Colors packs a Bigg punch

The most controversial show of the small screen is coming back to spice up the entertainment quotient of Indian television content. Colors is all set to launch the seventh season of the most expensive reality property, 'Bigg Boss', to be hosted by actor Salman Khan for the fourth time in a row.

The channel has got Vodafone as the presenting sponsor and L'Oreal as the associate sponsor for the fifth consecutive year. OLX has also come on board as one of the associate sponsors.

Viacom18's Colors has gone all out to promote the show and plans to spend Rs 8-10 crore to promote the show across platforms. It is running television promos for 'Bigg Boss Saath 7'on its network channels and is expected to launch promos on other network channels as well. While another 5000 spots will run on Viacom18's network channels, the show will occupy more than 5000 spots on about 40 channels outside Viacom18's bouquet.

In order to build high frequency, the show is being promoted across major radio stations for 10 days. Colors has even tied up with Radio Mirchi to do a marketing innovation. On September 13, the radio station will celebrate the 'Aao' and 'Wow' day. The entire station will be taken over by the Bigg Boss theme.

On the OOH front, the channel has planned more than 350 sites across 10-12 cities in the Hindi Speaking Markets of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Bigg Boss 7 will also be promoted across LC1 markets. On the day of launch of the show, more than 100 ads will be carried in about 40 publications across about 40 target cities, reveals Colors' marketing head, Rajesh Iyer.

"Bigg Boss is an established product. Our objective this year is to gain traction and some amount of emotional connect through our marketing campaign. So, it's not heavy on innovations but the right kind of promos, right kind of media weights to get more audiences to watch the show."

On digital, the channel has been promoting the show on its official home page. It has released cartoon characters on heaven and hell theme based on contextual topics like 'decreasing value of Rupee', and 'potholes in Mumbai'. The channel will also launch a micro-site on Bigg Boss' launch day (September 15), which will have live feeds and three highlights of the day before the show goes on-air at 9 pm every day.

The show, an Indian adaption of Big Brother, fetched a viewership of 6400 TVTs in the opening episode of Season 6 in 2012. It had averaged 3800 TVTs in the last season, with the Finale episode touching 7800 TVTs in 2012.

Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, says, "Bigg Boss is a cult show. The strong brand equity of Bigg Boss has made it the most-awaited show on television providing immense value to our marketers and advertisers. Overall, the channel has been performing strongly and we are No. 1 in terms of weekend programming with Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa and Comedy Nights with Kapil. With Bigg Boss, we hope to raise the bar even further."

On Vodafone's association with Bigg Boss, Vivek Mathur, chief commercial officer, Vodafone India, says, "Bigg Boss is a show that is really wide in appeal and if you see Vodafone, we have a large set of consumers, straddling in different income classes, different social strata. This show has tremendous appeal and cuts across the segments of users that we have."

Manisha Sharma, weekend programming head, Colors, adds, "This season, we will bring the pleasure of heaven and the torture of hell to the contestants throughout their stay in the Bigg Boss house. It marks the fourth season in a row that Salman Khan is hosting Bigg Boss for us. He will take on two avatars - that of an angel and a devil - who will not hesitate to reward or punish the inmates of the house basis their behaviour; thereby bringing Jannat and Jahannum one step closer to them."

Deepak Dhar, MD, Endemol India (the production house for the show) is confident of the offering and believes that Bigg Boss has captured the attention of the Indian audiences over the past six seasons with unpredictable, unadulterated, unscripted entertainment. "Bigg Boss Season Saath 7, too, will have numerous surprises, with the audiences revelling in the dual realities of heaven and hell in the confines of the Bigg Boss House."

For the record, Bigg Boss is a combination of reality and unscripted drama. The format requires the participants to be locked inside a house for more than 90 days (104 days for Bigg Boss Season 7). Every week, one participant is eliminated by a round of voting. Meanwhile, Bigg Boss, the ultimate authority in the house, assigns various tasks to the contestants, resulting in drama, fun, back-biting and fights that are captured by 70 cameras fitted inside the house. Bigg Boss Season 7 will have 14 contestants.