Stepping IP up!

Evolution of Percept from vanilla advertising to Integrated Marketing Communications.

The advertising industry has grown over time seeking new ways and opportunities to reach out to the masses. Percept and the services that the company has to offer has also evolved with the industry.
By Harindra Singh, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Percept Limited associated speed of adaptation and innovation from our end was paramount towards retaining our existing clients and growing our business by offering this new IMC valueadded offering to new clients seeking the same. So we had an edge with both clients who wished for an IMC bundle of services as well as those clients who were only wishing to pick and choose specifc services from our bouquet of offerings. It was a win-win concept, and better yet, we were way ahead of any EMC player in conceptualizing and offering this concept to the market. If you do a quick history fact sheet check, you will realize that agencies like O&M, WPP and Starcom started using the IMC terminology many years later.

Importance of Events
With the evolution of this industry, Percept also evolved. Any property with consumer interest is of great value. Vanilla advertising is passive as compared to events. Events are akin to having a direct, more focused relationship with your consumer, which in turn, translates into better viewership and followership. The same cannot be said for advertising. The interactivity that events offer is unparalleled when compared to any other form of brandconsumer communication. Corporates create or associate with events because it is interactive, adds tremendous recall value, can be adapted, tweaked and extended in an unlimited manner, and offers far greater value (ROI). For example, in advertising, a $100 spend will ensure a value of $100 or a little more than $100. But in events, a $100 spend will give you a 10 times measurable value. Benefts of an event can be gauged from consumer brand connect, engagement, top-of-mind recall, PR mileage, and therefore higher returns in terms of return on investment.

Growth of the Business

Founded as a mainstream advertising agency in 1984, Percept grew phenomenally over the next decade across multiple functions, services and businesses in the media and communications domain including public relations, experiential marketing, production, content, sports, talent, digital media and more. Since its inception, the company and the services it has to offer have both grown considerably. When we had just begun, super specialization was the name of the game. These specializations were methods by which agencies could focus on key objectives and delivery areas. This resulted in better client relationships. However, the space was changing rapidly and clients began to look for a bundle of services from a one-stop-shop agency. Foreseeing this situation, we evolved and launched the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) concept in 1994. Addressing the evolving client landscape and the

Birth of Intellectual Properties

A decade later another big evolution began at Percept. All along, Percept had been in the traditional services business wherein we came up with entertainment, media and communication solutions to help deliver on the clients objective, such as traditional advertising, PR, events, production, branded entertainment, media buying and so on. But such a business is very transactional in nature i.e. once the job and billings are completed we move on to the next project, and so on and so forth. Its a never ending process and just a means of survival in this space. We realized that if we created solutions that were unique, innovative and needed by a target audience, we could create properties that could become a pipeline of revenue for eternity. In other words, the focus was now shifting from simply creating solutions for clients to simultaneously creating solutions

for ourselves. These copyrighted solutions or intellectual properties could be shared with clients and monetized for a long time to come. Thus, Sunburn, Bollywood Live, Goa Super Sixes, Champions of the World, Comedy Awards, Fight Night and numerous other intellectual properties were born from the Percept stable. We have been in the Ideas business for the past 27 years and have been instrumental in creating many intellectual properties in the past for our clients. However, now it was time to consolidate our efforts in the area and take ownership of our ideas. Intellectual properties were simply a further extension to our existing knowledge and expertise in the entertainment, media and communications domain. Our vision was to convert them into assets to create long term value for us as well as our clients and investors. Intellectual properties came with two new considerations risk and capital. The success of an intellectual property can never be guaranteed. It can take off and become a phenomenal success, or it can be taken down. That is the risk associated with creating a new intellectual property. Money is another important factor to consider. An intellectual property requires large seed capital investment and it could take a very long time to recover the returns on these mammoth investments made.

a lot of hard work, research, investment and other tangible factors. However, luck also plays a key role in determining its success. We started off with two music festivals in 2007 Metalfest, which celebrated rock metal music, and Sunburn (EDM). However, it was the EDM fest that showed more potential going forward based on the response garnered from a wider audience unlike rock music that focuses on a specifc niche target group. Therefore, we had to take the tough call of dropping the Metalfest as an intellectual property and continuing with Sunburn. Risk was defnitely associated with the continuance of Sunburn. In the frst two years, as is the case with any intellectual property build-up, we lost money but by the third year we broke even. And the response to year four (2010) was phenomenal, far greater than what we expected. On its opening day, the festival sold 300 early bird tickets in 22 minutes and 500 pre-booking sale tickets were sold in 12 hours. We only expected 30,000 to 35,000 people to attend at the most, but we were overwhelmed to have received a populace of over 45,000 attendees, which is about six times the number that attended in 2007. Sunburn is no longer just a music festival held on the beaches of Goa. It has now become a brand thats larger than life which has a cult following spanning across the world. In 2009, Sunburn was ranked No. 1 in Asia and ranked as the ninth largest music festival in the world by CNN. Sunburn has put Goa back on the global map, where it belongs. Over half a million people viewed the live stream on MTVIndia.com in over 80 countries. The local, national and international PR mileage was huge and this huge exposure will drive a new wave of tourists to Goa in the future. In addition to the coverage and exposure, the festival itself has become a landmark on Goas tourism calendar. It has become a destination event for the upscale crowd who has disposable income. Strong attendance numbers in turn drive fights into Goa, encourage local transportation, drive traffc to hotels and restaurants, incentivise shop sales, and more. Sunburn has certainly helped the T ourism Board of Goas position and is marketing the state in a favourable

SUNBURN
Sunburn is an electronic dance music (EDM) festival. EDM is basically music without lyrics and is groovy and trendy. The absence of lyrics helped to cut through regional, linguistic, political, religious and ethnic backgrounds to bring together a diverse mix of music lovers from countries around the world and cities and towns across India to this music fest. Besides removing the linguistic bar the music appealed to young and old alike. Everyone could get up, enjoy and dance to the sounds of this music. While EDM is a popular music genre internationally, it is a relatively undiscovered music genre in India. This novelty gave us an advantage. The property we offered was brand new to Indians, and they loved it. The success of an intellectual property can be attributed to

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light. While Candolim benefts perhaps the most, the impact can be felt across Goa. Perhaps most importantly, Goa can always count on Sunburn e.g. after 26/11, the Sunburn festival was a signal to the world that Goa was open for business. Future plans for brand Sunburn include taking the festival across Asia Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Bali. We will defnitely cover two international Asian markets in 2011. We were so encouraged by the successful launch of our Sunburn merchandise last year that we plan to expand the Sunburn franchise further and launch an entire range of Sunburn branded lifestyle products this year. These products will be available all year round online as well as at our mini-tours, events and festivals. The product range will encompass apparel, accessories, F&B, online gaming and many more across categories. Further brand extensions include Sunburn Club Lounges, Sunburn Music Record and Video Labels, Sunburn Records, Sunburn Radio, a Sunburn T elevision property, to name a few. Sunburn T alent will also serve as a platform to nurture and create future star DJs.

as well as renowned personalities from Bollywood, cricket, music and fashion. Cricket icons such as Kapil Dev and Dilip Vengsarkar also participated in these teams. This intellectual property was an instantaneous hit! Where else could one fnd the biggest corporate and celebrity names in India come together at one venue over a period of three days and nights. The platform allowed them to let their hair down, relax, unwind, indulge in a healthy game of cricket, network and connect. T eams played cricket during the day, partied during the night. Second year was also a stupendous success. And now in the third year (2011), Goa Super Sixes has become a strong, popular and established enough property that can be monetized. As an intellectual property, Goa Super Sixes will cater to companies who need to please their high profle clients and customers. This will give rise to the engagement of participants across categories. The property can be extended to multiple destinations such as the beaches of Bali, Thailand etc. For instance Ernst &Young, BNP and others will associate their corporate name with this intellectual property e.g. E&Y Super Sixes, BNP Super Sixes, and so on. We will undertake the logistics, production and execution of the entire project as that is our area of expertise. The fee that corporates would pay us for such an event are not limited to just the execution, it also takes in the cost of associating with and using our intellectual property towards attaining their corporate objectives.

Bollywood Live
India is a dual brand economy. Every Indian household uses one brand and showcases the other brand. Its just the way we are. The examples run across every aspect of our life, be it our living rooms, crockery used, cars we drive, clothes and accessories we wear, F&B we consume, or entertainment we experience. Sunburn and Bollywood Live are the dual brands on our music festival scene. So while Sunburn caters to a niche EDM music genre afcionado, Bollywood Live caters to the larger target audience of Bollywood music lovers. Its a convergent model that assimilates the entire Bollywood experience viz. music, merchandise, F&B, gaming, and so much more. Bollywood accounts for over 40% of the total revenues of the overall Indian flm industry; however, up until now there has been no organized format or means to consume this experience. Percept has changed this scenario and taken the Bollywood experience to another level with the launch of this innovative intellectual property. The amalgamation of Bollywood music, dance and a host of other experiential offerings will ensure that visitors get an entire 360-degree Bollywood experience and an opportunity to take back home a slice of Bollywood. The Bollywood Live intellectual property also has plans to roll out across multiple cities and towns in India and around the globe in the coming year with an objective to reach out to millions of Bollywood enthusiasts across the world.

More Intellectual Properties

We have recently launched Champions of the World, Slamfest, Good Luck India, and Fight Night, to name a few. Other upcoming popular Percept intellectual properties include the Comedy Awards, Sports Awards, Indian Diva, Mr. & Mrs. Bollywood. And there will be many more innovative intellectual properties rolling out of the Percept Group in the coming years.

Final Take on Intellectual Properties

Intellectual properties are the foundation of global economics and certainly the foundation upon which many business empires and industries are built. All successful brands and businesses are built upon measures such as copyright, trademark and patent. The future of a nation depends in no small part on the effciency of industry, and the effciency of industry depends in no small part on the protection of intellectual properties. The success of intellectual properties however depends on fair and stringently enforced intellectual property laws and protection. Intellectual properties can certainly help to put India on the map of intellectual superpowers and leverage the Indian economy to a large extent. India needs to awaken to the power and potential of creating, owning and marketing intellectual properties to international markets in order to take the game to the next level.

Goa Super Sixes

In 2009, Percept launched a new intellectual property called Goa Super Sixes Indias frst premium annual corporate cricket tournament. Players comprised an eclectic mix of business leaders and managers from the corporate world