By SYNJINI NANDI
Time and again, it has been observed that television channels which provide intelligent content relevant to youth get their share of the revenue pie. With the youth getting defined very clearly now, the broadcast space is presenting ‘youth GECs’ with an opportunity to put out youth-focused, segmented and specialty entertainment to connect and engage with the youth of today.
The year 2012 saw Bindass with a new brand proposition titled ‘Restless’ which focused on adding meaning to the attitude that Bindass already had as a brand through empowering the target audience and encouraging them to do more than what they are presently doing. The brand firmly believes in the fact that a concept is not created in the boardroom, but through extensive research based on which the shows are developed and produced.
According to Nikhil Gandhi, Executive Director, Youth Network, Disney UTV Media networks, several cult shows such as ‘Big Switch’, ‘Emotional Atyachaar’, etc., have redefined the thoughts and preferences of youth of today and the respective multiple seasons would be back with impactful, hi- octane programming this year. In addition to engaging the audiences through these shows, which form a core part of the brand DNA, Bindass builds on the repertoire of short format shows for the youth such as ‘Wardobe 99’, ‘Quirky People’, ‘What on Earth’ and ‘Angry Appa’ across multiple youth-friendly themes.
With an all-time high GRP of 49 in 2013, the channel will be undertaking unique initiatives in addition to its multiple programming strategies which would in turn define the way forward for the channel per se now. Apart from an integrated content strategy, the brand would be focusing on a three-part strategy to further connect with the youth on different levels.
On-ground event association Since the target viewers today are no longer limited to the television space, the channel would be undertaking a significant number of activities on different media platforms as well to resonate with the TG. The first part of the brand strategy constitutes brand activations and integrations with music and youth-related events such as the Enrique concert, the NH7 weekends, etc., as was observed last year. “Creating a strong on-ground presence through youth festivals, music festivals, UN Youth Congress, etc., has given a whole new dimension to the brand and has become popular with the TG,” added Gandhi.
Unique content for web The second part is the augmentation of the web piece for Bindass. The channel has established a brand new content play on the web in the form of interesting snippets which are not about replicating what is on air but creating content exclusively for the web such as ‘Chickipedia’, ‘How to survive’, ‘Bad news breaker’, etc. According to Gandhi, there are over two million fans on Facebook talking about Bindass and its properties. The ‘Emotional Atyachaar’ promo on YouTube had more than 20,000 hits in less than a week, with conversations happening not just in India but across the globe. The channel is hence looking at taking forward the web piece as a separate business on its own in the near future.
Event division The third part of the strategy is a brand new event division which has commenced in the last four months. Apart from the brand associations and tie-up, the brand is creating its own IP as a part of this year’s plan. The channel is also embarking on a significant activation through ‘Bindass buddies’ in colleges across 10 cities in over 100 colleges between January to March 2013.
Marketing strategy
Commenting on the marketing campaigns for the shows, Gandhi said, “We keep changing our marketing initiatives in accordance with the show that we are aiming to promote. There are certain shows which we know will catch the fancy of viewers on a particular platform. For example, for the latest season of ‘Emotional Atyachaar’, a promo was launched on the web. Thereafter, it was aired on television which became a rage.” For the show ‘Big switch’, the channel has undertaken a hoarding campaign to create awareness. Thereafter, innovative media such as radio, bus advertising, etc., were used to create a buzz around the show. The channel will undertake an OOH campaign for ‘Emotional Atyachaar’ but in a unique manner. January-end saw different brand associations through Print, online, Radio - one of the largest campaigns undertaken by the channel.
The year ahead
Elaborating on future plans for the brand, Gandhi stated, “A lot is happening at Bindass. We launched ‘Video wars’, which was quite interesting in terms of format and also gave an opportunity to empower the participants and provide them with a suitable platform. We are looking at different projects such as ‘Date trap’. There will be ground events, music events, pan-India activation through Buddies as well.” On air, Bindass will be undertaking three to four shows per quarter. On the mobile platform the channel has developed an application which is embedded on the Nokia phone. The channel is looking at the present quarter as a formidable base for them to build on for the year ahead.
Feedback: synjini.nandi@exchange4media.com
