We are adopting multiplatform strategy for PWL: Vaishali Sharma, Sony Max

After Pro Kabaddi League, here is another ancient sport which will bask in the glory of a League. Yes, Multi-Screen Media (MSM) has bagged the broadcast rights of the ‘Pro-Wrestling’ league (PWL) for the next five years.

The league being touted as ‘Khel Fauladi’ has been introduced with an impressive campaign. The campaign focuses on skill, strength and endurance and centers on putting one’s weakness aside and bringing out one’s fighter spirit.

With teams of the wrestling league comprising of both men and women (five men and four women), the two 40 seconder TVCs which will air during prime time slots will feature known faces in the wrestling world and will be target both male and female audiences encouraging them to tap into their tougher, stronger selves thus breaking stereotypical molds.

Vaishali Sharma, Senior VP and Marketing head, Sony MAX elaborates on the target group and the intent behind the league, “The target audience is specifically 9+ ideally male viewers across the markets like Mumbai, UP, Haryana, Gujarat, etc. It will cut across all markets be it urban, rural, LC1 or LC2. Wrestling is an ancient sport. We have so many players winning championships and this only adds pride for our country. The sport is about Mind, Body and Soul and is also about endurance. Our aim is to depict larger than life picture of this ancient rich sport which is respected at International and National level too.”

The channel is marketing the league aggressively across media platforms. Vaishali states, “MSM is focusing more on multi-media campaign with focus on television followed by print, radio and outdoor promotions which will be taken across all Hindi speaking markets and will have key players such as Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Babita Kumari, Geeta Phogat, Vinesh Phogat, Amit Dahiya, Narsingh Pancham Yadav, Rahul Aware amongst others fronting the campaign. On social media platform, we will continue creating a buzz and live streaming it.”

The Pro Wrestling league will be aired on MSM’s three flagship channels Sony Max, Sony Six and Sony Pal. On being asked whether this move is a motive to create bouquet of shows for Sony Max, she expresses, “We don’t have a bouquet of sports for Sony Max. Actually we pioneered the concept of league on Indian television. We have massive reach across HSM and we are going to strengthen that base.” She further elaborates on the reasons to adopt the three channel strategy, “Sony Pal is a fast growing GEC channel in rural markets and we can tap family viewership from Sony Pal and at the same time Sony Six being sports channel, we can target sports viewership. Max also has huge reach among men & women and we are targeting audience from age group of 9-50 years.”

The ad campaign for the league is in perfect synergy with it and manages to capture the spirit of it well. The concept for it was developed by Rudra agency based on the brief given by the channel.  As to how it shaped up, she explains, “We used a little bit of Haryanvi accent so it looks more authentic and Indian. Also if you see, the campaign shows the glorious side of iconic players. As it is all about wrestling, we wanted wrestlers to be part of our campaign. We are looking at a sport with lot of potential because it is very Indian and deep rooted.”

As to why a sport like Wrestling was chosen, she points out that since last few years Wrestling has got lot of attention as India has won a number of gold medals at international levels too. She says, “It is time to explore other sports beyond cricket and sports like wrestling which require lot of skills, toughness, training, endurance, definitely need to be showcased on a grand scale. We have to be true to it and create aspirations among masses. I will say that viewers are in for a treat which they have never experienced before.”

The league will be simulcast on the three channels at prime time – from 7pm to 9pm every day from Dec 10^th to 27^th.