Post-acquisition of TakaTak earlier this year, short video platform Moj launched in 2020 is catering to close to 300mn monthly average users.
In an e-mailed interaction with Medianews4U, Shashank Shekhar, Senior Director, Content Strategy and Operations, Moj and ShareChat, spoke about the platform’s biggest genres, share and growth of the sports genre, strategic partnership with GroupM and more.
What are the biggest genres of content for Moj? Where does sports stand?
Dance, comedy, drama, education, sports, fashion, beauty, fitness and food are some of the foremost genres on Moj. Considering the overall viewership data for the last three months, drama and comedy have been the most popular content genres on the app.
Sports as a category is also rapidly growing on our platform. Cricket, one of the most popular sports in the country, gets a monthly viewership of more than 700mn on Moj. Besides cricket, other popular sports among Moj users are football and basketball. They are also taking a lot of interest in online gaming, which generates close to 2bn views per month.
Fans generally engage with the sport they love by viewing live matches on-ground, TV, or on OTT platforms and playing the game themselves.
The sports genre is unquestionably here to stay.
How successful was the #ChakDeMoj campaign? How are you planning to sustain/build on this to grow the sports genre?
#ChakDeMoj was aimed at raising awareness about the growing sports consumption on Moj. Sports content viewership is on the rise monthly. As multiple sports events happen annually, viewership also fluctuates according to the ongoing tournaments. Indian sports is one of the most promising content genres on short video platforms, with the potential to grow ten-fold.
#ChakDeMoj was our first traditional sports IP on Moj after our e-gaming IP #GamingOnMOJ and has become one of the most successful campaigns, as we had foreseen.
The campaign included five different challenges, #trickmaster (where the creators demonstrated some impressive moves from their preferred games), #switchitup (where the creator included stunning frame transitions in the middle of their video), #gameon (An interactive lens where the creators used their faces to control a ball on the screen and dribble past virtual defenders), and #waitforit (where the creators replicated a specific moment of their favorite athlete which was the highlight of the video). The creators had to include their clip in the video along with the athletes’ footage. Each challenge lasted for ten days.
The campaign received 13 billion views and over 70k pieces of user-generated content. We rewarded 10 winners in each challenge category, and three mega winners received prizes worth Rs.50,000 each.
The overwhelming response to #ChakDeMoj has inspired us to develop new contest-driven initiatives that will motivate our creator and user community.
How does the sports influencer ecosystem in Bharat compare with that in other markets? How does it compare with other genre influencers in India?
As we have seen, most successful sports women and men have come from diverse parts of this country. With increased internet access, people now have access to apps like Moj, which provide numerous opportunities for creators to grow and earn a living. In the last two years, the sports influencer ecosystem has grown significantly.
It takes a coordinated effort on the part of our team and our key stakeholders, namely the creators and users, to demonstrate their best abilities and show their love and support for the sports community.
We are the platform that encourages all types of talent, irrespective of genres. Hence our diversity in creator community and the team work towards growing their day in and out.
Will Moj be able to leverage sports properties like the IPL? How?
We continuously monitor how users engage with sports content on our app. We explore different ideas, topical developments, and relevant partnerships and alliances to leverage the sports category. We have collaborated with several sports brands like Star Sports for the PKL (Pro-Kabaddi League), Cricbuzz, PVL (Prime Volleyball League), Chennayin FC, and Tata Maharashtra Open. These partnerships allow our creators to express their passion for sports by creating content around specific leagues and providing unique sports offerings to entice the desired association and connection with the sports amongst our users.
We had the official Rajasthan Royals onboard with us last year and we are scouting to onboard other teams and players, making it a one-stop destination for our users to see all the BTS and key highlights of the main matches. In addition to the above, Moj’s users interacted with some cricketers through our ‘Live’ streaming feature.
With the growing number of tech-savvy sports fans, bite-sized content such as behind-the-scenes, technique shots, and match insights has become a huge hit amongst our users. We aim to bring in more brand-led sports campaigns to increase the visibility of sports on our platform and cater to users’ cravings for sports content.
Are you planning campaigns for any other specific genres? Which ones and why?
We have many more campaigns planned in various categories, including e-gaming, education, fashion, comedy, arts, culture, and sports. Some of our key intellectual properties – #GamingonMoj, #GlowupwithMoj, #KitchenMinistersofIndia #LearnonMoj #MojArtFactory, and #ChakDeMoj – have attracted enormous attention.
Based on what we learned from our past campaigns, we keep altering our strategies for our campaigns to achieve a competitive advantage. This has helped us prioritise and plan our campaigns across categories more successfully. At any given time, at least one hashtag campaign is active on our platform, demonstrating how committed we are to comprehending the changing needs of our user base.
An announcement of a strategic partnership between ShareChat and Moj with GroupM has just been made. How do you see this impacting content going forward?
The Indian market offers a tremendous opportunity, but its diversity represents a gamut of complexities. And the objective of our partnership is to offer our combined expertise to brands that will enable them to navigate these complexities.
Our partnership also aims to co-create unique products with the help of innovation and technology. Through this, brands will also be able to further harness new media and technological capabilities to drive performance marketing effectively. The expertise of Mindshare’s Neo Media World, GroupM India, and ShareChat will be at play.
Is there an option where you create custom campaigns/events for brands? Can you cite examples of such successful brand associations?
Moj is leading the way when it comes to hyper-local targeting. Brands across categories collaborate with us to create unique campaigns that drive user engagement and responses by leveraging micro-influencers and regional content creators to deliver brand messaging to the right audience. Our recent campaigns include:
- Xiaomi India partnered with Moj for its #LiveExtreme campaign ahead of the launch of their all-new Redmi K50i. The brand campaign garnered tremendous responses on the platform by featuring over a 100 Moj influencers such as Parul, Anjali Jain, and Garima Chaurasia across categories like dance and comedy. Moj led a massive awareness and user participation campaign for the launch by curating a fun hashtag challenge. #LiveExtreme challenge, with a 2D lens, shows how life changes when Redmi K50i mode is activated. Over the course of nine days, the campaign generated 527k user-generated videos, reaching about 71.4 million users.
- Moj partnered with Dettol, India’s leading germ protection brand, for its #ShowerCooler campaign to promote their latest summer product Dettol Intense Cool soap in May 2022. The campaign garnered a positive response from Moj users and content creators with over 400mn cumulative likes and a record 10bn views. The platform curated a customized 3D filter with a catchy brand anthem for the campaign led by celebrities like Sunny Leone, Shehnaz Gill, Rahul Vaidya, Hina Khan, Nikki Tamboli and others.
