Sony YAY! focuses on activations and merchandising to drive brand awareness

For Kids TV channels, on ground activations are often a way to connect with their audiences outside the screen and also to bring their characters alive. On-ground activations over the past few years have really picked up in the category and the channels are now focusing on monetising them.

Sujoy Bardhan, Head- marketing, on air promotions & licensing- Sony YAY! says that such efforts have a direct interaction with the viewership that follows.

“Our real purpose of doing on ground activations is to  build a particular relationship or the connection with our consumer over a longer period of time and also to bring the character alive outside TV. It is a very subtle but also important thing to establish.”

He says these are the only touch-points where even the parents of the child are actively involved with the brand compared to the watch time at home where the parents may be passive viewers.

Recently, the channel held the biggest on-ground activations through the months of April, May, and June- ‘Party HQ’ and ‘The Giant Wheel Festival’. Both the activations were on-ground and saw a huge amount of footfalls of parents and kids along with several influencers.

Asked if the activations are also a significant source of revenue for the channel he says it is a focus area for them. Other than activations the channel is also focusing on merchandising for kids, says Bardhan.

“It is an area of focus for sure because every character that we currently have on the channel, whether it is an acquired show or a homegrown animation, we have the licensing rights for it. That tells you that we are definitely focused on the L&M business. Which is why we've started doing so much ground work for it. We are not only investing on characters but we also want these characters to become eco-systems within themselves.”

“Sustainability comes from monetisation. The unique thing about the category(kid’s channels) is that your characters can be on anything or any product that is meant for kids or is consumed by them. Unless we are not doing that, we are not doing justice to the category,” he says.

Speaking on the content side of things, he says the viewership is back to pre-covid level which is loyalty-based with a higher time spent. “Our focus is to create marquee shows and characters that not only establish where the channel is today but also opens our avenues into various touch points like gaming,” he adds.