Our strategy has been to differentiate through innovation: Anooj Kapoor

Sony SAB recently partnered with Twitter for an innovative social initiative to promote its new show, ‘Y.A.R.O Ka Tashan’, which went on air on July 26, 2016. SAB, in collaboration with Twitter, created a unique Twitter BOT, representing the Humanoid - Y.A.R.O, a lead character in the show. The BOT replicated the characteristics of Y.A.R.O by answering all kinds of questions thrown at it.

The show, which centres on the protagonist Y.A.R.O, a humanoid, focuses on the relationship with friends and family, importance of love and humanity. In line with the new age concept of the show, the channel also implemented this idea for its online and on ground marketing promotions.

The initiative was displayed live on a few high-traffic vantage outdoor sites in Mumbai. Wherein, if one was around the vicinity and happened to ask a question on Twitter with #SABKaYaro, the tweet and the response was also displayed on the outdoor medium.

#SABKaYaro set Twitter on fire with thousands of Twitteratis engaging with #SABKaYaro by throwing diverse questions ranging from scientific questions on atmosphere and the planet to funny questions like ‘Will you have coffee with me?’

In conversation with AdGully, Anooj Kapoor, Senior EVP and Business Head, SAB TV, speaks more on the new show, the innovative promotion initiative, collaborating with Twitter, engaging the youth and more. Excerpts:

What is the insight behind launching ‘Y.A.R.O Ka Tashan’?
We have always believed in our strategy of ‘Differentiation through Innovation’ and in the 7.30 pm slot, we wanted to attract the youth by launching the show in which the protagonists are around the age of 20. And at the same time, we wanted to introduce a robot for the first time, which has a human-like heart. Therefore, he has an aspiration to become human. Obviously, because he is not well versed with the ways of the world, he becomes your quintessential underdog because he has some physical powers to deal with the world. He is pure, innocent and vulnerable at heart. Therefore, it becomes a nice, interesting journey of how he will get altered by the world and to what an extent he will be able to successfully alter the world.

How are you creating differentiation for the show to compete with long running shows like ‘Saath Nibhana Saathiya’ on Star Plus and ‘Sasural Simar Ka’ on Colors in the same time band?
Our differentiation factors are two. One is that both these shows are serious and spooky in content. Our show is light-hearted in content. Therefore, by definition it gets differentiated. Secondly, the fact that it is generally differentiated from other shows that that has been on-air with a robot. The differentiation comes in the form of a robot having a human-like heart and, therefore, experiencing emotions that humans experience. So, on both these fronts the show is totally differentiated from what the other shows in the 7.30 slot.

Isn’t the show’s concept similar to that of ‘Bahu Hamari Rajnikant’ on Life OK, which also involves a humanoid?
No, not at all, because there is a bahu-saas, whereas here is a bunch of friends, one of whom happens to be a robot. Absolutely no similarity because the premise is completely different.

How are you planning to fortify your early prime time offering?
Basically, the point is that if you are extending your primetime backwards right, which we are doing with the 7.30 slot, you have to have something really very different and distinguished on the channel which is different from anything else being offered on the channel, and hence here is the consumers’ response. So that’s what we are trying to do with ‘Y.A.R.O.’ by making it absolutely different from any other show on our channel, and yet keeping it within the realm of light-hearted entertainment and uniqueness. To me, that is the fortification of extending your prime time backward.

What kind of content, according to you, works best in the early prime time slot?
The content that the audience likes.

From a more family-oriented content offering, is SAB TV planning to engage more of the youth TG with ‘Y.A.R.O Ka Tashan’?
Youth will be the engine in this show, which will then bring in the family bogies with it.

What are the marketing and promotion plans lined up for the show?
The channel is going all out to aggressively promote the ‘Y.A.R.O Ka Tashan’. A 360-degree marketing approach has been undertaken for the same, a traditional media mix, including TV, print, radio and outdoor has been implemented. But most importantly, we had partnered with Twitter for a Twitter BOT for the show.

Going forward, what would be your focus areas to strengthen your weekend as well as weekday content line-up?
In weekdays, there are some interesting shows coming up in the near future. But because we haven’t frozen on the show names and the date of launch, therefore, I can’t share them with you. And likewise on weekends, too, we have a couple of shows lined up after ‘Gupchup’. Fact of the matter is indeed we are going to have seven-day programming in perhaps a month from now.