When it comes to virtual events, dependence on sponsorship revenue will be higher as compared to ground events for which ticket sales in the last few years had gone up, says ZEE LIVE COO and Business Head Swaroop Banerjee.
Zee Live, the out-of-home vertical of Zee Entertainment Enterprise Limited (ZEEL ) once again brought one of its flagship IP Supermoon to the audience through the online medium by hosting Supermoon House Party on August 7 and 8.
It was Zee Live via Supermoon that had got international comedian Russell Peters to India twice.
While virtual events have become common in times of COVID-19, an interesting aspect of Supermoon House party is its sponsors. The event is co-presented by Sunfeast Dark Fantasy and powered by Jeep. What makes this interesting is the fact that virtual events are getting traction from sponsors which was a no-show in the initial months of coronavirus-led lockdown.
The live events industry has been one of the most impacted sectors due to the pandemic and till today there remains no certainty on the resumption of business.
An Events and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) report in April had pointed out that 90 percent of companies in the live events space saw no business in the March-July period.
Although the events industry was quick to adapt to the new normal, things were tough on the revenue side due to low ticket sales and lower sponsorship revenues.
However, things are looking bright as brands are taking note of the reach of the virtual events like Supermoon.
In a chat with Moneycontrol, Swaroop Banerjee, COO and Business Head, ZEE LIVE, said, “In the initial two to three months of the lockdown it was difficult but now with lockdown opening up, a lot of brands are coming for online events. So, now we are at 50 to 60 percent sponsorship revenue for virtual events when compared to a ground event.”
He added that when it comes to virtual events, dependence on sponsorship revenues will be higher as compared to ground events for which ticket sales in the last few years had gone up.
Take Zee Live’s example for which sponsorship revenue for ground events was 35 to 40 percent and ticket sales contributed 65 percent to the overall business.
Sharing more details on how ticket sales are happening currently, he said, “Ticket sales started with smaller money and with comedy sets. Now, the 'meet and greet' with the artiste is ticketed. Like we are selling tickets to people to meet their favourite artistes like B Praak, Harsh Gujral, Divine, Raftaar with ticket prices starting from Rs 199. So, people are paying a little money for performances. In larger cases, people are paying to engage with their artistes as fans.”
Banerjee also thinks that correction will happen in the live events space when there will be hybrid events like Supermoon drive-in that Zee Live is working on.
“For drive-in events in Dubai and Denmark, the ticketing revenue is strong because people are ready to pay for such events as they are getting to go out in a socially distant manner.”
What is also interesting about Supermoon House Party is that it has gone beyond artistes connecting with the audience over Instagram Live from their homes or doing virtual events sitting on a chair in their homes.
This time artiste went to a studio and in a socially distant format recorded their show in a studio on chroma screen and eventually, virtual sets were added.
Banerjee thinks virtual sets will be game-changer for the live events industry.
Also, just like ground events, virtual events are getting traction in markets beyond metros.
“Regional spike has been strong for virtual events and this is why we streamed Supermoon House Party on the Facebook pages of Zee Punjabi, Zee Marathi and Zee Bengali. This is the first time I am doing Supermoon using Zee Bangla, Zee Marathi Facebook page because the regional viewership data is strong,” he said.
What artistes have to say about virtual events?
Stand-up artiste Harsh Gujral who has 4.76 lakh subscribers on YouTube pointed out the challenges of going virtual. The biggest challenge was the sudden transition, he said.
“Live shows have a feel. In the first 15 minutes of a live show, you get to understand your audience. For my first online show, I was not sure whether people will buy tickets for my show because standup comedy is a live art form. Virtual is like a conference call,” he jokes.
But it took Gujral six to eight virtual shows to get used to the medium and doing comedy online.
“It is now going well. We are adapting to the situation and so is the audience. My first online show was around 70 minutes and now the last show that I did last week was for 2 hours 20 minutes.”
Gujral who performed at Supermoon House Party thinks that virtual events can continue even after the coronavirus situation settles but for international shows.
“An artiste can do corporate shows virtually; it will be a good experience and organisers can save money as well. For India events, a 50-seater artiste can look at continuing with this option (virtual events) but for a 1,500 to 2,000-seater artiste, it will be difficult. For small shows it is good but if an artiste has to grow, they have to perform live,” said Gujral.
He also added that for the new talent, time is tough. “During our live shows, we would give some time to new talents to let them get the feel of the audience. But currently, that’s not happening. The challenge is that their (new talent) success has been delayed due to the pandemic.”