MUMBAI: As the Priyanka Chopra-hosted Fear Factor – Khataron Ke Khiladi x3 is coming to an end, Colors is gearing up to launch its eagerly awaited reality show Bigg Boss - now in its fourth season.
The show, which will be hosted by Bollywood actor Salman Khan, will hit the television screens starting 3 October and will air Sunday to Saturday at 9 pm.
The channel has already roped in Vodafone as title sponsor for the second consecutive year, and eight associate sponsors for the fourth season. These include L’Oreal Garnier Men Deodorant, General Motors, Suzuki motorcycles Suzuki sling shot, Bharti Axa Life Insurance, LG Infinia TV, Sony Cybershot, Spice Mobiles and Dixcy Scott Innerwear.
To promote the show, the Viacom18 channel has chalked out a two-week marketing campaign to create high impact and scale across major media platform. The channel is following a 360-degree marketing approach to promote the show, across television, print, radio and outdoor to create and sustain the buzz this season.
“We have shot eight different promos of the show and one music video featuring Salman Khan. The theme of the whole campaign is weaved around Khan. The whole idea of the campaign is to fuel the curiosity and create buzz till the show goes on air and also sustain post launch interest,” Colors director- marketing Rajesh Iyer said.
On television, Colors has taken over 10,000 spots across genres like kids, movies, music and regional news, while on radio the channel has tied up with Big FM and other key FM stations. The channel will also run a contest, thereby involving the consumer directly with the show.
The channel also plans to run the promotional music video during the screening of Priyanka Chopra- Ranbir Kapoor starrer Anjaana Anjaani across 100 cinema halls in India.
The outdoor campaign includes two-week activity to cover over 40 cities across India. This includes New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Gwalior, Jaipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat.
The channel will also do on-ground activations in select 15 cities. In Mumbai, they have tied up with BEST buses and mall activation in all Big Bazaar outlets.
For print, the channel has bought advertising space in almost all the leading publications across India to reach 100+ cities in key Tam markets on the launch day.
Meanwhile, on the advertisers’ response, Colors national sales head Simran Hoon said, “Bigg Boss is getting bigger with every season. This season has created unprecedented buzz amongst our advertising partners. Once again, Vodafone returns as our presenting sponsor along with other partners like LG, General Motors and L’Oreal that were associated with the show last year.”
Hoon claims that the ad inventory is almost chockablock and that the channel has maintained premium rates. Eighty per cent of the inventory, Hoon said, is taken by the sponsors, while remaining 20 per cent is for spot buys, which also is full. She, however, refused to disclose the revenue the channel would make from the mega show.
Hoon said that this season also the channel will continue with its innovative in-programme product placement. “We will continue to create value for our advertisers in innovative ways. For an un-scripted show like Bigg Boss, brand integrations and product placements are big challenges, but they work in favour of the brand,” Hoon said.
