MTV Case study: India’s beloved youth channel

Before we get into the MTV case study, let’s do a swift intro about MTV. MTV or Music Television was launched in America in 1981 and since then has been one of the go-to channels to enjoy the latest airing music videos. The brand became a part of the Viacom family in 1985 when Viacom acquired Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, that owned MTV. Many prominent artists like Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, Madonna rose to fame via the platform MTV provided. The brand was growing popular and even managed to snag a spot in the top 50 brands in Business Week’s global rankings for 2004.

I’m sure you’d remember this channel from back then, those days… Anyway, Slowly, through 20 years of its existence, MTV realized that they need to curate their content due to the audience’s changing age group. One age group consisted of people who had watched MTV as teens and young adults and had now grown up. That is, the folks that were (say) 20 back then, were 40 now. The other was the teen and young adult audience base. They had to come up with a way to engage and be relevant to both these age groups. And to culturally curate the content for countries like India.

MTV case study – the plan

MTV decided to employ consumer research to understand their audience better. They conducted extensive studies of the markets they were planning to enter. They heavily relied on local audience research to create content. This approach was called being ‘Glocal’. And no, this is not related to Atmanirbharta. Using the data they gathered, they derived insights as to what their consumer groups possibly wanted. They didn’t narrow down their research to only niches. As you may imagine, their target market was broad and had a myriad of different lifestyle choices.

Unlike most other brands where you can narrow down people based on Income, geography, etc. MTV had a tough job to do. Their viewers could be from any income group, could be male/female, regardless of their geographical location.

But with an absolute focus on the data, expectations and curation, they were able to derive a series of shows to cater to different age groups of their customers. One such show that they created was called ‘The Osbournes’ which was a reality show featuring the famous musician Ozzy Osbourne’s domestic life. The insight that led to the birth of this show was the changing dynamics of parents and children in the US. This show rose up to become the most-viewed series ever on MTV.

Related: Take a look at the Burberry Rebranding

The Indian approach:

When MTV entered the Indian market back in 1996, they had to step out of their western avatar and enter into a more Indian mindset to attract the audience. So, on the Music video front, they started featuring 70% Indian and 30% international music. Through their local audience research, they identified that the youth looked forward to more sensational content, and not just music. This was also a time when Facebook, Orkut, and YouTube were gaining a lot of popularity.

To understand the changing trends, research was launched to find out how MTV viewers look at life in general. And they knew that if there’s anything Indian’s connect with the most, it’s Cricket! It hosted shows which talked about Cricket. This was an absolute hit. In 2017, it acquired rights to broadcast box cricket league. This only furthered their interest to garner to the youth of the country. Another, crucial and strategic action they took was to hire local talent.

..Why?..

Because, India is a huge nation, with a variety of people and their myriad of choices. They realized that they could not go through the tedious process of local audience research every time they wished to enter a region. And so, why not hire individuals who knew best about their areas. Furthermore, the communication that the brand delivers was required to be consistent in all their regions, which without local talent and comprehensive set standards would be difficult.

They didn’t just stop here. They kept their communication channels of fresh and relevant as well. In the early 2000s when the technological boom was just about beginning, they engaged with their teen audience using the latest lines of communication- texting, calling, emailing, etc. While now, you would find them on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.

MTV still continues to study the youth and the changing trends of the society via one of their major research initiatives MTV Insights Studio Study. Which has now become a credible source of such research findings. These initiatives have allowed them to keep in touch with their consumers as well as establish a unique brand identity of being a  ‘Culture Channel’.

Related: Take a look at Customer-centric vs Brand-centric marketing

Final thoughts:

MTV’s intense research allowed them to keep their relevance with their audience. In the Indian market, they gained a 30% market share ahead of their rival 9XM back in 2009. This was a big win given how diverse the entire Music video space was becoming. There was now YouTube and other similar online music video channels which were now competing with MTV. It realized if it had to survive it has to give more of the other “exclusive content”.

And, given that Splitsvilla, Roadies were a hit – we can advocate that their strategy was a success. MTV continues to deliver value, folks still love to watch Roadies, it has even started hosting rap battles, which is currently the “thing” amongst the youth today.

That was it, for this case study.

If you’re interested in learning the concept of consumer behavior, we’d recommend you head here. It is as simplified for you like this piece and has examples of a few other brands that mastered the consumer behavior approach.

This piece was written by Mahek Mirchandani, you’re free to drop a thank you. Get more of these pieces directly in your inbox, subscribe for free, here.

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