When digital entertainment startup TVF Media Labs launched a comedy series on YouTube called ‘TVF Pitchers’ in June last year, exploring the lives of young entrepreneurs, it was quick to get about 1.5-crore views.
Ever since, entrepreneurs, bitten by the startup bug and enterprises seeking to leverage India’s startup boom, have launched similar web series or webisodes, podcasts and even an online reality programme that backs new business ideas. Only, they are still figuring out how to monetise this explosion of startup-related content.
“Today, almost everyone wants to become an entrepreneur (and)… content about startups is especially exciting for viewers who get to learn more about the industry and the dos and don’ts from a reality programme like ‘Hauslay Ki Udaan’,” said Deepak Nath, Vice President of marketing at SABMiller India.
The company is the main sponsor of the show through its beer brand Haywards 5000. Touted to be India’s first startup reality programme, ‘Hauslay Ki Udaan’— which loosely translates to ‘Wings of Confidence’ — provides seed- or early-stage funding to the winner, in the process documenting the struggle of entrepreneurs to get an idea noticed. In the first season, the programme, webcast on YouTube, received more than 40,000 applications and got about 64-lakh viewers.
The winner won Rs 15 lakh for a startup called ‘Bina Dudh Ki Dairy’, which uses the excreta of animals like cows to create eco-friendly mosquito coils, biogas, flower pots and even distilled cow urine. For monetisation, though, SABMiller India is waiting for the programme to gain more traction. “Creating digital content around the startup culture is… a popular trend because it’s very topical and interesting for the youth and business community,” said Jehil Thakkar, media and entertainment head at KPMG.
But most companies will not be able to profit from digital media content at this stage because the revenue numbers are low. Even popular series have a hard time.
It’s a targeted audience size and viewership is slowly picking up.” Manu Srikumar and Hasa Samudrala, Co-Founders of content production startup Denture Capital, post video shows on YouTube every Friday at 9:00 pm covering different aspects of India’s startup ecosystem — on the Uber-Ola rivalry; episodes simplifying Bitcoin and India’s startup policies; and shows featuring little known startups’ apps. The duo get on board entrepreneurs and Bollywood celebrities for discussions and play pranks while simultaneously disseminating information on how the industry works.
“The idea is to weave in a lot of pop culture references from (Tamil movie star) Rajinikanth to (American television series) ‘Game of Thrones’ and relating that to the Indian startup ecosystem, which makes it more entertaining and increases the number of viewers,” said Srikumar.
Launched in March, Denture Capital gets about 1,000 views per episode. While such online shows gain viewers, at least 15 startup related podcasts have emerged, covering everything from how to pitch ideas to venture capital investors; what business models will work in what sectors, and how to handle hiring and layoffs, among other topics.
Neil Patel, a UK-based software developer and marketing expert who teaches podcasting, has launched ‘The Indian Startup Show’. The podcast, which has close to 1-lakh listeners, often tops the Indian iTunes tech chart.
For all this, “it’s very difficult to make money,” said Patel. “Only a handful of podcasts make money via advertising. Advertisers typically offer $10-20 (Rs 680-1,350) per 1,000 listeners, so if you hit over 1-lakh listeners you could make a decent amount. When I publish on Google Play, I will go to advertisers.” There’s potential, though.
“Product placement and advertising through digital content is going to be more profitable than spending lakhs or crores on television commericials,” said Jetesh Menon, Co-Founder of advertising and marketing platform Freejinn. Arunabh Kumar, Founder of TVF Media Labs (or The Viral Fever), agrees.
Source: The Economic Times
Image Courtesy: EconomicTimes
