Idea to Launch Idea Madhur – Will Grass Roots Music Tap in at the Grass Roots?
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Music and entertainment have been the most prolific VAS in use in India amongst the many available. In a bid to make the most of the scenario, Idea has launched Idea Madhur. It is a music driven value add that focusses on forgotten artists and folk/grass roots music.
The focus of course is to move beyond the urban markets as has been the trend since some time (UTV launching audio movies for instance). Idea is essentially looking it Rural India to source content as well as find markets for this initiative. The focus is on folk music and authentic ones at that which can touch a chord with the masses in those specific region. They will be beginning with Andhra Pradesh during the Filmfare awards (Southern) of which Idea is the Title sponsor.
According to Afaqs, Idea’s CMO Pradeep Shrivastava said, ” Idea had identified select markets to unearth authentic folk music and had already started a pilot in Andhra Pradesh. “At present, we are working with music companies and grassroot-level artistes to create content based on seven genres of folk music in the state. However, it will take a couple of months for us to introduce this content on the mobile as it requires high-quality music recording and then converting the content to the mobile format, before launching it in other regions,” he added.
So essentially the VAS itself will take a few months before it reaches the masses, so it would be too early to judge on how this might be received. Idea with its innovative marketing efforts (on traditional media if not digital) has struck a strong brand chord with the nation and can therefore find itself in a position to market this one better. The fact that it is entering more circles with their own specific regional characteristics would mean this move can actually be a masterstroke.
This is so because the myriad cultures in India find its definition in the music that they play. They carve a special identity not only for themselves as folk genres but also for the people there. And we all know how much of a social part regional and linguistic identity plays in today’s India (sons of the soil anyone?). These music based services will obviously be used as caller tunes, message and ring tones, etc. One doesn’t need a hypothesis and proof to see that the reason CRBTs have worked is not just because people love music but they find it identity defining. And in that context Idea already has a winner on its hand.
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