Colors Bangla focuses on 3 'P's to strengthen its presence

As competition increases in regional GEC, television channels are focusing on innovative programming to cut through the clutter. Bangla GEC too is seeing a lot of activity.The space has seen a lot of entries and exits in recent years and the number of channels has come down from seven to four.

Talking about the size of the market, Ravish Kumar, EVP Viacom18 and Project Head – COLORS Kannada, COLORS Bangla and COLORS Odiya states, “It is a very lucrative and growing market. Broadly we have a 10 to 13% of the market share;I would estimate it at around 600 to 700 crores.”

While Star Jalsa and Zee Bangla lead the way as of now, Colors Bangla is making the right moves in terms of programming, packaging and promotions to climb up the popularity charts steadily.While the channel initially focused on shows targeted at a mature audience, things have changed with the arrival of Star Jalsa which targeted youth.

Colors Bangla, since, has geared up and is back in the race. Kumar says, “We are evaluating one show at a time. As for competition, Zee Bangla is known for its non- fiction and Star Jalsa is known for its fiction and people werequite happy between the two.

However, with our recent shows, we are posing a challenge. Our new shows like Ma Durga, and also Bomkeysh have proved to the people that the channel has changed and something different is happening.”
Working in this direction, Colors Bangla is now launchinga dance reality show ‘Bindass Dance’ for kids.The show would go on air effective August 10th 2015. Directed and conceptualised by Subhankar Chattopadhyay and hosted by Kanchan Mullick and Ayush, the show would be telecast Monday to Wednesday 9 pm. Judges on the show are ace choreographer Ganesh Acharya actress Sayantika & June Maliah.

Reflecting about the introduction of new shows,Kumar explains, “The biggest challenge in this market is how do you differentiate yourself and it becomes a test for everyone who is there in the market. It is about how you break away people who are customised in their habit and get them over to you. New shows on Colors Bangla are creating a lot of buzz and I am confident they would be growth leaders for the channel.”

Coming to packaging, the entire look and feel of the channel was changed, when it became Colors Bangla from ETV. Kumar reveals, “We changed the entire packaging once it was renamed.Though a lot of it was done in house, we also engaged different agencies.”

However, as the market gets saturated and consumers become very savvy, marketing breakthrough or promotions gain prominence, and the consumer-connect become critical.Hence, the channel is not only focusing on introducing innovative programming, but on marketing as well.

Kumar talks about one such initiative, “When it comes to marketing we are going mass and deep. Recently, we have tied up with Radio Mirchi. They do Para Football, where they go to paras all over Bengal and hold district vs district football matches.

In between the football matches we also have mini hatto melas.We take our artists and we showcase our shows there.In addition we have also done name plate branding in slums.”
As for marquee events, channel organises Sangeet Samman Awards, and it also plans to launchParivar Awards.

The channel is also focusing on its social media presence. Says Kumar, “We have more than 6.5 lakhs likes on our Facebook page. The consumer is digitally happy and is looking at a way to express herself/himself, and that itself should be the trend across the country.”
With Durga Puja just around the corner, the channel expects to see a spike in advertising by local brands. The usual advertising split for the channel is 80% for national advertisers and 20% for local advertisers.When it comes to national advertisers, FMCG lead the way, and among the key advertisers on the channel areReckitt Benckiser, GlaxoSmithKline and Cadbury.
 

debarati(@)adgully.com