MUMBAI: The concluding session of the first day of the 2002 Broadcast India Symposium dealt with 'promos and packaging: Defining the brand and identity of television channels'. The presentation was made by Discreet's Chetan Shah. He handles the broadcast and streaming business of the company.

Some tips Shah offered for building loyalty were that the channel should remove monotony through creative packaging. Right now there are too many soaps going on in Hindi general entertainment channels and viewer fatigue can set in as is the case with SET India's Kutumb and Kkusum. Broadcasters also need to dynamically respond to market trends. They can also breathe new life into current programming like re-runs. For instance for old episodes of the landmark game show KBC Star Plus introduced SMS. Explosive promos with lots of variety are important to hook viewers. He gave the example of promos used before the soccer World Cup by Ten Sports.

In addition to promos, the channels id and logo defines its brand identity. The senior management team decides on the kind of design needed. For a new channel the process begins from day one. The creative team makes the design storyboards which have to be approved by the research and marketing team. The next level are the ad templates. 15 graphic elements are involved. They include filters, bumpers, montages, opening title sequence. This helps viewers remember the channel. Similar templates are used for advertising in the print media, hoardings or even online. Once this is done it goes back to the research and marketing team. Every 16-18 months the look and feel of the channel is changed. Usually this work is outsourced by the channels. Before that every three to four months the existing elements are packaged in a refreshing manner. In house higher end systems are used for this, Shah said.

He showed a promo the company had done for WBZ4 News. To put across the message the people waking up should tune into the channel for updates the promo starts with a snapshot of the sun rising. Another promo starts with showing corporate honchos in suits leaving the train station for work. That is the viewer the channel is targeting.

Shah also said that a trend which has become popular is for a channel to create basic design elements. These appear everywhere from the id to promos. After Tamil language channel Vijay TV relaunched under the Star banner the logo was identical to a logo for a Star Chinese channel in terms of the colours used and shape of the rectangle, he pointed out.