MUMBAI: Despite touting digital as the next big thing, brands haven’t given up on traditional modes of marketing. Digital is great for disruption but they cannot still do without the out-of-home (OOH) marketing strategy.

ZEEL’s digital venture ZEE5 has also been doing the same to promote its new flagship show Karenjit Kaur – the untold story of Sunny Leone which went live recently. Hoardings of the show are prominently visible in the top 10 markets which include metro cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. These cities are prime targets because users here have access to the bandwidth and appropriate devices to enjoy the content which is being marketed.

“Outdoor also works as a great medium for impact and driving imagery. Sunny Leone chose ZEE5 as a platform to do her biopic and reach out to her fans. Of course there’s a big statement in that. Therefore, one reason is awareness, making more and more consumers aware that Sunny Leone’s biopic is available on ZEE5 as a platform. The other of course is purely impact and imagery perspective as well,” said ZEE5 India’s new business head Manish Aggarwal.

You can channel a channel when an ad comes on linear TV, you can skip an ad on YouTube or another platform but you cannot miss a hoarding when you travel. It isn’t just ZEE5 but even Netflix, Amazon, TVF etc who don’t miss out on OOH.

Sunny Leone’s past definitely makes her a target. The Mankind brand ambassador faced a backlash from ‘sanskari’ India last year when outdoor banners featuring her condom ad in Gujarat were criticised, forcing Mankind to pull them down.

ZEE5 hasn’t yet seen any such backlash except for the normal social media’s abusive comments. Aggarwal says that the overall sentiments for the show are “extremely positive”.

Apart from OOH, ZEE5 partnered with several radio stations. Digitally, it made use of Leone’s social media assets. Zee channels are featuring show promos during prime time.

“We looked at searches for Sunny Leone on YouTube, Google and which market drives searches for us. We have triangulated our market strengths, Google trends, YouTube trends etc. Then we formulated a strategy based on where our audience resides and accordingly we reached out to them through various mediums - outdoor, digital, radio,” he said.

The series is available in four regional languages too, including Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. The premise of ZEE5’s launch was to ensure India’s languages aren’t deprived of good content. “You want to watch good content whether its drama, thriller or comedy. Zero KMS is a dark thriller, we dubbed it and saw other language people are also watching it,” Aggarwal said.