ZEE Biskope completes one year, the brand looks back at the journey and the overall content strategy which shaped the channel and made it a leader in the market.
Zee Biskope, from ZEEL was launched with a promise to be the go-to destination for every Bhojpuri movie lover. It has left no stone unturned towards providing non-stop entertainment. Within a year the channel has been a game-changer in differentiation by continually curating viewer experience beyond just movies. The channel with its unique content strategy has established itself across all verticals – Overall, Prime Time, Region-wise, World Television Premiere and so on.
Amarpreet Singh Saini – Business Head, ZEE Biskope & BIG Ganga, ZEEL and Jit Sengupta, Lead, Brand Management, ZEE Biskope, talk about the channels curated content, initiatives in programming and much more.
2020 saw unprecedented challenges, how did ZEE Biskope weather this challenge?
Amar: ZEE Biskope is created on the core concept of curation and differentiation in a commoditized market. During pandemic the movie viewership saw good upswing and non prime time also registered a huge surge in family viewership. ZEE Biskope brought customised festivals like Family Day, Fathers Day, ChunmuniyaSawan etc. to celebrate topical days with curated line up of movies which are family inclusive, each festival registered 30% and above jump in viewership. The brand also facilitated engagement and participation through various online engagement drives, given people being home bound, around innovation on unique days like Camera Day, Emoji Day, Dance Day etc. These received huge response both in terms of participation as well as in viewership increment of more than 10% on an average. Constant push in curation and innovation helped us tide over the challenges of our times.
This lockdown saw a surge in TV viewership, major on the News Channels, what has been the overall viewership on the channel?
Amar: During lockdown movies and news genre saw increased viewership due to lack of original content across media platforms. ZEE Biskope maintained its dominant position in the market on the back of customized initiatives to cater to the entire family unit seeking inclusive and novel content. Innovations like topical family oriented film festivals, extended weekend premieres, shoot-from-home celebrity-led shows and repurposed content to tap movie affinity ensured the brand maintained its leadership position.
Strategy to bring in viewership?
Amar: ZEE Biskope since its inception has focussed on being curated and differentiated. It has created a unique identity and bond with the viewers now. We would be further strengthening it by bringing newly defined curated premiere line up and unexplored genres in Bhojpuri movies respectively. The brand will further novelty with new original shows built around movie affinity and deepen engagement with both offline and online novel consumer connect initiatives.
A lot of initiatives have gone in curating days like Emoji Lahariya, Litti Chokha Diwas, Talent Camera Action. Bringing international days and customizing it for the local viewers offering them novelty, what was this strategy based on?
Amar: Zee Biskope has built engagement as conscious pillars to enable viewers have an active participation in the brand offerings and explore their movie affinity beyond viewership. Bhojpuri movies fandom is huge and haven’t even be scratched at surface level yet. Our intention is to provide avenues to the Bhojpuri movie lovers to express explore and celebrate this movie love through our initiatives.
Jit Sengupta: Viewer engagement has always been a conscious pillar of the brand. We started with the biggest ever Bhojpuri movie screening in Bihar where we had gate crashing moments. Due to the pandemic, we had to resort to digital connect initiatives that was complimented with a TV telecast. In June – the first month of unlock, we had launched Talent Camera Action on the occasion of Camera Day. Viewers were invited to share a 1 min performance video in singing, dancing, acting or any other special talent categories. The bests were featured on ZEE Biskope TV & social platforms. The campaign not only received huge response but was even appreciated with 2 awards at BuzzInContent Awards 2020: Silver in Best Regional Content & Bronze in Media & Entertainment categories.
Emoji Lahariya was launched on Emoji Day in July with a new Instagram filter. Viewers were invited to apply the Emoji Lahariya filter and imitate the emojis that appear on the screen and share the video on our Whatsapp number. Although this campaign had many layers in call-to-action, the response was huge elevating our Instagram reach and follower base. The campaign fetched a Bronze at BuzzInContent Awards 2020 in Best Tech Innovation in Content Marketing Category.
KamariyaKare Hip Hop was launched on 19 Sep Dance Day with a rap version of our brand song composed by 5 Tricks – a rap group from Bihar. Viewers shared their dance videos with the brand song and the best were featured on our TV & social platforms. Camera day, emoji day, dance day are western concepts that are not celebrated in the region. However, we curated and customized them for our audience thereby delivering novelty to them.
How has the marketing strategy been worked out for the channel?
Jit Sengupta: ZEE Biskope has been careful and selective towards creating a unique marketing mix which taps into the right audience toward the right hook aimed at them. It is a three-pronged combination of TV, Digital and Radio primarily. Traditional media still hold strong in the region. While TV happens to be the primary driver, we have been consistently using radio in our marketing mix as it caters to the mass audience. Print also had its share; however, it had limitations during the pandemic. Emerging medium including social & digital audio like pay tunes have been and will continue to be a significant media to reach out to our audience especially the youth of the region.
Within a year of launch you are the leader in the market, how has this been achieved in such a short span of time?
Amar: ZEE Biskope is borne out of consumer centricity. Through detailed study of the market and the consumer within, we identified a clear gap for a curated movie channel that takes movie affinity to another level. The brand was consciously built on offering curation, innovation and differentiation. Thus we introduced movie bands curated as per the need states during various dayparts/ seasons/ topical periods, we brought marketing initiatives like brand campaign with 3 biggest stars of Bhojiwood together for the first time/ first time biggest screening of Bhojpuri blockbuster movie in Patna/ first time Bhojpuri digital mascots as brand extensions/ first time a channel with a brand song and then we supported all this with continuous endeavour towards viewers participation and connect with the channel. The entire consumer-centric package has led to its stupendous success.
As an undisputed leader how have the advertisers response been, National as well as hyper-local?
Amar: ZEE Biskope has got heartening response from the advertisers right from its beginning. From esteemed brands coming on board as partners on our launch campaign to collaborating on our various content as well as marketing initiatives the brand has enjoyed great patronage. True to its core philosophy we have been curating marketing initiatives as well for our esteemed partners.
Jit Sengupta: Nestle came on-board for multiple initiatives including Emoji Lahariya, Litti Chokha Diwas and the World Television Premieres. We have catered very focussed in-content brand integration in our vertical movie line-up on the day we telecasted the winners of Emoji Lahariya. Comedy scenes were integrated with emojis and packaged as Nestle Munch Emoji Moment of the Day. While for Adani’s Fortune KachiGhani Mustard Oil, we have delivered content integration as Pause & Play and digital integrations as memes & recipe videos where Fortune Mustard Oil & Atta were used as an ingredient.
Now that GEC is back in action how are you curating fresh content now?
Amar: ZEE Biskope is well entrenched with the viewers in a very short span of time. Be its fresh and innovative offering the viewership has only strengthened. We are bringing in new curated lineup of television premieres, original weekday show built around movie fandom, special events line up, new movie band based on unexplored genre in Bhojpuri movie category and re-purposed content which in totality is taking the entertainment quotient many notches higher than before.
Way forward in 2021 in terms of content, innovative campaigns?
Amar: We will continue to deepen our approach of being curated and differentiated. ZEE Biskope will be bringing forth hitherto unexplored genres in Bhojpuri movie category as a further differentiator, curated original shows around movie love as extended offering, fresh line up of premieres based around new viewership sensibility post pandemic and novel engagement initiatives for viewers to further come closer to their beloved brand. We will continue to surprise, excite and engage our beloved Bhojpuri audience.
