Adtech 2012: "MTV makes more money by co-creating products with brands," says Aditya Swamy

The panel discussion concentrated on combining branded content with killer marketing strategy. The session moderated by Ravi Kiran, co-founder, managing partner, Friends of Ambition; saw the participation of marketing honchos from Coca Cola, HUL, Google India and MTV India.

To kickstart the discussion, Wasim Basir, director, integrated marketing communication, Coca Cola India, South West Asia, said, “The present and future of our brand is based on storytelling. If Martin Luther King had sold people a ‘message’ instead of a ‘dream’, it wouldn’t have created that magic. Therefore, the answer lies in the content and not in the message; it lies in the power of storytelling.” 

Atit Mehta, country media manager, Hindustan Unilever, propagated the idea of co-producing content rather than the brand choosing to become the sole publisher of it all.

Aditya Swamy, executive vice president and business head, MTV India, said, “As content becomes the cool factor among the target audience, brands are going to latch onto it but not every brand needs to become a publisher for that matter. It all depends on the timing and whether the brand requires a mere recall or a strong impact.”

Quoting instances from the Old Spice commercial and the recent viral campaign of Kolaveri, Nikhil Rungta, country marketing head, Google India, said, “These are the examples of co-creation of content where a worthwhile messaging helps you advertise more than one brand at the same time.”

Swamy concluded by saying that MTV India makes more money by co-creating products with brands than by selling on-air, thereby strengthening the case for content co-creation.