Television Featured |

January 6, 2016March 29, 2019

TV Channels changing Entertainment & Branding Quotient in India

There was a time when TV time meant only the couple of hours around the TV wherein the whole family and often neighbours would join in for their daily dose of entertainment. This was the time of Doordarshan when TV viewing was limited to a few hours and the sole TV service provider ensured to provide something for everyone. This was also the time for a cancellation of show scheduled programs to accommodate special events like sports, state mourning, etc.

But private television channels like Zee, Star, Sun, ETV and CNN changed the rules of the game. These channels entered a sterile market and filled it with their 24-hour programming. The channels didn’t always telecast original programming throughout the day. Often repeat telecast of prime time shows filled the time slots. This was an added advantage for the channels as well as the viewers. “If you missed the show, you could catch up later” formula worked for these channels pretty well. But these channels lacked the goal of the government run establishment and had very few programs which would appeal to the teeming masses.

Where Doordarshan ensured entertainment for kids in the form of Disney Hour and Shaktimaan on weekends, the private players offered no such options. Slowly, Kids Entertainment channels crept up in the form of Cartoon Network, POGO etc. The same thing happened for sports lovers. Earlier Doordarshan brought sports events like the World Cup and Olympics alienating the soap opera lovers, biting into their slot times. With the advent of specific TV channels, this problem was sorted as the GECs would continue to showcase the latest plans and plots brewing in their kitchens while sports channels made sure to get every minute of your favourite game for you.

This has set up an interesting trend of finding niche audiences for niche entertainment. The proof of this growing trend lies with STAR, providing STAR Cricket solely for the cricket lovers. This trend has touched the Indian economy and affected the society. Earlier one television set entertained a whole lot of people while now in affluent homes there are TV sets for every individual. According to the latest Survey in 2014, 277 million individuals have a TV Set exclusively for themselves. Today satellite TV in the form of DTH has reached more than 78 million households in India.

This has also posed a problem for advertisers. Before the advent of 24 Hours TV, advertisers had only to book ads with one station to grasp all their target audiences. But with more than 1400 TV channels – both national and regional, this task has reached mammoth proportions. Here, is a list of TV channel genres to help you as an advertiser to reach out to your target audiences.

GECs: GECs are better known as General Entertainment Channels. These TV channels play soap operas, reality shows, and movies on weekends or special programs like award functions or special shows for special events like Diwali, Holi, Eid etc. Several national and regional channels come under this category.
Sports: The sports channels try to broadcast the on-going tournaments LIVE. Often studio-based programs complement the matches acting as fillers. These channels also resort to the re-run of matches itself for lack of new tournaments.
Kids: This segment is dedicated to kids. From toddlers to teenagers, the kids segment caters to all children’s need for entertainment. International superheroes like the Justice League are at par with our ‘desi’ variety of Chhota Bheem and Motu-Patlu.
Movies: The movie channels in India play cinema throughout the day. There are Hindi movie channels along with English and regional movie channels for the specific viewer. TV channels again are segregated as Romance, Comedy, Action etc.
Music: Music channels again, have content for a number of age groups. From old melodies to latest numbers, the music channels remain the sole destination for music lovers.
Lifestyle: Lifestyle channels are those which affect the way we live our lives. For fitness freaks, these channels show various fitness regimes and healthy diet plans. For the food lovers, it has exotic dishes from around the nation and the globe. Lifestyle channels also follow celebrity lifestyles and aims to give its audience a glimpse of the celebrity life.
Infotainment: These channels entertain audiences with information. Physical, Natural and Social Sciences are the base of these programs. People with niche interests enjoy this “hatke” genre the most.
News: The fourth pillar of democracy is the news media and the Indian news channels are doing a commendable job of being the fourth pillar. The news channels run 24×7 and get you the latest news from across the world. Several local TV news channels also have picked up this mantle of providing the latest news in your mother tongue. Like sports channels News channel also have bifurcated into general news channels and business news channels.
Spiritual: This again gratifies a specific audience more religiously inclined. Religious Sermons, Bhajans and Kirtans and other programs depicting the nearness of man to his God adorn these channels.

TV advertising is all about audio-visual impact. Anyone opting for TV ads must make sure to get an exciting video and an, even more, exciting soundtrack. Once the creative part is ready, you must know where to find your target audience. If you are targeting the youth, music channels and GECs especially for them will take your ads to the right places. Likewise to target men, news and sports channels will be the best option. But with more than a hundred channels in each category, this choice is becoming difficult by the hour. Demographic, socio-economic backgrounds and personal choices again affect TV viewing.

For an advertiser making this choice of the perfect media vehicle (in this case, TV channels) is quite difficult. TV channels have their own brand and any association with the Brand affects the advertising scenario. Any product specifically directed towards the youth will appear better on a channel for the youth, be it music or GEC. releaseMyAd is one of the top online ad agencies of India. Our experts guide you perfectly for advertisements in each of these genres ensuring your ad message reaches your targets easily.

Get advertising details on any of the TV channels at 09830688443 or send us your queries via email to enquiry@releasemyad.com. You could also visit our website releasemyad.com for further details.

January 6, 2016January 27, 2016

Explore the Future of Television Advertising through releaseMyAd

On July 1st 1941, the very first television advertisement appeared. It was a ten seconds ad for Bulova watches that was aired during a baseball game in a local New York cable channel. As the ad played, the voiceover announced “America runs on Bulova time”. The huge success of this ensued many other companies to jump on board and thus started the marketing revolution that brought television advertising to a thriving life.

With the 9 dollar price tag which came with the Bulova advert to the millions of dollars that it takes today to air a 30 second commercial during a prominent live show, it has been one great journey for TV advertising which is still continuing with all its glory. However with the advent of innovative forms of media like digital, social, etc, where does television stand today?

At present, marketers are drawing out large chunks of money from TV and relocating it to digital which is an inevitable by product of the intrinsic proliferation of digital media. However they might want to reconsider their strategy. According to research done by market analytics company, Market Share, television has managed to hold its ground even in times of such radical change.

Automotive and telecom, both of which generally prefer to advertise through TV, has seen their sales increase by six folds as opposed to online. Moreover, during the five year period of this study (2010-2014), sales through television has only dipped by a mere 1.5 % (2012-2014), where as online has seen a 10.3% dip.

However many marketers will still choose online because of its better short term ROI. Even if independently digital does not perform at par with television, the media mix of television and digital can fetch better results and create a stronger impact. Thus when it comes to future of television advertising, we can see the lines blurring between TV and digital.

The convergence of TV and digital will lead to a change in evaluation of advertisements. To understand the dynamics of this combination and how they work to deliver on an advertiser’s expectations it will become imperative to measure the ad impressions in digital media. That can only happen when one looks at the ad impression on television. This further means that, ad measurements will see a shift from average commercial rating to measuring the impression of the advertisement seen.

Impressions can only be measured on a qualitative scale. To create advertisements that appeal to more than the visual senses, television advertisements will work on the convergence of technology, consumer behaviour and business models. With rapidly increasing technology and business models trying to cope with the tendency to time shift while watching TV, the future of television advertisement is predicted to become very lucid from the point of view of the consumer.

Accessible content libraries fuel customised, on demand stream which leads traditional channels to cut back on sharing mind space. This need accelerates time shifting while watching TV to a point where it wouldn’t be wrong in predicting an explosion of internet-TV connectivity. This will give rise to the demand of Smart TV, which means a simplified single user interface as opposed to multiple boxes.

This kind of behavioural shift in TV viewing will bring about significant changes in advertisement. Since ads will now have to be delivered in real time, it will lead to the purchase of very specific audience segments across shows. Product placements will increase and lines between infomercials and entertainment will be seen blurring

Targeting an entire segment with a piece of advertising will be taken a step further with in ad modifications catering to the sub divisions of audiences within the chosen division. This will be enabled by the ability to analyse and render Meta data. For example, the car being used in a chase sequence during a particular show may change depending on the person viewing it. Viewers may also hear different dialogues during particular scenes. This sort of personalisation will address the need of creating stronger impacts and measurable impressions.

Moreover in-time ad insertions will be employed much more to fit into the time shifting television viewing model. This feature will be further facilitated by analytics engines. Here the decision of what to air and when to air is based on context, current mood, demo-psychographics, intent, etc. Better audience tracking abilities and meta data analysing will bring about dynamic changes in the advertisements ‘quality making them better equipped to appeal to personal senses.

This new form of addressability and personalisation will infiltrate the consumer experience by now adding smell and taste to advertisements with the help of 3d printers, haptics and smell generating technologies. The functioning of studios, production houses, media aggregators and buyers will change a great deal as the quality of viewing advertisements go through a transition. Advertisers will need to be adept while predicting viewership, timing and demand of consumers.

December 30, 2015January 6, 2016

Television Advertising-Pros and Cons

With the ingress of digital era and various forms of media outlets, one might think that advertisement through television has taken a back seat. But according to research conducted by market analytics company, Market Share which meta analysed thousands of marketing optimizations used by major advertisers from 2009-2014, the performance of TV ads has remained steadily effective over the time period. After examining advertisement performances over platforms like print, radio, online, television, paid search; television has showed the most efficiency with respect to key performance indicators like sales, account conversions, etc.

The reason behind television’s resilience lies in the emotional factors that are roped in when designing a TV commercial. TV commercials are generally based on two ideas- entertainment value and thought provoking ability. The latter especially stirs up emotional response that get directly associated with the brand invoking it. For example Nike ads have always asked us to push our boundaries with regards to physical movement, such as exercise. This is further justified by their tagline, Just Do It. By using premier sports stars as their ambassadors and casting them in an energy infused ambience, Nike as a brand always tries to portray itself as an organisation working to diminish the reluctance people face when it comes to physical work out. Their advertisements are most viewed on YouTube and are often added in motivational and inspiring categories.

The general population on an average spends about four and half hours in front of the TV daily making it the most viewed form of media than any other. With cable TV and its low cost of production, advertisers are more than ready to book slots between shows to advertise their products. Choosing a demographic with television becomes easier when one looks at the list of programs that each channel caters to. While big brands generally go for 60 second commercials, most commercials are still 30 seconds. While going for 30 second spots one can mix it with 10 and 15 second commercials which increase the number of times the ad is viewed without having to pay for the higher cost of 30 second ads. This is because, the number of times a current or potential customer views the ad is directly related to how they react to it. However such mixes are not efficient when it comes to providing the proper message that is integral to the brand image.

Despite the effectiveness and reach of television advertising, there are still a few things to be certain of when choosing to advertise through television. It has been proven, that television advertisement works well when the brand is successful in creating a long standing image. This means a long term investment in television advertising, as image building through TV includes repetition of ads, installment storytelling, highlighting the brand message through innovative themes. All of this can be executed only by an efficient production unit which involves hiring script writers, actors, directors, etc and this is just the starting cost.

Moreover once the commercial is aired, it is in competition with several other commercials that are trying to capture the attention of the audience. Buying airtime provides limited time which is not sufficient for proper exposure. Additional airtime costs more money. In addition, consumers also have no station loyalty. They might be active television viewers only for a stipulated amount of time, for example they might be active every evening for two hours, 8 PM- 10 PM for their favourite shows distributed over various channels. Also the introduction of DVRs and recording facilities allow consumers to avoid commercials. Even for commercial breaks during live shows, the consumer may choose to go for a bathroom break or leave the TV area for a snack. This kind of fluctuation deters the impact that television ads try to create through repetition.

ROIs can be easily measured in short term when it comes to other forms of advertising such as newspaper or radio but with television the large budgets can only be justified in long term. Thus if one has money to spare and is looking for long term credible image building, then advertising through television can be opted for.