Ferzad Palia, Business Head, English and Youth Entertainment, Viacom18 talks about the all-new refreshed avatar of VH1. Swati Mohan, Business Head, Fox Networks Group and National Geographic India talks about the channel’s extensive global rebrand across the company’s media platforms
THE NEW VH1 WILL HAVE MORE OF ENTERTA INMENT AND THE POP CU LTURE QUOTIENT: FERZAD PALIA
Vh1 from the Viacom stable announced its all-new refreshed avatar at the Global Citizen Festival 2016 on November 19. In addition to music, the new Vh1 showcases pop culture and entertainment. Ferzad Palia, Business Head, English and Youth Entertainment, Viacom18 tells us more.
WHY THE REFRESH: The last time Vh1 underwent a major refresh was more than five years back. In our business, you need to keep changing to keep in tune with consumer habits and trends and over the last five years, we have added a lot more genres, like award shows, reality shows, music blogs, and more music. While our philosophy and tagline – ‘Get With It’ - remains, we have now increased the entertainment and pop culture quotient. This was based on research which showed that though the audience loved us for being differentiated, they wanted a lot more information on the music videos played, artistes, celebrities and even behind-the-scene action. The pop culture celebrity angle will be a big play. We are not dropping anything, we are adding a lot more.
ON CONTENT: We have a brand new prime-time line up from 8.30 pm to 10 pm, which is the entertainment, pop culture and celebrity part of the channel. We have also added local productions - “Vh1 Inside Access with Miss Malini” - a weekly show on how Indians perceive pop culture and “Vh1 India Diaries” that profiles the local scene and sub-culture in the music world. We will also unveil ‘Vh1 Sound Nation’ to push Indian artistes internationally.
ON ADVERTISER RESPONSE: We have had got a great response from advertisers overall. Our advertisers continue to stay with us and brand new advertisers keep coming into the category to reach different audiences.
MARKETING VH1: We have a very robust on-ground approach. We have never invested heavily in mainstream mass media, because this audience is really difficult to find. We have a programme which reaches across 10-12 cities and targets consumers at colleges, coffee chains, bars, salons and local hangouts. We have now doubled that and will reach 20-25 cities and have over 1,000 touch-points across the country. We will also be using Digital.
ON THE GLOBAL CITIZEN FESTIVAL TIE-UP: We will telecast the performance of the international artistes on Vh1. Being a mega event, there will be significant increase in the audience coming on to the channel and there was no better time to announce the refreshed Vh1.
THIS IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVERTISERS TO UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF NAT GEO: SWATI MOHAN
National Geographic announced an extensive global rebrand across the company’s media platforms, experiences and nonprofit organizations and embraced a global tagline – ‘Further’. The rebrand coincided with the premier of the global event series MARS, the story of mankind’s quest to inhabit Mars, produced by Academy Award winners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. It marks the entry of NGC into the ‘scripted domain’. Swati Mohan, Business Head, Fox Networks Group and National Geographic India, says, “We are an institution first and a channel later - we are a multi-platform media company aligned with a mission-driven non-profit, the National Geographic Society. The network has dropped ‘channel’ to reinforce the notion of One National Geographic and embraced a new global tagline – ‘Further’ as of midnight of November 14. ‘Further’ captures our brand ethos and also illustrates the new visual identity while celebrating the curiosity gene that we inherit from this 128-year-old institution.
The rebrand exercise consolidates all our assets under one umbrella brand. The assets include the company’s media platforms, experiences and non-profit organizations, travel business, adult and children’s magazines and books, social footprint, an array of consumer products, family entertainment centres and other ancillary activities. No other network on television has the global reach that the combination of assets NG provides – 730 million.”
ON CONTENT STRATEGY: This is an opportunity for us to unlock the brand potential in India. Nat Geo has quality content that aims at driving change. Our focus will remain on the content that is aligned with our positioning of a premium destination for unending science, exploration and adventure, around its key pillars of conservation, preservation, science and exploration. You will see more international productions with a purpose such as showcasing India’s efforts in renewable energy though ‘Years of Living Dangerously’. We are world class storytellers and the idea is to cement this position. Our content will reach a different scale and purpose altogether. Our content will play with formats and styles – from non-scripted to scripted, bring in new on-air as well as off-air talent – we will go further.
ON ADVERTISER RESPONSE: We have received an overwhelming response to our campaign from all our stakeholders. This is a great opportunity for advertisers to unlock the potential of our brand. We will ensure that we have something to offer for each segment of the audience.
