Fox Traveller aims for more revenue and audience with India Bike Week

While the channel has planned multiple revenue streams from the event, advertising is expected to bring in about Rs 10 crore. Fox will package the event into four episodes across four weeks, as well as a bunch of vignettes.

In an attempt to extend its brand on the ground and create better reach and recall, Fox Traveller, the travel and lifestyle channel from the Fox Group, has announced an event, India Bike Week (IBW), which will take place in February, 2013. The two-day event is expected to draw about 8,000 participants in its debut year and has been launched under a multi-year partnership with Seventy Events Media Group (EMG).

However, Seventy EMG is positive about an exponential growth in the number of participants over the next three-five years as the biking festival matures and develops.

The channel states that IBW is a stand-alone property which has opportunities for brands that want to target the high-spending and young audience. Since it's a ground event, brands can also get customers to sample products.

The event will target the audience in the age group of 20-40 years.

Keertan Adyanthaya
, managing director, Fox Traveller India, says, "The main aim of IBW is to be a celebration of bikers and also to create a meeting ground for people passionate about biking in India - riders, tourists, collectors, manufacturers and retailers."

Though on-air content generation from this event is not the primary aim of the channel, Fox has planned to package the on-ground event into four episodes across four weeks, along with a bunch of vignettes which will be played all over the programming schedule. Though the primary audience is the bikers, the secondary audience is their friends and families, as well as non-riders who love bikes.

The channel states that the event extends the channel's brand promise of 'This journey is fun'. "We hope to take our brand to our audiences and let them touch and feel the brand," Adyanthaya adds.

The channel has partnered with the events company Seventy EMG for about three to five years.

While Fox has planned multiple revenue streams from the on-ground and on-air event, the advertising revenues are expected to bring in about Rs 10 crore. Other revenue streams are ticket sales, exhibitor booth rentals, merchandising, licensing, food and beverage sales on ground at the festival and sponsorship revenues.

Martin Da Costa, CEO, Seventy EMG, says, "We decided on Goa since it's a great ride from most of India. The laid back vibe and easy energy of Goa suits our Indian biker styles perfectly. India's not just ready for this kind of festival - its crying out for it. India Bike Week is about uniting the great brotherhood of bikers - men and women - in one place. If anything, we should have done this years ago. We plan to extend the Bike Week concept to other Asian markets, but not before the brand has been established over three years in the Indian market."

Adyanthaya states that the channel expects to break even in the first year and then earn larger profits in the successive seasons. He adds that the event is originated and funded by Seventy EMG and Fox Traveller.

Speaking about the biking craze in India and the need for such a festival, Adyanthaya further adds, "There are 120,00,000 two-wheelers sold in India every year (for each of the last three years). Bikes like Hero CBZ, Bajaj Pulsar, TVS Apache and Yamaha R15 sell like hot cakes and premium bikes from Harley Davidson, Ducati, Suzuki, Yamaha and BMW are also breaking all kinds of sales estimates. Biking is here to stay in India."

As for the event, IBW starts with the Men of Steel Ride from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. The festival has special events like live entertainment zones, Burn Out Bar, biker acoustic stage, electronic music stage, the Big Trip Cinema, the Beer Garden and Biker Dhaba.