MTV meets creative agencies

Viacom18's youth entertainment channel MTV is currently in the process of meeting creative agencies. The pitch is underway in Mumbai. The process began a few days back and one round of presentations is over. About four to five agencies have made it to the second round. Both, creative as well as strategy inputs are being evaluated.

Bates India has worked on this account in the recent past. The agency was brought on board in October, 2010 following a multi-agency pitch. Earlier, most of the creative work by the channel was being handled in-house or with partners on a project basis.

Launched in the mid-1990s, MTV started out with the tagline 'Do you get it?'. In 1997, the channel went 'desi', after observing that consumers weren't able to relate to its erstwhile 'western' image. The tagline was soon changed to 'MTV Enjoy' and the channel subsequently changed its content to include short-form shows such as Bakra, Loveline and Style Check.

Around the last quarter of 2010, soon after Bates was brought on board, MTV got a makeover. That's when the 'Stay Raw' stance was rolled out. To promote this new image, a multi-media campaign across television, print, outdoor and digital was launched in key markets. London-based agency Petrol had worked on the (then new) brand logo and packaging. This change was accompanied by a few changes in the programming; the channel created four music blocks, namely, MTV BBM (Big Bang Mornings), MTV Music Xprs, MTV Mash Ups and MTV International.

Since then the channel has consistently experimented with its content and garnered a fair amount of fan-following for shows like Roadies, Splitsvilla, Rush and Coke Studio. Earlier this year, MTV was in the news for launching two new reality shows, Time Out with Imam - Ek Insaan, Kai Pehchaan and Chase the Monsoon.