What a trip it’s been. What an up and down, heaven to hell and back again goddamned trip.Where does one start ? Two decades of crazy change, of ridiculous revolution, of mayhem, chaos, havoc and turmoil.
If you look back carefully though, look with the right kind of eyes, you can pick up the trail - a wavering, seemingly fragile, but unstoppable line of progress. A pre-internet, pre mobile-phone, pre event management era has unstoppably evolved into today’s great digital, economic and social transformation. We’ve lived through a revolution, and like every revolution there have been winners, and,sadly, a great many losers. Here at the 70 Event Media Group, we can, I think, count ourselves as being amongst those who did win out over the past two decades. We did it - as often as not - on our own terms and in our own way.
You have to picture the scene back in 1997 to really appreciate the sheer outrageousness of the challenge that every one of us has faced whilst building our business and our Industry.
It was in North India, and Coca Cola had hired 70 EMG to produce a series of very large format music concerts – free to the public – for audiences of 25,000 plus. No mobile phones of course, no email, very little trussing, no MOJO metal barricading, no ‘Book My Show’, no Facebook, no specialized Security Agencies, no chemical toilets, no House-keeping Agencies, no nothing, really. It was, shall we say, somewhat basic. To save money (of course) the Client hired the Gurkha Regiment as security. 25,000 fans in Agra go wild at the sight of Shaan&Sagarika on stage. Cue the wholly predictable chaos and carnage at the front of stage, with blank faced 17 year old soldiers trying to maintain order with the butts of their fully loaded, automatic rifles. We flee the City leaving behind 25,000 very happy fans, and an equally happy client. You couldn’t make it up.
Cut to 17 years later and India Bike Week has sold its 9,475th ticket for the year. Many of the 450,000 actively involved fans on Facebook are following the live, online stream of the Festival, House-keeping, Ticketing, Registration, Security, Music programming, Camping, and other crucial elements of the Festival have all been outsourced to professional agencies. Sponsors, partners, stakeholders have contracted with 3rd Party event and design agencies to build their stalls, and manage their customer engagement programs. And 70 EMG’s role, together with our partners at Fox Life, has changed beyond recognition. Yes, we have our Ops people on the ground, making sure things run smoothly to the quality levels we expect at any of our events, and yes of course we are running the show(s) – no doubt about that. But the bulk of our job is to ‘Engage’. Engage with the bikers, the festival goers, exhibitors and stake holders – of whom there are many thousand. For us, the Festival is the culmination of an 8 month community building and activation process where we’ve been talking to consumers, riding with them, often teaching them about what a Festival is, and why they should come. We’ve done it online, but we’ve also done in in bars, at the roadside, at restaurants and on the street.
It is one of the milestones that we are most proud of. The morphing of an Agency that was entirely client facing and reactive to the client brief, into one that also has a world-class ability to define and build consumer communities, connect with them, help them grow, and then use that skill and knowledge base to build Festival and event brands that can disrupt and dominate entire industries.
Especially now.Especially in 2015. Especially given that whilst it seems that we are in danger of being flattened by the digital juggernaut;whilst it looks like we might be endangered by marketing spends being taken away from us and shoved into digital banner advertising and viral videos of dubious creative and cultural worth. ‘Seeming’, however, is not necessarily the full story. There is, in fact, another Revolution happening – not just in India, but across the world.
As Karl Marx said “Every Revolution creates its own antithesis”, and Karl was a very clever man. Applied to today, what he meant was that, whilst the rise and rise of the digital age seems unstoppable, so is the human instinct for connection: real, shoulder to shoulder, see, smell, hear each other, connection. The antithesis to the flickering screen - the black mirror, is the heaving nightclub, the packs of bikers out on their Sunday morning rides, the jumping in unison, festival crowd loving the top 10 DJ. We are at the epicenter of a new Revolution – one that will co-exist and drive that other digital one. And it is going to grow and grow and grow. After all, we are in the business of creating happiness are we not ? That is – when you get down to it – ultimately what we do.
To be in India over the past 17 years and see this process evolving in front of our very eyes has been one of the great privileges of working at 70 EMG. HausKhas on a Thursday night, Bandra on a Saturday. Literally hundreds of thousands of young Indians out and about, with money in their pocket and the need for human comfort and connection. Bars full, restaurants full, music concerts and club nights full. Festivals being launched. And this is just the very start. It is, in fact, the beginning of the beginning. In ten years time, the consumer entertainment brands we create today will be massive. If we design and run them right, if we devolve ownership of them to the communities and fans that turn up, we’ll have our own Revolution on our hands.
So – change and progress - and along the way, the very best of times…
The launch of Seven Steps – our award-winning Wedding Management agency.The launch of ‘The Set’ our equally award-winning, in-house design studio. Opening up Jag Mandhir and the City Palace in Udaipur as private Wedding Destination venues in 2001. Venice in 2010.Kenya and Uganda in 2012. London in 2006.Vancouver in 2013.The launch of not one, but two, enormous Temples -and feeding, cleaning and tenting 180,000 pilgrims a day.Developing one of the world’s top 3 Classic Car & Bike Concours, building the world’s 3rd largest Jewelry Exhibition, Conference and event. Helping the AAAI to re-imagine and re-design GoaFest. Launching India Bike Week AND the Zambhala Yoga & Wellness Festival in the middle of a howling, global recession. The fantastic clients we’ve had who have become friends and business partners. The slow, steady professionalization of our Industry with brilliant suppliers and partners to help carry the burden of over 400 events a year. Working with international clients new to India – Cartier, Remy Martin, Zara, Harley Davidson – and helping them to develop and build their businesses. Adapting to the era of ‘the Pitch’, and to the rise and rise of the dreaded Purchasing Department. Winning, losing, laughing, weeping.
What fun we’ve had. What fun.
And here’s the thing. Its just the start of it all. The opportunity out there is awesome. Sometimes we feel like we’re at the foothills of the Himalayas, gazing out at a cloud shrouded Everest. Our Corporate & Brand Activation business shows no sign of slowing down. Our wedding management, special events and design businesses are posting record growth. We have at least four more festival and consumer focused event brands we’re in the process of launching.
So thank you India. Thank you to all the hundreds of 70 EMG alumni – past and present –with whom we’ve had such wild and rolling times. Thank you to the many clients we’ve learned from, the partners who’ve saved us. Most of all perhaps, thank you Xerxes Antia, KainazSethna, Thanush Joseph and DarayashGocal. You’ve been amazing.
It’s been a rollercoaster. Thank god.
(The story has been extracted from BW APPLAUSE)
