Indiantelevision.com Team

(17 October 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Mudra Videotec, the force behind marketing of popular TV serials like Buniyad and Rajni, is now being relaunched.

It will specialise in areas of branded entertainment and entertainment marketing.

Post the relaunch, Mudra Videotec would be an independent entity within the Mudra Media and Content Services Group, which includes the media agency OMS (Optimum Media Solutions) and Tantr, a specialist content production capability.

Jairaj Padmanabhan will head the new entity, to be based in Mumbai. A senior communications specialist, Padmanabhan moves from OMS, where he was regional director for the last one and half years. He has over 15 years of media, marketing, creative and production experience across organizations like O&M, Lintas, Homeland Networks and OMS. He has also written for TV serials (Hey Yehi Toh hain Wohh) and written & directed a feature film (U Bomsi n Me).

Meanwhile Pritamjit Das has also joined Mudra Videotec as business manager. He has been involved in entertainment marketing with stints in Epigram and Lintertainment.

Mudra media and content president Chandradeep Mitra added, "Mudra Videotec would operate in the growing area of convergence between branding and entertainment. Mudra Videotec would be present in two broad domains. On one hand, it would offer multiple communication solutions to marketers of brands leveraging various entertainment platforms. This would include a gamut of services like co-promotions of brands with films, merchandising, brand placements in films and TV serials, and conceiving, producing and airing advertiser funded programs (AFPs). On the other hand, it would offer branding and media solutions to entertainment and content creators. This would consist of providing media and branding solutions along with marketing consultancy to content creators."

To bring specialized knowledge and expertise about branded entertainment in the Indian context, Mudra Videotec is investing in research and tools for measurement. It has already completed a study on consumer attitudes towards brand integration within entertainment platforms. In association with OMS, it is in the process of completing a 4-city consumer study on current multiplex viewing habits.

Both are first-of-its-kind studies in the Indian context. Mudra Videotec will also be shortly launching its proprietary tool for valuation of brand associations with films, and a strategic toolkit for identifying and creating AFP opportunities.

In the past, Mudra Videotec has had considerable experience and success in television programming with hugely successful programmes like Buniyad, Udaan, Rajni, Manoranjan, Ados Pados and sponsored telefilms like Janam amongst others.

It was also instrumental in bringing the hugely successful Australian series Bodyline on Indian television. It was a pioneer in bringing sponsored serials and telefilms to viewers and has had an enviable track record of innovations in media.