Media360 India: 'It's all about loving your viewer'

Pratyusha Agarwal, CMO, ZEEL’s keynote address at the event was all about ‘loving your viewer’. She began her talk by stating that ‘viewer love and viewer obsession’ is the answer to all the problems a media house can face.  

 

She explained, “In this world of options, what's possibly at the core of making the brand connect (whatever the media), is brand love. Defining your brand purpose and what role you play in the life of your consumer/viewer is super critical. It doesn't matter which media you're using to reach out to them, it's about the role that you play in their lives.”

 

She added that while there are functional benefits with each product and service, there has to be clarity in pushing out the emotional connect. 

 

“I'm not talking about benefits like are you taking dandruff off or not. Or am I giving you the best ice cream flavour - but what's that emotional role you're taking care of is the key. We are like a service brand, so the stories that we tell, and the communication we put out are important. Our characters are the protagonists, playing nano influencer roles,” said Agarwal. 

 

She went on to give examples of what Zee TV has done to spread the love with their consumers. The channel built a website called www.mysonikudi.com around its show Kaleerein, which was like an e-commerce site for brides. 

 

The CMO of ZEEL explained the concept:

 

“Consumers believe that those characters (on television) are the real influencers. They look at them and figure how they're navigating their lives, relations and emotions." 

 

Weddings are the biggest worry for the middle class. And the show was about the wedding grooming schools in Punjab. We put up a website which was like an e-commerce site for brides. "Within 24 hours of the site going live, we saw nano influencers to big influencers getting involved. It started conversations, where the brand made the point that it was wrong. It was shown as a site parading brides. We used digital technology to make the point,” she said. 

 

The next example she showcased was about how the brand used a character from one of its shows as its face. 

 

The channel used Zara Siddiqui for a video around 'Triple Talaq'. The video was spoke about the importance of consent of women for a divorce. 

 

Explaining the video, she said, "We didn’t brand it Zee TV. It was about the emotion that a person goes through. Zara has a YouTube channel and people follow her. She puts out her POVs on that. It's about taking the brands out of 'here's what I sell to you', and use them as brand ambassadors to have deep, meaningful dialogue. It doesn't matter what media you're coming from and putting it out on."

 

She then spoke about the process behind how the group used a hose pipe of data before the launch of Zee Bollywood. 

 

She explained, “We have data on the last 20 years and what shows have done well. We looked at all that data, and wanted to launch a new channel. We had inputs like South-dubbed movies are doing well and afternoons are a big slot etc... Data gave us a consumption trend, but what gave us a deeper understanding was that, while the world is getting too real, people are looking for entertainment and the old world Bollywood. We found there's a huge gap of the masala films. So, we looked to connect with them in their language with Zee Bollywood.”

 

She ended with a piece of advice for all marketers, "You have to connect to the multiple tribes in this country. You also have to be aware of that one consumer can be part of multiple tribes. You can't take the same ad and translate it into seven languages. It's not going to connect with the consumer. They won't see the love coming through."