Percept to refocus Zee News

Percept Advertising's Delhi branch has bagged the Rs 5-crore Zee News account. According to the agency sources, "Around six advertising agencies were called for a pitch. In the final round, the fight was between TBWA Anthem and Percept."

Zee had never had a professional advertising agency for any of its channels, least of all the news channel. "But the need now arises from our efforts to reposition Zee News as an upscale news channel addressing the big mass of Hindi audience out there," explains a top marketing executive at Zee News.

On his part, Navroze Dhondy, chief operating officer, Percept, says, "What they (Zee News) need is an integrated marketing approach to develop the channel as an upmarket brand. So we plan to focus on developing a complete communication package for Zee News."

The appointment of Percept assumes significance when one looks at the changes that Zee News has brought about since Deepak Shourie took over as CEO. Besides changing the logo, the news backdrop and the signature tune, the channel introduced fresh newscasters and a whole new way of presenting the news.

Earlier Zee News had half-hour bulletins interspersed with news headlines scrolling down the TV screen. "Now we have changed the whole format. The news bulletins have become branded programmes in their own right. For example, while the 7 pm news is branded as the Business News, the 7.30 news is called the Regional News, the 9 pm news is called the National News and the 9.30 one is called the Primetime News," explains the Zee executive. "Our new advertising will aim to communicate all this."

An effort to catch up with the runaway popularity of Star News? Dhondy, for one, would like to differ. "All these channels have their own strengths, markets and target audiences. Any such comparison will be unfair. We are looking at a very specific set of people. And they will decide the course of our advertising strategy and not the competition." Point taken.

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