Digital Reinvent 2021 in association with Promax India ends on a high note One of the best curated events the industry has seen in the OTT world amidst key takeouts, trends and winning works
Mumbai, 12th October 2021: Digitisation has unfolded a new phase for leading players in the OTT world along with opening a series of new avenues for content creators. Lauding these major brands and artists, who are driven by creativity and newness, Digital Reinvent 2021 in association with Promax India successfully concluded the virtual event – ‘OTT Digital Reinvent Conference & Awards, 2021’ on the 8th of October. Celebrating excellence in all forms with a great line of speakers from media and entertainment that lead the digital business in India, the platform also honoured creativity with the best winning works with the OTT & Digital Marketing Innovation Awards 2021 at a power packed awards ceremony.
Starting with an opening note, Rajiv Bakshi, Conference Chair & COO, Revenue Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd shared “Internet penetration in the regional/ rural market has led to a macro growth observed in many parts of the country. The technology and telecom industry plays the major role in disrupting the digital universe that triggers growth and challenges on similar levels”.
Leading a panel discussion on ‘Mastermind Session: Leaders in OTT’, senior journalist Gautam Srinivasan shed light on the current scenario of OTT business in India with panelists Rajiv Bakshi – COO Revenue Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, Gourav Rakshit – COO Viacom Digital Ventures, Issac John – Head Marketing Direct-To-Consumer &
Discovery Networks APAC Discovery Inc, Karan Bedi – CEO MX Group, Rohit Jain – Managing Director Lionsgate, Satya Raghavan – Director Content Partnerships YouTube India and Vishnu Mohta of Co-founder Hoichoi, Executive Director SVF.
Sharing his view on revenue streams being built on content platforms Satya Raghavan, Director Content Partnerships YouTube India mentioned, “In countries like India, content creators come up with various formats that help them to generate revenue streams. These include merchandising, creating individual channels based on memberships while some creators prefer doing live conversations to connect with the audience and build a fan base. Hence, having a variety of revenue streams is an interesting and innovative strategy.”
The next session, ‘Glued to your Platform’ led by Uday Sodhi Senior Partner Kurate Digital Consulting witnessed an engaging conversation on the key strategies adopted by the OTT heads such as Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals Amazon Prime Video India, Nikhil Madhok, Head of Original Content Disney+Hotstar, Saugata Mukherjee, Head of Originals, SonyLIV, Sony Pictures Network Asia.
Aparna Purohit shared her thoughts on how she picks and choose stories and stated that, “Mediocracy is not accepted anymore. People like to see compelling and interesting stories that are truly deeply rooted in our soil. At Amazon, we come up with stories that people want to hear, we aim at blurring geographic and demographic lines and bring characters that are inspiring and relatable to the audience.”
Following was a captivating Fireside chat on ‘Winning in India’ between Gaurav Gandhi, Country Manager Amazon Prime Video India and Ashish Pherwani, Leader – Media & Entertainment EY India. Highlighting some key factors Gaurav Gandhi shared his insights on bridging the gap with the audience, “Considering how diverse India is, there is a need for local stories as people love to see relatable stories and listening to customers is our foremost priority. Secondly, having great talents and creators, be it a stand-up comedian or emerging filmmakers is always important. Finally, with our focus on 10 languages, we go in-depth towards providing content to the audiences in their preferred languages, be it old library content, new or dubbed content.”
Sharing their experiences and journey in the OTT industry was another session ‘Show me the Money’ led by Zubin Dubash and panellists Abhishek Joshi, Business Head & Head of Marketing- MX Player & MX Takatak, Ali Hussein, CEO- Eros Now and Gaurav Kanwal, Chief Revenue Officer – ZEE Entertainment Enterprises. The panel discussion focused on various trends and practices OTT streaming platforms follow to monetize their platforms. The insightful conversation revolved around various methodologies used to generate revenue streams.
The next session titled ‘OTT Advertising is reshaping the Media Landscape’ was led by Vikram Shah – National Lead – Buying & Trading Partnerships (Digital) GroupM and have Kunal Bhardwaj – Senior Director Marketing Upstox, Prabhakar Tiwari – Chief Growth Officer, Angel One Ltd., Ramalingam Subramanian – Head of Brand & Marketing CoinDCX and Sumanta Sengupta – Marketing Head Gameskraft as its panellists.
The conference further moved to an interesting conversation on discussing several narratives and game-changing strategies observed in the viewership trends in the OTT space. The keynote session was led by Raj Nayak, Founder & Managing Director House of Cheer Networks Private Limited, in conversation with the team of Amazon Prime Video
Originals ‘Mumbai Diaries’ Content Creator Nikkhil Advani & Talents -Shweta Dhanwanthary and Mohit Raina. They spoke about how OTT has changed the way movies are made. Shweta mentioned in the conversation that, “Digital content has opened new directions for people on screen and behind the screen. There is room for everyone, and it
provides opportunities for actors and directors to experiment with different stories and characters.” Speaking on similar lines, Mohit Raina mentioned, “OTT is liberating. It allows you to explore your creativity and gives you enough space to introspect one’s capabilities as it lets you create content with different formats and innovative storylines.”
The last session involved a fascinating interaction on the Anthology of Films led by Raj Nayak with Talent Abhishek Banerjee and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari – Artist, Filmmaker, Writer of Earthsky Pictures. During the conversation, Ashwiny expressed that, “OTT gives me immense joy as it allows me to share stories in long formats. Through web series, I/one can portray stories and experiment with different plotlines in a broader style that otherwise would be difficult to showcase in a 2-hour movie.”
The Finale saw the biggest awards in the OTT world, OTT and Digital Marketing Innovation Awards 2021 hosted by Red FM’s popular hosts RJ Sachin and RJ Swati as they awarded the most coveted awards in 36 categories of Silver and 32 Gold trophies to the winners. The list of the winners of ‘OTT Digital Reinvent Conference & Awards 2021’ is available on the link below:
Catch up on all of the talks, keynotes and interviews by writing to eriqah@promaxasia.tv
View the digital brochure here: https://cutt.ly/KE5g8oR
