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Dwelling on the promotion blitz planned for this year's event,
Star India senior vice-president, marketing and publicity, Ajay
Vidyasagar said, "We started the on-air activity/promotion
almost a month in advance of the final event on 19 June."
The on-air promotions include various activities like
the concept promos, promos for the three nomination specials and
each family canvassing for their nominees (their family members)
and updates on the voting status. In the run-up, there are also
campaigns like the magic moments special.
Touted as the most heavily promoted on-air event,
Vidyasagar claims that promotions for the Parivaar awards are far
higher than some of the bigger brand campaigns on the channel in
the recent past!
What's more, Star is not just relying on on-air promos, but has
lined up ground activities too, as part of the marketing blitz.
These would include encouraging people to go out and actually vote
for their favourite star. For this, Star Plus has installed fixed
polling booths across Mumbai and it would also be renting a few
mobile floats with a huge ballot box to encourage people to cast
their votes via sms on 7827.
Additonally, a multi-media campaign across television, print, radio
and outdoors has been planned with contests and direct marketing
thrown in for some extra zing during the next phase from 5 to 19
June. A typical contest is Star's SMS service 7827- viewers' choice
contest where a set of lucky respondents will get to witness the
mega event in Mumbai.
Although Vidyasagar remained tight-lipped about the expenditure
being incurred on promotional and marketing activities, he admitted
it was bigger than last year.
Apart from one title sponsor, Dabur Anmol shampoo, the channel
has roped in eight associate sponsors spanning different categories
from conventional FMCG products to computer hardware.
The associate sponsors are Electrolux, Intel, Promise Gel Toothpaste,
Heinz Glucon D, Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Goa Tourism, Godrej Renew
Hair colour and Fairever.
"The programme sponsorship has been a complete sellout with
the inventory sold two months in advance. We have a few spot buys
left, which are fetching a good premium," Vidyasagar exulted.
According to him, the programming line-up and the scale of the
awards would be creating enough hype for a month and a half for
the advertisers.
On the television event front, the channel has started off with
a nostalgia piece, showcasing last year's show, followed by two
episodes, of 30 minutes each, which act as a curtain raiser. Then
there is a 30-minute "jodi" special, 90 minutes of the
magic moments and a post-award event too.
The televisied Star Parivaar awards show last year delivered 99.35
normalised GRPs (30 min) as opposed to Star Screen Awards' 64.91.
Armed with a bigger promotional budget this year, apart from a family
theme, can the channel do an encore?
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