“BTL Would Suffer Vis-à-Vis ATL If We Don’t Develop Tools To Measure It”
Showtime Events, one of the oldest event agencies in India, is synonymous with the growth of this decade-odd old industry. Michael Menezes founded
Showtime after the takeover of his Maadhyam Advertising by Publicis and has since then grown this company from a small event agency to one of India’s largest, technology-savvy, world class event solutions provider catering to brands across India and around the world. Avik Prabhu, Menezes’ son, is now focusing on the strategic development of the group. Face2Face’s Deepika Bhardwaj gets in a candid conversation with Menezes and Prabhu, two generations now working together to take Showtime to new heights, to discover more about the group, the change in roles, future plans and also get some industry insights.Two generations together now, Showtime has come a long way since it started. How do you think the industry has evolved over the years, has there been a shift in the way people are looking at this industry now?
Michael: I think the whole business of events has evolved phenomenally over the last few years, primarily because I think now events have become a part of the integrated marketing experience for brands. From a point where events were one off, ad-hoc exercises, they are now a part of the 360 degree marketing experience. Therefore, I think events are seen in a much more positive manner, but having said that, I think there is a lot of evolution to take place, because unlike advertising, where agencies are considered partners in the process of brand building and brand positioning, events are still seen as a vendor related experience. I think it’s important for the agencies to develop that kind of respect within the client community, primarily by being able to demonstrate the value they are able to bring to the table in terms of the brand. So I think that’s something that event agencies need to work towards.
Where would the focus be in the coming years?
Avik: Showtime Direct, which is brand dialogue with the consumers, will become more and more important. As the mind space gets more congested because of more and more international brands coming to India, the space that is available is going to get more and more crowded, so how you occupy a space that gets you noticed, how you give an experience that people remember will be very crucial. That’s where Direct becomes more important and will be our focus area. And as entertainment, sports and leisure increases in India that has to be our focus area as well. I think those are definitely two areas Showtime is constantly going to focus on. Large events will always be a specialisation for us. As the generation of 18-35 grows, they will impact how communication happens majorly, so there will be newer forms of media and new ways of communicating the messages and that’s what we are working on at the strategic level.
What are the kinds of innovations that clients are now particularly seeking? How has Showtime delivered innovation to its clients over the last few years?
Michael: Something that the client always looks at is creating something new. They want innovation all the time. “Never been done before” is what everybody loves. So, we have always scored because we bring fresh innovations, never been done before things on the table. We recently created a dome-based 360 degree Hangar projection for a product launch, although all the things, including time and resources were in favour of doing a 270 degree projection, but the client was insistent on 360 because it had never been done before. In fact, we have brought technologies that have been the first. Always. We brought lasers, Xenon projection, projection on water, 3D Holography, 270 degree projection, 360 degree projection, 3D digital mapping into the country, all these were industry firsts, no one can claim to have done anything like this before us. There have been instances where companies have used similar technologies, subsequently, but it’s a confirmation of the fact that what we do has value in it. Imitation is anyways the best form of flattery.
So where does the inspiration come from?
Michael: I travel a lot across the world; attend various motor shows, seminars and a lot of it also comes from movies that I watch. But the biggest fight is to implement things that have been done by spending millions and billions of dollars by doing the same in a few lakhs of rupees. Customising things to your client’s needs is what makes the difference actually, how you can mould things as per your client’s thought is what it’s all about.
Avik: It’s also the power of an open mind. To ask not what has been done before, but what else is out there that we can do differently. One of the important traits that I see in Dad is to keep your mind open towards possibilities that are out there. In the end, you might not have any evidence for it, you never have evidence for innovation, else how would you do it for the first time? And many a time, clients become wary of what has not been done before, but they still want it. But it’s easy now for us as clients have faith in us that we will deliver; we have done it in the past, so we can do it. So, our endeavour is to bring something new into this country. Always.
