As the market gets crowded, getting consumers to try one product gets increasingly difficult due to a plethora of choices. Additionally, the technology revolution in India has witnessed OTT players bundling with telcos in order to reach more users. With players like Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar present in English entertainment, Lionsgate India claims to have carved its niche with its OTT platform, Lionsgate Play. As per market intelligence platform, Statista, the OTT market in India is valued at Rs 33,823 crore and is expected to grow to is expected to reach Rs 48,403 crore at a compound annual growth rate of 7.43% by 2029. As per a FICCI-EY report, paid video subscriptions reached 99 million in 2022, across almost 45 million households in India, with a total viewership of around 135 to 180 million users. The report further suggests video subscription revenues grew 27% in 2022 to Rs 6800 crore.
Lionsgate India recorded a total income of Rs 79.09 crore in FY23, an increase of 0.3% from Rs 78.85 crore in FY22. However, the net profit narrowed 48% to Rs 2.34 crore in FY23 to Rs 4.5 crore in FY22, as per regulatory filings accessed by business intelligence platform, Tofler. In a conversation with BrandWagon Online, Anushree Bhardwaj, director-marketing, Lionsgate India, talks about the company’s marketing strategies, its focus on licensing and theatricals, and the future roadmap.
Lionsgate Play is competing against the likes of Netflix, Hotstar, and JioCinema, among others. What is the strategy adopted by Lionsgate India to compete against these players?
We have been clear from day one on our target group, the content and the brand’s identity. The OTT (over-the-top) industry is a competitive space and there are big players of the world, investing millions of dollars to build these businesses. Our character from the first day has been to serve the underserved. In India, we are not speaking to the mass but to the global urban customers. As a platform, we try to give the consumers reminders of what is new and we try to get them on our platforms. The consumer would not usually come to the platform and watch something every week but if even one or two pieces of content have struck a chord, the consumer usually buys the subscription. We focus on the right content strategy which is premium Hollywood-scale content that we make available to our consumers.
We’ve experimented with the pricing models in an attempt to figure out how to sample our content. There are free episodes available on the app. For our Indian original, we released a free episode on YouTube and if the episode interests them enough, the consumers could come on the platform and subscribe to watch the remaining part.
While content strategy to the right pricing strategy are important, one of the most important focuses is on our distribution where we have collaborated with like-minded brands and ensure that we are available with them. Our partnership with Amazon Prime Video or JioCinema has helped Lionsgate Play get the visibility that we need with our consumers.
It is these three core things for us. Firstly, getting the right content and ensuring that you are reaching out with the right content pieces to your target audience, telling them periodically what you have for them. Secondly, it is important to have the right pricing strategy in place while understanding how is it comfortable to pay for the consumers, making all those options available. Lastly, it is important to keep working on a large distribution to pipelines which is partnerships.
What are Lionsgate India’s marketing strategies for the next fiscal year?
I don’t see many changes when it comes to marketing strategies. We want to deep dive and ensure that people know the kind of content that we have on the platform. We still want to ensure that the top 10-15 metros know about us and have sampled us in some form or the other. We will try and bring at least 50-60 premieres in a year. Our proposition is one premiere a week and we will try and bring those many premieres on the platform. Of late we have witnessed that there is a slight preference for movies as compared to series so we are trying to double down on that.
At the beginning of every year, we sampled the English premium community and we heard chatter around awards. This year, we built the House of Global Awards. We’ve been having all the awards with us for the last three to four years. We plan to take that ahead in a big way and it is a part of our content strategy because that’s important for our consumers.
When it comes to media, we are looking at investing in long-term gains. Digital is an important piece for us. We have two deals with the Mumbai and Delhi airports and we have recently partnered with publications in terms of print for better visibility. We also need to build a brand out and work on our awareness because that’s not as high.
We’re also personalising our marketing for next year. The passionate area for next year is WhatsApp marketing because we can segment dice and slice our audience base and land that piece of content to your consumer in their WhatsApp. The biggest consumer problem that my user is facing is confusion in deciding what to watch which is ultimately leading them to go back to their comfort watching. We are trying to solve that problem by simplifying our user experience (UX).
How has Lionsgate Play been able to personalise its marketing strategies?
We work on understanding user behaviour. We try and understand everything from the first time the consumer continues on the app, what they consumed and ultimately, did they ended up consuming the content piece that led them to the platform. There are periodic nudges to the consumer, the more personalised it is and more readable for them, the better our click-through rates are.
We have been sending emails and notifications. However, I feel that people turn a blind eye to it. WhatsApp is a medium that is versatile and is on our radar this year. We are very particular about a consumer’s content consumption and recommendations outside the platform.
The company in 2023 focussed more on licensing and theatricals and less on the production business. Why so and how has it impacted the revenue of the company? What strategies are you using for customer acquisition?
Production is a global call that we’ve taken. We have produced three large pieces of content with popular movie stars. Our ethos is very clear and is very similar to what we do in the US. We are a content company first so we build the right content, which will lead to the audience. During the pandemic, we saw different platforms ousting each other by consumers but there was no stickiness. People come, they sample a piece and then they move on to the next platform wherever their favourite content is playing. Hence, we’ve been particular about profitability. You will not see us indulging in fancy marketing campaigns or content pieces but we do our bit when it comes to experiences or the right content which we know will have takers.
Our consumer acquisition strategies are simple. We can’t be everything to everyone. We identify the consumer and we rope them in using communication that resonates with them. We try and showcase multiple content pieces through advertisements. We have multiple landing pages so we use a lot of technology and data science in our marketing initiatives. Secondly, the platform needs to have a strong brand identity to get customers to stick. We are constantly building social communities, whether it be Instagram, X, or YouTube. We are trying to connect with people and connect with them snackable content. Thirdly, it is important to use multi-marketing channels. It has to be a mix of account-based marketing (ABM), personalised marketing, and digital marketing. We have to be in multiple places like the music app the consumers are on, and the news platform they are on. We are also working on free trials and demos because not all consumers are affluent enough to buy the subscription at one go.
How has Lionsgate Play’s collaboration with Amazon Prime Video worked out for the company?
Prime Video, specifically, we’ve been able to leverage their reach and that’s been a game changer for us. Prime Video has been an important discovery channel for us. While we are available on the Play Store or the Apple Store, we are also available on the Prime Video Store. Prime Video does very well in terms of marketing the overall product, and they have the most engaged set of audiences who love OTT on their platform. We have worked together many times with their marketing teams. When two brands are promoting something together with all their might, it makes it more powerful.
Secondly, our partnership team is constantly working on ensuring that we have discoverability on their page because they have so much content stored that people can discover. Prime Video also has many partners so they work around the clock to ensure that the landscape and the titles are always visible on the Prime Video platform. The partnership has paid off very well for us and them and we plan to continue it in the times to come.
Is the company planning to expand its library? Is the company planning to expand into other language content?
We’ve done that with one part of it being local production. While we are an English-speaking nation, we are not an English-consuming nation. Dubs have played a huge role there. We’ve dubbed our content in four to five languages Kannada to Tamil Hindi to Marathi, and at times even Bhojpuri.
Our consumer wants access to premium global content at their fingertips, and that’s what we are here to provide. Local production is not off the charts because we at some point would look at pouring into it when we are clear about the content strategy. However, we are trying to go deeper with our dubbed content. We have local programming available on the platform. Our maximum consumption comes from our famous box sets and English content.
How do you intend to expand into other geographies?
OTT still is an urban phenomenon, but sports are making it wider and the convenience of a particular screen that people have available to themselves unlike a family viewing is interesting. When it comes to other geographies, we are already present in South Asia, we present in the Philippines, and Indonesia. We recently launched in Bangladesh with a partner called Grameenphone. The building of the pipeline for South Asia will continue. However, India remains a key player and, India acts as a blueprint for all other markets in the way we have launched India and the way we’ve grown India is the blueprint for other markets. We want to replicate the success of India in other markets.
What are the ambitions of the company?
We want to be the definition of thrilling, fast and something that people can access quickly. We want our consumers to watch content and be on the edge of their seats and the content that you will see on the platform is going to be that.
Our strategy of bringing different types of live events or awards on the platform is also in line because the audience can’t wait for the weekend or two days later to read about it. The moment these awards are announced, our teams work around the clock to ensure that our consumers have that information. We will double down on fast, exciting content and fast, exciting marketing.
Secondly, we want to reach more people and a wider audience in India. We are going to focus a lot more on subtitles and dubs so that language is not a barrier. We are also trying to see if there are any other languages that we need to get into in India. We will continue to invest in community building on different social media and YouTube is playing a huge role in fueling the next level of growth in online discovery. We are doubling down on our presence there. We are here for the long haul so we are going to be experimenting with different kinds of revenue models, but currently we are only SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) model we also want to understand how is it that sampling can be done.