MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has successfully rolled out its new tariff order (NTO) with the underlying objective of making the system more transparent and effective, giving the consumer the choice of channels as per their requirements and budgets.
For Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) CMO Prathyusha Agarwal, this tariff regime is an opportunity for the channels in its cluster to increase earnings from regions which were otherwise under-monetised.
While interacting with Indiantelevision.com about her marketing strategy to make the most of the NTO, Agarwal stated, “ZEEL has a very strong engaged set of audience. There is a loyal core where 30 per cent of the audience contributes to 80 per cent of consumption. Our channels are also high on consideration in audience’s minds. The new pricing regime is a transformational structural reform that will go a long way in strengthening the sector with the creation of a uniform pricing model across all service providers. Good channels with a strong brand love and stronger content, for which, we were getting a good advertiser pull, will now get a subscriber pull too. With the MRP regime, ZEEL can increase its earnings from regions which are otherwise under-monetised because channel price remains the same across all regions and operators.”
The network’s latest marketing campaign #WhereIsMyChannel promotes the idea of communicating to the cable operator the specific requirements of TV channels as the operator ‘may not really know you’. Agarwal mentioned that the campaign narrative was based on the insight that though the English audience is highly involved in its content choices it is not used to making purchase decisions.
She said, “The urban English consumer is discerning in their content choices. However, selecting their channel packs is a new behaviour that they are currently not used to. Typically, the more affluent households would buy subscription annually, while some are uninvolved in the purchase. Through our communication, we needed a strong trigger to nudge our consumers into action, to call the cable operator and ask for their preference.”
The campaign has been performing well on various channels. As per Agarwal, it has reached about 58 million, through the two ad films. “Within two weeks, we delivered over 25 million sharp targeted video views with strong engagement rates. In a competitive category with several brands, the campaign has delivered over 70 per cent ad cut-through,” she noted.
The Zee English cluster has a portfolio of stimulating brands like Zee Café, &flix, and &PrivéHD. The campaign is a three-month-long drill being approached in three phases. The first phase is aimed at bringing creative awareness through targeted video views; the next will be performance-driven retargeted banners, clickable links where consumers can find more information and other video assets showcasing upcoming content on ZEEL channels. The third and final phase will be to drive purchase.
The initial two videos of the #WhereIsMyChannel campaign feature two well-known faces—Anurag Kashyap and Sivamani. On being asked why the cluster chose these two to drive the message around, Agarwal replied, “To bring the thought of “Cable Operator May Not Really Know You” to life, we needed to cast experts and not just celebrities. The aim was to convey that if a well-known expert’s content choice can be misjudged by the cable operator, then it can happen to everybody.”
Apart from that, ZEEL has also fixed an interest-based targeting plan on social media based on search volume of queries. “The digital video with RJ Balaji, Mallika Dua and Varun Thakur are also a success indicator for the original films which have become a reference point for other unbranded original renditions to be created. The RJ Balaji film is shot in Tamil,” shares Agarwal.
