Vice Outlines India Gameplan

Speaking to industry publication Afaqs, Vice India’s head honcho Chanpreet Arora, “We are going beyond urban India, into the regional emerging, aspirational and highly curious youth population which we believe will own the future of the country very soon.”

“We will have 70% local and 30% global content,” she added, with the local part encompassing culturally-relevant topics and experiences of what it is like to be young in India today – so identity, sex, food, music, politics, sports, science and tech, and nightlife will all feature.

“The local content will be a mix of video, editorial, podcasts, multimedia, et al,” Arora elaborated and will be created for all channels – including TV, S-VOD, A-VOD, OTT platforms and open platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

Localisation efforts for Vice India’s content would also involve a focus of Hindi and major regional languages. The company’s in-house creative agency Virtue Worldwide has its eyes on growing its share in the regional branded content market, having struck early deals with Mountain Dew (PepsiCo) and Anheuser-Busch InBev.

“India is a massive priority market and core to the future of Vice,” Arora stated. “There are a lot of players in India; there is innovation and new things are happening every day. It forms the perfect ground to do what Vice does best – be agile, humble and hopefully smarter, faster, better, and more interesting.”

Alongside with Indonesia, Vice is all set to stamp its mark in two of the largest youth markets, however, its early days in India have been plagued by teething problems such as launch delays, censorship issues and how commercial sponsorships have affected editorial content.