The live and experiential industry is recovering significantly post the pandemic, said Gaurav Mashruwala, Business Head, Viacom18 Live (Integrated Network Solutions), in conversation with Medianews4u.com.
“But it will still take some time to see the kind of growth we wanted to see. In the coming years we are going to see significant growth in this industry,” he added.
Several live events that were cancelled or taken virtual during the pandemic have returned in physical format. The list includes Viacom18 Live’s music and lifestyle festival Vh1 Supersonic 2023 in its eighth edition after a gap of three years, from February 24 to 26 in Pune.
Mashruwala explained that it has been a techno festival over the years and is now moving to a multi-genre music festival. Besides which, Supersonic is also introducing lifestyle elements straddling F&B, art, fashion and NFT, among others.
“We have added far more experiences so that Supersonic becomes the music as well as the lifestyle festival, and we have created mini-festivals within Supersonic,” he remarked.
The way the festival is engaging with consumers has also changed, noted the business head.
“There has been a shift in the consumption pattern – in the way people are discovering both, content and music post pandemic. Keeping that in mind, we went into a more digital-first and data-led approach in order to reach out to our consumer base,” he said.
Moving with the trend of music being discovered across social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok, the headliners chosen for Supersonic are performers with large social media and TikTok following, including CKay and Tyga.
The response to the festival has been very good with fans awaiting the IP after a hiatus, noted the official. The expansion into fashion, art and F&B has also helped garner the good response, he added.
Viacom18 Live hosts events addressing two buckets of audiences: kids and family, and youth. While Supersonic is targeted at youth, an on-ground show called ‘Peppa Pig’ went live with legs in Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
