Music Inc. Recap: How The Music Industry Can Growth Hack Into The Sports Fandom

Music and sports, how are these two related? Music Inc., a two day long conference presented by MTV India and curated by Loudest.in and exchange4media, session on ‘Growth Hacking: Music and Sports’ was the right place to get your answer. The session saw a panel of industry stalwarts like Swaroop Banerjee, Business Mentor - Adsto Sports and Co- founder - Tribe Asia; Sam Middlehurst, Co- Founder, The Music Run; Shailendra Singh, Inceptor (GuestListforgood, Sunburn & Percept); Vinit Karnik, Business Head- Entertainment, Sports and Live Events – GroupM; Uday Sodhi, Head- Digital Business, Sony Pictures Network Indi; and Maneesha Khanna, Director, Global Media & Content COE, Pepsico. The discussion started with Middlehurst of The Music Run, which is the only international 5k and 10k running series pumping the ultimate running playlist every step of the way. He said, “Music is the most consumed thing by millennials. The relationship between running and music was organic, it wasn't forced. We had two shows in Bengaluru and we are looking for more. It's a great market to be in.” Speaking of brand Pepsi, Banerjee asked Khanna, “How brands believe in multi formats from the consumer's point of view and are we going to see more of Pepsi Halftime in India?” She said Pepsi has always believed in music and sports, “I think over the last 16, 17 years we have consistently invested in both the industries. A good example of that is the Halftime show, which was a beautiful amalgamation of sports and music coming together in an ecosystem where there is not really a sponsorship or partnership but together invest in one of the most largest music event. I think it worked beautifully for both the brand and music & sports relationship. It's inbuilt in the fabric and DNA of the brand when it's a partnership to start with and two years down the line you can see it's relevant to your consumer in a cultural context.” Khanna further added, “Bringing, something like Halftime to India I think, we are well poised to create an impact. There are challenges in the ecosystem that we still have to think about it in terms of barriers that is stopping us from making this large, and the brands and the business themes. But bringing sports and music, the fan engagement - the opportunity exists and I think it makes sense to think about creating an ecosystem which is meaningful for the brands from the economic point of view and the scale as it is expensive and unsustainable.” Talking about the consumption pattern in music and sports. Sodhi shared, “If you look at the consumption patterns on OTT or digital we are seeing 250 million viewers today consuming some sort of content on digital platforms. That's a large number of people using small screen as an entertainment screen, and this number is growing rapidly. We have seen that sport lovers have moved to small screen since India is a single household country where the entire family doesn't follow sports. Coming to the music aspect which is a lot to do how music enterprise the experience and how built-up is done through music. How music plays a part in a fans’ experience of a particular team?” On the similar lines, Karnik added, “Music is an integral part of sports. In fact, brands are the biggest consumers. The interesting point of music and sports and the linkage of how music can actually build a sport. Every sport works on three things Fans, Followers and Funds. All these music pieces built great amount of curiosity and built-up in bringing new people to consume sport and that's the objective of anthems. The creators have to work with aggregators and platforms to create business solutions if you want brands to invest on music and sports. Music is created to celebrate sport.” “We are in crisis mode right now in this country,” said Singh stressing on the huge potential between sports and music. “We come from a land of musicians, we are not athletes. We’re trying to be athletes, and we love cricket - but we don’t have an anthem in the stadium besides ‘Sachiiiiiiin, Sachin’. But I think the potential is immense. The opportunity for India is fascinating, and I don't think it's an added investment, it's an integral part. Music and Sports go hand in hand. All athletes loves music. Sport is the product, music is the packaging and it can be a huge, relevant, ROI-driven activation,” Singh concluded. News coutesy https://www.exchange4media.com/