At Nick we do everything with our heart with the child at the centre, as a wholesome entertainment channel beyond all the fabulous content that we continue to put out: Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Viacom18
The need for new characters and immersive stories is at an all-time high and India’s leading kids’ entertainment franchise Nickelodeon, continues to address this need by entertaining kids with endearing characters through new formats and relatable storytelling. Leading the local IP content game with innovation in its DNA, Nickelodeon is all set to launch its 11th homegrown animated IP ‘Chikoo aur Bunty’, the only show in the category that is based entirely on the sweet-sour and inseparable relationship between siblings.
Nina Elavia Jaipuria, Head of Hindi Mass Entertainment and KidsTV Network, Viacom18 in an exclusive chat with Medianews4U speaks on the growth of the channel, 100% usage of Ad FCT, Marketing initiatives and much more…..
Nickelodeon as number one channel in this genre, what do you attribute this to?
It’s been a decade that I have been working with this genre and it has been a very well thought through content and business strategy from two perspectives; to begin with, as content creators we have ensured that we know our audience. This is the most dynamic target audience one can work with. They always keep you on your toes because they are entering and exiting the age group, their likes and dislikes change, they are always evolving. It is only because we know our target audience so well and the fact that we have built a strong presence over the years, we are able to curate the character and build a very strong relationship and bond with the child.
If the child falls in love with the show, the character, and our brand, they return for more and more. We have been able to sell some very immersive stories very differently over the years. These are stories that are innovative from new genres and have never been told before. We have built a strategy wherein we expand the width and depth of our library all of this while keeping in mind the quality of production and the look and feel. ChikooaurBunty is also a visual treat for kids and although this is our 11th IP, we have maintained our focus on the story and the character just like we have for any of our previous ones. We have been a consistent player and have proved it time and again. I had said this last year too during the launch of BhootBandhus that the channel will do wonders and we did bring advertisers back. Each IP launched is a runaway hit. We are leveraging our growth and are hence in a position to demand the premium that we deserve. It is because we are leading with 2 channels that we have been able to maximize our returns, and grow profitably. More importantly we are also able to invest back in great quantity and quality of content and this is what I mean by saying we have a well thought through business and content strategy that works for Nickelodeon.
In this pandemic, kids were at home, lot of kids went through a lot of issues. What has been the channel and what has been the positive attitude that channel has given to these kids, that they felt so happy watching Nickelodeon?
We are very happy that as a responsible brand and partner we were able to do justice despite everything that was happening around. We continued to deliver new stories, episodes, movies and two IP’s. We also ensured that we engaged with all our channels, and pivoted and innovated to introduce many properties over a period of time to make sure we keep kids engaged. We have kept kids so involved that at times they forget the reality and hardships around them. One of our very successful innovations was the Nick Toons hotline – Dial a nicktoon, a simple number where kids can actually dial and they can actually talk to our team. It’s been over a few months that we launched and we have received over a million calls already. We also ran a campaign – Yoga Se Hi Hoga on Yoga Day where we had small yoga special happening around the 7 days. These are very positive vibes that we sent across to the viewer’s not just to entertain them, but to keep them engaged responsibly and look after them. We have also done digital school contact programs that have were never done before. Even the Kids Choice Awards was done in a way like never before. We pivoted to digital with on ground event and it yet went on to 11 platforms and we got 1.5 million votes, the highest we have ever received. We did a lot of things we thought we could never do, so the pandemic turned out to be a very innovative period. Given the need that kids had for smart devices, we’ve even given away smart devices to them, so they can actually study from home. In a way, everything we tried to do was to keep them engaged. At a time during the pandemic when Ludo became a big thing, we re-versioned Ludo with Google. We have now realized its carom and we are going ahead with this. We do everything with our heart with the child at the center as a wholesome entertainment channel beyond all the fabulous content that we continue to put out.We do everything with our heart with the child at the center as a wholesome entertainment channel beyond all the fabulous content that we continue to put out.
Today a lot of parents are also involved in watching animation, along with the kids, what are your thoughts on this?
Nick has always enjoyed co-viewership. One of the reasons is of course that television is a primary screen and India is mostly a single TV household. The television was watched as a family together even during the pandemic and this is why we see a whole lot of co-viewing happening along with children who are anyways quite troubled at home, deprived, lost. At one stage we realized that was so much of Work from Home happening that parents too joined in the bandwagon to watch along with their kids not just because they were at home but because they wanted to be in the comfort of their kids. And if their kids love Rudra, parents wanted to know more about Rudra as well. It gave them another opportunity to engage with their child. It actually worked both ways for us. Also, some of the content is also a mode of escape for even for adult minds where once can just enjoy the content.
Today kids are spending more and more screen time on their gadgets. What is your view on this and how can one monitor what they are watching and what they are not? It is also a concern now and is this kind of screen time really good for a child? As a channel how are you trying to address this?
We are all living in an unprecedented day and age and we have never been through such a situation even as adults. We were deprived of simple things that we took for granted. The fact that we go to office or home and that we see our friends every day had been taken away. I don’t think that parents have to monitor what their kids do at all time; having said this, there is always a right time for it. I don’t think this is the time to monitor kids when they have no access to meet their friends. The only way for many kids to meet their friends is by going online. I truly believe that parenting is always required in terms of restricting children for many things, and not just screen time. As a broadcaster we are aware of this and then we had a vision to ensure that kids don’t need to come to TV at a particular time to come to see Rudra or their favourite character. If they had a 30 minute window and want to meet their favourite character, then we are there for it. We have kinds tuning into VOOT Kids for just 30 minutes to catch Rudra; this is an opportunity we have given them and this is the strategy of we have followed. We want to be available on a screen or a device where kids want to watch me, wherever they want to watch me and whatever they want to watch. They are no longer restricted to TV’s FPC. We are available to them on Voot Kids, on our YouTube channel. As content creators and storyteller’s we have always been screen and pipe agnostic.
Is branding and product placement much easier with kid’s channel?
Our content is very nonlinear where each story is independent of each other. So product placement on a channel like ours can be challenging given how we curate and write our stories. We can write a whole episode about a category like juice and integrate it well to make it interesting. It is easy in one way. It becomes difficult as it is animation as we need to plan in advance as we need to have a storyboard animated with a product. This is how we are placed when it comes to product placements.
100% utilization of Ads FCT, how was this achieved?
We saw good recovery from August, September, and we know that we are in a genre which is very seasonal and it gets really busy for us in the festive quarter. As soon as we saw the momentum and the recovery we said, we should catch hold of this momentum, continue with this momentum and we decided to launch new episodes of our existing IPs and decided to take the plunge and launch ChickooaurBunty because it also has its own unique story. Advertisers have success and we have proven it repeatedly. We have two of our channels in pole position and they are very happy to partner with us. I remember Lego partnered with us at the time of BhootBandhus. We have 3 sponsors this time with Philips, Pediasure and FlipkartShopsy. We are in a happy space to be where sponsors and advertisers are coming to us, because they see value in what we are delivering and of course in the festive period, we also maximize our returns, because there is always demand and supply, when there is more demand and less supply, you tend to get the premium you deserve. But we also enjoy partnership with brands that have been with us for a long time, whether it’s been Britannia, Parle or Dabu. We have a 10 year old relationship with Yellow Diamond rings. We have seen brands like Alpenliebe go beyond the FCT where they integrate fantastically with Rudra which is clutter breaking and it delivers more value than a simple ad slot. We leverage the affinity that kids have with our characters and lend that back to our advertiser. It’s a great solution to have and give and added to that we are also very holistic in nature. We have our social media community, our Voot Kids platforms and of course television.
What would be your marketing initiative for this IP? Any ATL activity is planned during this festive season.
It is all digital now. We don’t really distinguish between ATL and BTL anymore. We have all pivoted our strategy to engage with our viewers. We aren’t creating awareness because at 50 million, we are the largest reach driver. We are of course promoting the show on the movies, music, general entertainment and regional channels particularly in Tamil Nadu. We are going with cable and DTH players. Even digital has become ATL for me given the reach it gives me. We are a part of the IPL playoff matches as well as the finale on Hotstar so that’s a big one. While there is all this happening, there is a whole pivot in terms of engagement that we have planned which is also going to create a lot of buzz, awareness and curiosity for these characters. You will see a dance Bunty dance game; you will see a cricket game with Chickoo who is a cricketer and a lot more. There is a whole lot of engagement outside of just television that kids will surely enjoy. In the pandemic, we have seen a lot of Zomato and Swiggy and we thought we could partner with brands, and that’s how we landed in a partnership with a Smokin’ Joes, Belgian Waffle and The New York Burrito Company.
How much of competition do you see from Korean shows? Kids are glued on Korean shows?
90% of our franchise is driven by local content apart from Nick Jr. We have a couple of Japanese shows which have a lot of affinity and viewership, and we are not taking away from that. The fact is that we are able to create relatable concepts and characters and I think I don’t see so much of threat of from international content anymore. Because imagine, you have a show in India which is on sibling rivalry where you’re doing this kheechatani at home, and suddenly there is a Chickoo and a Bunty, with their pet dog Barfi, it’s such a relatable concept and a show and therefore I’m not sure kids would even want to go to Korean or any other international shows. When I started at Nick 15 years ago it was totally the reverse. Nickelodeon was driven 85% by international and very little local content. The tables have totally turned today, and I don’t see any reason why kids will move away from what we are giving today, thanks to the affinity, the quality, the newness and the animation output. I really don’t see it as competition, of course it can become part of what is being delivered to children, but it’ll never take over. Today 90% of Nickelodeon is local and even if the international content does come, it will come at around 5% to 10% and nothing beyond.
