Arré's new vertical Arré Outdoors focuses on travel and adventure

Digital media brand Arré has launched another vertical called Arré Outdoors. The new vertical will focus on travel and adventure. This will also be the media brand’s second expansion after the launch of its food vertical Arré Grub.

The vertical is intended to be a multi-media, multi-genre platform with content ranging from videos to text to audio to doodles and more.

The media brand also launched ‘The Real High’, the first property from the stable of Arré Outdoors. The show is a travel-and-adventure reality series. Shot in Arunachal Pradesh, the eight-part series will see popular youth icon Rannvijay Singh take six ultra-urban city dwellers on an incredible journey to the forests of Arunachal Pradesh, to experience life without beds, baths and phones.

Speaking about the decision to foray into the travel and adventure space, Ajay Chacko, Co-Founder and CEO, Arré, said, “There is a certain missing element when it comes to travel. A lot of travel writing is about reviews, it is not about experiences. What we are trying to do with the outdoors vertical is not just write about travel or show videos, it is about taking people to experience that journey. If you look at The Real High also, these six people ended up going to the Arunachal Pradesh. These six were chosen from 60,000 people who applied and that is the kind of numbers that we are talking about in terms of interaction. We want to make travel more interactive. A lot of the content on Arré Outdoors is going to be interactive and experiential. It is not only about second hand reviews from people who have travelled to places but about people who have experienced it and shot it themselves.”

Elaborating on the different kind of content that will be available on the platform, Chacko said, “Arré Outdoors right now has The Real High and six others series like The Real High from different parts of the country. These will be with different sets and kinds of people. It will not only be young kids, there might be older people too. Then there are a lot of mid-segment formats, shorter ones and again related to experiences. There will be a lot of travel writing which will be personal experiences like blogging. Besides that there will be fiction shows that will come in.”

When asked how they are different from the other lifestyle and travel channels that also operate in the same space, Chacko said, “These channels try to do what we are doing. Discovery once tried to do it but I think they have all gone away from it. Also that medium is all about taking a camera and shooting things without actually the people having a stake in it. But our show is not about Rannvijay going to Arunachal, it is about these six kids going to Arunachal and how it changes their life and that is the real narrative change we are trying to bring with digital.”

Talking about advertisers and their interest in original digital content, Chacko said, “To understand how advertisers are evolving and why, we need to look at brand integration and not just inventory advertising. Today, people know how to block and skip an ad. These are not options that are there on TV. You can skip the channel but you will end up watching some or the other ad but with digital you can easily skip an ad. So, the reason why brands like Nissan, P&G and Gillette are working with us now and integrating themselves with shows season after season is because that is imperative now and not an option or a luxury. Just by inventory advertising you can’t make an impact and a lot of the brands are evolving now. People are moving from inventory to brand integrations.”

On BARC and subscription model, Chacko said, “BARC will aide the business and investments will be better evaluated, but all of this will take time. Things don't change overnight and neither will subscription revenues. It is five per cent and you can't expect it to go 90 per cent overnight. But it will gradually happen.”

The Real High will be presented by Arunachal Pradesh Tourism, and has partnered with brands like Nissan Terrano, Woodland and O’cean Active. Woodland is the associate sponsor and O’cean Active is the beverage partner.

Episode 1 of the series will be out on arre.co.in, the Arré app, and its partner platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, SonyLiv, Yupp TV, Jio Cinema and Ola Prime Play on June 10.

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