#WhereIsMyChannel is a strong trigger to nudge our consumers into action: Prathyusha Agarwal, ZEEL

Featuring filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and percussionist Sivamani, 'Where is My Channel' encourages viewers to inform their cable operators about their choice of channels.

The latest campaign from ZEE's English cluster titled #WhereIsMyChannel encourages the viewers to choose their preferred channels and inform their cable operators. While the consumers are involved in their content choices, they often tend to postpone communicating with their cable operators. The digital campaign prompts for this necessary action, at a time when TRAI’s deadline for the implementation of MRP regime is just around the corner.

Insight behind #WhereIsMyChannel

The Zee English cluster has a portfolio of brands like Zee Café, &flix and &PrivéHD. The channels’ approach for the campaign #WhereIsMyChannel was to encourage consumers to ask their cable operator for their favorite channels. The underlying insight was that, while the English audience is highly involved in their content choices, they were not used to making the purchase decision. Typically, the more affluent households would buy subscription annually, while some are uninvolved in the purchase. “Through our communication, we needed a strong trigger to nudge our consumers into action, to call the cable operator and ask for their preference as ‘The Cable Operator May Not Really Know You,” shared Prathyusha Agarwal, CMO, ZEEL.

The BRIEF

While consumers were aware of the change in the environment, they were not really involved in the purchase decision. ZEEL’s brief to the creative agency was to nudge consumers to actively pick Zee channels.

“The Zee English Cluster team had given us a very clear objective and that made things clearer from the word go. We started by asking ourselves what would drive us, as consumers, to action? Tearing apart the cable guys wasn't the answer. They are, in fact, a part of the solution because all it takes is one call to them and they will give you your channels," shared Jigar Fernandes, Founder, tiqui-taka, the agency behind the campaign and also director of the &flix film.

Otherwise, how will they ever know what channels you might like? The last line led the team to a hilarious situation where a cable guy judges a celeb because of the way he looks. He added, "There on, it was just about getting the cast right. Anurag Kashyap was the funniest choice. And something told us he would be cool with some self-deprecating humor."

Also Read: Our TV shows and huge movie library remains a huge draw across markets: Archana Anand, Zee5 Global

The Viewers’ Response

The broadcaster claims that the campaign has been successful in driving salience and consideration for the English channels amongst the target audience. Within two weeks, it has delivered over 25 million sharp targeted video views with strong engagement rates. The campaign has reached to about 58 million on digital and 41.53 million on TV, for the two ad films. In a competitive category with several brands, #WhereIsMyChannel has delivered over 70% ad cut-through. The ad campaign is being promoted across Zee Network’s social handles and the TV channels on air.

The digital video with RJ Balaji, Mallika Dua, and Varun Thakur are also a success indicator for the original films which have become a reference point for other unbranded original renditions to be created.

Agarwal added, "Varun and Mallika have both pointed out their fears of getting stereotyped to certain kind of content and if they can be wrongly judged, so can be anyone. Hence, the two influencers have stressed on the need to speak to the cable operator and inform them of the choice of channels. The RJ Balaji film is shot in Tamil.”

The 'Kashyap' Factor

"All our campaigns are rooted in consumer insight, conceptualized keeping the consumer at the center. We wanted to bring alive our insight that the “Cable Operator May Not Really Know You” and hence inform him of your pack choice. To bring this thought to life, we needed to cast experts and not just celebrities," informed Agarwal. The aim was to convey that if a well-known expert’s content choice can be misjudged by the cable operator, then it can happen to everybody. Hence, the underlying thought was to put the impetus on informing the cable operator of consumers' choices.

While sharing his experience working with actors during the campaign execution, Fernandes exclaimed, "It was a lot of fun directing the trio. While Anurag and Abhishek are at the center of the film, we wanted to give the liftman importance too. From that line of thought came the idea of making him a wannabe Nawaz (Nawazuddin)." That not only added to the humor but also helped raise Anurag’s stature and his self-worth at the beginning itself. It was more fun for him when he got what he got in the end. The lift was chosen as the location because it was fun to box Anurag in like that with two people from his native place, who are in awe of him and respect him.

Taking the 'awareness' beyond digital campaign

To simplify the complex structural change coming their way, ZEEL built on the topicality of elections through “Channels Ka Chunaav”. It also leads it's popular protagonists to educate consumers in buying bouquet packs as they delivered greater value and were a smarter choice to buying channels on an a la carte basis.

Through the home visits of most popular lead protagonists and the workshops with LCOs and MSOs, ZEEL's endeavor is to try every bit to guide the viewers through this transition. Agarwal noted, "The digital arms of all our channels have also activated an extensive push that helps the consumers in this transition, through easy-to-understand infographics about the new MRP regime and the choice of packs they can opt for from the ZEE set of channels.

Tedious TRAI regime- A reason to shift from TV to Digital?

While many haven't subscribed to the new regime dictated by TRAI and are yet to own their choice-based channel packs, it stands to be seen that the much called tedious TRAI diktat will make consumers shift to the digital verse and what challenges will it pose to the brands to market their offerings?

In last three years, the viewership on English GEC genre has grown by almost 2.5 times from close to 400 Impressions (’000s) in Week 1 of 2016 to about 1000 Impressions (’000s) in the last week of 2018, as per BARC data. The English movie genre has witnessed a 26% growth in viewership and 28% growth in reach, over the same period of time. Looking at the growth numbers, we have not noticed any disinterest on TV

ZEEL- Conducting Consumer Education

Online reports claim that 60% of consumers haven't yet subscribed to their choice-based data packs or have either informed their cable operators owing to the confusing process. When asked how ZEE as a broadcaster is heading towards making consumers aware, Agarwal replied saying, "Educating consumers is the most important piece of our communication. There is currently close to 90% of awareness level about the MRP regime which is more at a primary level."

"Through our consumer interaction and understanding, we have identified three levels of awareness amongst the audience: MRP regime change level awareness, wherein the consumers are aware of the change in the ecosystem." The second level was the bouquet and pack level awareness where the consumer understands the need of making the choice between broadcaster packs, operator packs, a-la-carte, and bouquet packs. The final and most critical level of awareness is to take action and inform the cable operator about your choices.

As a part of pushing the awareness and purchase decisions and facilitating the behavior change, ZEEL's distribution teams are actively engaging with service providers and partners in running familiarization workshops for the MSOs and LCOs, collaborating to further educate the end consumers.