Consumers of Online content will grow as data and mobile phones get cheaper – Accelerate TV boss
Colette Otusheso is the Head of Accelerate TV, an Online TV platform established in 2014 and dedicated to the youth with objective to educate, empower and entertain a generation of young people, no matter where they are. In this interview, Colette speaks on a number of issues including content in broadcasting and Accelerate TV’s intention to partner government to re-shape the minds of Nigerian youth positively for the country. Excerpts
Could you tell us about yourself and Accelerate TV?
As the Head of Accelerate TV, I am the head of the team with the strategic direction of where to take the Accelerate brand, planning the future of the brand and steering the team in the direction to achieve our objectives. I am in charge of Human Resources, marketing, business development and administration. I am also a producer and creative director. I believe that anything is possible with the right guidance and our team of young, ultrasmart and creative team.
What inspired you to introduce Accelerate TV, how is the operation and what gap did you come to fill?
Accelerate TV was created by Access Bank in 2014 as an innovative platform dedicated to the youth. In 2016, myself and a creative and super-smart team of brilliant young people rebranded and kicked off Accelerate TV to cater to our target audience’s needs.We started by building a focused team, ensuring that we had specialists in the various departments that were imperative to our business. This included marketers, writers, social media specialists, designers, a full production and editorial team, and the help of many great interns. We then focused on developing an entertainmentplatform with an ethos of empowering, educating and entertaining through the use of great content and here we are.
What makes Accelerate TV different from other online content platforms outthere?
As I mentioned previously, we aim to Educate, Empower and Entertain a generation of young people, no matter where they are. Although our focus is originally Nigeria, our content has inadvertently gone beyond Nigerians here and in the diaspora,reaching young people from all backgrounds and nationalities. What makes Accelerate TV special is that we go beyond creating only fun and trending content, and use the platform as a way to educate our audience on entrepreneurship through shows like The Maverick, inspire and motivate with shows like King Women directed by award-winning director Kemi Adetiba and then produce entertaining and interactive shows like The Wrap Up with popular on-air personalityToolz. Day Pass which details the lives of well known celebrities for a day, and Shade Corner hosted by YouTube superstar and actor Akah Nnani also fall within the category of entertainment with our own twist.
What is the current reach and target audience ns how does your audience access your platform?
Presently, Accelerate TV reaches a global audience via the website -www.acceleratetv.com – and through our YouTube channel. When we relaunched in July 2016, we partnered with Ebony Life TV to air an Accelerate TV block weekly with repeats in over 48 countries across Africa. We also use social media and influencer marketing to ensure that our target audience of 16 – 28 year olds has direct access to all our shows and articles. Accelerate TV’s website is an all-inclusive ticket to a world of fashion, entertainment, lifestyle and so much more. With our site the audience can watch great shows aswell as find out the best ways to be financially savvy, stay healthy, stay fashionable with our dedicated lifestyle and fashion pages while getting all the latest entertainment news from around the world. Our YouTube channel is seamlessly connected to our website so all our content is just a few clicks away.
Content is a major issue for such online TV, how do you generate content?
A better part of the content we produce is determined by audience research. Their wants and needs dictate what and how we create our content. Also, our team works with a wide pool of creative directors and producers – from Kemi Adetiba, Seyi Babatope to Lala Akindoju and others – to ensure that we are able to craft the right content for our target audience.Creativity is free when you have the right team with you.
What are your strategies for sustaining this project?
The easiest way to sustain a brand is to stay relevant. If the audience constantly needs what you do, they will keep coming back, and if there is an audience, then there is potential for marketing. It is all about finding the balance and always keep creativity at the forefront while listening to your audience.
Are you under any authority’s regulation?
Most definitely. With online content distribution, you have to be very careful with what you put out there. YouTube and Facebook monitor all content published for copyright infringement. All photos and videos used in articles, news and video have to be cited appropriately else you become liable. There are a lot of people watching, therefore it is important that when advertising our platform, we ensure that we meet the needs of all local and international agencies.
With youthful population and mobility in Nigeria, do you see online TVchallenging/competing strongly with terrestrial TV?
With the advent and popularity of brands like Netflix, Hulu and HBO Go, it is only natural that the rest of the world will follow suit eventually. Terrestrial television is important, but more and more people are seeing it as traditional or nice-to-have as compared to online television where we can watch all our favourite shows from our mobile phones. So, as purchasing data and mobile phones get cheaper in Nigeria, consuming content online becomes more of an obvious alternative.
You are said to have caught up with competitors quickly, considering you came in a few years after some of the biggest players in the online entertainment business. What will you attribute this rapid growth to?
We are so grateful to the “Acceleration Nation” (as my team calls the audience).They have been very vocal on what they like and don’t like on our roster. So we take the time to converse with them on social media and implement changes where necessary. Everyone loves a brand that listens, so we work hard to do just that. We also have been very lucky with the content we have been releasing, shows like Shade Corner reached a lot of people and even those that had negative comments felt engaged and had something to say. Then just look at the positivity around King Women! Kemi Adetiba has been doing great things for a while now so it was imperative that we worked with her on her KingWomen project – one which is especially dear to my heart. It is very important that as women we are able to empower a generation of other women and young people and I believe King Women does this very well. The background stories told by prominent and successful women in Nigeria such as Taiwo Ajai Lycett, Tara Fela Durotoye, TYBello, Olajumoke Adenowo and more make you laugh, make you cry, make you shout but, best of all, leaves you with a strong message that will inspire you in somany ways. Our newest show, The Wrap Up with Toolz has generated much talkability in the fewweeks after its launch on YouTube. Also within 6 months, Accelerate TV’s fan-base has grown by over 700%. Consequently, our content reach has grown remarkably.Our youth-focused platform encourages young people to discuss what matters most to them as well as entertains them so much that they keep them coming back.
Can you partner with government to use the TV to shape the minds of the youth who form about 70 % of the 170 million population.
As mentioned previously, this is exactly what we hope to do. Educate, Empower and Entertain the youth of Nigeria and beyond. With our reach and growth, we would liketo use this platform to make a difference in the hearts and minds of Nigerians and other young people around the world. Partnering with the Government is the next step, which is just around the corner.
What is the future of your business and what are your most important plansfor the near future?
Our intention is to become the online home for youth-focused audiences across different walks of life who look to us for education, empowerment and entertainment. Also, the goal of most businesses is to make profit. This, we intend to achieve through the consistent production of premium content and the utilization of a hybrid model for generating revenue involving advertising and subscription.