ITV

Tag: Anupam Vasudev

  • Aircel unveils new ad campaign ‘Joy of Little Extra’

    MUMBAI: Aircel has launched its new brand campaign titled ‘Joy of Little Extra‘ which captures a slice from daily life pertaining to the joy experienced when one unexpectedly gets a little extra.

    Under the new ad campaign, Aircel will launch products and services which will offer that “little extra” in value for its subscribers through all its products, be it Extra SMS‘, Extra Talk time or Extra Data.

    Aircel‘s new campaign is a series of commercials, on the plank of always bringing to its subscribers that joy of a little extra. The campaign is conceived by McCann Worldgroup India.

    Aircel chief marketing officer Anupam Vasudev said, “With the launch of our new ‘Joy of Little Extra‘ campaign, we hope to bring more joy to the lives of our customers by giving them opportunities to feel that unexpected ‘Extra‘ happiness through the use of our products and services. By means of this, we also wish to get closer to the hearts of our customers and continue to build on our commitment to them. The new campaign series will see three products launches shortly.”

    The ‘Joy of Little Extra‘ is based on customer insights highlighting that joy is not always derived by big things in life, such as an increment at work or additional funding for business but the same happiness could also be felt through little things like getting an extra run in a friendly neighbourhood match or getting a few extra minutes to complete an examination paper.

    The new campaign highlights the power of ‘Extra‘ as delivered by Aircel‘s voice and data products as a simple way of bringing big happiness.

  • Colors in top position in week that ends with India’s World Cup win

    Colors in top position in week that ends with India’s World Cup win

    MUMBAI: In the week that ended with India lifting the World Cup, Colors has occupied the top spot in the Hindi general entertainment channel space amid allegations from some rival networks that it dropped ad inventory.

    The Viacom18 channel, following behind market leader Star Plus for almost a year, has added 28 GRPs (gross rating points) during the week.

    While the whole nation was gripped by the cricket World Cup fever, all the other GECs were losing viewership in a magical week that saw India triumph over Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

    Colors, on the other hand, raced up the charts to end the week with 300 GRPs, with four of its shows – Uttaran, Na Aana Is Des Laado, Balika Vadhu and Laagi Tujhse Lagan – ranking among the top 10.

    Said Colors spokesperson, “To counter the intensifying cricket World Cup mania, we adopted an aggressive approach as part of our tactical move to minimise viewership-loss to cricket. These included inventory optimisation, storyline peaks in some of our fiction shows and strong movie line-ups. The GEC space is not alien to these tactics. As the ratings suggest, this appears to have paid-off for us, as we experienced minimum viewership loss during the peak of World Cup cricket.”

    Star Plus dropped to No. 2 with 261 GRPs in its kitty (last week 291 GRPs), according to Tam data for Hindi speaking markets.

    “We refrained from dropping ad ventory to shore up our ratings. We do not believe in tactics which are ‘value-destroying‘ for the industry. For us, it is important to have a sustainable business plan,” said Star India EVP and head, marketing and communications Anupam Vasudev.

    Star Plus believes that it will retain its pole position. “India reaching the finals and winning the World Cup was a very big and good thing for the country. It has come after 28 years and is bound to impact the other genres. Viewers will come back to us, now that the World Cup is over,” explained Vasudev.

    Meanwhile, Zee TV lost 16 GRPs during the week to stay in third position with 170 GRPs.

    Sony Entertainment Television was the top loser during the week. It shed 39 GRPs and slipped one position to take the fifth spot with 120 GRPs, while sister channel Sab, even after losing 8 GRPs, stayed in the fourth position with 128 GRPs.

    Imagine TV shed 11 GRPs to end the week with 70 GRPs while Star One and Sahara One were at 28 and 22 GRPs respectively.

  • India’s top Hindi entertainment show is at 7 pm

    India’s top Hindi entertainment show is at 7 pm

    MUMBAI: India‘s top Hindi entertainment show is coming at the 7 pm slot.

    In the last two months, Star Plus’ 7 pm show Saathiya has shown tremendous climb in its ratings with the figure rising to an average of 6 TVR for the week ended 4 December. Saathiya saw a peak TVR of 6.4 during the week, as per Tam data (C&S – 4+, HSM). A special episode on Sunday, pitted against television premiere of Dabangg on Colors, got it a whopping 5.1 TVR.
     
    Saathiya has not only emerged as the slot leader but also the top show among all the general entertainment channels (GECs).

    Says Star India EVP – marketing and communications Anupam Vasudev, “Saathiya is a prime example of how strong content can attract audience even at what others call ‘early primetime’. Earlier, this time band was predominantly regional viewership heavy. So we knew viewers are watching television at that time. Why not put great content there?”
     
    Not very long ago, the Hindi GECs were earmarking 8-11 pm as their primetime viewing hours and anything before that was being left by large for regional audiences.

    However, as competition in the genre increased manifold with advent of new channels and the fight for the top league became a week-on-week scenario, GECs started experimenting with content scheduling.

    Last year the industry saw a show, Chhoti Bahu, waking up the 7.30 pm band with a peak TVR of 5. But that was not the end of the story. It went ahead with the 7 pm slot with Saathiya.

    “Not many channels have put original content in the slot. So it has not been exploited,” says Vasudev.
     
     
    As of now, Colors airs Bhagyavidhaata at 7 pm which has managed an average TVR of 1.6 (week ended 4 December) while Zee TV’s Dil Se Diya Vachan is hovering with a 1 TVR.

    So can a GEC command premium advertising rates at 7 pm which advertisers do not consider as the “purple time band”?

    Says Vasudev, “If we sustain the reach and ratings, we can command a premium. Saathiya’s current week’s reach was above 12 per cent. Though the quality of audience is not as at 9 pm, sustained ratings can help us get good returns.”

    Star Plus claims that the show is also growing slot leadership margin in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, PHCHP (Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh) and other Hindi speaking markets (HSM). The show has also enjoyed 18.8 minute time spent during the week.

  • ‘The GEC market has disintegrated into smaller units with niche regional preferences’-By Star India EVP marketing Anupam Vasudev

    ‘The GEC market has disintegrated into smaller units with niche regional preferences’-By Star India EVP marketing Anupam Vasudev

    MUMBAI: The Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) space is constantly changing and churning out fresh opportunities.

    In my opinion, it has been a year of shows rather than channels in spite of what everyone would like to say. The viewer has been totally spoilt for choice with the wide and eclectic array of entertainment options being laid out in front of him / her to savour and to get hooked on to. Channels have had to outdo themselves in terms of their offerings – leave alone outdoing their competition to attract eyeballs and to keep them glued to their show / channel. As viewership gets fragmented, diversification of content on TV is the need of the hour. It is an extremely challenging scenario that a broadcaster faces today.

    Also, the market has disintegrated into smaller units with niche regional preferences. Even the share of Hindi general entertainment within the “Hindi Speaking Markets” vary considerably. One extreme is represented by the Hindi belt markets like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh which are heavy Hindi GE viewers and the other extreme is represented by markets like West Bengal and Maharashtra which are heavy regional consumers. We saw this as one more opportunity to create higher level of viewer satisfaction.

    With competition heating up and the saas-bahu image that Star Plus had to shake off, we came up with a host of innovative, fresh and creative content to entertain our audiences this year. The channel also decided to increase its physical connection with our audience by creating consumer experiences out of our programmes.

    Let me share with you some examples of this year‘s programme launches and corresponding activities we undertook. We started the year with the launch of ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai‘. Star Plus had the mega launch in the exotic gardens of Rambagh Palace, Jaipur. 50 couple winners, which were a result of a compatibility test, took their marriage vows for a second time in celebration of their love for each other. This programme topped the TRP charts with its sustained performance week after week! Upholding traditional Indian beliefs and value systems, the show soon captured every Indian household‘s fancy, becoming the most promising primetime show on Star Plus after the departure of the ‘K‘ series from the channel.

    With the launch of ‘Sabki Ladli Bebo‘ in April 2009, Star Plus announced its annual property Ladli Week Celebration where the brand partnered with the KC Mahindra Educational Trust NGO- to start Project Nanhi Kali.

    A fund raiser initiative called Star Plus‘ Project Laadli celebrated the Girl Child Week from 13 – 17 April and received tremendous response from the viewers and media. Children from Project Nanhi Kali had fun spending time with their favourite stars – Bebo (Shiv Shakti) and Kuku Narang (Kanwaljeet) from ‘Sabki Laadli Bebo‘ on the sets.

    Little girls from Nanhi Kali had the opportunity to eat fun meals at McDonald‘s with Akshara (Hina Khan) from Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hain, Shaurya (Saurabh Pandey) and Suhani (Sriti Jha) from Shaurya Aur Suhani. We set up Signature Walls for consumers across 52 Big Bazaar and 21 Sia Jewellery outlets in India. These received more than 51,000 messages during the Laadli Week Celebration, out of which more than 30,000 viewers contacted Nanhi Kali to contribute for this noble cause!

    In June 2009, came ‘Star Vivah‘ – the first ever matrimonial show on Indian television for all those searching for their ideal life partner. ‘Star Vivah‘ provided the biggest platform for prospective brides and grooms to find their life partner, thus simplifying the process of the most important and sacrosanct decision of one‘s life i.e. marriage. The show took a huge social step by propagating an anti-dowry stance and promoting gender equality on the show. All participants were dissuaded from exchanging dowry. The show also featured socially oppressed people such as widows, handicapped individuals and divorcees, hence giving them a chance to start their lives afresh.

    August 2009 saw Star Plus launch an emotional, inspiring & heart warming chat show ‘Tere Mere Beach Mein‘ with ace choreographer turned director, Farah Khan. This was not your regular celebrity chat show about fame and stardom but about their lives away from the arc lights!

    Digital teams created online bidding and auction with Ebay. On the show celebrities gave away various items from their personal favourites for auction and the proceeds were shared with an NGO Sneha. Viewers in large numbers participated to bid for these items on Ebay. The show garnered a whopping 3.3 TVR with its opening episodes, becoming the only television chat show to open with such numbers!

    Star Plus started a movement with the second season of ‘Aap Ki Kachehri‘ with the intention to empower viewers taking the message of “television se zindagi tak” literally. We organised a ‘Walkathon with Dr Kiran Bedi‘ in Indore, Ahmedabad and Lucknow along with eminent social workers, educationists and media personalities. In Mumbai, we tapped the life line of the city – the local trains – to create awareness of the “Aap Ki Kachehri” movement. This train ride with Kiran Bedi attracted a huge number of viewers as they joined her in the movement impromptu.

    In October 2009, ‘Aap Ki Kachehri‘ took another meaningful step forward by launching a path-breaking CSR initiative ‘Aap Ki Kachehri – Aap Ke Dwaar‘ in Delhi and Lucknow. This involved a programme that trained people in dispute resolution; trained NGOs in dispute resolution and effective mediation with the aim to work towards building a more peaceful and productive society.

    The second season of ‘Baa Bahu aur baby‘ was launched in October 2009 with baby‘s wedding – the biggest wedding on Indian television. The entire cast traveled across key cities in Gujarat to collect wishes for Baby. Star Plus dressed up Ahmedabad to welcome Birju‘s baraat – a grand, visual treat that completely floored people. Baa, Pravin Bhai & Gattu (prominent characters from the show) greeted Birju atop a decorated horse. The event was accompanied by music and many Ahmedabadi baraati‘s dancing away reliving the experience, which was followed by Baby & Birju exchanging garlands. This was the first ever fiction show to be back in season two on viewer demand! The second season of the show also gave consistent performance on the charts.

    A large percentage of India resides in the villages and towns and many of them come to our metros to earn their livelihoods. Taking cognizance of this fact, Star Plus came up with ‘Tere Mere Sapne‘ in October 2009 – a story depicting the journey of one such migrant who steps into a challenging new world and how he endeavours to come to terms with a new life and city. To connect with our audience, Sarju, the protagonist of the show, visited Lucknow where he learnt auto driving, cooking and vegetable selling – skills that he will need to survive in the tough city of Mumbai. In Delhi, Sarju visited a migrant colony to learn about their difficulties and how they cope with it.

    The show touched the hearts of viewers and it received the highest recall in its launch week amongst its target viewers as they were able to relate to the concept, culture and emotion of the protagonist!

    With ‘Sach Ka Samna‘, Star Plus took programming to a new level. It completely floored audiences as they didn‘t know what to expect from this show! We created platforms for people to show courage and bare their soul by speaking the truth through a medium that is visually impact full. We, therefore, created Saccho Ki Toli which by its movement and appearance in high catchments areas gained momentum and buzz.

    21 promoters wearing pure white long robes with numbers 1-21 on their robes and a funny ‘Sach‘ about them behind their back moved in groups at VT station, Mumbai and lined up in chronological order. Rajeev Khandelwal, the host of the show, made a public appearance with the ‘Saccho ki toli‘ and invited people to come forward, take a T-Shirt, write their truth and wear this T-shirt to join the ‘Saccho Ki Toli‘. ‘Sach Ka Samna‘ proved to be the first Indian reality show with a launch episode gaining 4.2 TVR, the only reality show to have received such number in last two years. The show maintained a constant high through the season on the TRP charts in the late primetime segment.

    With the recently launched ‘Pratigya‘, Star Plus‘ newest protagonist Pratigya gathered support from hundreds of women who joined in a Human Chain organised at Nariman point as a part of Star Plus‘ ‘Meri Pratigya‘ campaign. This Human chain also attracted protagonists from Star Parivaar who stood together and pledged their support against disrespect and mistreatment of women.

    At Star Plus, we‘ve had great success with industry-defining shows like ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlaata Hai‘ and ‘Sach Ka Saamna‘ and are ending the year on a high with our recent launches – ‘Pratigya‘ and ‘Music Ka Maha Muqabla‘.

    Going forward, Star Plus is going to further raise the bar in programme innovation and will ensure that its audiences will have the best that televised entertainment can offer.

     

  • ‘We will fight competition with innovative content’ : Anupam Vasudev- Star India EVP marketing and communications

    ‘We will fight competition with innovative content’ : Anupam Vasudev- Star India EVP marketing and communications

    It’s rearguard action time at Star Plus. Edged out after a nine-year life at the top, Star Plus is making moves to shed off the “saas-bahu” image that stuck on to the channel.

     

    What followed is a flurry of differentiated content. While Kiran Bedi played judge on social issues in Aap Ki Kachehri, matrimonial show Star Vivah gave a platform to many prospective brides and grooms.

     

    Star Plus also experimented with shows like Paanchvi Paas that made no major impact on its ratings.

     

    The big show now is Sach Ka Saamna, an adaptation of the bold and sensational The Moment Of Truth.

     

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Anindita Sarkar, Star India EVP marketing and communications Anupam Vasudev talks about Star Plus’ road ahead as the channel takes up the challenge to regain its leadership position and widen the gap with its rivals.

     

    Excerpts:

    The first half of the year has really been interesting with the GEC space witnessing the rise of three strong players at the top. Does this mean the absolute end to the Star monopoly?
    The game is not yet over. We had nine years of undisputed leadership and it’s been a great run for us. Look, in all categories and businesses, competition does catch up at some point of time – and they have caught up with us. In the last couple of months there have been ups and downs in the top three category, but we were never out of the game. In fact there were weeks when we did come back to the number one spot. So these things will keep happening in terms of the top three players for a while until one of them breaks away to rein the top slot singularly. We are ensuring that Star Plus is the one that breaks away from the lot to establish its leadership one more time.

    So how do you plan to break away from the top three league?
    As you can see, there is a whole new programming that is being brought in to Star Plus. We have just launched Sach Ka Saamna in the non-fiction category. We will be launching a new fiction show, Sajan Ghar Jaana Hai, very soon. We are also firming up our fiction category further with a couple of new shows, lined up for the next two to three months.

     

    We will also continue to strengthen our existing offerings and products that have the potential to grow like iconic shows Yeh Rishta… and Bidaai and recent launches such as Mitwa and Laadli.

     

    So we are bringing across a lot of innovative content to fight competition and ensure that we retain our leadership with consistency – and with enough gap from everyone else.

    Though you have a loyal base of 200 plus GRPs coming in from fiction and non-fiction show, content like events and films are also impacting a further 30 GRPs. Does this mean that you are also banking a lot of such content to push up your GRP grades?
    For a GEC channel, events and films have always been an inherent part of the programming mix, especially movies that contribute about 15 per cent to our total revenue and also help to drive in family viewership. However, the real changes that have happened in the movie sphere in the recent past is that the time gap between a movie coming to the theatre and being aired has shortened. So the effect is more. Also, movies have started getting syndicated instead of being exclusively owned. These are the two significant changes that have come into the movie business on television. But from a programming or a brand perspective, offering movies to viewers has consistently been part of our network strategy wherein our channels run movies. This includes our regional channels. So movies have always been a core element of our programming strategy.

    From the time you first began ruling the number one slot to now, what kind of shift in audience taste have you witnessed?
    Today, the larger group of the Indian audience has got younger. Audiences have moved away from demanding regressive content to content that evokes an open belief system. Meanwhile, the market has also expanded significantly from being metro-focused to being small town focused. Market has moved up both in terms of measurement and penetration. So there are more people and players coming into the category than there were in the past. There has been an enormous growth in the regional sphere as well. All this taken together has led to a significant upgradation in the quality of content, viewership and competition, bringing in a fundamental change in the minds of the consumers.

    Was that the primary reason to do away with Balaji’s saas-bahu sagas?
    It’s nothing to do away with. We thought that we needed fresher and younger shows coming in because a show that has run for nine years obviously needs to be refreshed. I don’t think in any part of the world a show can continue for so long. The K-series had a good run and did brilliantly for the channel, but then changes were prevalent and we responded to them.

     

    Star Plus, anyway, still continues to source a few shows like Tujh Sang… and Kis Des Mein Hai Mera Dil from Balaji and they are still a part of the producers list who work with us.
    It seems whenever audience starts responding to a certain kind of show format, the other players follow suit. So is there any differentiated content actually existing?
    Of course there is! Everything has to be differentiated if you want to drive in viewers.
    ‘In Star Plus’ revenue mix, the afternoon band contributes 15-20 per cent. We plan to build up on our existing bouquet of shows‘

    Are social issue-based formats driving the current GEC programming?
    Issue-based topics have always been played upon on television as it reflects society and further helps establish connect with the audience with relevant societal discussion points. So, it really does not mean copying content. We are not here to talk about social issues in a fashionable way, but yes everything has to have a concept that connects with the society emotionally and entertains them as well. For example, Bidaaii which is a tale of the dark skinned versus the fair skinned sisters or for that matter Laadli which reflects love for a girl child. It reflects society but is surely weaved into a concept that is contemporary to the society today.
    So what kind of changes have you brought in to your programming strategy?
    Our shows have always been about hope, optimism and family values with a further support from a high level of romanticism. So there has not as such been any drift in our strategy. Thus, Star Plus will continue to target the women-oriented mass India audience between the age group of 18-35. Family will, of course, remain our secondary audience that will be driven in by reality shows and movies.

    What are you doing to beef up your afternoon band?
    We are already running three shows in our afternoon band -Tujh Sang Preet Lagayi Sajna, Hamari Devrani and Star Vivah. All of them are performing quite well for the channel, driving in a lot of women audience in the afternoon band. This contributes 15-20 per cent to our total revenue. So, right now we plan to build up on our existing bouquet of shows.

    Can you elaborate on your marketing strategy?
    Apart from the usual print, radio and television, we are getting aggressive on the digital space. Activating ideas cleverly is another very important segment that we are working upon to create hype and excitement for our various properties. On-ground activation has also become an important part of our marketing mix to create an interactive interaction with consumers that will help in attracting newer eyeballs.