Chidambaram Natesan is one of most dynamic Professional who has explored various domains like FMCG, Media, Entertainment and Digital Media Industry during his career path and currently spearheading TrendLoud, the most happening Digital Media entity in Chennai as its CEO.
TrendLoud is the Digital Initiative of VisionTime India Private Ltd., a Leading Content Producer and Independent Media Agency in South India. With in a short span of assuming charges of TrendLoud, Chidambaram has established it as a most happening brand in the areas of Digital content creation, Content Distribution/ Licensing, Online reputation Management and Digital Marketing Solutions.
He Successfully launched new music label Trend Music and more than 15 Digital Channels like #MadrasMeter, #SmileSettaiwhich have already created huge impact in terms of viewers, subscription, reach and engagement.
In and Exclusive chat with tvnews4u.com, “Chida” elaborates on his Journey and Strategy for TrendLoud and scope of evolution for Digital Media in India:
1. Trendloud is an emerging Digital Outfit from South, Could You Explain to us about this.?
Chida:Moving into the digital space was a natural move for Vision Time India. Having built a reputation of two decades in the TV and film space and with the trend moving towards digital, it’s where we wanted to shine.
2. What kind of services do you offers and What are the main criteria you look at for the associations.?
I think our services are best divided into four categories
Brand and Influencer Marketing – Digital marketing and content marketing for brands
Film Promotion – Leading the way in how Tamil audience consumes film content before, during and after release. This includes our state-of-the-art live video support, online reputation management for celebrities as well as music rights management via our music label, TrendMusic
Thirdly we produce original content for OTT platforms and also provide a platform for anyone looking to go digital with their content
And fourth would be Talent identification and management. We think of all the artists working under our channels like Madras Meter, Smile Settai and ParacetamolPaniyaram to be of the same talent pool. We’re constantly looking out for the next big thing.
3. Trendloud is offering many Digital Promotional service to Cinema Industry, could you brief us about the activity and the recent projects.?
At Trendloud, we’re all about the core emotional aspect of a film. For instance in Eetti, we wanted to convey the sheer effort Atharvaa had put it in to convincingly play a hurdles athlete. Mupparimanamfocuses on three dimensions of everyone so our entire activity had that as the basis. Chennai 28 IIwas the first Tamil film to have a profile picture frame on Facebook because we knew the excitement of that film is something that everyone would want to share.
Building engagement and rewarding experiences for fans is our prime objective, always.
4. Say if we have to quantify the size of the pie (for Digital) what do you think the size of the business from Cinema Industry.?
The digital slice of the pie when compared to our cinema industry is definitely dismal. One of our favourite experiences here is educating production houses on the return they can expect via digital activity. And when a campaign truly reaches its goals, it’s a win-win and will only contribute towards more digital activites being held. A couple of years back, spend on conventional media vs digital was at 90:10 whereas its now at around an 80:20 based on the films we’re working on. This trend is what leads our data and analytics to deliver more objectives to a production house. We predict this trend to move to the likes of 50:50 in the next two or three years and we hope to be a major influencer of that mindset.
5. The Visibility that you create through Digital Mediums for the Movies, does it have impact on the ticket sales, and does it increase the Footfall.?in other words does it gives a opening push for the movies.
We’ve always been driven via analytics and hard facts. Based on the promotion timeline, we prioritize different objectives. Sometimes we’re more focused on the music, sometimes its about marketing the star value. So as a net result we always believe that we’ve contributed in more ways than just ticket sales.
That being said, our activities for Chennai 28 Part II began right from behind the scenes vlogs when shooting and all the way post release. So we know we made a positive impact on the ticket sales there! And additionally, building community, subscribers and fans plays a role in the film’s Internet license salability. We can attest to a leading portal having increased their offer for a film based on social media numbers.
6. How many Channels do you manage now and what are the genres.?
We’re at a little over 120 channels, distributed over the genres of Comedy, GEC, Music, Films, Cooking, Lifestyle, Fashion, Vloggers, Devotional and Kids.
7.The Mindset of the Creators is that Digital Medium Directly Refers to YouTube, and Facebook, and Twitter, What is beyond these mediums.?
At the rise of digital content, the creator revolved around YouTube as the core-publishing medium while social media like Facebook and Twitter was for ancillary content or to drive traffic to the YT channel. Facebook is working extremely hard to convert its product into a similar platform and that aggressiveness is also leading OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu to target their future content based on emerging creators. A deal made with one of these platforms is a huge plus for the content creators.
8. How the Monetization’s Works on YouTube, Is there a Monetization on Facebook?
Video monetization is all lead by ads. If you see an ad play before you watch a video or a display ad on the side during video play-through then you’re part of a monetization system. What percentage of views are such monetized views and the rates for placing these ads determines returns for the platform and the creator.
Facebook has beta tested video monetization in the US and it should be coming to our screens soon.
9. Advantage of being a owner of a YouTube Channel,Disadvantage is there any?
The advantage is definitely being a part of where the media industry is headed in the future. The disadvantages are when you set the bar too high and feel like you haven’t been consistently dishing out content for your fans. Satisfying the ever-demanding digital audience is a challenge. And that challenge keeps us going.
10. You mange MaestroIlayaraja’s Channel, Could you brief us about it?
It was an absolute dream to be associated with the Maestro and every video we upload on that channel is a milestone. His impact on audience, industry and its nuances are nothing short of legendary. Working with him, we’ve successfully made his works available as a digital catalogue. You can find it at youtube.com/ilaiyaraajaofficial
11. Is there Scope for exhibiting Full Movies only on Digital Platform?
There already are a bunch of platforms doing this. Digital rights are now a bigmoney spinners and full movies are gradually being made available via OTT platforms. New and old players in the field like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, YuppTV are pushing for this space to be super competitive.
12. What is the General Behavior of Digital Audience ?
We’d need a full session just to cover this but one can summarize saying they’re very picky, have small attention spans and get upset without regular content. 😀
13. Is there a Difference between Digital and Television Audience Consumption?
Definitely. At Trendloud, with the support of YouTube, we reached out to a completely new audience with completely new and different patterns of consumptions of content. We want to continue to explore all possible audiences in the same format
14. Vision Time being a Leading Marketers and Content Production House in South, What are the Marketing Scope for other Content Producers.?
The overall market size remains to be huge and we think healthy competition is also a key contributor to our success thus far. Vision Time has successfully marketed their own content for decades now and also been a constantly support for emerging content producers. At Trendloud, we play a role in educating them about opportunities in the digital space and help them migrate archived content onto the digital sphere.
15. How long will it take to Monetize a Content, and How constant the revues are?
Videos in our network are monetized the moment they are uploaded to their respective channel. A channel with a healthy number of subscribers, constant flow of content as well as some contextual criteria determine how much revenue is generated. It’s a closely guarded algorithm and we’re always working closely with the platform to be using their best practices.
16. Today Physical Industry is Literally Out of the Business, Does digital gives the same amount of revenue to the Producer? Or what are the New avenue it has opened up for them to Monetize?
Yes Digital Gives Better Revenue to the producer / record labels irrespective of the scale /size of the project / album and interesting fact is even a small album reaches to its audience with minimal effort.
17. Your take on trailers being aired exclusive on Network like yours, and what will be the Revenue Projections the Producers?
This largely depends on the actual trailer content itself, the no. of views it can generate in the first 48 hours and how that viewership sustains and also how many ads are thrown on the video.
18. Copy Rights well Projected in Digital Business Mainly YouTube, Can You Explain how it works?
YouTube’s key advantage as a platform so far as content production houses are concerned, is their attention to copyright. They have an extensive system of algorithms called Content ID that are a result of years of work and constant refinement even as we speak. They can broadly be divided into video and audio fingerprinting. Video fingerprinting analyzes a clip frame by frame for possible infringement whereas audio fingerprinting concentrates solely on the sound.
It’s interesting to add that Facebook is also releasing a tool called Facebook Rights Manager with which they seek to enforce copyright infringement more strictly on their platform.
19. Is there a Revenue Possibilities for the Memes Creators in the Future?
Outside of brand endorsements, memes have very little scope than entertainment purposes.
20. Trendloud Music Label, Brief us about this Initiative,
TrendMusic is right now over a hundred albums old in terms of catalogue but our acquisition strategy is still as clear as it was on day one. We’re focused on quality picks and building a library of audio that any listener would appreciate and be a fan of. Our latest favourites would have to be the tracks of Dharmadurai and Kadamban.
21. What the Service and Solutions You offer to the Brands?
Our brand management team can pull up a comprehensive digital strategy for your brand. This can leverage your current positioning or start scratch for a custom made campaign. From social media management, engaging customers, online conflict resolution to content marketing, we’re always hands on deck with the latest approaches.
22. How Brands Reacts to the digital Audience and Consumptions?
They usually start with surprise when they learn about the size of the data set. But are convinced as soon as they see some of our earlier content’s consumption patterns. But national campaigns today definitely involve a digital element, so someone keeping up with the trends is sure to understand the impact.
23. Is there a Growth Strategy for the Brands Mainly Brands Based out of South, and their understandings on the Medium?
The growth pattern is definitely slow. Very few traditional brands understand the value/impact digital can have and not to mention cost effectiveness at scale.
But progress is being made and Trendloud is making leaps in educating and growing with brands that have hitherto depended on conventional media to venture into the vast world of digital.
24. Many Digital Company being floated and Your take on these new initiatives, ?
A company offering great solutions is always a welcome change for the industry. But it often happens that companies are formed based on a singular idea or strategy and there’s very little commitment on sustainability and what ripples will be shaken sometime in the future.
25. 360* Promotions Support from Facebook, Could brief us about this? How it Works?
Our 360 degree approach stems from how Trendloud is positioned as a player in the market. Straight from brand communication, to audio management, to content marketing to protecting your Intellectual Property; we like to believe that we have our finger in the mix wherever digital is concerned.
26.Has the Viral Contents are being Produced ?or Created out of Smart marketing and Promotion? Because we often come across the claims “ We Produce Viral Content”
We think the bottomline is always content. The production and marketing team have to firmly believe in the content and its possible impact for it to even possibly be a hit. Without such, just an intention to make viral content will only be met with poor response.
So content first, followed by promotion and marketing and lastly the timing of publishing and relative trends of the moment also play a role in deciding what content goes viral.
