Pogo marks time the GEC way

Kids channel Pogo has revamped its ad sales strategy. It has adopted the GEC (general entertainment channel) way of selling ad slots. Among the GECs, the ad rates vary as per the television rating of the programmes; advertisers on Pogo had to pay a uniform price for all its shows.

But now, Pogo has divided its shows into three categories, according to popularity and time slots: Pogo Premium, Tiny TV and Pogo Classics.

Pogo Premium includes all the top-rated shows of the channel, while Tiny TV has programmes for pre-school kids. All the other programmes fall under the Pogo Classics category.

For instance, if an advertiser was paying Rs X for its shows, it will have to pay a higher price for Pogo Premium and a lower rate for Pogo Classics.

Monica Tata, vice president, all-India advertising sales, Turner International India, says, “We have implemented this new strategy from March 1 for the optimisation of the inventory.”

Tata adds, “Now, with this categorisation, the advertisers can actually choose the segment in which they want to advertise.”

She continues, “The ad size in the entire kids’ genre has increased from Rs 100 crore to Rs 160 crore in 2004-05 as compared to the previous fiscal year. Of this, 25 per cent was contributed by Pogo and Cartoon Network. This is a success story in itself. We want to take this success further.”

According to Tata, the retail advertising initiative on Pogo has also contributed to the increase in revenue. She says, “We added about 50 clients last year, who had never advertised on a national television channel. They basically belonged to the category of non-advertisers or small advertisers.” The small advertisers, according to Tata, include brands like EuroKids and Lilliput.

Turner International India now plans to introduce the same strategy across its other channels within this year.

© 2006 agencyfaqs!