MTV Presents NESCAFÉ LAB Celebrates One Year of Nurturing Young Talent

NESCAFÉ and MTV hosted the finale of their co-branded digital talent platform called MTV Presents NESCAFÉ LABS today at the Summer House Café in Mumbai.

MTV, the voice of the youth and NESCAFÉ, India’s favourite coffee brand, had set out on a journey to provide young and raw talent with a unique online platform to help them get nurtured and recognized with MTV Presents NESCAFÉ LABS - a destination for creative youngsters looking for inspiration, mentors and a stage to showcase their talents. The property garnered a social reach of over 90 million, over 8 million digital video views and received an overwhelming 85,000+ registrations. Out of this, 12 finalists were selected by the mentors to showcase their talent in India’s biggest talent pool party in Mumbai, aptly named the House of Labs.

This ‘Always On’ Platform for experimental, creative, raw and hidden talent, has enabled youngsters to live their dreams. The property saw enthusiastic participation of youngsters possessing unique talent like flute-boxing, beatboxing, rapping, singing, dancing and football freestyling.

Speaking on the need for such platforms, Mr. Sunayan Mitra, General Manager – Coffee and Beverages, Nestlé India Ltd. commented, “NESCAFÉ is a brand that resonates with the aspirational youth. It aims to partner with the youth in their journey towards achieving their dreams. Youngsters have an inherent talent. This talent needs to be identified, harnessed and refined. MTV presents NESCAFÉ LABS is one such platform which discovers creative talent and enables them to interact and learn from industry experts. Serving as a talent scouting and nurturing platform, it is an opportunity that kick starts their journey to better and bigger things in life.”

Speaking about the finale of MTV presents NESCAFÉ Labs, Mr.Ferzad Palia, Head, Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 said, “MTV and NESCAFÉ joined hands to empower the youngsters by providing them a platform in the form of MTV presents NESCAFÉ Labs to give wings to their dreams. The massive number of registrations prove that a lot of youngsters have been able to be a part of this creative ecosystem. It’s amazing to see the enormous talent pool in the country, which is second to none. For us, true success of the platform lies in seeing these talented young people reaching heights of success in their chosen fields and having the best of minds from within the industry coming forward to mentor them.”

In a quick chat with Adgully, Sunayan Mitra sheds more light on the partnership, digital as a wider platform and much more. 

This has been a 3-year partnership - what next is in store? 

We are coming to an end of the first year of our partnership with MTV where we have prepared a platform for the youth not necessarily professionals but anyone who has creative talent can showcase it. This objective was very close to our hearts and we are thrilled with the association although what is next is store is too soon to tell.

Why did you decide this to be a digital-only initiative? Do you feel television, along with digital, would have given this initiative a much wider platform? 

One must always start with an objective which in our case was to reach out to youngsters and today’s generation lives and breathes digital and hence getting the show on digital was the ideal choice to connect with our target audience. We had 8500 registrations and over 2500 films were uploaded. Digital as a medium has helped us in achieving this and making a connection with real people and real entries.

Audience and participants' reception of the initiative?

We had extreme high hopes with Nescafe Labs but were overwhelmed with such enormous audience and  participants engagement. It is no longer just a one way communication with today’s youth but a two-way communication and they always have a point of view which we wanted to listen to. The association with MTV gave us the chance to have a two-way communication, listen to their point of view and help them.

What happens to the really deserving talent that this initiative showcases? In what way are you helping them beyond providing this platform? 

Nescafe Lans is equally involved into the two winners of the show and giving a chance to the rest 2000 participants who have the aspiration but not an outlet. Although everyone cant win the first and second position, we ensure all the finalists go back with some reward.

How has the partnership with MTV panned out over these 3 years?

If you engage with just commercial intent or you engage where you can work together as a part of team, that makes the journey even better and that has been the kind of relationship with MTV which has been exciting and enriching.

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