GOA: Channel V’s flagship live event property “India Fest” is all set to be held twice a year henceforth. Speaking at the event that was held at the Baga Grounds on 13 and 14 February, an official channel spokesperson says, “In the first six months of the year, we will have the live mega event in Goa while during the other six months we will conduct V Fest Tours across the country where winners from the fest in Goa will be taken for the shows that we hope will ignite the rock and pop culture.”
Speaking about how live events will enhance the channel’s offering, the spokesperson adds, “Today’s youth are no longer stuck to the television. Events are an essential part of college life, which no one forgets. As a corporate we decided to offer that to them on a large scale where they could fast track their passion into a career. This helps them focus and believe in what our channel has to offer them.”
Day one of the fest had performances by DJ Suketu, the band Underground Authority as well as singer turned Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana. On the second day Shilpa Rao, Mika Singh and Varun Dhawan entertained audiences. Channel sources placed the day one turnout during the day at 13,000 people turning up while 21,000 turned out at night. Day two had almost double the crowd number, the source claimed.
When queried on the innovations that the channel introduced this year, the official spokesperson informs that, firstly it integrated the fest with television channel. “The channel has created a weekend property, which is a eight episode series called the V Fest Show. The shows include various performances, contests and on ground activity that the fest managed to put up. Two of the episodes have already been aired. The eight episode series will also include a finale show of two and a half hour,” the spokesperson informs.
Secondly, the hosts and anchors for this edition of the fest were all popular faces from the channel’s various shows. This was done to resonate its programming with the crowd. Thirdly it decided to rebrand the name India Fest as V Fest from this edition for better brand recall of the channel. The spokesperson also adds that the channel brought in a big name like Varun Dhawan because they felt he embodies the youth of today quite well.
This edition of the fest had Microsoft as the title sponsor, while the other sponsors on board included Ponds Men and Parle. Maybelline was the grooming partner, while Mufti was the style partner. The event was supported by Star India with Red 93.5 FM as the radio partner. The channel took close to six months to plan for the fest. Brainstorming for next year’s edition will commence by March this year.
On the marketing front, the channel roped in 1000 college ambassadors for the fest in various colleges in India to help build buzz. Besides initiatives in various metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, Channel V also undertook zonal marketing programs in cities like Pune where close to 10,000 people turned out for the contests versus a crowd of only 700 to 800 people it managed to garner in previous season. The channel also brandished the fest at airports besides hoardings in metros.
A media planning and buying expert placed the marketing expenses of the channel between the range of Rs 5 - 6 crore across markets. The channel spokesperson claimed it had reduced spending on the marketing front this year by close to five per cent as compared to last year.
When quizzed as to why Channel V decided to convert the fest into a bi-annual event, the official spokesperson says, “We have received 10 million unique impressions on our digital platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. We do not want to lose this traction. We want to offer them something about the fest for the rest of the year through the tours and help maintain the brands offering in colleges from where the target audience of the fest comes in.”
Goa will now be a permanent venue for the V Fest.
