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| indiantelevision.com's Media, Advertising &
Marketing Watch |
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| Playwin sets aside Rs 200 m. for
ad blitz |
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The Indiantelevision.com
Team
(10 January 2003 7:00 pm) |
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MUMBAI: It's paying out big money. And
not just in prizes.
Playwin, the online lottery wing of Subhash Chandra's empire, has
set aside a mammoth budget of nearly Rs 200 million for promoting
the newly launched Maharashtra lottery for the first two months. Full
page advertisements in daily newspapers and an extensive outdoor presence
mark Playwin's promotions. A recurring presence on all of Zee's channels
is an added bonus for the online venture.
Playwin head Sanjay Das says the Bonus Ball scheme launched in Maharashtra
in December 2002 and Maha Lotto, that followed it last week, have
met their initial targets in terms of ticket sales. The profile of
the targeted customer has changed, says Das, as Maha Lotto requires
participants to part with Rs 100 for a ticket. While the returns promised
are equally huge, Das says the company, which earlier targeted the
younger set and the middle and lower middle classes, is now also looking
at targeting the office goers and higher end executives, luring them
with creative ads across media. "It is an FMCG product, and we have
to sell it like one," says Das.
All three of agencies employed by Playwin for the purpose - Ambience,
Saatchi & Saatchi and O&M, as well as Madison - the agency of record,
have been roped in to create the buzz required around the online lottery
to lure in more of first time customers.
Das says the company has also instituted an inhouse research team
that has been meticulously monitoring the effectiveness of the ads
across geographical locations, as well among different age and class
groups, feedback from which is being used to create the next set of
ads.
While Playwin's ambitious plans of spreading its wings across other
states may have got a setback with the Tamil Nadu government issuing
a blanket ban on the sale of all lotteries on Thursday, Das says the
company is still eyeing the markets of Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab,
among others. "We will keep launching in different states, in keeping
with the regulatory environment in those states." |
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