Roposo Gives Immersive Premium Live Experiences To Users During Lakmé Fashion Week
Nov 18, 2022, 18:59 IST
Sakshipost Exclusive With Mansi Jain, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Roposo
Tell us about Roposo’s journey since its shift to live entertainment commerce.
Glance, an unconsolidated subsidiary of InMobi, acquired Roposo in 2019. While it was a short video platform initially, we realized early on that there was tremendous potential in the live entertainment commerce space. This format has been hugely successful across Asia and even in the US, however, it was, and still is a very nascent space in India. We had the opportunity to become category creators and leaders in India’s live entertainment commerce market, and with this objective, Roposo became India’s leading creator-led live entertainment commerce destination in 2021.
In order to give consumers, the best experience of live commerce and entertainment, we made a few critical strategic moves in the past two years, that have given us a massive competitive edge. On the live commerce front, we took important steps like the acquisition of Shop101 as well as the Glance collective JV and the investment in Collective Artists Network (CAN) to set up the right eco-system in India. Shop101 powers Roposo’s end-to-end commerce framework enabling discovery to delivery, while the investment into CAN gives us access to some of the best talent the country has to offer. Through the Glance Collective JV, Roposo is also co-creating original D2C labels with leading celebrities and creators in India.
In 2021, we launched our first celebrity led D2C brand ‘EK’ with Ektaa R Kapoor in the home décor, furnishings, and wellness accessories space followed by ‘KRA’ with BeYouNick (aka Nikunj Lotia) which is a limited-edition, hyped streetwear brand. In 2022, we went on to launch DCRAF with Rana Daggubati in the men’s grooming category and extended the EK brand’s offerings to ethnic wear apparel this year, while foraying into the cookware segment with Chef Saransh Goila’s modern cookware brand ‘Delishaas’. Soon, we are aiming to launch several more original D2C brands with some top celebrities and creators across different categories.
Roposo currently has approximately 500 live streamers, 600 live shows every month with 6 million watch hours, 2,000 + hours of live streaming, 225 million views and 50 million active users. We provide premium, interactive, PGC, live content to our Ropso users over the app and on Glance Lock Screen. While we are dedicated to the consumers and their dynamic needs, we are equally invested in growing our creator community as well. Giving wings to ‘creator’preunership, we have creators across various categories like fashion & beauty, health & fitness, electronics, home décor, lifestyle, and more on Roposo. In the next 12 months, we aim to double our live streamer base as well. Our objective is to empower 1000 of India’s top live streamers and give them the tools they need to make a mark in this booming content and commerce category.
On the live entertainment front, we are targeting audiences across geographies and demographics with an aim to build Roposo as the number-one pop-culture destination for live entertainment. To keep the users engaged on the application, we have created IPs for live music performances, celebrity live shows, and fashion shows, amongst other things. We have also partnered with prominent events like Lakme Fashion Week, Malhar, Musicathon, and Sneaker Fest amongst others to give our audiences a differentiated live experience. Other than this, Roposo is also becoming a launch platform for the music fraternity, both independent artists and music labels, who want to promote their new releases.
Over the last year, Roposo has planned many activities and has partnered with coveted events like Malhar, Lakme Fashion Week, amongst others, to keep their users entertained. Could you tell us about all the activities and events you have partnered with so far and the rationale behind it?
Roposo intends to be the biggest live stage for entertainment and shopping in India. We want to enable consumers to discover the bestlive content, engage and interact with their favorite celebrities and creators, and shop in the process. In the span of just one year, Roposo hashosted several differentiated live and interactive shows during day-long events including M.A.D. (Music All Day)which saw a massive viewership. Roposo is bringing live entertainment to millions of users through the creation of our own music IPs, live performances with some of the top artists and labels in the nation, and partnerships with events that are embedded in pop culture and appeal to Gen Z. Prominent IPs we built include Roposo JamRoom, in association with Bollywood’s renowned composer and lyricist Pritam's Jam 8 and Sony Music, Roposo MIC, which was India’s first live-streaming singing competition, StarTrack, Roposo Gig and Indie Rhythm to present musical talent – artists, singers and bands live on Roposo. Moreover, Roposo is making music shows, concerts and events more accessible to people as they are live streamed from the venue and users can watch it and interact with creators from the comfort of their homes, either on their Glance Lock Screen or the Roposo app.
Keeping in mind our Gen Z audience, we have partnered with numerous events and college fests to keep them engaged. We recently partnered with Malhar, which is hosted annually by St. Xavier's College, Mumbai as well as other renowned colleges. Our audience also got a chance to experience an immersive concert Indiestaan - a multi-city indie music concert, which started in Delhi with three rising indie artists that was streamed live. Apart from these, with the endeavor to continuously provide users with unique and entertaining content, Roposo was also the exclusive live streaming partner for Lakme Fashion Week, which is one of the most premium fashion and lifestyle events in the fashion world. We have also partnered with events like the Sneakerfest in the past, which has been lapped up by the audience.
As you mentioned, Roposo was recently the exclusive live streaming partner for LFW for the entire 5-day event. What was the response like for such a prestigious event?
Yes, Roposo was the exclusive live streaming partner for Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) for five days andthis was our second time associating with the event. The response we received for the last season was overwhelmingly positive, which led us to partner with LFW this year as well. Through the association, we were able to provide first-of-its-kind, front-row access to the star-studded runway shows as well as immersivepremium live experiences to all our users. Our live streamers also streamed the event and gave our viewers a sneak peek of the backstage, while also conducting interesting celebrity interactions and wardrobe raids. This year, we were successful in giving our users access to 10+ hours of live streaming every day from LFW and more than 5 million+ viewers tuned into these live shows.
This season, along with LIVE streaming behind-the-scenes activities and showcasing the runway shows live, we also had an offline presence at LFW where more than 70% of the on-ground audience visited and experienced the Roposo engagement zone. We even had an LED-lit photo-op area, called the Roposo Runway, where we hosted several fun activities with the audience interacting and engaging with Roposo’s live streamers. The Roposo engagement zone was also a prime spot for designers, supermodels, celebs, and influencers to chit-chat with our live streamers, all of which was live-streamed for our app-based viewers as well.
How has Roposo enabled its users access to LFW?
We gave Roposo and Glance users inside access to one of the most coveted events in India’s fashion landscape - LFW, at the tip of their fingers. Roposo’s top live streamers like Nayandeep Rakshit, Renil Abraham, Dheeraj Juneja, Karan Parihar, Tanvee Kishore, Richisha Shah, and Yashasvi Acharya who were present at the venue to live stream the event from their perspective and deliver an unlimited dose of fashion and entertainment content to their fans as well as Roposo and Glance users. They gave millions of users front-row live access to the star-studded runway shows of an exclusive, invite-only show like LFW.
We also ran a contest called #OwnItChallenge where fashion-forward individuals were given a chance to showcase their most confident look to wina front-row seat at Lakme Fashion Week. During the contest, the participants had to choose a crowded place like a street or store, treat it like a fashion runway and go over-the-top with their style statement. They also had to record a video and post it with the #OwnItWithRoposo hashtag on the app. Through the same, fashion students from a premier institute got a chance to witness a mega fashion event such as LFW like never before!
Through partnerships like LFW, what is Roposo planning to achieve?
We constantly thrive to keep our users entertained with premium, immersivelive pop culture content,across genres.Apart from the line-up of exciting live shows with professionally curated content from our live streamers, we have partnered with different music events, music labels, production houses, etc. for different shows and promotions over the year and they have seen great engagement levels.Fashion is a core category that interests our user base, and through LFW, Roposo was able to give its users a sneak peek into one of the fashion industry's largest events.
How did LFW benefit from the association?
The partnership was beneficial for us as well as LFW, who got to associate with a young, Gen- Z focused, live-streaming brand with an online presence that is relevant, ambitious, and fashion-forward. Being the exclusive live streaming partner for LFW, Roposo has helped the otherwise premium fashion event reach millions of viewers at once. This time around, the association enabled LFW to reach approximately 5mn+ viewers through Roposo live shows, where the users witnessed the latest fashion trends, brands and shows from the comfort of their homes.
What are the future associations in the pipeline?
We are looking at associating with several music festivals and college fests as their exclusive live streaming partner to give our users exclusive access to the best of live entertainment content. We will continue to associate with prestigious events that resonate with our users and contribute to Roposo’s growth as Gen Z’s favourite pop culture destination and live ‘shopatainment’ destination.
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