"Prime-time for business channels is 8 am to 4 pm" - Smeeta Neogi

ET NOW has recently released a new campaign built on the thought, 'Always thinking markets'. We spoke to Smeeta Neogi, vice president - marketing, ET NOW, to find out how this campaign syncs with the channel's positioning strategy henceforth.

What triggered the thought of launching this campaign?
Over the last one and a half years, the channel has increasingly focussed on news reports related to the stock market in order to give the viewer the right trading call. Around 80% of our news content revolves around the stock market and we simply wanted to communicate that we are the leaders when it comes to reporting on stock markets on any business news channel. Stock market reportage is reflected in our channel's ethos and a culmination of this factor lead to the campaign which has been meticulously made into an integrated campaign as part of our marketing strategy.

Could you elaborate on the unique facets of this integrated campaign?
The campaign, 'Always thinking markets' has been used in a set of activities during the news bulletins at various time slots. It is being used as a bug link alongside major stock market related news; as a promotional sign off; it has also been made into a jingle that one gets to hear when someone calls the operator at ET NOW and the line is held up. In addition to that, we are using it to spread the message across brokerage firms and in on-ground activation.

Stock market coverage is active during the first half and gets lesser coverage in prime-time slots. How are you advertisers responding to this phenomena?
For business news channels, prime-time is between 8:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. There are two types of viewers for a business news channel, the intra-day traders and the short term investors who are hooked onto stock market updates during the day and the business watchers and long-term investors who watch business news channels preferably after 5:00 p.m. Depending on the product category, the media planner selects slots for his advertiser. It is, more or less, evenly spaced out throughout the day.   

Should we expect the next few campaigns in line with the same thought or is it a one-off creative?
We will continue with the 'Always thinking markets' thought (for some time) as the central idea of our marketing strategies because it reflects the channel's ethos. But the environment is dynamic and one cannot be certain about sustaining an idea without refreshing it at all. 

WATCH the TVCs from the campaign here

Credits:

Client: ET NOW
Agency: Lowe Lintas
National creative director: Arun Iyer
Copywriter: Rajesh Doraiswamy
Art director: Ameya Kovale
Account management team: Shantanu Sapre, Sujay Rachh, Dimpy Mordani, Shweta Iyer
Production house: Jamic films
Director: Nikhil Rao
Director of photography(Independent): K. U. Mohanan
Media agency: Madison Communications