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The channel is eyeing a big show every quarter, and following Popkorn, the magazine show, which was launched on January 18, Zoom is looking at a reality show by March-end
Glamour and lifestyle channel Zoom has dollops of spicy news, views, gameshows, chat shows and film-based entertainment driving its programming at the moment.
Come March-April and the channel will add a new genre, reality shows, to its bouquet of offerings. The channel has plans to launch a reality show, though Apurva Purohit, COO, Times Television, is not spelling out details at the moment.
This initiative is part of the channel’s strategy of launching one big show every quarter. It launched Popkorn – a magazine show that tracks developments in the world of cinema and television – in the 8.00 pm slot on January 18. The show runs from Monday to Friday, and is the channel’s first mega offering since its launch in September 2004. As Purohit says, “It is a driver that pushes our proposition, which is news about the world of glamour and lifestyle.”
Developments in the world of television, however, take up the lion’s share of Popkorn’s programming time, and to get viewers to sample the show, especially in the metros, the channel has come up with interesting teaser ads floating in print and outdoor. Lines such as ‘If Ash and Salman get back together…’, ‘If Shahrukh and Gauri sign a film together…’ or ‘If Ansh gets reborn in Kyunki Saas…’ beckon viewers to watch the show.
The channel, incidentally, kicked off a multi-media campaign spanning print, TV, outdoor and on-ground for Popkorn during its launch. Of this, the on-ground activity attracted the maximum attention where the channel distributed popcorn at various media agencies in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
Besides, popcorn was distributed at busy intersections, subways, stations and happening joints in Mumbai to communicate the message. To reinforce the message, a “buzz campaign” – which had two people talking in loud overtones at crowded places in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Pune – was unleashed soon after the initial launch burst. “All of this was aimed at creating a ground swell for the show,” says Purohit.
Promoting its properties has been critical for Zoom right from its pre-launch days when an innovative teaser campaign centred at the logo (replete with the popping eyeballs) was first launched, followed by a sustained advertising campaign talking about the channel, its shows and anchors. Now, the tactic is focus on programme-specific blitz, which is aimed at building connect through on-air and off-air activities.
Interactivity is something that the channel is playing up heavily through contests, quizzes, promos and so on. “We are encouraging people to SMS us using the code 8888,” says Purohit. All of this is tied in with the channel’s objective of increasing stickiness.
Reach of the channel has been steadily growing over the last few weeks in the crucial TG of 15+, AB, Hindi-speaking markets, the audience that the channel focuses on. In the top three metros in the Hindi-speaking belt – Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, the reach of Zoom for the week ending January 22, 2005 was 17.93 lakh viewers. For the entire Hindi-speaking market, the reach of Zoom for the same period and the same target audience was 33.15 lakh viewers (Source: TAM Media Research).
Its popular shows include Dangerous and Page 3 that play in the 11.00 pm and 7.30 pm slots from Monday to Friday. Dangerous, for the record, is a talk show on sex where anchors Kamal Sidhu and Sameer Kochchar answer phone-ins from viewers apart from giving tidbits of information, trivia etc on the subject.
The format is loosely based on MTV’s Loveline – a show that talked about relationships, love etc, with erstwhile MTV veejay Malaika Arora and Cyrus Broacha fielding queries from viewers. Page 3, on the other hand, is a show that gives all the entertainment news for the day, talking about the happening parties in town, what the city’s social circuit is up to etc.
© 2005 agencyfaqs!