Exclusive | Bridging the communication gap between students: Disney UTV's Gandhi

Bindass a 360 degree youth brand wanted to create multiple touch points for the youth and therefore they created a property like bindass Buddies which helped them to achieve that goal.  Bindaas buddies is one of the most successful properties built over the past three years by the channel. It started off with an insightful research and has met with a phenomenal response connecting with the youth across India. They conducted various extensive researches to get insights in to the psyche of their target audience and analyse the dynamism of youth. During the initial phase, the research insight told them that the first few weeks of college, for a ‘fresher', are the toughest as it is a completely unfamiliar territory and they tend to feel lost. This insight led them to create bindass Buddies. Thereon, this property has seen tremendous acceptance by students over the years and every year and they have been reinventing the property by introducing new elements to the concept of Buddies.

Bindass in association with Axe  launches its 3rd edition of bindass Buddies with activations across 100 colleges across 10 cities, in search of five effervescent buddies, who will then compete to win the coveted, 'AXE Lander’ title! Axe bindassBuddies will be a platform for ‘fresher’ to find a ‘buddy’ in their seniors. These ‘buddies’ are the social butterflies of the college, who have that extra zing to impress and have the ‘know-it-all’ attitude to be able to guide and induct the freshers through those initial weeks and keep them updated throughout the year about all the cool things they need to know about their new college and environment.

“This proposition is all about recognizing popular guys from the college & testing them to prove their mettle. The winners, titled AXELANDER is someone who is worthy of becoming citizens of the AXEland, for whom life will just never be the same again. An Axelander is someone who is smart, funny, energetic, and gutsy and has the charm to swoon people. The AXELANDERs will have access to cricket matches, road trips and music concerts, fine dine, adventure sports, racing month after month, for the next 6 months & it is all on us! This is an aspirational show, wherein the popular guys play an important role to mentor their friends/followers on how to be themselves & be cool in more ways than one,” said Nikhil Gandhi, Executive Director Youth Channels, Media Networks Disney UTV in an exclusive interview with Adgully.

Bindass Buddies is one a kind on-ground activity that uses on-ground, online and on-air element. This property started gaining its popularity since its inception. The property has an aspirational value for students and it identifies candidates that the other college goers look up to and appreciates their ability to stand their ground in gruelling tasks by bestowing them with a various perks which otherwise they wouldn’t have access to.

This year bindass buddies get bigger with the activations spreading across 100 colleges and is travelling to 10 cities. The 2 new elements that have been introduced are the ‘Axelander’ concept and ‘The Karbonn SMART Zone Hood’ reaches out to the ‘SMART GUYS’ and helps them share their talents, their thoughts and their smartness in their social group, thereby giving them a chance to get super popular amongst their social group. “We are recognising talent that goes beyond college campuses, looking for people who do unconventional things. From every college we will select one AXElander and 4 Bindass Buddies. So we are expecting minimum participation of 1000 students across colleges,” revealed Gandhi.

Bindaas Buddies is a known activity among youth. The engagement level that the on-ground activity created has helped them gain mileage for the entire property. Gandhi said that, “Being a youth platform the digital platform is important for us. On air promos, online promotion including but not limited to social media, on ground events comprising of stage backdrop, standee, entrance arch, so on & so forth. Ambient Media promotion across Cinemax outlets, print media and the 6 month gratification for all 100 students & their experience on this property will be blogged on microsite & social websites. “All of these measures will be used to promote the bindaas buddies activity extensively across India.

“The aim of bindaas to create this show is to create a platform for communication so as to close the gap between students and allowing a smooth flow of communication. Seniors in college have knowledge about right and wrong. When these seniors lend a helping hand to the juniors, the gap between them is bound to reduce,” added Gandhi.

Bindaas has time and again been working on various platforms that induce the youth. And Gandhi says that they will continue to do so in near future. “We are already present in the Music space with our on-air properties as well as on-ground initiatives. With bindass Buddies, we extend our offering at a personal level to the youth.” I By Rabab Rupawala [rabab(at)adgully.com]