&TV, the three-year-old brand which popularly associated with its characters like Bhabhi ji from Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hain and Akhilesh From MeriHanikarakBiwi, is now refreshing itself with a fresh lineup of fiction and non-fiction shows that it is launching on the back of a big campaign, Hai KhassHarAndaaz. The campaign talks about the multifaceted lives led by the new Indian… the &Indian. They’ve coined the word &Indian to explain the various roles a person plays in his or her life — be an Explorer, Music lover, Foodie, Biker, CEO, Adventure-seeker, Homemaker, Entrepreneur, Fitness aficionado, Artist – the new Indian is all this and more.
The campaign is set to kick off with the launch of a new singing reality show for kids, Love Me India, on 22nd September at 9 PM. And the show will be live. It will be judged by Punjabi singer Guru Randhawa, Bollywood singer and music composer HimeshReshammiya and singer Neha Bhasin.
MakrandDespande will play Betal in the classic television adaptation of VikramAur Betal, which is set to launch soon on &TV. The channel promises it will be a visual treat for the audiences.
&TV refresh campaign Hai KhassHarAndaaz
On the timing of the campaign, Prathyusha Agarwal, CMO, ZEEL, told me, “Hai KhassHarAndaaz is the leap forward of &TV. In the three-year successful journey that we have had, this is possibly the right time to leap to the next level. We already keep playing between number 4 and number 5 in some key markets, and we are already on an upsurge on brand power. Therefore, it is the right time to give the brand the bump.”
“It’s all about the &Indians, the people who are multi-faceted. We are talking to this &Indian audience who have this exploratory mindset of being Indian as well as Global, of being a doting daddy as well as the CEO. Like I am the obedient Bahu at home, but they (referring to her colleagues at ZEEL) will call me anything but obedient at work”, she said, and burst out laughing. “There’s always these mini &s the emerging India has, and we are continuing to cater to them.”
Marketing of the campaign
Obviously heavily backed by the mighty ZEE network, we can expect to see the campaign across various mediums, mostly network-owned. “The marketing mix for us has been driven by idea forward. The multiple-city idea which says, ‘main eknahi main more hoon’, is the central theme that we are taking, ” Agarwal said, adding, “And that is what we are amplifying across. Obviously we are going big on TV. It’s a campaign that is going to be 45 days and going on with Love Me India, then going into VikramaurBetal.”
Agarwal said & is going long-tail on print. “We want the people to feel the & world. Being a three-year-old brand, you want the on-ground surge happening. We are taking Love Me India into community viewing with big screens organized with live voting.”
Agarwal said, “Digital is where everyone is present. Twitter bios are very insightful, they talk about the multiple facets such as avid reader, photographer and traveler. And that is one source From where we have come up with these multi-faceted terms which describe the &s of our campaign.”
ZEE5 Integration
“For our singing reality show, Love Me India, a lot of engagement is planned on ZEE5. There will be live voting on the platform.” said Agarwal. “This helps the platform to a great extent as audiences would actually discover the original content and catch-up content available on ZEE5.”
Vishnu Shankar, Head, &TV, said, “We gave the consumer the power to choose the first 48 participants via ZEE5 for Love Me India. We shot some 80 contestants, out of which consumers selected 48 participants.”
Basically the audition round selection happened on the app, Shankar told me. “We are taking engagement to another level, rather than the conventional way of putting the participants on stage and then asking the audience to vote.”
It will be very interesting to see how the campaign and the new line-up of shows pan out for &TV. Their biggest pillar of support – apart From the quality of content, of course – will be the undoubted strength, reach and connect of the ZEEL network. We saw how it gave the recently launched Zee Bollywood a great opening. So one is enthused on the kind of showing&, with ZEEL’s solid Marketing for hopefully sticky content, is likely to put up. While a good opening couldn’t be doubted, for stickiness, the content will have to stand up and deliver.
We’ll wait and watch.
