Zarina Mehta, CEO, Bindass
We want to ensure that we are well-distributed and our brand resonates exactly the way we want it to, so our first areas of focus would be distribution and brand-building exercises. When a show takes off, you start analysing your programming strategies better. If that is taking time, you should let it take time in the beginning, and not fiddle around because your viewers should get used to your brands, and you must give them that much time. After four to five months, you will start seeing us working on FPC and programming like crazy again. By that time, we would know better what our viewers want. Until then, we have done our homework, and we know the results will come.
Zarina Mehta, CEO, Bindass, is one of the three founder directors of United Television (UTV), a leading pan-Asian media company, and is on the board of the UTV Group. The youth TG is arguably the most important and the toughest target for any brand or advertiser to talk to. In its attempt to get to this TG, Brand Bindass was designed as a model that was present in every media space there is --- from channels to websites, to gaming portal, cafes and on-ground activities.
As COO of UTV's Hungama TV, Mehta's innovations drove Hungama TV to beat a decade of leadership by an international giant and become the number one kids channel in a record 18 months of launch. She also helped to launch and creatively controls Astro Ceria, the first local kids channel in Indonesia and Malaysia. Within nine months of launch, Astro Ceria became the number one kids channel in Malaysia.
Over the last 15 years, Mehta has been responsible for the start-up and creation of some of UTV's major divisions and has produced over 3,500 hours television programming in multiple languages which includes 'Shanti', game show 'Games & Ladders', chat show 'Chakravyuha' and many more.
In this interview with exchange4media's Noor Fathima Warsia and Tasneem Limbdiwala, Mehta speaks on the changes that she sees in the competitive dynamics of the Indian media industry, and the role that Bindass would play in that. Excerpts:
Q. What about content --- everyone says that there has to be differentiated content but on your channel itself, a show like 'Sun Yaar Chill Maar' is exactly like 'Four' on SAB?
Yes it is. I agree that differentiated content is not simple, and in many cases, even possible. However, I really don't care about that. What I care about is that the show needs to be absolutely 'bindass' and fit the brand attributes of free, frank, fun and fearless. I think the characters of our shows have been beautifully etched, the situations are everyday situations and hence relatable to the youth of today; these are out-and-out sitcoms that are brilliantly made. I'm very proud of the programming. We also have shows like 'Lagegi' and 'Shakira' that are cutting-edge Bindass brands to the core. Another way to look at this situation is that you see a brand as a complex web. Just like a human body is made up of hundreds of different components, a brand is made up of many different aspects. Our attempt is that the majority, if not all, of these aspects must fit in the Bindass brand.
Q. What are the kinds of cafe's you are planning?
A place where our TG can hang out together --- so it has to have gaming, entertainment areas, food, etc., and all this must fit in my TG's pockets. I plan to take a final call by early next year and then launch it by May 2008. But we need to research on this. Nonetheless, we are speaking to our research partners Synovate, which does our quantitative research, and PQR, which does our qualitative research to take this forward.
Q. Would TRPs be the benchmark for the channel?
Definitely. We intend to fight for every TRP the way we have done before. It would really be the driver for the channel and would guide us in our decisions.
Q. There are so many ventures you are involved in at a single time. Are you facing any talent problems?
Everybody seems to be talking about this talent crunch. But really, I still can't see where the problem is. I have a fantastic team in place, and I think I have been really lucky on that.
Q. The Rs 200 crore...
...Rs 240 crore in fact. But this is only for the four channels, of which two are already on-air. The web and the mobile ventures would be funded by UTV separately.
Q. And what is the plan of action if the TRPs are not coming in?
I will always have a backup plan for that! That said, however, for the first six months, we will not change anything drastically. We want to ensure that we are well-distributed and our brand resonates exactly the way we want it to, so our first areas of focus would be distribution and brand-building exercises. When a show takes off, you start analysing your programming strategies better. If that is taking time, you should let it take time in the beginning, and not fiddle around because your viewers should get used to your brands, and you must give them that much time. After four to five months, you will start seeing us working on FPC and programming like crazy again. By that time, we would know better what our viewers want. Until then, we have done our homework, and we know the results will come.
Q. How is this experience for you personally, compared to your earlier experience with Hungama?
It's beautiful. With Hungama, I always asked myself 'what is the 10-year-old boy thinking', and now it is 'what is the 21-year-old boy thinking'. It is a mindset change -- I have to stop behaving like a kid and start behaving like a slightly bigger kid. The other difference is that the kid TG is a very loyal one, but the youth TG is not. The key to Bindass would be to keep reinventing ourselves every six months, in all aspects of the channel.
Q. And how are you coping with all this nervousness?
Work is just fine, thanks again to a great team. The only regret is that I don't have time for home right now, and my family, friends and dog do feel neglected. But I will be going for 'Vipassna' in October again. So that is going to charge me once more, and help me to continue being 'bindass' and take up more challenges.
Q. Does the thought worry you on whether the venture will 'click'?
I'm a bundle of nerves! I know there would be successes and failures, and that is alright because you can always work on it, so that is fine. I know that I just need three years to succeed. Now, God bless if it happens before that, that is wonderful too. But honestly, I'm not expecting instant success. I know we have to keep working hard and get our success step by step.
Q. You have been saying that interactivity would be really important in your scheme of things. But isn't India still an underserved market on infrastructure?
Not when it comes to mobile. Mobile is fantastic and it has perfect synergy with TV. It's a beautiful blend and we are going to play that to the fullest. 'Lagegi' is an interactive show, 'Shakira' will be interactive, and there are more plans coming for the next year as well.
Q. What do you see as competition to Bindass?
Right now, everything that can attract the youth's attention is our competition. So that is a really long list that includes movies, computers, malls, and then other channels like Star One, Zee Next, Sab, and even kids, music and news channels. Bindass doesn't have a direct competition because the idea is unique. I cannot look at any model in India or internationally to find a brand that is doing what we are trying to do, which is create a 360-degree entertainment platform for young people.
Of course, this comes with challenges, like how does one launch a unique idea like this. But we found our marketing platform in ‘Bindass Go to Space Contest', an idea that jumps out to you --- you get to go to space, not because you are a millionaire, but because you are 'bindass'. And we have tried to bring ideas like these in the other functions of the channel as well. To answer your question, however, right now, we have an extremely diffused competition set which would get crystallised only in the next six months.
Q. You spoke of the challenges...what are the advantages?
The obvious ones really are that if we click with this TG, we are giving the advertisers something that we can command a premium on, because no one has been able to give it to them, in the scale that Bindass would be able to. The design of Brand Bindass itself has advantages. For instance, we can give advertisers marketing solutions across all points that the youth TG can possibly be on, and not just expose them to the advertiser's brand, but get the target to be involved with it – whether through our cafes or on-ground initiatives. These are some of the things that only Bindass can give by virtue of its design.
Q. Which stage will consumer products fit in?
Stage two again. We first need to get Brand Bindass out there and then one of the shows needs to catch up. That is how merchandising generally works. By then, even our on-ground initiatives would be in place. We are trying to look at ideas that can be done every year.
Q. You are one of the dozen channels that are going to launch in the broadcast space. Would you agree that initially, the game needs very deep pockets to survive?
I would agree completely. It takes about three years for any channel to break even, and for that long period, you have to just go on investing without expecting anything in return. To add to it, the general entertainment space is perhaps the most expensive genre there is, so the investments are that much higher. To survive the initial bleeding, it is very important to have deep pockets. Technically in the fourth year, you can survive without further investments and that is how we have planned our investments.
Q. What are the plans of the third and the fourth channels?
We are still analysing whether we should go language or work on more genres. The stage one really was these two channels, mobile and the web. Now that the launches have been done, we will focus on the other two channels, the cafes and the on-ground activities. I would like to do the cafes early next year. There are two ways to go on that --- one is where we can get a partner from now, and second is to first set my own cafe and then get a partner. I would rather do that but we are still debating on it. The problem is that there is a lot of learning in the café business which I don't have, but I don't want anybody else to mess with my brand. So, instead of giving it to someone else, I would like to set the brand once, and may be get a partner to grow the café business together.
