After achieving success with its major live events, Percept Limited has now consolidated its various intellectual properties under a dedicated vertical – Percept Live. The newly launched global entertainment venture has drawn up an investment plan of Rs 2 billion and aims to extend the company’s existing knowledge and expertise into the Entertainment and Communication fields.
The Percept Live business will include all the IPs created and owned by the Percept Group, in the Live Entertainment, Sports, Celebrity Management, Digital and Media space. The launch of this new division comes after a major restructuring of the business last year. In a conversation with Radioandmusic.com’s Chandni Mathur, Percept Limited joint MD Shailendra Singh reveals his plans for Percept Live and discusses the aim and strategy behind the restructuring of Percept Group.
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What was the main strategy behind restructuring the business and the launch of Percept Live?
Restructuring the business was a strategic decision we had taken last year. We have always been in the ‘EMC – Entertainment, Media and (marketing) Communication’ industry. However, in each of these areas we had both a ‘service’ business and an ‘asset’ business. Along with the varying business focus of the service businesses and the asset businesses; they have completely different capital and resource needs. And last but not the least while the services business is a B-2-B business, our asset business is a B-2-C business. It is these imperatives that led us to restructure our business into two verticals which are ‘Marketing Communication Services’ and the ‘Filmed, Live Entertainment & Digital Asset’ business. The launch of a dedicated ‘Intellectual Properties’ vertical is a further extension to our existing knowledge and expertise in the Entertainment, Media and Communications domain and is in keeping with the growth plans of Percept in the future. Our vision is to convert path breaking innovative ideas into assets, create a legacy for the brand Percept and also create a long term value for our clients and investors as well.
How much have you invested in this property?
We have announced an investment plan of Rs 2 billion into the newly launched global entertainment venture Percept Live out of which Rs 500 million has already been raised. The investment of Rs 2 billion will be used in creating innovative IP’s with global appeal as well as scaling up existing IP’s. This announcement comes on the back of a complete restructuring of our businesses.
Tell us about the different Intellectual Properties to be undertaken by Percept Live.
Percept Live business will include all the IPs created and owned by the Percept Group, including its properties in the Live Entertainment, Sports, Celebrity Management, Digital and Media space. Some of the renowned IPs currently owned by Percept Limited include Sunburn, Fight Nights, Bollywood Live, Lost Music Festival, Fan Football Championship, Champions of the World and Windsong Music Festival.
Who has Percept roped in as alliances or partners for the property?
Percept Live is a group company of Percept Limited. As far as partnership and alliance are concerned, we have partnered with Arjun Rampal, Sameer Bhayani to launch indigenous IPs like Lost and Windsong, as they bring their expertise from the entertainment industry to take the game of Percept Live onto another level.
You have also appointed Manuj Agarwal as the CEO for Percept Live. What is the level of functionality you expect?
We are delighted to have Manuj on board. He is one of the best minds in the business and I’m sure his arrival will send very clear signals that Percept Live is ready to make the leap into its next glorious phase. We expect him to bring about a culture of creativity while drawing the best talent that is available in the market. In the past Manuj has also worked closely with the Percept Group in the capacity of COO, Percept Sports and Entertainment and in his illustrious career in the Entertainment and Media industry, he has also worked with Zee TV and the Walt Disney Group, India.
Apart from Agarwal, any plans of getting more employees on board?
Definitely, Percept is growing at a marvelous pace and we welcome promising talents having expertise in the area of sales, marketing and business development amongst others. We already have a team of over 1,000 people and 62 offices in India and the Middle East with capitalized billings of Rs 26 billion (FY’11). Percept companies construct tailor-made solutions that deliver in both local and global markets and service hundreds of customers in India and West Asia catering to national and multinational clients. To continue with the offering, we also aim to bring on more people who are keen and passionate about intellectual properties.
Elaborate on the celebrity management division of Percept Live. Have you signed any artistes?
Celebrities have always had an influencing impact on a brand’s image and sales over several years and therefore, choosing the ‘right’ celebrity is critical to realize the real potential of celebrity endorsements and film associations. Percept Live will be undertaking various projects in the celebrity management division. One of the most effective is ‘Celeb Track’ which is a new research metric that will allow brands to evaluate and select the right celebrities for endorsements based on the fit between the brand and the celebrity.
Will the division include artistes from music fraternity?
The celebrity management division will also consist of talent from the music fraternity. Percept Live will work towards actively helping many brands derive the best value from talent across genres that will be exclusively represented by Percept.
What are the different kinds of platform you aim to provide to these artistes?
Brands are actively using celebrities in Below the Line (BTL) activation to reach consumers as well as trade. Brands have also taken the family route to communicate their message effectively. With consumer spending more time on internet, digital has also gained lot of importance in ways celebrity can be used effectively.
Similarly also tell us about the digital and media space division.
We are a leading player in the digital arena with innovative offerings in integrated content and advertising. We are committed to deliver branded, rich content and value added services on broadband telecom networks like DSL, 3G and emerging LTE networks. A few examples of Digital IPs created by Percept are; Cinecurry.com, Adchakra, Hello TV for Mobile & TV and 51010 Dial a Video. Exploring the emerging trends in content consumption, we have developed proficiency and platforms to capitalize our services using multiple models like freemium, subscription and ad-supported model. We work hand in hand with popular brands to provide integrated mobile and online Media & Entertainment solutions.
What are the future plans and strategies of Percept Live?
The restructuring and launch of Percept’s Intellectual Properties vertical is in keeping with the evolving and dynamic changes and growth in the Entertainment & Media Industry and would enable Percept to bring greater focus, synergy, efficiencies and diversity in its service offerings. As India’s economy and business continue to thrive and expand rapidly, its communication needs are becoming more sophisticated. This new structure along with our committed capital investment of 2 bn in year one of operations will offer our stakeholders with a wider range of innovative properties in the entertainment domain, scale up the existing IPs and cater to the diverse and evolving needs of our clients and consumers in the future.
