MUMBAI: With slicker look, crazier anchors and edgier shows, NDTV Good Times has come up with a slew of new shows to reach out to Gen Y. To suit its rebranding last year of ‘#LiveYoung’, the channel has come with two new food shows FoodMad and Veggistan in July.
Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, NDTV Good Times’ channel head Aarti Singh says, “With an increasingly maturing lifestyle space in India which is at an inflection point and as pioneers in that space, we redefined the lifestyle entertainment category codes and now we cater to the youth. We are where the youth and young-at-heart consumers are.”
Launched on 26 July, Veggistan is a 100 per cent vegetarian cookery show spread across 52 episodes and hosted by chef Ajay Chopra. Produced by Ttweetyy Production, a Bengaluru based production house owned by Gopal Kulkarni, the theme based show will highlight the lifestyle of the youth in India. The show will focus on themes such as Quick Veg Bites, Mango Special, Independence Day Special, Monsoon Special etc. It airs every Sunday at 7pm.
FoodMad is a 17 episode series where Rocky and Mayur take the audience to best joints across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, while savouring everything from biryani to kebabs to street food to bar food. Restaurants include Soi7, Smokeys, Fat Lulu’s, Assam Bhavan, Karim’s, The Table, Meghana Biryani, Rajdhani etc. FoodMad is an in-house production, airing every Saturday at 9pm.
As the channel caters to the youth and urban Indian, the marketing and promotions of the shows were done mainly by on-ground events and digital platforms. FoodMAD magazine ads can be spotted in the August issue of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Health and Nutrition, Stardust, Travel Plus and Outlook Traveler. The channel also organised a ‘blogger’s meet’ to launch Veggistan, wherein Chopra cooked 3 easy-to-make delicious vegetarian dishes with various food bloggers.
Commenting on the promotional strategy for the shows, Singh says, “We always make sure that we leverage and communicate our expertise; online, on-ground, print, web and everything in between. On-ground show promotion took place in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata via branded cabs plying around the cities.” Campaigns will run on Oye FM and Zomato for the promotion of the two shows.
Talking about the cost involved in promotion of these shows, Singh says,” Show promotions are planned at par with the production cost.”
The sponsor list of FoodMAD includes Dettol as presenting sponsor, Ask Me and Hike as powered by sponsors, Rooh Afza, Zomato and Tempo as other sponsors. Veggistan is powered by Monini Olive oil.
News shows that will go on air within the next three months include Best Sandwich of America, You Got Magic, Cutthroat Kitchen, Kingfisher Supermodels.
The channel says that while it has skewed younger as a brand, it found that youth is a mindset and not a segment. Says Singh, “Content that is young-at-heart and dynamic has an appeal across segments and demographics. Our focus has always been multi-platform content creation, and we will continue to do that as we reach across to our consumers through all platforms.”
