“Bhojpuri GEC category was entirely driven by movie channels. Our detailed background research and surveys in the Bhojpuri category has revealed that the audience has an appetite for more content, apart from movies the audience were looking for their culture to be represented on Television and other platforms like in other regional markets,” said Amarpreet Singh Saini, Chief Channel Officer, Bhojpuri Cluster, ZEEL while talking about the factors that led to formulating content strategies for Zee Ganga & Zee Biskope.
Speaking on Zee Ganga’s journey by far, he said, “GEC brings in an array of lifestyle, culture through original content. We explored the opportunity and ZEE Ganga was launched in September 2021 with 4 original fictions and added Memsaab No. 1. We are witnessing slow but growing likeability factors that tear the original content. It takes a lot of time to create a viewing habit, but once the habit is created then you get addicted to it. If you look at the Bihar and Jharkhand are Hindi-driven markets that’s because of the lack of content in the Bhojpuri GEC market. The movie channels are largely male-skewed. The female audience is the main consumers of Television whereas men have designated genres like sports, news etc. Bhojpuri doesn’t have these options, what Zee Ganga is trying to do is to break this habit and drive the audience towards the Bhojpuri entertainment TV space.”
Filled with high-octane drama, the upcoming shows 10th season – a category first, the latest edition will go beyond the song and dance format of earlier seasons. This exciting hunt for ‘Sarv Gunn SampannBabuni’, spanning 13 weeks, will see contestants be tested over three stages filled with terrific tasks. This true test of their all-around development will see their skills – such as the presence of mind and decision-making capabilities be put to the test.
“Additionally, these 16 contestants will also be made to perform tasks in a family environment as one keeps a watchful eye over their nature to adjust, obey and care. Lastly, the third and final stage – Social Responsibility, will see them be evaluated for their awareness of what is happening around them. And amongst all this it will unveil the behind the scene relationships, power dynamics, changing fierce equations amongst the contestants and their resultant impact on the task dynamics. Thus, for the first time, a non-scripted reality will be showcased to the Bhojpuri audience like never before. Hosted by Chintu Pandey,” Amarpreet added.
Speaking about the journey of Zee Biskope, he said, “Zee Biskope had a fabulous run, when we launched the channel, our entire thought process was we didn’t want to do what the other players in the Bhojpuri category were doing. The Bhojpuri movie category was done in a very commodified way, there was no curated or professional approach followed for serving a channel, which should be built upon a deep study of viewership. Our objective was to provide the audience with content that is beyond what they have already seen. Zee Biskope was launched with a lot of firsts in the category, dedicated movie bands to the dedicated movie viewing audiences, a movie channel with a full-fledged launch campaign, and more”.
On Channels’ promotional activities
“We had been doing engagement activities for the audience, from the content aspect we started movie festivals which the competitors have picked up and started following our paths. We created other novel bands like dubbed Hollywood movie festivals, Biskope talkies where old movies which evoke nostalgia are telecast. We are number one in the category with a huge margin and during every engagement activity, the participation of the audience keeps growing. We are planning to launch event verticals and planning to bring original content on Zee Biskope as well,” said Amarpreet while speaking about promotional activities for Zee Biskope.
Elaborating on the marketing activities for both the brands, he said, “The marketing activities geared for the brand are primarily driven to fulfill an emotional need, something which is in the space of family, specifically catering to women sustainability. We are all set to launch a tongue-in-cheek campaign, it will be focused on the entire scene where a Bhojpuri family wants to come together and wants to watch clean and safe content for the entire family. There is a degree of discomfort that arises when it comes to Bhojpuri movie content, ZEE Ganga is focused on offering ‘Saaf Suthra Manoranjan’ shows and making the viewers connected to the culture.”
Talking about the marketing vision for the brands Amarpreet said, “The vision is to build a sensibility and perception among the viewers and Biskope will be the forerunners of novelty. We will also be front runners in giving wings to the aspirations because the channel is a more youthful space and the entire marketing vision is to further that angle.”
On core propositions offered to advertisers
Currently, the major chunk of ads is driven by national brands who are seeking to hyper-localize their products/brands. FMCG sector topping the list of advertisers’ categories. Health and EduTech categories have witnessed an upswing post covid.
The channel carries forward the core proposition of novelty even when we are providing solutions to our esteemed partners. In Zee Ganga, the presence of the brand will not happen in form of just the name being there, the ad campaigns are planned in such a way that the brand name becomes an integral part of the audience perspective. We stress the relevance of the brand rather than providing mere awareness.
Speaking on the role played by ZEEL’s Bhojpuri cluster to command more ad rates from the advertisers in the Bhojpuri market, Amarpreet said, “Bhojpuri may be seen as a subset of Hindi and the content is in a nascent stage when compared to other regional categories. Our strategies are very simple, we will be volume and category providers. We have two brands; hence bouquet is larger together, ZEEL commands the leading share in The Bhojpuri market.”
He continued, “If you look at the entire viewership bouquet- we have the lion share of viewership in the Bhojpuri market. It has an impact on what we can command in the market. We guarantee an appointment viewing through Zee Ganga and volume viewing and high reach through Zee Biskope. Both the needs of the advertisers are met through the bouquet, which is what helps us in taking the leadership position in ad rates as well.”
