and success behind some of the biggest shows ever and the passion which drives us every day. And as a Doyen, who has been in the forefront for the past 30 Years with Cineyug, It is euphoric and historic in a literal Sense. We wish the writers and authors the very best.” Subhash Ghai, Founder and Chairman, Whistling Woods International, who has also written the Foreword to the book spoke about key aspects of the industry and his own experience. Ghai commented, “I am glad we could provide a platform to the students to learn and gain practical knowledge from today’s masterclass on events, where all the industry stalwarts have come together to share their knowledge with the WWI students. Also, what makes STAGED! special is that it captures incidents, stories and defining moments in the journey of live events, therefore capturing the ‘reality’ of the industry. But since then the industry has come a long way! With this panel discussion, WWI students now have a wider perspective and clearer insights about the events industry.” A masterclass on event management at WWI, saw an action packed venue with students of School of Media &Communication, moderated by Rahul Puri, Head of Academics, WWI. This enabled students to ask questions and gain from a learning experience involving stalwarts of the industry interacting with them. Commenting on the goal of the panel discussion, Choudhary remarked, “This event is part of a B2C round at schools, which will see us share stories in the book with students around the country. The plan is that each of these sessions will see a few of these Event Gurus whose stories are told in the book, actually go to schools and institutes and share their experiences.” In the next three months, similar panel discussions will be organised at EMDI and at ISDI.
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Deepak Choudhary Co-Founder & Director, Event Capital
(R) Mohomed Morani Director, Cineyug Group of Companies
Manish Gandhi, COO & Executive Director Asia Business Exhibitions & Conferences Ltd
Martin Da Costa CEO, Seventy Event Media Group
Sabbas Joseph, President, EEMA and Director Wizcraft International Entertainment
Vinit Karnik, Business Head - Entertainment, Sports & Live Events at GroupM
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BRIEFS
TECHNOLOGY
GearHouse Live Presents Amit Trivedi at Phoenix Marketcity, Mumbai GearHouse presented a concert featuring Amit Trivedi on August 6 at Phoenix Marketcity, Mumbai. It was a sold-out show with an audience of 1500 people. Warren D’Souza, Founder, SOUND.COM said, “GearHouse provides artists improved, world-class technical production for fans to have a fantastic aural experience. This gig was a joint venture between SOUND. COM, GearHouse and Phoenix Marketcity. We all tried to promote the venue as the perfect, new space which can be explored for hosting events throughout the year with all facilities of dining, parking, etc. GearHouse is an IP that curates such experiences.”
Warren D’Souza Founder, SOUND.COM
Creative Factory Executes Breathtaking Projection Mapping on 100 Mt. Tall Surface in Georgia Vibhore Khandelwal Director, Creative Factory
Creative Factory created history in Georgia by executing the largest projection mapping project at The Biltmore Hotel Tbilisi Grand Opening. The overall launch of the hotel was managed by Memories Events Management, UAE, while Showtech, UAE was the light, sound and visual supplier at the event. Vibhore Khandelwal, Director, Creative Factory said, Our team in Mumbai worked very hard in making sure that every look & design that we created was authentic. We sketched and even designed multiple looks before we finalized the ones we used. It took 15 artists and 20 nonstop days to produce 5 minutes of the mapping content.”
Glenfiddich Introduces Virtual Reality Distillery Tours @ its Experiential Events Worldwide Glenfiddich has taken event experience up a notch by opening their doors to Virtual Reality (VR) technology. India got a taste of this immersive experience recently, during the exclusive launch event of Glenfiddich India’s “The Mavericks” show on NDTV Good Times, at The Westin Gurgaon on Aug 31. Glenfiddich’s Global Brand Marketing Manager, Ifan Jenkins said, “Using cutting edge VR technology allows us to immerse whisky drinkers from all over the world in the Glenfiddich story and our Dufftown home to create a truly memorable experience and showcases how we’ve mastered the art of whisky making.”
Ifan Jenkins Global Brand Marketing Manager, Glenfiddich
Xperiel Cloud-based Real World Web Platform to Help Develop Event-Driven Apps Xperiel - a cloud-based Real World Web (RWW) platform has been launched, which creates mixed reality experiences for consumers by bringing together physical and digital worlds. A company spokesperson says, “The Xperiel platform provides the tools for building and hosting the RWW. It makes it possible to connect everything to the IoT (Internet of Things), build cloud-based applications, and deliver mixed reality experiences across any OS (Operating System) or connected device.”
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Laqshya Live Experiences Manages 3D Mapping Experience, Tech Integration & More @ Autodesk University 2016 By: Shantanu Jain On September 1, India witnessed the Cidco Exhibition Centre, Navi Mumbai, transform into a massive designers’ and creators’ hub. The event Autodesk University India 2016 was the center for all media professionals in India as well as globally to exchange knowledge and share their own creator and design stories. 4000+ makers, architects, engineers, creators and designers attended the event. Gitikka Ganju Dhar was the emcee of this event, which was based on theme ‘Future of Making Things’. The breakout sessions at the event following the main session included discussions on the subject of Manufacturing, Media & Entertainment, Architecture, Engineering & Construction, and ID & V. Red Chillies Films and Yash Raj Films held sessions on the VFX making for the movie Fan and Sultan, respectively in the Media & Entertainment session. Additionally, the first Maker Auto was launched at this event. This auto would be used to train students across the country to effectively use technologies such as 3D printing and various other techniques. Spread across two massive buildings, the entire centre was divided into 6 sections: Registration, Dining, Partner Exhibit Area, Plenary Sessions, India Maker’s arena and Breakout sessions. The five breakout sessions were held by the customers, partners and employees for all those who aspire to enhance their skills and possibilities. 3D MAPPING EXPERIENCE Event organizer Laqshya Live Experiences took up the challenge of 3D mapping a set that was 84 ft. wide and a whopping 30 ft. high. With multiple technologies in place such as 3D printing, laser cutting, virtual reality and 80
Navneeth Mohan, Founder & CEO Laqshya Live Experiences and Emcee Gitikka Ganju Dhar
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many more, the attendees were treated to a visual and experiential treat. For the stunning Video Mapping display, the agency had partnered with Suresh Madan, Dynamix Media and Vibhore Khandelwal of Creative Factory. For the rest of the video infrastructure across breakouts, the agency had roped in Vinayak Video Vision. The two main speakers for the evening entered the stage on a Segway and an open jeep with Bollywood dancers to create a visually appealing and dramatic entrance. The Principal Secretary of Industries, Govt. of India, Apurva Chandra inaugurated the event. TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION With the entire country rejoicing in the wave of Make In India, Autodesk University set the benchmark for the Design in India space with multiple technological advances being showcased at the event. Branding opportunities such as Atmosphere Balloons, 3D Letter Cuts, city-wide hoardings and other clutter-breaking mediums were used to take the event to a more commercial scale. SOUND.COM had managed the audio setup for the entire event. Social media was also abuzz with #AUIN16 trending in the Top 3 in India; even Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan posted tweets showcasing his interest in attending the event in the years to come. Speaking about the event, Navneeth Mohan, Founder & CEO Laqshya Live Experiences said, “Autodesk University is a property we have been associated with since 4 years and counting. Each year we create new benchmarks. I’m happy to say that we have been successful in combining Technology with Creativity to bring about the best possible experience for the audience - that is our brand promise at Laqshya Live Experiences. AUIN 2016 has been rated as one of the best Autodesk University events to have happened globally and we are happy to have created this experience along with the Autodesk India team.” SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2016 EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
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TECHNOLOGY / FEATURE
WHAT’S NEW IN SOUND, STAGING, AND EVENT TECHNOLOGIES ExM talks to market leaders and service providers in the areas of sound, staging and event technologies to find out what’s most exciting right now and how events and brands can benefit from adopting these!
Warrren D’Souza, Founder and Managing Director, SOUND.COM
We all know that technology in general is constantly advancing, and that staying at the top of your game, whatever that is, involves not only keeping up with new developments, but learning how to effectively use new technology and equipment to achieve the desired results. When it comes to events, there are so many facets to creating an experience and nearly every dimension of an event provide an opportunity for technology integration. This includes sound, visuals, staging, engagement, event management, and so on. Here, we look at what’s cutting edge in Sound, Staging and Engagement Technology. These are among the most important aspects to planning and managing an event, as the sensory experience of any audience draws directly from these.
digital consoles under a lower price category can offer features that 5 years ago could be only on the expensive side of the console market.” Prashant Govindan, Senior Director - India & Sri Lanka Operations, HARMAN International (India) Pvt. Ltd. adds, “The industry is constantly changing and we have seen some top notch solutions evolving over a period of time. The development of smart line array technology, wireless high fidelity in-ear monitoring systems, onboard plug-ins, sound transmission through fibre optics to minimize sound loss, digital mixing consoles like the Soundcraft Vi7000 with advanced mixing and sound processing capabilities are the most preferred solutions by today’s artists.”
Sound Talking about what’s cutting-edge in sound equipment and technology for events, Warrren D’Souza, Founder and Managing Director, SOUND. COM said, “Sound Technology keeps evolving all the time, and I can see tremendous growth in every aspect of sound technology right from loudspeaker systems, DSP built within the amplifiers to drive them & major advances is easier rigging. However the most significant thing is how 48 82
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Prashant Govindan Senior Director - India & Sri Lanka Operations, HARMAN International (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Events in India are not shying away from using new and exciting technologies to enhance experiences. D’Souza adds, “India has hardly been behind the west in terms of audio technology, we probably just don’t have the eclectic range of audio gear or the sheer quantity of inventory that western companies have, but we are slowly gaining ground. I am using new technology all the time, especially for special events like major concerts, sporting events & high profile corporate audio.” On creating experiences at events with the new technology and sound equipment available in the market, Govindan adds, “There’s been a paradigm shift in the way audiences’ taste has evolved. Today, the likes of Bollywood, EDM, Rock, Hip-Hop etc are being well regarded and widely accepted by a non audiophile also. Another new trend that has changed our music industry is the precedence taken over by live shows over recorded music. Craze for music concerts is no longer limited to just college goers, today people are ready to spend a bomb for high worth performances. Owing to this, sound technologies such as in-ear monitors have evolved into highly advanced wireless avataars that allows performers to move around the stage freely without having to compromise on sound quality. By developing sound solutions which meet sound
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BRANDTECHNOLOGY MARKETING / /IN FEATURE FOCUS professionals’ diverse requirements, Harman is revolutionizing the way events and entertainment is experienced, both by the performer as well as the audience.” Talking about recent events in India that featured this technology, Govindan observes, “This year, in India, HARMAN’s JBL installations rocked some of the music concerts such as Sunburn, Sensation India,
Harman recognizes this demand and hence offers a dedicated product line to cater every musician and artist. JBL’s VTX series of advanced line array systems are specifically designed to provide high quality sound for large concerts and other outdoor events. It’s an application that caters to the demand of wide coverage, high power output, and great tonality. We have JBL’s EON series speakers, like the EON One or EON 206p, which are
Sunburn Virtual Reality
NH7 Weekender. The level and scale of sound technology used was at par with any popular international music concert or a festival. Audiences were mesmerized and thrilled at the delivery of sound and artists were satisfied with the way they were able to produce sound during these concerts.” Elaborating specifically on how artists and the type of performances dictate how sound technology develops, Govindan says, “Artists’ demand from the professional audio market changes faster than anyone can imagine. We deal with creative heads that can come up with an exceptional piece of music and may want us to work on a solution which can amplify the affect this new composition!
Pratik Wadhwa Owner, Modern Stage Service
the audience to a different reality all together and detaches them from the immediate reality.” Augmented Reality is more of software based tech and there are lot of companies building platforms for it. Vuforia is one of the leading AR software development company. On using these technologies to create the best effect possible, Sarcar points
Make in India AR
the perfect partners of DJs, singerslyricist duos and other cross functional applications.”
Staging According to Pratik Wadhwa, Owner, Modern Stage Service, Virtual Reality (VR) is the most exciting staging technology at the moment. Talking about the technology, he says, “Virtual reality basically means near-reality which is a 3 dimensional interactive computer generated environment that lets you experience a different reality. Virtual reality stimulates as many senses as possible, such as vision, hearing, touch and even smell. It can teleport you to places.” Brands that presently manufacture this technology include Oculus Rift, Microsoft Hololens, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, Sony and Google Cardboard. Soham Sarcar, Co-Founder, Transhuman Collective, agrees that VR and Augmented Reality (AR) are among the most exciting technologies for events right now. “Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are the most cutting age technologies today and they are the future of interactions with the audience. Augmented Reality enhances the present reality, makes it more dramatic and all the action is around the audience’s immediate reality, while Virtual Reality takes
out “This techs only comes alive with good content and storytelling. I.E. A bad film is still bad even when viewed on the latest 4k LED TV. So these techs are just mediums as Television is. It all depends on how make use of these technologies to create engaging experiences.” A few recent events that have seen the use of this technology globally include the Samsung S7 launch in Barcelona, and the Audi Q7 launch in Russia. In India, this technology has only been used for demo zones of various product launches. Sunburn also saw the use of VR. Events that have used AR include Make in India in Hannover Germany, and Banda Singh Augmented Reality
Soham Sarcar Co-Founder, Transhuman Collective
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TECHNOLOGY / FEATURE
Sli-do
Lalit Chadha, CMP Chief Curator, Strategic Engagement and Event Solutions
in India, both executed by Transhuman Collective. Listing a few types of events that stand to gain the most and also lend themselves best for the use of VR, Wadhwa says, “VR is well suited for product launches for cars, games, mobile phones, and real estate. It can also be used for live screening at concerts, and sports events.” Sarcar adds, “From Live Audience shows to brand activations, everyone can use these mediums, it all depends how you immerse them with an engaging content.”
Engagement Talking about what’s new in event technology, Lalit Chadha, CMP Chief Curator, Strategic Engagement and Event Solutions names Sli.do and TINT as two of the most effective engagement technologies being used in events today. He says says, “Attendees are at the core of all meetings. An evolving demographic that is increasingly tech-savvy buoyed by wider internet availability & increased mobile penetration & a demand of individual ROI from attendance to meetings have led to a shift in today’s Attendees expectations from meetings. They want to be more participative as against the passive listening of yesterday.”
to be anonymous if they so wish, in a live session, that show up in real time on all logged in devices. They can be then moderated to be answered by the Speaker or the Panel. Delegates can also democratically up-vote the most liked questions, thus ensuring the most pertinent of Questions get answered. No more missed questions. Talking about the potential of Sli.do for events, Chadha goes on, “Sli.do also addresses the need to make talks more engaging by offering Live polling that can be set in seconds. Real time results can be displayed that can take audience engagement to a totally different level altogether. This has been proven to be specially beneficial in Panel discussions wherein the mood in the room can be gauged at different times and the audience participates actively in the discussion, lending its voice.” Additional features that allow the Presenter’s slides on the Attendees mobile devices that can be easily bookmarked for future use make Sli.do a unique product offering that is aimed at making meetings effective.
TINT
Sli.do
User generated content is the most effective tool in building brand communities. Marketers agree. It is no different in the Events Industry wherein multiple events vie for attention in an increasingly competitive space. Chadha remarks, “Indeed, Events are slowly but surely identifying themselves as Brands and constantly reinventing themselves to be more relevant to an audience that is multi-cultural, multi-dimensional and multi-demographic.”
Sli.do is a path breaking technology that addresses this unmet need and is taking the meetings world by storm. It is easy to set and use, accessible via Attendees’ own hand held devices’ browser (no need to download anything). It empowers ALL attendees to be able to ask questions, choosing
However, Event Organisers face huge challenges tapping in to the User Generated Content in free space and make it work for them to expand their social media outreach. Primary challenges include finding the relevant social content across multiple channels and moderating
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content (weeding out deliberate, nonflattering voices). Describing what TINT offers to events, Chadha says, “TINT is one such easy to use, best-in-class solution that allows channelling of User Generated Content about your event across various social media platforms, funnelling the targeted social media into a single feed, that is customised as per your needs and used variously to boost ‘Attendee Talk’ about your event.” Multiple Hashtags and social media addresses can be captured into one seamless social media wall filled with user generated content, that when displayed at an event venue and / or embedded on your event website acts as a motivator for Attendees to be seen, talk more & in the process increase their engagement with your event! Metrics allow you to analyse the reach and impact of the social media imprint generated by your event that should feed into your Events’ future editions’ marketing strategy. Talking about events that have used this technology recently, Chadha says, “TINT has been used by leading brands the World over for their Events, be it Association Conferences, Corporate & Governmental Events, Weddings, Sporting Events amongst others.” If these three elements of your event – sound, staging and engagement - are not orchestrated perfectly, your event, no matter the scale, will be considered sub-par and remembered for not meeting expectations. And as we have seen, with all the technology that’s available in the market, there really should be no reason for anything but the most mind-blowing experiences!
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JOBS ON EVENTFAQS.COM
DNS Events Private Limited
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