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  • #fame to invest 10 million dollars across six countries

    #fame to invest 10 million dollars across six countries

    MUMBAI: To The New (TTN), an end-to-end digital services network, through its digital content platform #fame will be investing $10 million in the next couple of years as it sets a target to reach out to 5000 channels and 50,000 content creators across six countries in south east Asia.

     

    #fame CEO Saket Saurabh, who was previously working with the Network18 group, says the company will follow a three pronged strategy for its talent-first programmes. Saurabh elaborates, “In the first stage it will focus on emerging talent and to establish them and help them promote and build digital communities.  In the second stage, content through digital IPs’ will be created via innovative digital shows in genres such as food, fashion, music, comedy and technology and in the third stage the company will monetise by helping brands reach out and engage with audiences through digital conversations via digital video services.”

     

    The digital agency has adopted a multi-platform approach when it comes to distribution on social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, WeChat etc. “We are screen agnostic. We are looking at mobiles, movies, airports, television screens etc,” says Saurabh.

     

    #fame, which was formerly known as Four Cross Creative Services, in the last few months decided to redefine its business operations and thus ideated to come up with its multi-tier talent management programme, which is designed to help talented youngsters grow their presence digitally and evolve as performers.

     

    TTN Ventures MD Puneet Johar feels that video is the new language for consumers on internet. “It is combining powerfully with the smartphone explosion and the rise of social sharing across screens to inspire a new wave of talent. We have built a strong ecosystem of digital businesses well positioned to create value in such a landscape,” he informs.

     

    #fame has identified six key markets – India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. It will now focus on creating Indian-based IPs and will begin its local businesses in other five countries in the coming six to eight months.

     

    To create talent inflow, it has partnered with Blogmint which is a fast growing network of bloggers. It currently has 5000 content creators and this figure is expected to reach 10,000 by the end of the year. It will also build a network of alliances with talent hubs such as comedy clubs, film and music schools, art and culinary academies.

     

    #fame announced a slew of digital shows like School of Style which it claims to be India’s first online hunt for top stylists and will be hosted by celebrated entertainment and fashion icon Karan Johar who will be the host, judge and mentor. Others include, Websinger which seeks promising young singing talent, Gang No 1 a search for top comedy collectives and the second season of Webchef the country’s largest online hunt for amateur chefs.

     

     When asked if the IPs will rest with either #fame or the hosts, Saurabh says it will be dealt on a case to case basis.

     

    Celebrities that have signed up with #fame include TV star Maria Goretti, child comic star Saloni, top fashionista Anusha Dandekar, celebrity chef Ajay Chopra, singing sensation Shibani Kashyap and style guru VJ Andy.

  • MMA recognises excellence in mobile marketing at the third edition of the Smarties

    MMA recognises excellence in mobile marketing at the third edition of the Smarties

    Mumbai: The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), today unveiled the winners of the third annual MMA SMARTIES™ India Awards 2014 at a Gala Dinner in Mumbai. Showcasing the ‘best of the best’ in the industry, the SMARTIES™ India Awards honor solid mobile strategies that address specific business challenges through the creative use of mobile technologies. Winners were declared across 21 categories with over 60 brands and 40 agencies participated in this year’s awards.

     

    MMA today also released its annual India Mobile Ad Spend Report powered by exchange4media. Based on extensive research, the report estimates the total digital ad spends in India to stand at Rs 3,300 to Rs 3,600 crores with mobile ad spends at Rs 475 crores. Mobile ad spends are expected to grow at a rate of 52% to reach Rs 722 crores in 2015. 

     

    “The MMA has been tracking the growth story in India for a while now and our faith in the market keeps getting stronger. Our Mobile Ad Spend Report shows that marketers are not only recognizing mobile’s potential but are actively integrating the channel into their marketing mix,” said Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific. “The SMARTIES™ awards are our way of recognizing the best-in-class mobile campaigns run by leading brands. The winners of the 2014 SMARTIES India Awards have demonstrated how the creative use of mobile can help build better brands and increase engagement while driving business results.”

     

    The winners of SMARTIES™ awards were selected following a rigorous process involving a council of senior brand marketers and advertising leaders. The judges reviewed campaigns from 65 entries that came from across India, spread across sectors like telecommunication, sports, social media, healthcare, travel, banking, and sports before choosing winners.

     

    An analysis of the winning entries, presented at the event by research agency and Knowledge Partner, Millward Brown, found that successful brands and marketing strategies had well-defined clarity of purpose with 100 percent of winners identifying a specific objective of increasing awareness or sales. 70 percent of the winners also had a precise role for mobile using the channel’s unique strengths such as location, payments, and targeting. 50 percent of winners at the SMARTIES™ India 2014 Awards built relevance of the brand in the target consumers’ context. 70 percent of the winners used mobile synergistically with other media channels.

     

    Commenting on the winners Jury Chairman, Mr. Sam Balsara, Chairman and Managing Director, Madison World, said, “Brands and marketing strategies are increasingly adopting a mobile-first approach and the competition in innovation and creativity is only getting tougher. In such an environment, it gives me immense pleasure to lead the mobile marketing conversation and thank all my fellow jury members for their valuable insights and time. We selected the winners after extensive debate and deliberation and are extremely impressed with the results some of the campaigns have achieved.

     

    Commenting on the Ad Spend report Mr. CVL Srinivas, CEO at GroupM South Asia said “The increasing number of formats being explored everyday on this medium gives every advertiser a chance to experiment. Once an advertiser cracks the communication type

     

    being best received, he will naturally increase spends. The evolution is on the marketer, an increase in smartphone penetration. “Mobile has huge potential across the board

     

    from a media reach and targeting perspective. From finely segmented audiences

     

    in cities to those who are in media dark areas, mobile can deliver massive numbers for any campaign. The challenge lies in getting the right idea and keeping the engagement going”.

     

    The SMARTIES™ Awards is the only global awards programme dedicated exclusively to mobile marketing.

     

    The India SMARTIES™ Awards 2014 Winners:

     

     

  • MAX2 amasses love for good movies through #isupportgoodmovies

    MAX2 amasses love for good movies through #isupportgoodmovies

    MUMBAI: MAX2, the second Hindi movie channel from the stable of India’s leading television network, Multi Screen Media (MSM) has launched its digital campaign #isupportgoodmovies. With a differentiated brand positioning of ‘Jab dekho tab naya’, the channel believes in keeping the spirit of timeless, good movies, alive. The digital campaign movement is an effort to celebrate the magic of iconic films.

     

    The objective of the channel’s digital campaign was not only to appeal to the needs of the discerning Indian audience who appreciate rich Indian cinema, but to inspire newer audiences to recognize, appreciate, and admire what went into creating them, as well. The campaign on Twitter and Facebook has garnered support from not only savvy social media influencers, but a good fan following who wanted to see iconic films brought back to life on television screens.

     

    As part of this exciting movement, tweets were exchanged to stoke the need using #BringBackGoodMovies, turning into a huge sensation on Twitter. To sustain the buzz around this campaign promotion, the conversation transitioned to #IsupportGoodMovies, which became a trending subject on Twitter.  With almost 6000 mentions between #BringBackGoodMovies and #ISupportGoodMovies, the movement gained new followers on Twitter in just a span of 6 days. A dynamic cover photo app which showcases the pictures of the good movie supporters has added momentum to this movement. It got people talking about movies like never before, ushering the need to see great cinema.

     

    Commenting on the launch of the channel’s digital campaign, Vaishali Sharma, VP Marketing, MAX2 said, “There are several people on social media platforms who love and cherish iconic films and our digital campaign brings together like minded individuals with a common love for such timeless cinema. We as a channel wanted to establish that emotional connect with our viewers and our campaign helps people to profess their love for movies in the digital space.”

  • Content creators see value in social media data

    Content creators see value in social media data

    MUMBAI: Twitter, Facebook and television go hand in hand these days. The relationship between television and social media has been growing over the years. But does it have the potential to turn into a major revenue stream?

    Discussing this was a panel at TV.Nxt 2014 comprising Viacom18 Media VP and Colors commercial and digital head Vivek Srivastava, CNN International New Delhi bureau chief Ravi Agrawal, Nielsen India MD Prashant Singh, GroupM South Asia managing partner Tushar Vyas and Star India VP and digital marketing and CRM head Venke Sharma. The session was headed by Provocateur Advisory principal Paritosh Joshi.

    Firing up the session, Joshi asked Agrawal to share some insights as to how CNN evolved and now functions with the proliferation of social media since it was one of the early entrants into it. Agrawal highlighted that in the early 2000s, CNN had created a website called ireport.com where it invited people to click pictures and post from places where a journalist couldn’t be. “That’s when we saw that regular citizens can get the story before anyone can. We saw this even in the 2008 attack on the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, when the first few images that came were from the common people which were of superb quality. That became a great tool for us to tell stories from places unreachable to us,” he said. He went on to add that the notion of TV and social media being a new marriage is actually an old one in many parts of the world.

    While the possibility of getting a return path was natural for news, how does it work for fiction makers? Sharma started off by saying that there are people for whom entertainment is defined by buzzing topics and a fear of missing out. Talking about Star Plus’ hit show Diya Aur Baati Hum, he said that although it rates high on TAM ratings, it doesn’t garner the same on social media vis-a-vis Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Du which doesn’t get the ratings but gets the buzz.

    Joshi went on to ask Vyas about the translation of social media into a source of revenue. Vyas said that social media works as a surrogate and is also an incremental data point. “We capitalise on the second screen behaviour and try and reach out to all set of audiences on various platforms. Social media is an incremental data over TV data,” he said.

    Nielsen had recently launched its Twitter TV ratings in the US for calculating data on TV shows on the social networking platform. Said Singh, “In this, we don’t count the number of tweets but rather the impressions. It is the GRP equivalent. Whether the market will decide to trade on it or to use it as another dimension against TV ratings is to be seen. But we believe that being able to measure impressions would be more and more important.”

    Talking about how the medium works in sync with the TV, Srivastava said that it is mostly important from a catch-up stand point in the media space. Facebook was to interact while not watching TV while Twitter was an accompaniment while watching TV. This was agreed upon by Sharma who said that Star had used Facebook to sharply target and get viewers to sample its latest Pro Kabaddi League.

    However, Agrawal pointed out that the capability of knowing how people react to your stories also puts the onus on journalists to be more careful and responsible.

    Joshi said that content makers are worried about the fact that the value of a viewer on TV is 100 times more than on digital. To this Vyas said that although it might be true in terms of absolute value, the audience on a platform like YouTube is higher than many other TV monetisation that is happening today. “If you look at advertising money, then digital is slowly reaching the top of the pyramid,” said Vyas.

    Star has set up its own listening hub to understand trends and draw actionable insights, highlighted Sharma. Agrawal ended the session by stating that drawing data from social media is also a danger. “It isn’t always a reflection of reality. The demographics that use social media are of a certain type and especially globally I would be slightly vary about extrapolating data from there,” he concluded.

  • ThoughtBuzz launches cross-platform to identify ‘influencers’

    ThoughtBuzz launches cross-platform to identify ‘influencers’

    MUMBAI: The digital platform has become much more than just an end medium to market a product, today. Brands are conserving with the consumers directly through the platform to build a better and stronger relationship between the two.

    However, though there are many tools in the market that offer social media management, none of them provide a dashboard where a user can view not just fan growth, engagement rates but also see content performance, influencers and do competitor benchmarking.

    Hence, keeping this insight in mind, ThoughtBuzz, the analytics arm of TO THE NEW, launched a unified social media management and analytics platform for brands and enterprises.

    The platform is aimed at helping businesses to monitor, engage and identify influencers across all major social media platforms, namely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The self-serve product compliments ThoughtBuzz’s enterprise grade OmnioG solution, which in addition also allows exhaustive external monitoring of brands and products on blogs, forums, news and review sites and completes its range of social intelligence solutions.

    Only a handful of tools provide image and video analytics, and since the new platform can analyse both, it differentiates from the rest. Key features of the new platform include influencer identification, cross platform analytics, competitor benchmarking, content performance, Instagram and Twitter analytics.

    “The new platform allows community and brand managers to understand what content works best for them. You can compare content performance across Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter simultaneously. This is a powerful feature for community managers to engage more with their audience,” said ThoughtBuzz CEO Anshul Jain.

    ThoughtBuzz COO Ashok Patro added, “As ThoughtBuzz is Asia’s only mobile first social analytics platform, we will be able to provide brands with the latest information and insights, empowering them to effectively manage their social media accounts and businesses in real-time.”

    A team of four worked on the product which promises to not invade consumers’ privacy. All the data that is crunched is public data; it doesn’t track any private data of any user on any platform. Secondly, all the analysis is concentrated on data from fan pages for Facebook specifically.

    The product can be used by simply logging on the digital agency’s website and selecting a plan – free as well as paid plans.

  • Was it your birthday on 18 August?

    Was it your birthday on 18 August?

    MUMBAI: On the occasion of its first birthday on 18 August, &pictures, India’s first interactive channel, created beautiful moments and memories for its audiences. In a bid to acknowledge the constant love and support of the viewers that has encouraged the channel in their various endeavours all year long, a special initiative was undertaken to make &pictures first birthday a memorable day for its viewers also.

     

    As the channel completed one year on August 18, &pictures in a one-of-its kind initiative, shared its happiness and love with all those who shared their birthday on 18 August – the date that the channel was launched last year. From surprises at the cake shops to surprise home deliveries, &pictures went all out to make viewers taste the sweet joy of happiness, success and celebrations!  The channel’s digital agency, The Small Big Idea, was present at cake-shops in Mumbai and they anonymously took down all details of those who came to order a cake for 18 August. When they came to collect the cake; &pictures not only gifted them their cake but also surprised them with their desired birthday gift.

     

    The channel created a wave of happiness amongst Mumbaikars who shared their birthday on 18 August by continuing to be its unique and interactive self; a promise that was undertaken by &pictures at the time of its launch and was made a reality through the entire year.  &pictures recorded the excitement at each of the birthdays and the videos were updated on the YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/andpictureschannel), Twitter (www.twitter.com/andpicturesin,#ANDturnsOne) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/andpictureschannel) page of &pictures. With this, &pictures has once again showcased its distinctive quality of engaging with its viewers in an endearing and memorable manner and marked the start of yet another remarkable year for the channel.

     

    These memories can be viewed on http://youtu.be/RmEFITGHUbg

  • AR Rahman’s gift to his fans on Independence day in collaboration with Qyuki.com

    AR Rahman’s gift to his fans on Independence day in collaboration with Qyuki.com

    MUMBAI: As an Independence Day gift to all his fans, Oscar winning music director A R Rahman has announced the launch of the official AR Rahman app. There are over 24 million AR Rahman fans across Facebook and Twitter who will now be able to follow AR Rahman through one interface. What’s more AR Rahman will be able to engage directly with his fans via the app with exclusive content and merchandise. Fans can either buy or complete challenges in the app to earn points to redeem against content and merchandize.

     

    The “A R Rahman”app has been created in collaboration with Qyuki.com, an online multi-channel network founded by A.R. Rahman, Shekhar Kapur and Samir Bangara. The app is already live on iOS and Android and has received outstanding reviews and ratings on both app stores (iTunes and Google Play) from users across the world with high traction on engagement levels. In the first day alone more than three thousand gigabytes (GB) of content were consumed via the app which was being downloaded at a rate of 300 downloads per second.

    Speaking on the launch of the app., Rahman said“This independence day I wanted to thank my fans for their support by offering them a new and convenient way to stay in touch with me and my music. I am looking forward to a more engaging experience with my friends and well-wishers. Salaams to the motherland!”

    Commenting on the launch Qyuki.com Co-founder & MD, Samir Bangara said “This app is a first in India and goes way beyond just music in terms of fan engagement. It’s an opportunity to know AR Rahman via his music, watch videos, read trivia, and win cool stuff. If you are one of the tens of millions of AR Rahman fans, this will be a hotline into his life”

    Some of the key features of the app include:

    • A consolidated social feed including Twitter and Facebook posts made directly by A R Rahman

    • Direct access to AR Rahman videos  as well as premium videos only available in the app

    • Exclusive Photos  

    • A Gamified experience through Challenges and rewards

    • Ability to buy cool AR Rahman merchandize

  • Facebook joins COAI as associate member

    Facebook joins COAI as associate member

    NEW DELHI: The leading mobile communications association in India, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), has announced the induction of Facebook India Online Services as an associate member.

     

    COAI’s associate membership comprises companies that manufacture or support the functioning, promotion, research development and evolution of mobile communications services. The induction of the Mark Zuckerberg-led company in COAI will help it in getting a bigger platform to interact with the leading mobile operators.

     

    Facebook, public policy director – India and south Asia Ankhi Das said, “Over 85 per cent of the world’s population lives in areas with existing cellular coverage, yet only about 30 per cent of the total population accesses the internet. Affordability and awareness are significant barriers to internet adoption. Facebook believes that overcoming these barriers and connecting people has immense value, from empowering people to exercise their rights to freely express themselves, promoting transparency and democratic values and allowing people to access affordable data services in areas such as health care, education and information, which they otherwise cannot afford. Access = opportunity – creating more economic, social and political opportunities for everybody.”

     

    She further added, “Joining COAI as an associate member reflects our focus on mobile technologies, access and our continued desire to work in collaboration with the industry to increase connectivity. We look forward to playing an active role as a member.”

     

    Founded in 2004, the social media giant Facebook aimed to is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Facebook has more than 1.32 billion monthly active users globally, including over 100 million monthly active users in India.

     

    COAI’s other associate members include Alcatel Lucent India, Cisco Systems India, Ericsson India, IBM India, GTL Infrastructure, Huawei Technologies, Indus Towers, Intel Corporation, Nokia Solutions and Networks, Qualcomm India  and ZTE India.

     

    Commenting on the induction COAI director general Rajan S Mathews said, “We welcome Facebook India Online Services to the COAI family. Social networking, especially Facebook, has changed the way Indians work, play, communicate, socialise and do business. We believe this will further grow to become a crucial part of and influence the socio-economic culture in the country. We feel that Facebook’s active participation in COAI activities will result in mutual value addition and bring the much needed synergy of functioning between the service providers and the content/VAS players.”

     

    Having started as an association for mobile service providers, COAI, today, has members including cellular service providers, telecom infrastructure companies, and telecom equipment manufacturers; and still expanding to include other allied and critical stakeholders of the sector.

  • Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    Is there a market for advertising on feature phones?

    MUMBAI: When HUL’s ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ campaign came back home with a Gold Lion in the mobile category from Cannes this year, it took the whole industry by surprise.

     

    The campaign rolled out by the FMCG giant was an effort to reach out to the media dark areas. ‘The Kan Khajura Station’ a 15 minute free, on-demand, entertainment channel was a service where people could give a missed call and then get entertained for free.

     

    The brand created a new media through a rudimentary mobile phone that brought people out of media darkness and connected them with the world. According to the brand, the activity was done at a cost of Rs 6 per person. This campaign was executed in Bihar and Jharkhand.

     

    This is not the first time that the country’s largest consumer good company had executed a campaign for people with feature phones in the country. It can be recalled, couple of years back the company’s detergent brand Active Wheel had also used missed call as an advertising inventory to catch the attention of consumers in UP and Bihar.

     

    Further to this, the company is now collaborating with local grocery shops and is working on making custom-made caller tune as part of a new marketing initiative. This means that when a consumer calls up the shop to place an order he/she will be informed about various promotions and offers on the various brands from the house of HUL. According to economic times, HUL has piloted this initiated in Mumbai and Delhi.

     

    If studies by International Data Corporation (IDC) are to be believed feature phones still hold over 70 per cent of the Indian mobile market. Experts in the space are optimistic that the scenario will change the game. A recent IDC report mentions that India is the fastest-growing market in Asia-Pacific, with a year-on-year smartphone shipment growth of over 186 per cent in 1Q 2014.

     

    Is there still a market for advertising on feature phones in country where smartphones are growing exponentially?

     

    Digital Quotient COO Vinish Kathuria believes there is a lot of scope of exploring this market. According to him, advertising opportunities on feature phones revolve around text and banner ads on WAP sites, IVR based outreach and SMS and missed call strategies which are being used interestingly even today by many big brands.

     

    Out these advertising options, missed call as tool looks to be promising to many other experts. In a recent development, Facebook announced that it has introduced missed call inventory to boost its advertising revenues in India that counts for the second largest user base for it.

     

    This advertising tool will allow mobile phone users to click a button that calls an advertiser, immediately hangs up and then receives a return call. The return call delivers pre-recorded audio messages about everything from sponsored cricket scores to information about shopping discounts, minimizing data charges for the user.

     

    The social networking site has partnered with ZipDial for this. In early tests of the missed call ads by L’Oreal-owned haircare product Garnier Men, the ads led to a 2.5 times year-on-year increase in online sales, according to Facebook.

     

    When asked how different is it to execute an advertising campaign on feature phone than on a smartphone, ZipDial founder and CEO Valerie R Wagoner mentions, “We don’t believe in thinking of it as advertising on feature phones but rather advertising to consumers who have feature phones.”

     

    Wagoner thinks media activations with these set of mobiles can deliver great results.  She is of the opinion that every media whether print, television, outdoor, or even digital ads should have a mobile call-to-action to make it interactive and to drive ongoing engagement with consumers in a targeted and personalised way.

     

    “While a QR Code is relevant to less than 1 per cent of mobile consumers in India, a missed call is the easiest thing that anyone could do from any phone,” adds Wagoner.

     

    She informs that ZipDial is collaborating with Unilever to work on expanding this success globally across emerging markets.

     

    Apart from this the cost is minimalistic. Running a campaign on feature phones might cost a brand anywhere between Rs 3 to 6 lakhs mentions a senior media planner.

     

    The Roadblocks

     

    Having said that, thought there is a huge opportunity in using mobile as a broadcast channel to directly reach consumers, it has to be done very carefully, especially for consumers on feature phones.

     

    “Advertising potential is significantly lower on feature phones because of two main reasons. One is the limited screen size and phone’s processing makes it harder to offer plethora of multi media advertising options. Two, availability of apps and usage of it are significantly lower. So, in-app advertising, one of the biggest mobile advertising categories, is almost non-existent,” says Kathuria.

     

    Brands should never spam users. Wagoner states, “Blasting SMS or voice calls can be extremely intrusive. However, SMS and voice Calls are a very powerful tool when you use them in combination with protecting consumer privacy. For example, standard industry response rates to generic push SMS blasts are around 0.1-0.2 per cent. However, response rates to SMS sent to ZipDial followers are between 9-56 per cent because users give permission and are in control of the content they receive.”

     

    It is extremely necessary to have personalised experience which targets the right message to the right consumer at the right time that will successfully lead to behavioural change, conversions and business impact across this segment.

     

    ”The difference is that there are thousands of companies designing for smartphones (especially companies in the West and developed markets), and there are very few innovative companies designing and building good advertising technology for emerging markets,” concludes Wagoner.

     

  • AXN looks at building familiarity of shows with viewers

    AXN looks at building familiarity of shows with viewers

    MUMBAI: Just days after announcing a multi-year television content deal with CBS Studios and AXN India, MSM English cluster head Saurabh Yagnik while speaking to indiantelevision.com says that building familiarity of exclusive shows with viewers has been a key challenge for AXN.

     

    “Viewers of the genre, many times are unaware when premiere shows are being telecast on television and therefore there is a principal need to build the familiarity of those programmes for our viewers,” Yagnik informs.

     

    To address the challenge, the channel has adopted a two point strategy. One, by investing in exclusive new shows starring well known Hollywood names; and two, by introducing a new permanent weekend slot called Not so Ordinary Weekends during which these new shows will be telecast.  “The slot is aimed primarily at younger audiences who want something different,” he adds.

     

    AXN’s new weekend lineup includes fresh shows like Extant, starring Academy Award winner Halle Berry; Penny Dreadful, starring Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton along with bond girl Eva Green and science fiction show Falling Skies produced by Steven Speilberg. “The famous names associated with these US series are already known to Indian audiences which will be of help. The biggest consumption problem arises when viewers are not familiar with the content,” opines Yagnik.

    While Extant will premiere on 8 August and will be aired every Friday at 10 pm, Penny Dreadful and Falling Skies will hit the television screens on 9 August with its telecast scheduled for every Saturday at 10 pm and 11 pm respectively. These shows have been produced by CBS Studios International. Apart from these, the channel will have access to existing series like Hawaii Five 0 and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as well as new programmes the Studio will create during the term of the deal.

     

    Sources say that such multi-year content deals are usually for a period of three to five years. For Yagnik, joining hands with CBS made sense since it could aid AXN with its deep library.

     

    To promote these shows and the slot, the channel ran a 16 day digital campaign on Twitter and Facebook, where during contests, fans were invited to post selfies that were not mundane but extraordinary. “To add to the familiarity, we seek to reach out to the youngsters online through quality interaction,” Yagnik says. At the end of the contest, winners were declared online.

     

    Promotions on-air include three creatives. While one informs viewers how the channel hopes to make their ordinary weekends extraordinary through the slot, the second and third one are promos of Extant and Penny Dreadful respectively. These three creatives are being telecast on all the channels of MSM network as well as on its digital platforms including YouTube. The channel will also air the ads on Radio One in Delhi and Mumbai. As part of the outdoor campaign, bus wraps are being used in Mumbai alone.

     

    Talking about the best performing markets for AXN, Yagnik informs that Kolkata and Delhi are some of the metros that have been performing well for the channel as well as other tier II and tier III towns. “Kerala and Uttar Pradesh are doing quite well too”, he adds.

     

    “Our market share in the category is 24 per cent to 25 per cent while our reach during a nine week average is 2.8 million every week,” he says.

     

    Media planners meanwhile feel that it is too early to comment on the fate of such fresh new line up. “The new weekend slot adds some punch to the channel. Also the shows could do well because of the names associated with it which Indians are familiar with,” opines a media planner requesting anonymity.