MUMBAI: This one catch might land Zee Music’s publicity department on a sticky wicket, but for sheer originality, it scores a perfect ten.
In what is becoming a trend among media companies when it comes to publicising their events, Zee Music has sent out huge jars of glue emblazoned with the new channel logo, proclaiming ‘Here’s another place you’ll love to get stuck in.’
‘Phas Jaaoge’ claims the tagline for Zee Music, that is revamping in a new avatar with a wild bash this evening (29 August) at the Hyatt Regency in Mumbai. The one kg jar of glue however bears an uncanny resemblance to Fevicol, the popular Pidilite brand of adhesive. The twin elephant Fevicol logo too has been modified to show the pachyderms trying to pull a man apart from his TV set, while the jar sports the ochre and blue colours associated with Fevicol. “To better understand the adhesive powers of Zee Music follow the simple instructions written on this jar”, adds the footnote on the pack.
Innovative marketing measures seem to be the order of the day. A few weeks ago, MTV sent an equally innovative clothes rack when it put out invites for the MTV Lycra awards. While MTV lives up to its whacky reputation when it comes to media invites, the usually staid Sahara TV too couriered a toy pistol and a couple of real suparis encased in a sleek black box to media planners when it announced the acquisition of the Ram Gopal Varma flick Company. Seems no effort is too small when it comes to reminding the media of its new initiatives.
But the creative juices appear to be in full flow since early this year. While Zee MGM heralded the acquisition of the Miss Universe telecast rights this June by sending out dolls wearing the Miss Universe sash to select media persons, Sony reminded media people of the continuing travails of Kkusum by sending out ‘kundali’ (horoscope) copies, ostensibly Kkusum’s. All other means of innovative invites exhausted apparently, for Sony recently resorted to sending out simple postcards that invited media persons to the launch of Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. The postcards, incidentally, were sent out by courier.
SET India’s events and movies channel MAX had sent clones (or should we say duplicate) of Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda for the Bade Miyaa, Chote Miyaa film festival to ad agencies. The ad agency’s direct marketing ploy won it an Emvie award.
Coming back to Zee Music, the revamp seems to have started on the right track with the glue jar setting off enough curiosity about what the actual product might offer. If the thus-far somnolent channel does not deliver, however, all the publicity efforts might just come unstuck.