Life OK would grow to the next level with respect: Ajit Thakur

Celebrating its third anniversary this year, Hindi GEC Life OK, boast of having different formats so as to make the channel offering more engaging and interesting for its viewers. From desi to international content, the channel has plans to offer promising content. As a part of the anniversary celebrations, the channel is also encashing upon the festive season.

In an exclusive interaction with Adgully, Ajit Thakur, EVP & GM, Life OK shared the big plans on occasion of Diwali and the line-up for the same.

Adgully: Industry observers state that since its inception, Life OK is a channel which believes in experimentations and innovations. How do you plan to continue this to strengthen this philosophy?
Ajit Thakur (AT): We’ll complete three years in this December 2014 and in this journey of two and half year we are really happy about what we had at Life OK. We were able to create a unique position for our channel, I’ve always said that numbers and ranks matter but not beyond a point. The important thing is that, for both our viewers and advertisers we’ve been able to create unique positioning about Life OK and offer. Today, Life OK is the second new GEC which has worked in last 10 years and within that also this is only GEC which has manage to sustain and create success without overdose of saas –bahu soaps, which is an important part of TV.

AG: What according to you have been the key differentiating factors for the channel so far?
AT: We have done things which were not done before, being a pioneer GEC we have lot more content for entire family to view rather than the housewives, secondly people say that when Life OK launches something, the channel always has fresh promise. So, today not only in India, in abroad also like in US, people now acknowledge the channel as successful channel amongst Hindi GEC’s, for them Life OK is also a channel which always offers something different like mythological (Mahadev), social-thriller genre (Saubhagyavati bhava) which we continued with Laut Aao Trisha, crime with Savdhan India. So along with all these channels we also have Shapath supercops vs supervillains which are liked by children.

AG: Life OK as a channel has offered national and international formats in past, even last year you offered some robust content in third quarter, what is the plan for this year?
AT: As we looked back, we thought that now we need to go to the next level. We have got loads more to do. We’ve achieved 13-14% market share in two and half year and we want to grow more to the next level but with respect. So, instead of scattering our plans I believe in taking the best foot forward so that it will be noticeable and we’ve identified that nothing can be best than this Diwali quarter ’14. The channel has grown faster in these two years and strengthen with time, we were able to do it by providing sustain differentiation in both the content we are offering and how we are offering to our viewers. So, this quarter will be the next big push on Life OK, which will firmly take us to that place where we should be considered as the best GEC channel, not only in terms of numbers but also in terms of viewers acceptance, that there’s nothing bigger and better than the Life OK.

AG: With the launch of two new properties - Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh and Comedy Classes, what is the line- up for this festive season?
AT: We started this Diwali quarter with Dare 2 Dance and we are taking it to another level with Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh which is a bold and finite series and then we are set to reinvent comedy with Comedy Classes. These shows will be followed by our first big premiere, as since launch we’ve not done film premiere and so we’ll be premiering ‘2 States’ on 18th October 2014 followed by big event meant for Diwali on 21st October 2014, we also have project line up with Vipul Amritlal Shah, an action show with RanVijay in lead. All these will lead on to a show with Sooraj Barjatiya who will be doing his first show with Life OK for the first time followed by another big mythological show coming on Indian Television which will be the next level to Mahadev in this December. Vipul Shah’s and Sooraj Barjatiya’s shows are scheduled for this November.

AG: What was the basic rationale for bringing to the channel a comedy-based show?
AT: Comedy is a space we haven’t had since launch; there are only two kind of comedy in Indian television today either they are stand up or dramedies i.e. drama and comedy. We thought of getting sitcoms back which exists in India since last 10 years and is a proven format in the west. Along with bringing sitcom the comedy genre back after years, we also have best of the comedians on one platform like Bharti, Krishna, Sudesh and Shakeel, who run a Bollywood finishing school known as comedy classes. But each episode will have certain message will make you smile apart from making you laugh. The message of goodness will be there after each episode, we wanted to add differentiation to the concept.

AG: The offerings are big now, so how robust is the marketing plan?
AT: In terms of marketing investments, I am confident to share that nobody else will be as visible in this Diwali season than Life OK in terms of marketing. We’ll be doing multiple full page print ads, looking at advertising on 50 TV channels including live cricket and football channels of Star network. We are looking at outdoor campaigns, malls, transit ads in buses. Next three months you’ll see Life OK campaigns everywhere from outdoor campaigns to campaigns in cinema halls, on Tata Sky, print ads and on television. We will also do activation in selected towns. 

AG: How confident is the channel is about these offerings? Any long term plans associated with the same?
AT: After all these we are hoping that in next couple of weeks we’ll make some announcements on further signing some big stars and directors which we are looking to build in pipeline for January. So, things are not ending in December but will go to next level. We’ve already have big actors like Bhagyashree, Akshay Kumar and Sonali Bendre we’ll be having Ranvijay too soon. We are also looking at refreshing the brand, so the brand will have a complete new look and feel with new thought by November. We want to make sure that advertisers know that there is no bigger destination to advertise than Life OK this Diwali and also viewers should know that there is no other destination for full dose of entertainment right from comedy, drama, mythological, reality, films to events.

AG: What kind of investments is required for these kinds of big budget properties?
AT: All I can say is, we’ll be spending a lot of money!

AG: Tell us a bit about the advertisers for all these shows? 
AT: We are going show by show, so far for Dare 2 Dance we were fully over sold, for Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh we have roped in presenting and powered by sponsors. Usually, in fiction shows we get sponsors once show goes on air. Demand is always based on differentiated content and we are putting out there so things are still in process. As the market is evolving, advertisers and distributors are looking at Life OK as a platform with distinct offering. We have numbers (ratings), viewers and opinion makers(advertisers and distributors) in line today.

AG: What about new shows timings and slots, are you looking at replacing on-going shows?
AT: We will be figuring that out with the time, most of the shows will come in new slots. We’ll prefer lead prime time slots for our upcoming shows.

AG: Most of the shows you are launching are fiction based shows. What about non-fiction in near future?
AT: Yes, our fiction show’s line up is very strong. So, we have Dare 2 Dance which will go off air soon and then we’ll look up to another reality show format may be next year. We’ve been trend setters as we’ve brought in so many genres which were almost dead or going nowhere, we’ll continue to do same.

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