Advertisements on television became a raging sensation immediately after their inception as not only did they have the ability to address the variety of masses at the same time but also because of the fact that they resulted in high recall value for the brands.
But down the years advertisements have somewhat lost the interests of the viewers and today they are mostly looked upon as the barriers between anavid viewer and the main content of the televised program a viewer eagerly waits to see. The shift in the trend has not only forced brand marketers of consumer products to add an experiential leg to an overall marketing campaign but this has also significantly impacted the television channels. Forcing them to get creative in terms of their own marketing techniques, which so far were limited to the replay of advertisements of their own shows on their own channels.
Many TV channels after witnessing the shift moved on towards using print media as a medium to better market themselves. Hence, towards the early 20th century most entertainment television channels were seen advertising about their upcoming shows and movies through front page of major newspapers in the country. However, when even the newspapers moved towards the digital era,a newer change in the marketing process has been observed lately and a demand for television channels to experientially woo their audiences was rightly felt.
A few early adapters of this change ventured into experiential as a reason of this demand and today are enjoying a distinctive identity and widespread popularity over other tv channels of their category. A notable example in the category is MTV India which was always looked upon as a music television channel but lately managed to create a connect with the youth of the country through their diverse campaigns such as MTV Campus Dairies, Karobonn Bloc Party, MTV Bollyland. Selfie Challenge among others. Their initiative MTV Coke studio has too garnered unabashed success and is an audience favorite today leading to unfathomable success for the channel.
Another example of the same is the English music channel VH1 which after associating and creating an IP VH1 Supersonic has become the synonym of western, rock, metal, trance and unconventional music in the country. The Zee channel group has also understood the importance of creating consumer experiences over the years, their campaigns as a group or even individual channels be creating a misunderstood score board during the ICC World Cup 2015 or promoting the kids shows aired on their channels through mall activations and kids’ activities have all resulted in the audiences feeling more close and connected to the channels which in turns results in a positive brand image for the channel and increasing viewership quotient.
Other channels like Sony, Pogo and Star Plus can also been seen joining the bandwagon recently with their respective initiatives for such using drones SankatMochanBahubali Hanuman, Science exhibitions and Star Parivar Meet and Greet Initiatives. Movies Now as an English entertainment channel too promoted the promoted “The Wolf of Wall street” premier through an array of installations at Goafest. As a result the movie became one of the most watched premiers in the history of television. Clearly the effect of experiential is visible and cannot be overlooked anymore by television channels.
Television channels marketing managers should realize that experiential campaigns have truly emerged as the need of the hour if they have to make their presence felt in the minds and hearts of the audiences today. With the revolution of information technology and the excess of information availability around the audiences, it will need more than a traditional marketing route for a channel to successfully market itself. And with the world of experiential marketing full of opportunities to explore it is a must for every television channel today to hop on the journey of creating unique experiences for viewers and join the war of creativity to successfully market themselves.
