‘We’ve had to recalibrate the way we look at LC1 markets’

The sixth season of dance reality show Jhalak Dikhla Jaa started airing on Hindi entertainment channel Colors on 1 June 2013. Campaign India caught up with Rajesh Iyer, marketing head, on plans to promote season six of the reality show.

What the marketing plans around Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa this year?

We designed a 360-degree marketing campaign around Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa this year. We have blocked nearly 2,000 spots on the home channel. This also spreads across the network and cross channel promotions, where we have included 40 channels in our media plan and we have bought over 5,000 spots across genres.

On radio, we planned a 10-day campaign. We invested in buying over 1,500 radio spots across the Hindi speaking markets (HSM). For the show’s print campaign, we are giving ads across 100-plus cities. In the OOH space, we have again planned a 10-day activity and targeted over 500 sites in the HSM.

We will also be showing Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa promos during the screening of the movie ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’. We have targeted over 900 screens in approximately 40 cities. Also, for cable TV, we have planned a10-day activity in 130 cities and have bought over 1,000 spots.

Under the digital and mobile plan we have created dedicated microsite, Web chat and dance tutorials wherein we have tied up with Madhuri Dixit’s online dance academy. We will soon create a mobile application for the show.

Who are the advertisers on board? How much inventory is already sold? By what percentage you have increased your spot rates for Jhalak compared to last year?

The advertisers that are on board this season are Cadbury Bournvita which is our presenting sponsor along with Vaseline as the ‘Powered by’ sponsor. Other advertisers include Ultratech, Dove, Sony Experia, Ever Ready battery, Amul Macho and Metro Tyres. In terms of spots, the channel has already sold more than 60 per cent of its inventory.

Jhalak is already a known format. What are challenges in terms of building the curiosity or growing the audience interest around it?

Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa is indeed a popular format and the challenge for us is to offer viewers something different every season that engages and excites them. We have a different line up of celebrities every season from all walks of life which adds a new flavour to the show. For instance, last year we got a sports celebrity Sanath Jayasuriya, comedian Bharti Singh and so on. This year we are bringing in a wide range of particpants, from actors like Aarti Chhabria to singer Shaan. In addition to this, we continuously try and innovative the dance rounds and content. The endeavour is also to bring in freshness in the form of different challenges and elements in every episode, also help us get new viewers on board and engage the existing ones. We are also using unconventional props, graphics and animation and taking the performances outside the studios to real locations this season, which will be our key differentiator this year.

What are the other big shows lined up this year?

We have many big properties lined up starting with Jhalak Dikhla Jaa. This includes India’s Got Talent, Bigg Boss, Comedy Nights with Kapil and a few fiction shows in the pipeline.

Are there any emerging trends in terms of how channels promote big ticket shows?

Reach, frequency and impact form the base of our planning process. At the very end of the spectrum, we have LC1 (less than 10 lakh population) markets which have opened up, making it imperative for us to recalibrate the way we look at them. On the other end, digital has become an important play for big bang properties. It allows us to reach out a completely different set of audiences. Customisation is the key. We have to evaluate what will work best for a particular show.