MAM
AXN evolves marketing strategy for a bigger audience connect
MUMBAI: As the English GEC space grows with new players coming in, AXN is evolving its marketing efforts.
The focus is to expand the consumer connect with AXN‘s most popular international shows. “We have changed our media mix to interesting one-on-one interactions with our key stakeholders. We have linked all such activities with our key properties and targeted them differently with each programme,” AXN business head Sunil Punjabi said.
The first initiative was the Supernatural Tweet-up event. “We launched season eight with a tweet-up event in four key metros and followed up a sustenance activity after two months with another six cities activation. This activation has had good response and we received queries from smaller cities like Chandigarh, Nashik, Nagpur, Indore, Jaipur among others to reach them,” Punjabi averred.
As ‘Top Chef’ has a larger appeal beyond the six metros, AXN decided to market the property not only in the four metros but also towns like Pune and Hyderabad, among others.
Another property is ‘The Voice’ and the fourth season has Shakira and Usher as judges. “We decided to use this as a peg for our next promotion activity. We launched the ‘Find yourself in LA’ on the sets of Voice where Shakira would be judging the battle rounds. Through this activation, we have connected to approximately 700 contestants across advertising agencies, clients and distribution,” Punjabi averred.
The Thrillionaire campaign that AXN kicked off in October is being run across the year. As AXN is celebrating its 15th year in India, the channel launched the ‘15 years of Thrill Campaign’ in October. This campaign will culminate this year. “So far the response to this activity across the year has been great and we hope to keep engaging with our viewers consistently,” Punjabi stated.
What is interesting is that AXN has partnered with Hindi films. The thinking, Punjabi said, was to Indianise the look of the channel. “We associated with relevant on-brand movie tie-ups like Special 26 with the launch of ‘Leverage’. ‘Leverage’ is all about the ‘Dons of the Cons’ and so was ‘Special 26’. With the right character fit, we have launched ‘Leverage’ on the channel with Akshay Kumar in Special 26.”
AXN will air two original productions, ‘Apprentice Asia’ and ‘Hannibal’, this year. “Our first set of activation for ‘Apprentice Asia’ happened during the call for entry phase. Statistically, India had a strong response. Two of the 10 contestant for ‘Apprentice Asia’ are Indians. Also, the host Tony Fernandes made news in the form of the Tata-Air Asia JV being formed for a low cost airline. Tony has successfully turned around the airline in Asia and has interest in multiple business including a soccer and F1 team,” said Punjabi.
Brands
Oyo parent Prism appoints former Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi to Board
Former market regulator joins Prism to strengthen governance for IPO
NEW DELHI: Prism, the parent entity of Oyo, has appointed former Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi as an independent director, as the hospitality firm gears up for its planned Rs 6,650 crore initial public offering (IPO).
Tyagi, a 1984-batch IAS officer, served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from 2017 to 2022. His appointment is aimed at strengthening the company’s governance framework and providing strategic oversight as it moves closer to a public listing.
He joins a high-profile board that already includes several prominent names from global business and policy circles. These include Troy Matthew Alstead, former CFO and group president of Starbucks; Aditya Ghosh, co-founder of Akasa Air; Deepa Malik, paralympic athlete and Padma Shri awardee; William Steve Albrecht, professor of accountancy at Utah State University; and Bejul Somaia, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Prism founder Ritesh Agarwal, said Tyagi’s experience in capital markets regulation and public-institution stewardship will be critical as the company scales operations and enhances long-term accountability.
The company recently filed preliminary papers with Sebi to raise Rs 6,650 crore through a confidential route. Market sources estimate its valuation will be in the range of $7 billion to $8 billion.
Over the course of his career, Tyagi has held senior roles in the ministry of finance, where he oversaw investment policy and financial-sector reforms. His induction to the Prism board signals a renewed focus on aligning the company’s internal standards with the stringent requirements of public markets as it advances toward its IPO.
