ITV

Category: Aaj Tak

  • Aaj Tak enters Limca Book for maximum SMS responses in two years

    MUMBAI: Hindi news channel leader Aaj Tak has one more reason to celebrate. The latest is that the news channel has found a place for itself in the Limca Book of Records for the most number of viewer interactions in the form of short message service (SMS) responses in the last two years.

    According to an official communiqué to Aaj Tak from the Limca Book of Records, “The largest number of SMSs received by a television channel as responses to contests, polls, etc.over a period of two years from 1 May 2002 – 25 May 2004 has been recorded in the chapter on Communications.”

    During the period Aaj Tak generated more than 10 million responses spread across polls, contests and viewers comments.
     

    Aaj Tak’s 2424 SMS platform has been employed by the channel for the purpose of real time and regular viewer feedback across all major occasions, events issues of national interest. This interactivity campaign is part of a well-ingrained strategy for the positioning and promotion of the channel which was initiated by Aaj Tak.

    The SMS responses that Aaj Tak got have also been helpful in providing vital information on the demographics of its viewership and the popularity of various programs.

    Aaj Tak’s marketing manager Rajesh Sheshadri was quoted in a company release as saying, “The 2424 SMS campaign is our way of continually being connected with the audience and providing the viewers an opportunity to voice their views. We have tried to bridge the newsmaker–news-seeker gap heralding an entirely new form of communication, and the phenomenal viewers’ appreciation has resulted in this record.”

  • Aaj Tak, Sony hit the high notes at Rapa awards

    MUMBAI: Sony, Zee and Sab make their mark at the 29th Radio and Television Advertising Practitioners’ Association of India (RAPA) awards. The awards felicitated professionals for their outstanding creative contribution at the Taj Lands End in Mumbai on 22 May.
     
     

    Radio being the pulse of the awards, the anchors for the evening were radio jockeys like Mallishka, Bakul Thakar, Alric Ferns and Keisha Lobo, who although manage to rake up a fair play at their respective radio stations, failed to deliver the same at the event. The awards ceremony although began half hour late, Askaran Atal, the renowned poet managed to throw in some introductory punch with all his satirical and comical performances, taking a dig at almost all topical issues.

    The acts included Baba Sehgal jiving to his new song ‘Pump up your style’, to Jojo, the singer performing to the tune of ‘Dil mera bole, hello how are you’ and ‘Vo kaun thi.’

    With the much acclaimed award Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin bagging the award in the best soap opera (Hindi) category,interestingly, the best promo for the TV serial was won by Devi, both bagged by the Sony Entertainment television.

    Sri Adhikari Brothers Ltd won prizes galore at the function. Faces and Names and Galti Kiski, both Sab TV shows received awards, while Zee Telefilms’ Jeena Isi Ka Naam , hosted by Farooque Shaikh too was adulated with an award. The Best Public Service Advertising Award was awarded to the public service films produced by Code Red Films for Aaj Tak. This campaign has bagged various other awards including an Abby and a Promax.

    The best Anchor Award was conferred on Aaj Tak’s Ritul Joshi, who anchors the prime time news bulletin on the channel.
    Aaj Tak’s weekly programme Cinema Aaj Tak bagged the best film-based programme Award. Kyun Sune Aapki, bagged the best ‘telecast of live programme’ award.

    Commenting on the awards, Aaj Tak’s Rajesh Sheshadri says, “Aaj Tak’s journalism and communication has always been rewarded by our viewers. Winning the Rapa’s for the third consecutive year exemplifies the recognition we have received from the industry.
    Speaking on the Public Service Advertising Award, Code Red Films Gajaraj Rao elucidates, “Today, there’s high level of apathy in the society, and to drive a social message, you can’t afford to be subtle and sweet.”

    On the predominantly radio front, Win 94.6 made a clean sweep with best radio jockey in Hindi (Mallishka Mendonca) and for Marathi (Anjali Kulkarni). While the various awards spanned all aspects of its programming; the first award Win 94.6 won was for English radio programme script, despite being an essentially Hindi based station. The Hindi radio programme script was also won by Win 94.6 for Khwaish, its Sunday evening show by Anurag Pandey. These among many more were bagged by the radio station which has shut shop for the time being.

    Commenting on Win 94.6’s performance, President, Rapa Brij Mittle gushes,“Our 90 odd jurors only gave awards for excellence. The work done by Win 94.6 during 2003, both by its producers and performers, has been just that – excellent. Congratulations to the entire team. We at RAPA are also praying hard that it will turn out just like last year, when Win 94.6 came back on air a few days after winning at the Rapa awards!”

    The best radio spot went to Dhananjay Kale for SBI mutual fund in the non-film Hindi category and Enil, Radio Mirchi Chennai bagged the award for the best radio spot in Malyalam.

    Voice major Chetan bagged awards for the Close-Up jingle and the best TV jingle.

    The panel of judges included Manjul Sinha, Uday Shankar Pani, Chaula Saha, Vijay Kadam, Vijay Arora, Kanti Madiya, Sanyukta Nandy, Subrato Mahapatra, Chand Kirshandhar, Vasant Suparkar, Shyam Benegal, Prasoon Joshi, Pradeep Upal, Mukesh Sharma, Dolly Thakore, Satish Kulkarni, Luku Sanyal, Aruna Raje, Nandita Puri, Narendra Kusnoor, Anand Mahendroo, Ramesh Sabarwal and Jhanu Verma.

  • Aaj Tak uses cricket peg for SMS contest

    Aaj Tak, the channel that was among the first to take the interactive SMS route to woo viewers, is back with a fresh contest.

    The Aaj Tak ICC Champions Trophy Cricket Contest will have questions flashed on the channel at various times during each contest day. Indian viewers are eligible to participate by sending their answers via SMS to the number 2424. Everyone who answers correctly will be eligible for the lucky draw.

    Participants stand to win a host of daily prizes comprising Parker pens, gift hampers from Usha Lexus appliances and gold coins from Phoenix weighing machines. In addition to daily prizes, there are three Maruti 800 cars to be given out as jackpot prizes at the end of the contest. Prizes have been sponsored by Parth Masala, Pan Parag and Rupa Thermacot.

    Winners of the lucky draw will be declared at 7.30 pm on the following day. Viewers can participate at any time of the day between 7 am to midnight to be eligible for the lucky draw for each days contest. They can also participate multiple times if they want to.

    The earlier Aaj Tak World Cup Soccer SMS Contest held between 12 and 30 June was the channel’s first interactive contest on a mass scale with an immediate and instant response tracking mechanism. The first day of the contest resulted in more than 30,000 responses even though the contest wasn’t advertised. The response later grew to more than 1,00,000 per day, claims Aaj Tak. In all, more than 1.4 million messages were received in just 18 days with the average response rate being over 75,000 per day.
     

  • Aaj Tak achieves its goal with World Cup contest

    Two birds with one stone. Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, which ran an interactive contest during the just-ended soccer world cup, has claimed one million plus responses as well tracked viewership patterns for the chnanel.

    The World Cup soccer SMS Contest Aaj Tak ran in association with Allwyn represented the first interactive contest on a mass scale with immediate and instant response tracking. On the first day of the contest, the channel claims to have received over 30,000 responses despite the fact that the contest wasn’t advertised. Responses on subsequent days exceeded 100,000. Overall over 1.4 million messages were received for the entire period of the contest, says a company release.

    The contest and the analysis of the data pertaining to the contest has thrown up interesting data pertaining to the viewership patterns of the channel. Although the 11 am – 12 pm time band resulted in the maximum responses from the viewers, the afternoon band also emerged as a significant time band, says the release. In the western region, Maharashtra, particularly Mumbai elicited the maximum number of responses, whereas in the north it was Delhi, followed by Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

    Indian viewers had to send the answers via SMS to the number 2424, enabled by ActiveMedia Technology. One contest question flashed on Aaj Tak at various times each day. Five lucky draws were conducted every day with winners being announced on the channel on the following days. Winners till 29 June are slated to get a 175 L Allwyn sensor refrigerator while winners for the question posted on 30 June will get a 250 L refrigerator.