Viacom18's Anshul Ailawadi On Stepping Into The World Of NFTs

Viacom18’s Youth, Music and English Entertainment (YME) cluster is all geared up to set its foot in the rapidly growing digital space of non-fungible tokens with the announcement of the NFT marketplace Fullyfaltoonft.com, which has been set up by GuardianLink.io. This launch is said to be a first of its kind in India, from a Youth entertainment brand and creators/users on the marketplace can enjoy the safety benefits of GuardianLink.io’s Anti-RIP NFT technology. The marketplace will offer ‘fully valuable’ digital art conceptualised and created by the team that brings to life iconic brands like MTV, Vh1 and Comedy Central in India, and is all set to go live on February 14, 2022.

Anshul Ailawadi, Head – Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 elaborates on jumping on this bandwagon and making the most of it.

Excerpts:

Q. Why is Viacom18 entering the NFT space?

We have been tracking and planning to enter the NFT space for quite some time and it's a natural progression for us at Viacom18. We have witnessed many of our consumers move in the NFT space and felt that consumers, especially the younger audience who are part of MTV's club are already present in this space, be it blockchain or crypto-assets. So from the consumer side and organisational perspective, it made a lot of sense. It is our way of understanding what the first beta version of Web 3.0 would look like, how it would grow and evolve.

Q. What are these NFTs priced at and who is the target audience?

There are two aspects to the drop of NFTs - loot and rare collection. The loot will have 3000 NFTs and the rare collection has 13 digital collectables. The philosophy behind the loot collection is to make it as accessible as possible to people because we want to create and further build this category. The rare collection, of course, is priced aggressively, but that’s the nature of the market.

For us, it is the brand loyalist who will be the first set of adopters. Our brand loyalists are spread wide and across the country. The second set will be trendsetters, NFT enthusiasts who want to understand the offerings and those who are sitting on the fence and want to come over to this side. We are trying to give them an opportunity with affordable, credible and valuable along with the backing of an iconic brand. These are the two constituents we are going after.

Q. At the onset, what content will be available on Viacom18's NFT marketplace 'Fully Faltoo' and what is your strategy to garner more audience towards it?

Our first drop focuses on the artworks that we have on MTV which has been with us for a long time and is iconic. 3,000 NFTs will be launched as a part of the loot collection, covering previous marketing studies, content created in the past. And 13 rare collectables which include the digital token of ‘Kaisi Yeh Yaariyaan’, our cult show, will be a part of our first drop. We will then expand our offerings depending on the feedback and learning. The strategy from a pricing perspective is to price the loot collection competitively to make sure that many people can actually enter this world because there are many fence-sitters across the web, while the rare ones are slightly priced aggressively. For the rare piece, we are also looking at creating certain exclusive experiences for people who buy the rare collection.

Q. Tell us about the partnership with GurdianLink.io and what technological advancements they will bring in to help push the envelope further?

GurdianLink.io was introduced to us by a firm called Tulsi, a creative artist agency. After speaking to them, we found their approach extremely constructive. As a traditional broadcaster, we don't have an understanding of the technology. They brought to us the entire understanding of the technology, how to navigate the space, go-to-market, consumer positioning. They understood our vision and were the right people to partner with.

Q. How do you see NFTs scaling the revenue of your cluster and Viacom18 as a whole?

To be honest, that space is evolving. I cannot share a concrete number as of now, but we do have some estimates and we will know how that performs once the drop happens. But I don't think it's about what it is today. It is about what it can be over the next nine to twelve months as we get more aligned with all these other experiences where unique money cannot buy experiences with an NFT and so on, then the real value kicks in. The value is as a collector's item, but going forward, you will see much more value.

Q. What are your thoughts on the growth and popularity of NFTs? Is it here to stay?

For a generation that values its online identity more than its offline identity, NFTs will provide a way to establish an identity beyond a Name and a Display Picture. In the near future, NFTs are how we will display the brands we love, the causes we support, the movies we love and even products we are proud to own in the real world. This NFT wave will soon become a tide with a generation that will be ready to spend on digital assets rather than physical assets. The space is a promising area and the need for NFTs will continue to grow.

Q. Can NFTs really become a lucrative investment option?

The need for NFTs, digital collectables, has always been there. We always had people collecting be it cars, stamps, books, coins. The real unlocking of the value of NFT will happen when they start providing some sort of utility to its holders. After we drop our NFTs on 14th February, let's say someone has the NFT - Bakra urf G.O.A.T and we give backstage access to a mega event, the value of NFT becomes substantially higher. It will not happen immediately, it will take a year or so. In stage one, there will be limited monetisation and in stage 2 we will see a lot of opportunities open up. Right now, it is from a collector's perspective and going forward the change will be witnessed.