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Go
for the jugular. That’s a tactic used in the animal kingdom
when a hunter is close to a prey it has been stalking for
some time. That’s a tactic used in the corporate jungle
when one rival finds itself with its back to the wall.
Two days back, Zee Telefilms pounced on rival Star India
through an advertising campaign, which is running in the
pink press - in an extremely aggressive play. The ad campaign
targeted at advertisers and media planners is making a pitch
for Zee TV’s shows Jeena Issi Ka Naam Hai
(JIKNH) and Khelo Number Khelo. It builds a case
for the two shows as big ticket items which the media fraternity
should should ride, forgetting about the KBCs and
the "Saas Bahu" sagas.
And this despite the fact that Khelo and Jeena
have continued to have swinging ratings (both have flitted
in and out of the top 100 rated shows in the last five weeks).
Zee TV says in the ads that saas bahu soaps cannot sustain
viewer interest for long now. Quoting in house statistics,
it claims that approximately 7.6 million C & S households
that own a Playwin Super Lotto ticket are a captive audience
for Khelo, its game show produced by Miditech, that
announces the online results midway through the show. With
jackpots of over Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) and Rs 8.61
(Rs 86.1 million) crore being won in the last one month,
the channel claims interest in the lottery as well as in
the show has shot up.
Jeena…too, the ads claim, commands a 45 per cent
viewership (the episode featuring Laloo Prasad Yadav), with
rival channels commanding corresponding figures of 27, 21
and eight per cent. Friday night viewing, claims the network
is not for digesting celluloid domestic squabbles but for
celeb talk that tugs at heartstrings.
It is still unclear whether advertisers will bite the bait,
though. Media planners, while admitting that Playwin has
caught the fancy of the populace, are reluctant to say whether
the success will translate into better ratings for the show.
Initiative Media vice president Partha Ghosh says that viewers
need not necessarily log on to a show, as the results would
be available offline later. "You cannot necessarily convert
the success of a product in the marketplace into a successful
show", he opines. Whereas if you miss an episode of a soap
like Kyunkii, you miss a vital link in the series,
you do not miss much if you skip an episode of Khelo
or Jeena, he adds. The ads, a product of Zee's creative
agency Rediffusion DY & R, hit out straight at "saas
bahu" serials that have cornered a vital share of viewers'
imagination. Hinting that the ratings do not reflect the
true picture, the ads say “advertisers are still led to
believe that people would much rather watch a creaky sob
story than find out if they have won the kind of money that
will have them laughing all the way to the bank.”
StarCom's Pradipto Nandy disagrees. "The campaign (to wean
away advertisers from soaps to game shows) will not work
as a long term strategy," he says. Besides, he points out,
viewers need not stick to the channel for the entire duration
of the show if they are merely interested in following the
results of the online lottery, he points out.
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