MUMBAI: With data becoming cheaper and more affordable, Indian market saw a high jump in online video consumption. Millennial audience is especially craving for more digital video despite the emergence of several OTT players.
MissMalini.com which started as a hobby blog by Malini Agarwal is currently a go-to-digital destination for Bollywood, fashion and lifestyle. It has now started a new innings in the digital video space. The in-house production The Girl Tribe is the first long-form show under new “MMTV” (MissMalini TV) banner. The 12-episode series is an extension of “Malini’s Girl Tribe”, a Facebook community where women of all ages participate in meaningful interactions. Starting the journey with The Girl Tribe Miss Malini Entertainment is developing several new MMTV properties which will range in length anywhere from 5-20 minutes.
In an interaction with Indiantelevision.com, Miss Malini Entertainment CEO Nowshad Rizwanullah spoke about their first venture, how they are marketing the show and future plans for long-form content production plan.
While almost all of the digital platforms collaborate with brands for video content, you have produced The Girl Tribe independent of marketers. What’s the reason behind that?
We love working with brands and regularly create content in collaboration with some great advertising partners. Sponsors not only generate revenue, but the funding they provide also allows producers like us to invest more into the show to make it bigger and better for our viewers. However, when a brand partner is involved, it can also impact messaging and creative control. The Girl Tribe is a deeply personal show for us, and one that comes from our convictions as a team and our values as a company that women in India need a safe space and platform to speak their truths. Given the timely nature of the show, we did receive significant advertiser interest but we took an early call to make our first season an independent production. This has allowed us to create the show entirely per our vision, without compromise on the message, which for us is our most important priority. It also helps us experiment more freely to try and determine how we can most effectively get the message out, and as you can see from this current season our episodes have been getting stronger and stronger over time. That said, there are many socially conscious brands in the market today and provided there is authentic alignment with our goals for this show, we are open to adding brand partners for future seasons to allow us to invest more in the show and take its message to wider audiences.
What has been the initial response to the show? Can you tell us the viewership pattern from your own data measurement?
We’ve been very happy with the show’s response till date. While we viewed season one as just the first step in a larger, long term movement, the response from our audience, guests, fans and the industry at large has been so positive that we have accelerated our plans for the property. To give you a sense of numbers, the first five episodes have already reached over 10 million people, generating more than 2.5 million views and half a million engagements. The comments and discussions on the episodes, in particular, are especially heartening, as we are seeing people sharing very thoughtful and detailed opinions indicating the show is really striking a chord. What is also very interesting is that the show is reaching a wide audience. While the largest consumption is from women 25-34 (~45 per cent), the 35-44 age group is sizeable as well (25 per cent). And about 15 per cent of our viewership is 45-65+. This kind of diversity is quite rare in today’s digital video space.
Was it your in-house production? How big was the production team? How much have you invested in this project?
Yes, this show was completely conceived and executed in-house. Even the set is based in our own brand new in-house studio. The complete production team including creative and production, numbers between 15-20 people including temporary resources. We don’t disclose production costs but suffice it to say we are producing this first season very cost effectively which leaves a lot of scope for expansion now that we have a successful proof of concept.
Going forward, do you have any plan for other long-form content production this year?
Yes! The Girl Tribe is the first long-form show we have created under our new “MMTV” (MissMalini TV) banner. We have several new MMTV properties under development and we will be filling out the library on a regular schedule. These will range in length anywhere from 5-20 minutes, both fiction and non-fiction, and will bring life to the themes and topics our audiences already love from our other formats. Outside MMTV, we have already produced five different seasons of terrestrial television content over the last several years, and have ongoing discussions for new upcoming shows.
Has this series increased the number of viewers on your site?
The Girl Tribe is a Facebook and YouTube property, and if you watch the show you will see that we have specifically stayed away from plugging our other content or assets there. This comes back to the reason we have not taken on any brand sponsors this season – because the message comes first. That said, we have seen a nice increase in our video viewership and subscriber metrics, and we ran a related campaign called #ItEndWithMe on our website on 18 July that tied together our various activities in support for the themes of the show which also received strong participation and attention.
What’s your marketing strategy? How do you plan to promote the show?
Once again, you have to be careful about how you market a show like this. We were very clear that our first priority was to create meaningful conversation and engagement around topics that are severely underrepresented and go unacknowledged. We didn’t want to cheapen or dilute that message by embarking on an overly aggrandised marketing push that would overshadow the show itself. Perception-wise there’s a fine line between promoting important issues versus promoting yourself and we didn’t want there to be any confusion on this, even though we obviously have the marketing machinery behind us to go very wide. Therefore we have mostly prioritised word-of-mouth marketing and have let our actions and intentions speak for themselves. We are doing some light PR around the show, and of course, we will not turn down any outside interest to learn more and spread the word. Future seasons will get a larger push now that we have established the show’s credibility. But for this season we wanted the show to be powered by the voices of those who felt a connection to the show’s mission, wanted to be a part of its success or were just moved enough to share and engage as a vote of confidence.
