Zee Classic creates Strategic Time Band, eyes 10% viewership share

Adhering to its proposition of ‘Woh Zamaana, Kare Deewana’, Zee Classic has been catering to more than three generations of audiences with 500-plus movie titles in its library with its long term planning and acquisition strategy. To satiate the palate of diverse and wide ranged viewers, Zee Classic has initiated a strategic programming restructuring. Under this campaign with the theme ‘Aaj Ka Classic’, the channel will catalogue movies from each era into a separate time band from October 3, 2016. Along with this, Zee Classic has roped in Arjun Kapoor as the channel ambassador.

Aaj Ka Classic presents ‘Best of 80’s and 90’s’ that will showcase hits from decades that saw the emergence of more than 10 superstars ranging from Jackie Shroff, Sunny Deol, Mithun Chakroborty, Anil Kapoor to the Three Khans, Govinda, Akshay Kumar, and these stars still continue to reign supreme and entertain audiences across the world.

‘The 70’s Mix’ will showcase blockbusters from the 1970s, an era that reflected the nuances of the society, but turned out to be preeminently a decade of ‘angry young man’, action movies and melodious music. ‘Shaandar Sixties’ will present movies of the 1960s, a decade that saw the rise of the popular romantic genre. The golden era of ‘Black and White’ that set the foundation of the Hindi film industry will include masterpieces that will transport spectators back in time.

Highlighting this brand campaign, exclusively curated movie festivals like Jhakaas Kapoor Festival, Har Din Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan B’day Special, amongst many others and specials like ‘Timeless Asha’ will be featured.

Commenting on the brand strategy, Ruchir Tiwari, Business Head, Zee Hindi Movie Cluster, said, “At Zee, we have the largest library of movies and now Zee Classic is adopting a Strategic Time Band approach instead of the routine FPC approach. This strategy is a result of meticulous planning, acquisition and programming for an entire year, which will ensure that Zee Classic caters to all kinds of viewers.”

He further said, “From 2004 to 2010, the channel recorded just 2 per cent viewership share in the Hindi Movie genre. With consistent acquisition of content from different eras along with unparalleled marketing, the channel created a space for itself and a decade later, the viewership has increased to a whopping 6 per cent in this financial year. The ‘Aaj ka Classic’ brand campaign presented by Arjun Kapoor is the commencement towards the next chapter of Zee Classic, focused towards achieving 10 per cent viewership share in the near future.”

With this, Zee Classic will now be competing with the top rating channels in the Hindi Movie genre.

On his association with the channel, Arjun Kapoor said, “I am thrilled to be a part of Aaj Ka Classic. I have grown up loving cinema and classics have defined my choices as a viewer as well as an actor. My grandfather, father, and uncle have contributed to Hindi films for years and I have fond memories of going on the sets and film trial shows. These movies will always be a reference point, always at the back of my mind. To be presenting such classic titles means a lot to me.”



A high decibel 360-degree marketing campaign has been launched, including Print, TV, Digital and Outdoor to promote Aaj Ka Classic. The TVC is curated keeping in mind the grandeur of Indian Cinema as well as the taste of a movie buff. Iconic Memorabilia, comprising the Friend Cap, musical instruments like Accordion, Classic Movie Posters, collection of books, DVDs and many more have been used to relive the various decades of Cinema.

Target audience

With new programming strategy, the channel aims to target viewers who are 25+. This new restricting and shift in channel viewing defines a dedicated time slot to each decade of Hindi Cinema. And thus, being the first channel ever in the Hindi movie genre space to have appointment viewing.

With the current connectivity of the channel at around 80 per cent, it aims to reach 90 per cent in the next few months.

Revenues and Advertising

Talking about revenues, Ashish Sehgal, said, “Zee Classic contributes a massive 15 per cent revenue share in the Zee Hindi Movies Cluster amongst the SD channels – Zee Cinema, &pictures, Zee Classic, Zee Action and Zee Anmol Cinema. In the last three to four years, Zee Classic’s revenue has grown more than four times and as its evolving, currently it commands a premium rate at the existing ratings.”

He further said that Zee Classic showcased all time legendary movies and a Zee Classic viewer is a comparatively more involved viewer than on any other Hindi movie channel. “For the brand campaign ‘Aaj Ka Classic’, we have locked in three channel partners, including SC Johnson, Hindustan Unilever and Dabur across all the time bands,” he added.

Earlier, Zee Classic used to cater to primarily mature audiences, but with titles from the 80s and 90s being included in the library, the viewership base also attracts the youth. ‘Aaj Ka Classic’ presented by Arjun Kapoor will only further expand the viewer base of the channel. The introduction of time bands is also appealing to the advertisers besides FMCG, such as automobiles, mobile handsets, and telecom, among others.” 

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