With the appointment of Mr. Girish Johar As Chief Operating Officer, FNP Media, a content company and production house unit by Ferns N Petals aims to grow into the media and the entertainment sector. He will be directly responsible for overseeing the operations, content creation, marketing & business exploitation of all avenues for FNP Media. The company plans to create content, for all platforms & screens, in all formats, like short films, ad films, web series, and film originals for OTT & Theatricals.
In an exclusive interaction with MI, Mr. Girish Johar, Chief Operating Officer at FNP Media talking about plans to collaborate with the OTT platform. We also have Mr. Ahmad Faraz, General Manager at FNP Media speak about the inception of the company and its growth strategy.
Here are the excerpts:
Q) Tell us the story of FNP Media.
Ahmad: FNP Media is a part of a corporate conglomerate called Ferns and Petals Private Limited. The company came into existence in 2018. Our founder Mr. Vikas Gutgutia had always envisioned entering the media industry. In FNP Media we started with 2 to 3 people. Our first year went completely into research and understanding the content happening around us. We found that the consumption of content over the digital platforms has increased by 234% in the last 3 years. Whereas, the attention time of one kind of content is decreased by more than 18% in the last year.
After a thorough exploration, we found that short format content works best for people. IN 2019 we started making content. And in 2020, we ventured completely into short films, where we have been making, buying, and distributing short films across genres. We are working with some of the best names in the industry; be it OTT, web series, or theatres. The journey is quite a roller coaster where we have produced and distributed a lot of short films a past year. Now we are proceeding towards the eventual forms of web series and OTTs.
Also Read: FNP Media By Ferns N Petals Appoints Girish Johar As Chief Operating Officer
Q) Tell us about your content strategies?
Ahmad: For films, we are merely a year old. But for short films, we have already experimented with many genres. Though Romance and Thriller are the two genres that work brilliantly for us. We are still at the stage where we will like to create the persona of our target audience. Let’s say our strategy is pretty simple, where we want to concentrate on the genres that are working for us and to experiment with other genres as well.
Having said that, there would be two types of content that we are looking forward to producing. For the massy audience, for which people start talking about right from creating memes, reels or on social platforms. Second is theatrical ones, which are purely based on good content, where we would be working with many veteran actors like Sourabh Sukhla, Jakies Shroff, or Anupam Kher.
Q) There is already a huge crowd in content creation and broadcasting. Why do you think people should follow you?
Ahmad: As far as content is concerned, yes it is a cluttered market. But even if there are many OTT players that are already present in the market, the supply of good content is not as much as it should be. Demand is increasing every day. When I say good content, I mean different genres that are consumed in different locations. Also with the wide demand and supply of data in smartphones contributes to more consumption of content. This is when these brands or platforms connect with us who create and produce readymade content.
Our USP remains very simple, we wanted to make our name in short films, so if someone thinks of short films they know it’s FNP media. This doesn’t imply that we are shying away from bigger films. But that is something that is already present on other platforms. We create content for OTT platforms like Netflix, Hotstar, etc. In comparison with other platforms for short films, we bring new content very frequently. So people have a variety to consume. In the coming months, all the big players, like Hotstar, Prime, Netflix will showcase a number of short films on their platforms. Because short films don’t take much time of your life. You either watch during your office break or probably while traveling. It actually takes 15-20 minutes of time. The short film is here to stay because all the big players are moving towards short films too. And we want to be there when it happens.
Q) What kind of content is on the pipeline?
Ahmad: Many movies are there in the pipeline at present. One movie is set with Kriti Kulhari in the next month. Another one with Rajat Kapoor and Ritu Raj Singh is scheduled for this month’s release only. We have three to four shows coming up in the next 2 months. There are 7 to 8 scripts that are speculating in the coming months. Our idea is to keep on producing and making short films because it will help us to build our brand. Sidewise, our work on web-series and feature films is going on.
Girish: We are focussing on good stories. Period! We are here to share the creative ideas, which we feel will connect with our audiences, with our customers. The content should be groundbreaking, clutter-free & should have immediate resonance. This is exactly the reason, we have not limited our plans to a particular format. We are making short films, films – originals / adaptive – any genre, web series, audio format, live events & any content which is demanded, in the future. We want to establish FNP MEDIA, as a one-stop shop for good stories.
Q) What are the marketing strategies for your brand?
Ahmad: We are going product basis. We want our content to speak for us. Yes, there is a marketing strategy for the brand as well. But as a whole we want the storytelling to be compelling. So we are relying on the kind of movies we are made for the last year. There’s a lot of directors who reached out to us because they liked one of our content. Having said that, we will have a formal launch strategy as well. We have 2 to 3 short movies with A-listers of Bollywood also. So, there will be an announcement and proper launch at our recently opened Bombay office.
Girish: We at FNP Media, realize that the battle for the consumer’s attention has become brutal, and requires new strategies and capabilities.
We would be focusing not only on B2B but also B2C segments.
- Draws prospects through the sales funnel
- Grows brand visibility, credibility, and desirability
- Aligns target markets with relevant information
Also, Social media & Viral marketing is now very critical because it:
- Reduces marketing spend while increasing lead generation
- Provides metrics that give companies additional marketplace insight
- “Humanizes” brands and encourages conversions
Internet Marketing /PR. Also, we, at FNP Media feel that Storytelling uses a familiar communication format to engage consumers at an emotional level.
Also Read: “The Blue Sweater”- FNP Media’s First Original Short Film To Be Released
Q) What are your investment plans?
Ahmad: Till March 2023 we intend to invest 70 – 100 crore on overall media, whether in theatrical movies, OTT, web series, or short movies.
Q) What are your distribution plans? Any particular platform you’re targeting?
Ahmad: We are not targeting any single platform. We don’t want to make shows and pitch OTT players for them to disburse money. We are here to make content. We know the content we make is good enough to be sold. Actually, these days due to pandemic and other reasons strategies of OTT platforms have changed. Initially, they used to create their own content. But now they purchase readymade content if it is good. For example, Panchayat on Prime was a readymade content that was made by TVF and sold to Prime.
So we are concentrating on making the content and we are confident enough of our quality content. If it’s a watchable film, it will make its way.
Girish: We at FNP Media, are content creators that will want to have a direct relationship not only with the target consumer but also the distribution platform/channel. We focus on creating distinctive, compelling intellectual property and then selling it or even partnering with other distributors and aggregators. We will not only be forming direct associations with content makers, but also film and TV studios, music labels, book and video game publishers, and creative agencies, as well as actual creators and artists themselves. Increasingly, FNP Media firmly believes that the best makers excel at creating content experiences across a wider variety of formats, knowing how and where to connect with fans at the ideal point of consumption. Maker strategies deliver paying audiences for traditional media companies and help define the brand and deepen customer engagement.
Consumption for Indian content is huge & that is where we believe, we will add value. Because innovation capability and experimental capacity are complicated and difficult, it is important to have innovation structures in place that allow the great ideas the best potential for success, this is a key mantra at FNP Media.
