Budweiser Sensation‘s debut in India had made quite the waves in the Indian electronic music fraternity. With thousands of people excited about the global dance music phenomenon making its way to the country with a stunning lineup, and the efforts put in by the team at Budweiser, the festival had already generated quite the buzz around itself. Come 5th of March, and Budweiser Sensation didn’t leave anything to imagination, as the festival made a glorious debut in India, giving the fans an experience of a lifetime.
We had the chance to catch up with Mr. Kartikeya Sharma, the Marketing Head of AB InBev, India South East Asia, a couple of hours before the magnificent spectacle of Budweiser Sensation to discuss Budweiser’s association with Sensation, Budweiser’s future plans for the Indian music space, and much more.
Read on!
TBB: When Sensation made its way to India, how did Budweiser get associated with the entire project?
Kartikeya: So, the Sensation partnership isn’t exclusive as a first attempt only for India, the partnership has been going on for the last 3 or 4 years, through different brands. We have BudLight that does Sensation in Canada, it also does Sensation in Mexico.
For us, we don’t have those brands here, but we felt that the passion point that we want to connect with our fans on is music, warrants for us to bring Sensation to India because it’s also the right opportunity for us bring an experience like this. The way the partnership worked out was primarily around seeking opportunities for Sensation, Bud seemed the perfect brand for it, and that’s how it played out.
TBB: In the past Budweiser has had its own music properties in India like Made Stage. You’ve also been assosciated with other festivals in other genres. How is that Sensation is being placed differently, and how is that Budweiser is adding a certain value to the entire dynamics of Sensation?
Kartikeya: Our approach to partnerships, this with Bud Hotel being an example, is we’re not passive sponsors. We offer our product, we bring a more balanced measure approach, and we’ve got multiple models. If you look at Budweiser’s sponsorship for FIFA World Cup 2014, Budweiser has always been seen as a sponsor that really adds tangible value and continuing to elevate the experience that goes beyond just the product, by truly supporting the partnership in more ways than just a monetary aspect. And that was our approach for Sensation here as well.
We could’ve opted to be a part of it by offering product and cash, but we also felt that the inherent co-relation between what the brand’s been doing in music meant that we could offer much more than that and a hospitality experience like Bud Hotel is just my example of that. What we’ve been doing to the buildup to Sensation, which people may or may not have seen, from the folks we have here at the hotel, is a relentless amount of going to offices and driving opportunities of people to have a chance to win, a chance to come to Sensation by doing activations that involve elevating normal nights into truly experiential evenings and all of this is something we consider our effort of going above and beyond the call of being a primary sponsor. We see this as our way of just taking the whole experience to the next level.
TBB: You mentioned Budweiser being involved in music in a large way. At least in India specifically, Budweiser has always been assosciated with electronic dance music. Do we also see a trend shifting at some point, into more live acts, maybe hip hop, maybe indie, do we ever see Budweiser entering into that domain as well?
Kartikeya: From the point of view of how we decide which sub-genre of music from within the larger space needs to be the focus for the brand, our approach is very simple. We go where the consumer has shown a very clear direction, to want to lap up great experiences, at this point the clear numbers stack up in the favour of electronic music. It’s not just an Indian phenomena, it’s a global phenomena, and while there’s space for all the other genres of music, in various forms styles and shapes, for us we’ll always be a brand that will be true to its fans, and give them what they want at that particular moment in time, and if tomorrow that turns into hip-hop or the day after it turns into rock, the brand will cater its delivery to the needs of our consumers. We’re here to serve our fans, and at this point electronic music seems to be something what everybody really wants much more of.
TBB: What are your expectations from Sensation’s debut in India? Are there any particular artists you’re fond of or looking forward to?
Kartikeya: Sensation for us, carries multiple angles of narratives that will play out. One is, Sensation for the first time will introduce an electronic experience that goes beyond a single artist concert. It’ll actually introduce a sensorial experience, that has sight, that just has sounds, but caters those sounds in a manner that brings forth almost a certain type of experience, and then there’s a second narrative, which is this second coming of electronic music in the form of heavy duty, high production value shows also seem to be happening in towns that are not traditional hotbeds of electronic music concerts, which is Hyderabad.
So the fact that
a) we’re trying to take electronic music culture to the next level with an experience like Sensation,
b) it’s happening in a city like Hyderabad which is clearly an under served market as far as live acts and concerts are concerned, for us it was a double whammy. It became a no brainer.
We have Budweiser doing a particularly well in Hyderabad, it’s a huge market for beer, but an equally huge market for Budweiser, and we have the opportunity of bringing to our fans what they’ve otherwise been unfortunately not been at the receiving end of, which is truly great international experiences. So it all added up beautifully and the moment the opportunity presented itself, we were all over it.
TBB: So now do we look at Budweiser’s association with Sensation for a long period of time in India or is this a one off event?
Kartikeya: Well yeah. The way to answer that is if you go by the relationship we’ve had with SFX, the company that owns Sensation, it’s certainly been a very long and fruitful one, and I see no reason why that same partnership would not play out here in India into an equally long and fruitful one. We’re incredibly excited, and positively nervous about what tonight will hold for us, because if the number of white clothes going out of stock in malls is any sign of things to come, then this just might be the first of many Sensations in India, and they’ll only get bigger and better. And the other thing that Sensation is that it is not a repeatable format with the exact same experience. They have so many different formats of storytelling. We have the Pleasuredome which has come to India this time, but they have equally iconic stages: Into The Wild, Innerspace, and may others that will all continue to keep Sensation very fresh.
TBB: Just for our fans who want to know a little bit more about you, could you tell us about your involvement with the brand, and how have you played a vital role in structuring Sensation and Budweiser coming through together.
Kartikeya: I’ve been with the company for about 9 years. Marketing is really what has kept me as close as possible to young consumers, because marketing really is the voice of what consumers are thinking and how you can shape it. I’m incredibly passionate about music in general.
Do I have a particular role I play in the organisation which shapes music? No. There are multiple roles. We have an incredible team that works as part of the Budweiser marketing team, that works relentlessly to deliver the kind of output you look at, and my role is to essentially coach the team, to mentor them when it’s required, and to make sure that I’m a good bouncing board whenever they’re up against it with interesting propositions like whether they should do the Bud Hotel or they should do the Bud Lounge, and it’s all thanks to the wonderful teams that make up the Budweiser marketing team.
My sense says that we’ll continue to do great things because we have incredibly great people working on the brand, and a brand that has shaped the popular culture for the last 100 years, deserves nothing less.
TBB: Getting to know that you’re passionate about music is great. Tell us about your favourite artists maybe, and maybe your favourite songs?
Kartikeya: Well, I’m a recent electronic music convert, but I’m slightly old school when it comes to my taste of music. I have a very, very wide spectrum, which straddles the larger classic rock music. I’m a huge Meatloaf fan, so there are some amazing albums of Meatloaf that have always been on my playlist, irrespective of the time that has passed us by. I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan, and then I also have some quirky tastes every now and then, that go anywhere from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to the Aviciis and Axwells of the world, so it does seem like an incredibly large spectrum.
TBB: Your favourite artist that you’ve been looking forward to at Sensation tonight?
Kartikeya: If this was just a concert which had a lineup of artists that were primarily there to dish out their sets, I would have actually picked one. For me to be able to see each of them play their role in one element of what makes up Sensation, which is sound, and not the only thing that makes up their evening, is exactly why I’ll not take sides, or pick a certain artist I’d like. Sensation is about the total experience, about what you’re looking at, the magnitude, the scale of the production.
I was lucky enough to be at the venue last night, and it’s incredible, it’s jaw dropping. You walk into that stage, it really catches you off guard on how the great the scale is. But if there is one person I’m really looking forward to, then that’s Mr. White, just for what he is. Because the others we’ve seen, but he is a phenomena.
TBB: What can fans expect, and what is something you want them to know about the debut of Sensation in India?
Kartikeya: Well, Sensation is the first of many experiences that we take electronic music fans to the next level, what is now a global culture, it’s a global community which is constantly being triggered, and being instigated by the Tomorrowlands of the world, the EDCs of the world, the Sensations of the world, the Coachellas and the Burning Mans of the world, and for us Sensation is the first step of introducing Indians to this next wave of what electronic music culture holds, which is starting to participate in community based concerts or shows, because when they step into Gachibowli Stadium tonight, they’re stepping into an experience their peers have experienced all over the world.
This is not Axwell playing here and then playing in 5 other cities. This is experiencing the Pleasuredome along with only folks in Amsterdam, or folks in Canada or Mexico. And we’ll do it again when we start Tomorrowland in a few months, because we’re going to activate Tomorrowland in a big way, and we’ll do it again when we bring, which is for now a surprise, but another huge global EDM platform to India, and for us it’ll continue to spawn the electronic music community into a really strong one.
Interviewed by: Chaitanya Mathur and Pranav Gupta
Check out our favourite moments from Budweiser Sensation, as well as our favourite Instagram posts from the festival!
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