By IANS,
Mumbai: India is a content powerhouse, with the largest movie productions, massive digitisation underway and 169 days of live cricket, said Dominic Proctor, president of US-based advertising company GroupM Global.
Proctor was addressing an audience during the talk on ‘Will advertising still be the key growth driver for the converged ecosystem?’ on the second day of the 14th edition of Ficci Frames, the annual convention of the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry here in Mumbai organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
However, Proctor pointed out that for developing a globally recognised content base, it is necessary for India to move away from the fragile ecosystems where Bollywood, cricket and a handful of icons and stars were used for all messaging.
“This must change if India is really serious about building a world class sports and entertainment industry,” he said.
Stating that cricket is going through a global resurgence, Proctor said that India needs to look beyond cricket and start investing in non-cricketing sports.
“The signs of the success of other sports are very encouraging. Recent initiatives in F1, Hockey, combat sports and Badminton are encouraging but not enough,” he said
Speaking on the film industry, Proctor said that while Bollywood and the Indian film industry is an all pervading influence, brands in India do not leverage this platform optimally.
“Revenue streams exist in content advertising on multimedia screens and producers and studios should look beyond theatrical returns and innovate new platforms and formats,” he said.
Speaking in favour of web-driven content, Proctor said that digital formats will drive advertising revenue growth in under branded India and also help the Indian media and entertainment industry reach out globally.