PlusOne – Marketing Musings

Getting people to watch TV shows that go into a second or third (or Yawn 6th ) series is a challenge for TV show producers.

Format driven, they offer little in the way of innovation and therefore suffer a drop-off in viewers. Of course new developments in the format can be introduced, but the challenge remains to get people to watch it in the first place.

So what are some great ideas out there that break through the fog? Tale it to the streets of course…

Take Star One’s promotion of the third season of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge: people wearing bandages move around the city with slogans warning of dire consequences for old jokes. There is even a ‘laughter diagnostic’ van with the motto ‘Laugh please’.

In addition, over 1,000 dustbins and garbage vans were branded with messages like “throw rubbish and old jokes here”. Clearly, Star One hopes to break the comedy fatigue among audiences with the third season of the Laughter Challenge.

What about that internationally successful Idol talent show? By the third season Indian broadcasters were needing to break out of traditional promotion and so they painted a train that travelled from Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus to Kalyan, and commuters were given free rides in buses which were also branded by the channel.

On the day of launch, live screenings were held in malls in Mumbai and Delhi . This season, auditions were also held in London and Dubai. “We chose these two cities because of the large Indian diaspora. Also, it gave Indians living there a platform to showcase their talent,” says a chanel, rep”.

A fan of Biggest Loser?

The latest reality show, Biggest Loser Jeetega, on Sahara ,One has come up with city-specific activities to promote the show. For example, the channel tied up with dabbawallas (lunch food delivery people) in Mumbai to promote healthy living. “We have given small tags to dabbawallas to promote the show,” says Rajeev Chakrabarti, head of marketing, Sahara One.

The channel has taken promotional activities one step further and is trying to recreate the experience of participants on the show in events across seven cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Jaipur. “Everyone cares about good health, and it is a topic that audiences are interested in. We invited overweight people to participate in a few activities. original story“

The part I like best about the Biggest Loser promotional bandwagon is that the general population can get involved, if only in a small way.

For too many of us these shows are really artificial reality – especially Biggest Loser - too much time spent with inane mini-interviews on meaningless matters and not enough on exercise and diet, which would allow people to ‘participate’ along with the contestants, even if only in a small way.

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