Ferzad Palia, EVP, Viacom18 and Head, English and Youth Entertainment shares his thoughts about Colors Infinity turning one. Bavesh Janavlekar, Business Head, Zee Yuva & Zee Talkies talks about Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited’s latest offering, Zee Yuva
‘DIFFERENTIATE AND DISRUPT IS THE MANTRA FOR COLORS INFINITY’
Colors Infinity, the English GEC from the Viacom18 stable, turned one on July 31. Here’s how Ferzad Palia, EVP, Viacom18 and Head, English and Youth Entertainment sums up the year gone by:
THE FIRST YEAR: We established the brand very quickly because of the differentiation and marketing that we did on launch. We were able to monetize extremely well and have more than 100 advertisers which in the English language category is a compelling task. Our run rates are very healthy. We have been received well by consumers and advertisers.
THE ROI: It may appear that we spent a lot more than we actually have. Everything we undertook had a great impact and the noise level was superlative. When that happens, people tend to think that we busted a lot of money on marketing but we actually didn’t. We were differentiated and innovative and that’s what stood out.
AD RATES: We are at a significant premium compared to most of our competitors because of the quality of our offering. The first year was about establishing the ad rates and we will see growth in Year Two. We have set an extremely aggressive benchmark and are also looking at broadening the base.
WHAT WORKED: We came in and woke up the entire genre from its slumber. That stood us in good stead because advertisers have seen value and said that we are doing what the consumer wants – i.e, provide content immediately. Our property, Instant Premiers, airs shows within 12 hours of the US airing. We also got ‘Essential Viewing’, where we show three episodes back-to-back. We picked up insights from consumer feedback and acted on them.
RECALL QUOTIENT: We conducted two researches post launch and both have been significantly positive in terms of awareness levels, affinity and differentiators. The property differentiation and identification with Colors Infinity is spectacular because we are the only channel running a particular property. We are in the top two channels at any given point of time for a majority of the people involved in our research. Our mantra is ‘Differentiate and Disrupt’.
‘A LOT OF VIEWERSHIP WILL COME BACK TO MARATHI VIA ZEE YUVA’
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) is launching a new channel, ZEE Yuva - Nave Parva… Yuva Sarva! in the Marathi entertainment space. Targeting the youth, the channel is scheduled to go live on August 22. Here’s what Bavesh Janavlekar, Business Head, Zee Yuva & Zee Talkies says:
WHY ZEE YUVA: In the last four to five years, Marathi viewership was moving towards the non-Marathi space. We realized that almost 50% of the viewership is below 35 and there were limited options available for this TG in the Marathi space. There have been youth-driven Marathi films, such as ‘Natsamrat’, ‘Katyar’, ‘Sairat’, ‘Balak Palak’ and ‘Timepass’ and ‘Timepass 2’, and we realized that people want to consume contemporary content relevant to them. That’s the insight behind launching Zee Yuva. I see a lot of viewership coming back to Marathi through Zee Yuva because the content is going to be different.
THE TARGET GROUP: Zee Yuva is not about age but mindset. It’s about youthfulness and living life positively. Content on youth channels in Hindi and English is exclusive to a certain TG and is not a wholesome family viewing experience.
We want to be fresh and light-hearted and provide wholesome content. My protagonists are going to be the youth and my stories are about finding love and changing perceptions around institutions. We have a music-oriented strategy; music is a key component for our TG and we have leveraged that.
ADVERTISER RESPONSE: There has been a tremendously positive response, especially from Maharashtra. A lot of brands are all about staying young. and fortunately for us, many brands share the same brand ethos as us.
MARKETING STRATEGY: Digital will be huge and we have got tremendous response digitally for all our promos - crossed two lakh views, which is a huge number in the Marathi space. We want to do exclusive content for digital, a web series, depending on the kind of response we get initially.
