The world is slowly warming up to getting outdoors after the lockdown, with safe and carefully planned out-of-home entertainment. OML India, which began as an artiste management firm and is today one of India’s leading content producers for OTT platforms and brands, has seen phenomenal growth since its inception.
In an exclusive conversation with EVENTFAQS, Gunjan Arya, CEO of OML India, lets us in on comparison between digital and on-ground events post lockdown, BVS going virtual, challenges faced and more.
According to you, digital vs on-ground events – which will have more demand post lockdown?
While the future is definitely digital, the industry seems to be moving more and more towards hybrid models of virtual and on-ground events, which will in itself be exciting to witness and experience. While we can’t predict anything at this point, it’s evident that the future of any event, across the board, entails a strong infrastructure for virtual, with increasingly impressive tech, production quality and cutting-edge AV support.
Hybrid is the future; the movement of digital experiences has found its momentum and allows for a different experience altogether. Digital events are an added experience available to our consumers. Exploring and pushing the boundaries to cater to audiences remotely is the demand we will need to cater to in the coming future. While the world will slowly start opening up to on-ground events, digital has brought a new form of home-based entertainment for our regular audiences.
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What new trends do you expect to see during hybrid events and purely on-ground events?
The on-ground events will transition into seeing parallel live-streams through digital platforms that allow for a two-way interaction. While we see fans yearning for the on-ground experience, we see hybrid events allowing us to go beyond geographies and reach different audiences. The idea is to have people tune in from various cities across the country, have them be connected through one virtual experience, and connect with the artistes virtually.
This year, Breezer Vivid Shuffle is going digital. Tell us how OML is overcoming the challenges of hosting BVS digitally.
In order to transition Breezer Vivid Shuffle to digital, we had to refine our fluency in virtual event technology and go back to the drawing board. We reconsidered our communication touch-points, user journey, and overall experience to ensure that our audience was and continues to be engaged at every step of the competition. Since Breezer Vivid Shuffle has multiple milestones and rounds, as well as learning workshops (School of Shuffle) happening simultaneously, it’s been profoundly interesting, to say the least, and it has provided us with insights that will allow us to cater to refined experiences, online and offline. Shifting formats is always challenging, but fortunately, it’s been a seamless transition for us, opening up several creative opportunities, helping us to realise just how many more people we can be accessible to. We have partners that believe in our vision and a team that adapted to creating virtual experiences.
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What are the big initiatives planned for the near future at OML? What will be your priorities going ahead?
It’s going to be a mix of a few things. We’ll be focusing on creating touch-points for consumers virtually, thus allowing for the physical experience to recreate itself through the user journey. It’s important for us to provide unique experiences that are accessible while simultaneously building digital communities. We do this not only by networking but also by rewarding the communities who’ve consistently supported us. The promise of the kind of content that we offer has increased over the years in terms of engagement and quality over the last decade. Last, but definitely utmost on our list, is finding the way forward to create safe events on-ground and keep the communities created in 2020 engaged.
With the Government easing norms to allow large gatherings now, when do you see the industry making a full return to physical events?
The decision is in the hands of the people. It is crucial for the events industry to regain its momentum whilst striving to deliver safe experiences. The industry has a big responsibility to ensure that citizens are delivered that, keeping their safety and security foremost in mind. The great thing is that audience mindsets towards virtual events are improving, and simultaneously, event companies have warmed up to investing in virtual event technology. We will need to keep abreast with new and emerging content formats, to ensure that we constantly reinvent the ways in which we curate and relay content, and deliver the best experience.
