MAM
Nakshatra Diamond contest on Sony to promote soap
MUMBAI: Sony Entertainment Television (Set) is not leaving any stone unturned in promoting its existing shows and the new ones that are slated for a launch post World Cup.
Be it flashing promos during the matches on MAX; placing advertorials in leading dailies; hoardings or launching contests, the channel is doing it all.
With Balaji Telefilms’ Kahani Terrii Merrii , the channel’s alleged magnum opus not raking in the desired TRP ratings, the channel has resorted to various promotional campaigns. The latest offering is the Nakshatra Contest which was launched on 12 March 2003. The contest aims at harnessing female viewership.
The contest requires the participants to view the soap at 9:30 pm from Monday to Thursday and lookout for clues in the Nakshatra TV commercial aired during the break.Viewers get a chance to enter the contest by answering questions based on these clues. Viewers have been given a deadline of 3 April 2003 to send in their responses. Ten lucky viewers stand to win an exclusive piece of Nakshatra Diamond Jewellery, says a channel spokesperson.
“We chose Nakshatra Diamond because the brand fit worked with the opulence and grandeur of the show. The show is watched mostly by women and most women would fancy the possibility of being one of the 10 lucky winners of an exclusive piece of diamond jewellery,” the spokesperson adds.
Lately, the channel has also been placing advertorials in a leading daily newspaper, to promote its other serials like Kkusum and Kyaa Hadsaa Kyaa Haquiqat to name a few. According to the channel spokesperson the advertorials, which are customised stories of a show are an innovative and effective way to reach out to viewers.
“We intend to use advertorials for our shows that have an interesting twist in the story track. Last week we placed advertorial for the show Kkusum. In the future it could be for any exciting development on Sony Entertainment Television” the spokesperson adds.
Though its clear that the channel is determined to pull all strings to boost its TRPs, what remains to be seen is if these promotional gimmicks really work .
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
