KBC 7 urges India to ‘Keep learning’

Kaun Banega Crorepati is back with its season 7 on Sony Entertainment Television. This year, the campaign’s theme is ‘Seekhna bandh toh jeetna bandh’. The campaign created by Leo Burnett comprises four TVCs, two of which are on air. The TV campaign is supported by radio, print, OOH and digital legs.

One of the films opens with Amitabh Bachchan’s voice over introducing Mrs Dhingra, who decides to become a wedding planner without learning enough about the job. The film shows humorous instances from her making a hash of her projects - an open air wedding during the monsoons, a wedding with the pandit chanting mantras over the phone, and another where an oversized groom is unable to get off his chair. The film ends with Bachchan urging the audience to keep learning, because, ‘Seekhna bandh toh jeetna bandh’.

Another film shows a young lawyer Jitendra Kumar choosing to start practicing straight after law school. Not heeding his mother’s advice to learn the trade under a lawyer results in his messing up case after case. View the film here:

Campaign India caught up with Gaurav Seth, senior VP - marketing and communications, Sony Entertainment Television, for more on season 7 and its promotions.

The brief was to create yet another path breaking campaign for KBC. Every year, we do analysis, we do research. We look at how the season fared. Some of the things which come out of research are taken as cues and insights on how to plan the upcoming year. We share some of those insights with the agency and we ask them to work on a campaign which sort of encapsulates all that is true of KBC as a brand and takes the journey forward.

What is the objective of the campaign this year?

Last year we said ‘Sirf gyan hi apko apka haq dilati hai’ (Knowledge alone can give you your right). This year we moved it forward to another very interesting proposition, which is ‘Seekhna bandh to jeetna bandh’ (When you stop learning, you stop winning). The knowledge we are speaking about now is a little different than what we spoke about last year. There we said knowledge is the great equaliser - that anything that you have learnt in life will always put you at par with everybody, as no matter what your social standing is, no matter what the language barriers are, no matter what your gender is. This year, we are saying in life, never stop learning because the day you stop learning, the day you become arrogant, the day you become overconfident, your downward curve will start.

We people can learn much from the things that happens around us. We learn from our experiences, we learn from other’s experiences, we learn from people of all kinds. So let the learning always remain. That holds true for KBC and that holds true for life as well. 

What is the size of the marketing effort? What is media mix and how long do you plan to run this campaign?

The size is massive, much like the show every year.

We are planning a 360-degree approach encompassing all media. We are going to take the basic message ‘Seekhna bandh to jeetna bandh’ - like we have done in television - and put that across media and customise each medium to that message.

It will be a seven-week campaign across television and then closer to launch there is going to be three-week radio burst. We’ll be in print for a week, and there will be an outdoor burst for two and a half weeks.

There is a BTL activity ‘Hot seat aapke shehar’. It is basically an opportunity to consumers at large to sample KBC. For all those millions of people who can’t actually make it to the ‘Hot Seat’ and play along with Mr Bachchan, we are going to take the ‘Hot Seat’ to their town. There will be proper branded van with KBC experience, which will go across town and people, will get opportunity to sit in the ‘Hot seat’ and play along. And some of those winners who play along in that van will be called to a special session of KBC in their city itself, where they will play proper game and stand to win prizes along with the host. This will go to approximately 10 cities staring from the middle of August.

In terms of advertisers we have two partners that are Cadbury and Idea, which are already on board. I am not at liberty to discuss the inventory sold so far.

There are two sides to that. The fact that it is a known format works in your favour, because you don’t really have to qualify or introduce the concept to people. It’s been revolutionary concept in Indian television. The host is larger in life and a legend of the Indian entertainment industry. So those are some of the things which go in your favour. In terms of getting them excited again, I think because it’s not a daily soap that comes on TV daily for the whole year, there is still novelty factor associated with it. It is only going to be on your TV screen for three to four months every year. And there is always excitement for the new season.

Credits:

Agency: Leo Burnett
Chief creative officer: Nitesh Tiwari
Executive creative director: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Writers: Neeraj Singh, Pranjal Choudhary, Ashish Sharma
Art directors: Tarun Kumar, Vikrant Wadkar
Account management: Anup Vishwanathan, Anupriya Shetty, Rashmi Gupte
Films dept: Kevin Affonso, Manjula Moses
Production house: Chrome Pictures
Producer: Prafull Sharma
Director: Amit Sharma