FICCI Frames Day 2: Movies in India underleveraged by brands

Dominic Proctor, President, GroupM Global, urged the Indian M&E sector to move away from the fragile ecosystem where Bollywood, cricket and a handful of national icons and stars were used for all messaging

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | March 14, 2013

Dominic Proctor

India is a content powerhouse, with the largest movie productions, massive digitisation underway and 169 days of live cricket. The question that faces the M&E sector in the country is whether stagnation was an option at all. On the second day yesterday of FICCI Frames 2013 being held in Mumbai, Dominic Proctor, President, GroupM Global, spoke on the state of Indian film, cricket and the best way forward in a  session titled “Will advertising still be the key growth driver for the converged eco-system?”

Proctor believed that for developing a globally recognised content base, it was necessary for India to move away from the fragile ecosystem where Bollywood, cricket and a handful of national icons and stars were used for all messaging. “This must change if India is really serious about building a world class sports and entertainment industry,” he emphasised.

Cricket is going through a global resurgence. India needs to look beyond cricket and start investing in non-cricketing sports and the signs for their success are very encouraging. Recent initiatives in F1, hockey, combat sports and badminton are encouraging but not enough, Proctor felt.

While Bollywood and the Indian film industry constitute an all-pervading influence, brands in India do not leverage this platform optimally. Revenue streams exist in content advertising on multimedia screens and producers and studios should look beyond theatrical returns and innovate new platforms and formats. Simultaneously, creators should extract total economic value for the content with consumer-centric audience planning.

With a nod to web driven content, Proctor said that digital formats will drive advertising revenue growth in under branded India and also help the Indian media and entertainment industry reach out globally.

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