Bates snaps up KBC from Rediff

Bates, Mumbai, has joined the roster of STAR TV agencies. This Thursday it was hired by STAR TV to work on "a special brand-building project" for STAR Plus' much hyped game show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC).

Till December 2000, Mumbai-based Rediffusion was working on the Rs 5-6 crore advertising account for KBC. While the rest of STAR TV's advertising is split between Ogilvy & Mather and HTA, the channel is planning to consolidate the media-buying for all brands and channels with one agency in the near future.

Confirming the development, Yash Khanna, the official spokesperson of STAR, said, "Bates will be working with us on a new KBC project for a particular time-frame and the remuneration would be purely fee-based. For the first six-seven months, the account was serviced by Rediffusion."

The STAR executive said that the channel brass has decided to hire agencies to service the KBC account on a project-by-project basis. "The launch project was entrusted with Rediff. For the brand-building phase, we have taken on Bates. The account will be up for review only when we come up with another project," said Khanna.

Khanna added, "We needed some fresh ideas on the programme and had called Rediffusion, Bates and Chlorophyll to make presentations. It was on Thursday that we decided to entrust Bates with the project." Atulit Saxena, vice-president, Bates India's Delhi office, indicated, "For the current project, Bates made its presentation in mid-January."

Incidentally, both Bates and Rediffusion were part of the initial pitch for the gameshow's account which was held about six months ago. Although the major advertising for KBC has been on-air promos running on STAR Plus and the group channels, hoardings and a press launch campaign were also part of the media activity.

When asked if the move to employ the services of Bates was prompted by KBC's flagging viewership, or a reaction to Sony's Chappar Phad Ke (CPK), Khanna said, "STAR sees no problem with the show in its current format." He pointed out that while in its first week CPK topped the TRP charts, by the second day itself it was relegated to the number 12 position. "The response in the first week is understandable; it was the novelty factor at work. If you looked at the charts now, you will see that out of the Top 10, nine are on STAR, and out of the Top 50, 30 are again on STAR. So where is the problem?"

While Khanna refused to talk about the investment that will go into this "new project", or the exact nature of the project, he said "you'll see the results before February 15."

© 2001 agencyfaqs!