Sign up for afaqs! Newsletters
Dadagiri 3: All guns and no roses
To market the show, and most importantly, to drive youngsters to the audition venues in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow, UTV employed a mix of on-ground activities and outdoor
Come May and Bindass will roll out the third season of its reality show, Dadagiri. Christened as D3 Commando Force: Dadagiri Against Terrorism, the show will put 16 young civilians through the trials of a lifetime, involving the use of real weapons, tactics and discipline of military units. Contestants will be trained by real-life ex-commandos during their stay at a state-of-the-art training centre; and will engage in jungle survival training, water landings, bootcamp drills, and fitness and weapon training.
To market the show, and most importantly, to drive youngsters to the audition venues in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow, UTV employed a mix of on-ground activities and outdoor.
As part of the mall activation, a war zone was created to test the mental and physical fitness of the participants. The promoters were dressed as military commandos. After a warm-up session of 10 push-ups in the first stage, the participants went through tougher tasks, including tyre hurdle, Burma bridge, rope bridge climbing and crawl under. Those who accomplished all the tasks successfully were awarded goodies from Bindass.
After seeking permission from the owners, close to 10,000 Dadagiri 3 tags were hung on the handles of motorbikes parked outside various colleges in Delhi and Mumbai. The creative carried the name of the show and details of the audition in each city, along with a map to help locate the venue easily. At the same time, Dadagiri 3 branded notebooks and audition pamphlets were distributed to students outside the colleges. Also, banners were put up outside 30 colleges in Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow. More than 370 hoardings were also taken up at strategic locations in the three cities.
Around 60 per cent of the show's marketing budget has been spent on BTL and outdoor.
Woodland, the main sponsor of the show, will soon launch a merchandise range on the 'commando' theme in 55 stores across the country. The participants will be dressed in these clothes throughout the shoot of the show.
The marketing activities started on March 21 and ran till the first week of April. While around 6,500 people participated in the auditions, the channel claims to have reached more than 50,000 people with on-ground activities.