Mumbai: Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, today announced that it has won integrated media agency of record duties for ZEE5 India, the fastest-growing over-the-top (OTT) platform in the country.
The key media mandate includes the subscription video on demand (SVOD) business, covering both the digital brand and performance mandates, as well as offline media and search engine optimisation duties for ZEE5 India. Led out of Essence’s Mumbai office, the ZEE5 business will be supported by the agency’s practice leads across business planning, strategy, analytics, experience, integrated media planning, media activation and advertising operations.
ZEE5 offers 12 navigational and featured languages across original features, live TV, catch-up TV, lifestyle shows, children’s programmes, exclusive short series and acclaimed plays. It offers an exhaustive array of content, with 80+ live TV channels and 125,000+ hours of viewing across the languages of English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Punjabi. ZEE5 also offers groundbreaking features like 11 navigational languages, a content download option, seamless video playback and voice search.
“Within a year of inception, ZEE5 is today on a rapid growth spree and has become the fastest-growing OTT platform in the country. In our endeavour to become the No. 1 OTT player in the market, we are partnering with the best across the industry to tap into their rich and varied experience and scale,” said Manish Aggarwal, Business Head, ZEE5 India. “The decision to partner with Essence was because they demonstrated their data and analytics-driven approach to planning, backed by proprietary tools that would help ZEE5 in achieving its business objectives.”
“As India’s fastest-growing OTT platform, ZEE5 is showing the way on how to build engaged audiences with its rich library of original content in multiple Indian languages,” said Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, India at Essence. “For Essence, this is a perfect opportunity to bring in our tools and technology, and deploy our bespoke integrated planning approach that is supported by strong measurement capabilities. We look forward to creating value for ZEE5 and supporting its growth momentum.”
This win marks another important milestone for Essence, as the agency continues its rapid growth in India and across the APAC region. ZEE5 will be the latest addition to Essence’s portfolio of clients in India, which include Airtel, Britannia, Flipkart, Google, Honda motorcycles and scooters, and UpGrad. It further demonstrates the success of Essence’s approach to working with clients who want to drive transformational change in marketing and support the agency’s mission to make advertising more valuable to the world.
