Bindass ups youth engagement with promise of a ‘Dream Start’

Youth channel brand Bindass has launched ‘Dream Start’, a contest for young people, the winner of which will win a two-month internship with group arm UTV Motion Pictures. A campaign to promote the initiative is currently on. The initiative, which was launched in end-December 2013, has received 1 lakh calls and over 18,000 registrations, informs Bikram Duggal, director of marketing, Media Networks Disney UTV, in conversation with Campaign India.

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What is the objective of the initiative?

On Bindass, the whole premise that we have been working on is to become the biggest, cornerstone brand amongst youth. So with that intent in mind, we have been meeting up with consumers almost like a ritual to understand them, to know young people as well they know themselves, their motivations, aspirations and their dreams. We realised few big things about their life, which we dug deep into. We realised the fact that young people who know that they are young and bright, might also be insecure. When one is 18 or 19 years of age, there is a huge amount of insecurity. They need that layer of experience.

Because of the insecurities and lack of experience, they want those opportunities in life but they don’t know how to get it. ‘Enabler of purposive action’ - that’s our mantra, what we want to stand for as a brand. In simple terms, what that means is that we are telling the young people, ‘You have everything within yourself, so go for it’. As a brand, we are providing them with the confidence through various content pieces, brand engagement and experiences, which validates that point.
So there is lots of need, aspiration and dreams these people have, and also that advantage they are seeking in life. And that’s where ‘Dream Start’ comes in. We carefully curated a lot of these ideas which give that early advantage to young people. And with this campaign, we give a chance to win an internship at UTV Motion Pictures, the maker of Chennai Express, Barfi, Rang de Basanti. So for the young people who are going to intern here for two months across various lines of business, it’s a great start to life and a great advantage. So that is the objective - giving them this finely curated experience and opportunity.

How do you see it building equity for Bindass?

All our core thoughts, whether they are content of pieces, whether they are shows or whether they are brand experiences like Dream Start, lays on the whole brand philosophy of ‘Enabler of Purposive Action’. When you have something different in your core values then the consumers start resonating with that over a period of time.

When was this initiative launched? How long do you plan to run this?

We launched it in the last week of December. It will be till 31st January.

What is the marketing plan to promote the initiative? And how many cites will this campaign cover?

It is a huge concept of the fact that you can intern with UTV Motion Pictures that explains through an audiovisual medium, bulk of our marketing plans are on our entire network of channels, all UTV’s nine channels. Big part is also the cinema; we launched this campaign with Dhoom 3. We have lots of initiatives on Facebook and the whole process of entering is via website. To enter you need to give a missed call on a number and then the person who has called gets the URL via SMS. And when you are entering you have to write 150 words essay on why we should select you and take part in the small quiz. So whole digital initiative is on Facebook and on microsite. Then we have huge college activation program across all 26 cities. And we have tied-up with AIESEC, one of the biggest student association body. And there are outdoor campaign in Mumbai and Delhi. It will be a 360 degree campaign.

The campaign will cover 26 cities, largely the Hindi speaking market. All the key metros like UP, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, the key states of the Hindi speaking market.

Who is the TG for the campaign?

Young people between the age of 18 to 25.

Who are the agencies handling creative, media, digital and OOH?

The creative pieces the idea everything has been executed internally by the teams.

How many entries have you received so far? What is the expected / targeted number?

We have received phenomenal amount of response for this. 18,000 responses are already come in. Why I am saying great is because it’s intensive, you need to write 150 words essay and take part in the quiz. So for that 18,000 is great. Our initial target was to hit 1,00,000 but I think we are going to go beyond.

Is this a one-off campaign or will Bindass continue to build this into a property in future?

No, Dream start is going to be a series. As I told you it’s going to be the opportunity and experiences for young people. This is the first of those and we give quite a few opportunities through out the year.

What impact do engagement initiatives like these have on viewership?

The whole idea is to look at Bindass as a brand and not only as a TV channel. The objective that we are trying to meet is that young people should resonate with brand and see it holistically as something new in their lives. So over a period of time if you give these engagement people will start seeing it as a brand which is meaningful in their lives, that’s the whole objective.

Do you see the content going back on TV as part of the programming?

Yes. In the first round people will have to write 150 words essay and take quiz. In the second round we select some 500 people and they come to Mumbai and Delhi for the second round of discussion and interview. And lot of these content will go back on digital and TV.

How many people will get the chance to win the internship? And when the winner(s) will be announced?

It’s a huge value of honor so we give it to one person only. Approximately 500 candidates will be shortlisted in Phase II; this round will be held in Mumbai and Delhi post which approximately 5-10 candidates will be short listed for a personal interview with the Disney UTV panel. Winners will be announced in March and the internship will start from April end or May because it’s when the young people have holidays.