I assumed my days of appointment viewing had been behind me after I minimize the wire in 2012. That’s till I found Kumar Varun and his eponymous quiz present KVizzing in 2020. Now, Sundays from 11 am to midday is a sacred slot after I livestream the most recent episode of KVizzing.
Who’s Kumar Varun, you ask? Kumar Varun, or KV as he’s popularly identified, started his profession in comedy making sketches about company work tradition. Nearly ten years later, he’s extra well-liked as a quiz grasp.
The nation met this quiz grasp on the influencer particular episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati, the place KV got here to the rescue of his associates Tanmay Bhat and Samay Raina as their pal on the cellphone.
Millennials who grew up on Bournvita Quiz Contest (BQC) within the 90s, participated within the Landmark August 15 quiz, or school quizzes, resort to scratching their quizzing itch with Jeopardy, and British comedy quiz reveals similar to Fairly Fascinating, and Massive Fats Quiz of the 12 months.
Kaun Banega Crorepati isn’t a standard quiz present, and India’s leisure panorama has not managed to create a profitable quiz present since BQC.
KV is making an attempt to make quizzing nice once more, and that is his story.
Why quizzing?
Quizzing had been a outstanding a part of KV’s extracurricular actions from college to school (engineering and MBA) and even at work throughout his company stints in his stand-up comedy life.
A peak millennial, KV has realised that quizzing was what he was meant to do. His initials, Okay and V, solely go to show the purpose! The wordplay simply writes itself—KVizzing.
KV found quizzing at Shastra College in Tamil Nadu, the place he studied engineering. “I used to be uncovered to a form of quizzing I had by no means seen, and it was a humbling expertise. I went there as a college champion from Delhi-NCR, and initially I couldn’t work out what was occurring. The quizzing you see on my present is closely influenced by that a part of my life.”
KV’s quizzes are usually not product of questions the place one both is aware of the reply or doesn’t. These are questions framed to guide the participant to guess the reply. Assume cryptic crossword clues…
The thought to show his love for quizzing into one thing tangible struck him in 2019. KV was within the behavior of sharing quiz questions with fellow stand-up comics on a WhatsApp group each morning for a number of years. “That they had by no means seen such questions for which they might deduce solutions even when they didn’t know them.”
Looking back, the WhatsApp chat with comedian associates grew to become his testing floor for KVizzing. “They started craving it and would immediate me for a query if I missed a single day. That’s after I thought I’d do a proper present with them.”
He wasn’t positive anybody would come to look at it.
The primary one, held in 2019, was a 30-seater present in Mumbai. To KV’s full shock, folks not solely got here but additionally loved themselves.
“Quizzing is one thing the place if it, you get a way of validation; in the event you be taught one thing, you take pleasure in that too.”
KV wished to do extra of those offline quizzes. He had lastly discovered an outlet for his love for quizzing.
However God, as they are saying, had different plans.
Pandemic struck.
Not all was misplaced, although.
A worldwide lockdown was the right recipe to kickstart a day by day video convention meet-up of associates who would quiz collectively.
That’s how KV launched KVizzing with the Comedians, a YouTube quiz present in the midst of the pandemic. Week after week, his associates would reply questions over a Zoom name. KV would edit these and add them to YouTube.
Afterward, he started ticketing the dwell Zoom calls. Folks paid to look at their favorite comedians crack questions and make jokes whereas they struggled with questions.
The largest false impression that KV is making an attempt to interrupt is that quizzing is just for nerds. “I’ve at all times believed that anybody can quiz. However rising up in India, quizzing was about memorising nation capitals, forex names, or names of first prime ministers and presidents.”
“In actuality, one is making ready for quizzing all their life.”
The YouTube present lastly spawned an offline format. KVizzing on YouTube constructed a group that KV hoped would discover takers offline. The KViz present has non-comedians quizzing collectively.
A prelims written spherical decides the three finalists who will go up on stage to quiz. A recording of the offline present is uploaded to YouTube. As anticipated, the movies of offline reveals get fewer views. KV, although, finds extra satisfaction with these reveals.
Function of comedians
An MBA in advertising and marketing and model advertising and marketing expertise turns out to be useful for KV. “That we began with comedians helped with attain.” Within the preliminary days, followers of comedians who had been collaborating tuned in, serving to him attain a large viewers base. He says this helped attain extra folks and filter the viewers too.
Referencing his model advertising and marketing fundamentals, he says, “To achieve a bullseye audience is a dream for any model supervisor.” When numerous followers found KVizzing, they will need to have both discovered it to their liking or not, and people who didn’t dropped away shortly, leaving KV with this bullseye TG.
Over time, the KV moved his quiz content material from his unique Random Chikibum YouTube channel, which was made for comedy content material.
“Those that are in the neighborhood are the folks I’d maybe be associates with past my stage persona…”
On his new channel—Kumar Varun—he posts movies concerning the Mahabharata, and world historical past. He intends to innovate extra quiz codecs too. Finally, all solutions to KViz questions may simply be on one other video inside the Kumar Varun channel.
The Kumar Varun YouTube channel has round 60,000 subscribers. Episodes that includes well-liked comics rake in 40-60K views, whereas themed quizzes or these with non-comics garner half the views. However KV isn’t complaining. He’s pleased with this dedicated however area of interest group he has constructed.
His largest viewers base is in Bengaluru, adopted by Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. Folks from cities similar to Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow additionally observe KVizzing.
Why no curiosity from manufacturers?
Quoting the creator of Jeopardy, Merv Griffin, KV says, “A quiz present is one thing you wish to be well-liked however not too well-liked.”
Whereas that is an enthusiastic and engaged group, KV can also be cognisant of the truth that by sheer numbers, comedic content material has higher pull than quizzing.
As an illustration, the Random Chikibum channel has 736,000 subscribers on YouTube, and KV’s latest stand-up movies on that channel earn greater than 50K views on common.
KV argues that his viewers is a goldmine for manufacturers.
KV says it is a international viewers with viewers from the US, Canada, and Europe. And it’s one which pays. The KViz present is a set of six quizzes performed over a weekend. Folks pay to attend a present the place there isn’t any assure that they are going to be on stage.
“I wouldn’t have imagined that folks would pay and present as much as a quiz.” A few months in the past, KV bought out a KViz present in Bangalore that he by no means even marketed, he says. The per-show price is Rs 500 and the ticket value for all six reveals is Rs 1,500-2,000.
Placing on his model supervisor hat and distinguishing between shoppers and prospects, he says, “KVizzing has an viewers that may be transformed to a buyer.”
“If I had been nonetheless doing my company job, that is what I’d do on weekends.”
Only a few manufacturers have seen worth in associating with KV’s quizzes. Small Case and Flipkart sponsored a few reveals two-three years in the past. Extra lately, Google sponsored a quiz with KV nudging his viewers to seek for Google’s Googlies.
Manufacturers that don’t combine with the quiz present invite KV to do company quizzes for worker engagement. KV has been a quiz grasp at McKinsey, Nestle, HUL, Tim Hortons, and so forth.
He bemoans the present parameters that manufacturers use to measure success—views, engagement, and impressions. “As an alternative of understanding the facility of the viewers, manufacturers come to us with questions like ‘What number of subscribers do you’ve?’”
He understands that the maths doesn’t match for model managers who’re below strain to exhibit ROI. “Had I been a model supervisor, I’d have adopted the identical formulation as a result of that’s simpler. You don’t have to clarify a lot up your chain of command.”
The advantage of quizzing is that the format is well customisable for manufacturers, says KV. He could make a quiz about meals, know-how, and enterprise and easily slip in a model title and story.
In 2025, KV plans to take the KViz Present to an auditorium and even take the present to the US, UK, Dubai, and Singapore. Asserting his huge dream for 2025-26, KV says, “I wish to make a brand new BQC for faculties.”
To understand his dream, he’ll want a model like Bournvita to quiz alongside.
Manufacturers who’re on the fence, keep in mind, the quiz grasp is at all times proper!
Written with the View : afaqs