Every Thursday broadcasters face the litmus test, when TAM releases its TV ratings for the previous week. The anxiousness which the broadcasters experience is no less than that of the school kid praying to simply pass in the examination.
Well, one such ‘kid’ is reaping the fruits of its constant push and attempt at engaging with its kiddie audience. The mainstay of the kids’ cluster from Viacom – Nick – has followed a very simple but effective strategy to slowly claw its way past competition to the top of the food chain in the past two weeks.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com Viacom18 EVP and business head – kids cluster, Nina Elavia Jaipuria reveals: “A strategic summer and leveraging local franchises propelled our position to no. 1. I believe that the continuous growth of our two home grown IPs, namely Motu Patlu and Pakdam Pakdai, has really contributed to the boost in our standings.”
The kids genre generally faces a drop in ratings during the end July and early August period, mainly due to the reason that most kids are getting back into the groove of schools and other activities. But, the channel has continuously kept its numbers in check following a very simple strategy of keeping its audience engaged.
Jaipuria exults: “Motu Patlu’s’ contribution has grown threefold to 32 per cent in 2014. Similarly, ‘Pakdam Pakdai’s’ viewership has jumped to 12 per cent in 2014 from 6 per cent last year.”
According to TAM data provided by the channel, Nick was at number 3 for two consecutive weeks (27 and 28) in C&S 4-14 ABC All India market, with 200 and 210 TVTs respectively. Cartoon Network was (228 and 225 TVTs) and Disney Channel at (227 and 224 TVTs) were the top two players respectively.
Nick finally turned the tables in week 29 and 30 with 201 and 211 TVTs respectively. Though, there is only a marginal difference in TVTs between the top three players in any given week for this genre.
“The kids’ segment is much more competitive as compared to the GEC space, with the gap between the top 3-4 channels being very marginal. So it won’t be a surprise if Cartoon Network or Disney triumphs in the coming weeks, but yes Nick has been doing some great things and deserves the pole position as of now,” says a media observer.
The channel in the recent past has targeted popular touch points frequented by kids, and carried out numerous mall activations and meet and greet with Motu Patlu in leading malls of Mumbai and Delhi. Apart from this, it has also begun a robust ‘Back to School’ campaign recently, targeting nearly 600 schools across 19 cities in the next 6-8 weeks. This new campaign will get its three musketeers: Motu Patlu, Pakdam Pakdai and Ninja Hattori out of television to welcome the school kids with a bang!
Speaking about the campaigns, Jaipuria expounds: “The Nickelodeon franchise believes in the touch, play and feel mantra and keeping this at the core of all that we do, we have taken the adorable Nickelodeon and Sonic characters out of the television sets and brought them into the real, day to day environment of the kids. With this large experiential campaign we are sure to bring more laughter and fun to school time.”
Nickelodeon will host fun activities inculcating values around friendship and team-building, characteristics that are synonymous with the Nicktoons. The channel takes the campaign on-air by inviting kids to watch the channel from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, answer simple questions and win exciting Nick goodies. The channel is also airing fresh episodes of the three light hearted comedy shows to entertain kids when they get back home from school.
“With the channel really growing in its reach and time spent, apart from being number one for the past two weeks, we have even hiked our ad rates by 15-20 per cent and receiving good traction from the advertising community as well,” she adds.
It certainly reflects with the ‘Nickelodeon Class Mein Blast’ campaign being co-presented by Ranbaxy Chericof with associate sponsors Hajmola Chuzkara, Dabur Red Toothpaste and Act II and ‘Sonic Be the Ranger’ campaign having Dabur Red Toothpaste and Act II on board as associate sponsors.
Having three local franchises has meant that the channel is content agnostic and is not dependent on any one show or franchise for its viewership numbers. Jaipuria also believes that the prospects are bright for the local franchises in the area of licensing and digital marketing. “We are offering content to kids with depth and width of characters. By having three key local franchises besides quality international content, we have ensured that the channel is not dependent on any one property for viewership,” she states.
According to the Ormax Small Wonders study on kids, ‘Motu’ is the third most liked character among kids in the 6-14 age groups. In its last round, ‘Motu’ was 18 on the list. This goes on to show the growth that the character has seen in the last six months. Currently eight of the top 20 characters are from the shows running on Nickelodeon.
“Getting to the top is easier than staying there, but we are investing in our franchises, we are also engaging with our audience in the right manner and looking at avenues to better monetise to keep growing not only as a channel but also create a fertile ground for the genre to grow,” ends Jaipuria.
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