MAM
Star World in marketing push for fifth season of ‘Lost’
MUMBAI: Star World, The English general enetertainment channel from the Star stable, is set to kick off the fifth season of Lost from 18 January onwards. The show will air from Monday to Thursday at 10 pm.
Star World India GM Keertan Adhyanthaya says that the broadcaster is doing a host of marketing activties to promote the show. Online is an important component. A full blown Lost microsite will be created where season 1-4 synopsis (catch up for previous four seasons), character sketches, interactive games and episodic updates will be available. There will also be discussion forums created on the site.
The Star World page on the online social networking site Facebook will be populated with information from the show. Lost wallpapers will also be available on these sites for download. The broadcaster will also buy ad space on Facebook to promote the microsite.
Additionally, Lost postcards will be created online that can be sent to friends via Facebook. These postcards will also be available in Youth Hangouts like colleges and café coffee day‘s through cards4u.
Nickname Generator, an online ‘Sawyer’s nickname generator’, will be created where a fan can upload his/her name and get a nickname from the system. This is because the character of Sawyer from Lost is well known for giving nicknames to people.
As part of the on ground activation process, hoardings will be put up at prime locations in Mumbai and Delhi. Busbacks also have been created. Interesingly, the broadcaster is not using print for the Lost camapign. Adhyanthaya adds that the channel‘s marketing budget will go up by 35 per cent for the year. The fifth season marks the beginning of the end. On the show, six survivors get rescued off the mysterious island; But they all decide to go back to rescue the rest.
With only 34 original hours left until the final episode airs in 2010, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun and Claire‘s son Aaron – otherwise known as the Oceanic 6 – have been rescued and continue to try and pick up the pieces of the lives they knew before the crash. But Jack and Ben must convince all of them to return to the island in order to save those left behind.
This will prove quite a feat to achieve since Jack is still wrestling with his addictions, Kate won‘t speak to Jack, Hurley is in a mental institution, Sayid is an assassin and Sun blames Jack for Jin‘s death when the freighter exploded. Adding to their worries is the fact that they also have to take the body of Jeremy Bentham – aka Locke – with them in order to make things right with the island. But locating the island may prove even more difficult since Ben moved it.
Brands
Kaspersky and KidZania want Indian children to fight hackers before they hit their teens
Kaspersky and KidZania open a cyber investigation centre in Mumbai to teach children how to outsmart hackers
MUMBAI: India’s children are growing up online faster than anyone can protect them. Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity firm, is betting that the best way to fix that is to make six-year-olds feel like detectives.
The company has opened a Cyber Investigation Centre inside KidZania Mumbai at R City Mall, Ghatkopar, in what it is calling a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity role-play experience for children. Kids suit up in Kaspersky uniforms, sit down at dedicated workstations loaded with security software, and spend 20 minutes cracking simulated cases of phishing, identity theft and cyberbullying. Up to six children can play investigator at a time. Those who crack the case walk away with a personalised Kaspersky Cyber Investigator card — and a healthy suspicion of dodgy links.
The timing is not accidental. In India, 82.2 per cent of children have access to a mobile device by the age of 14. They use it to stream, game, chat and study. Most of them have never heard the word “phishing.”
“The earlier we equip children with the awareness and skills to navigate the digital world safely, the stronger our collective digital future becomes,” said Jaydeep Singh, general manager for India at Kaspersky. Tarandeep Singh Sekhon, chief business officer of KidZania India, put it more plainly: “Every parent today is thinking about how to prepare their child for a digital-first future.”
The partnership comes with commercial sweeteners. Visitors buying KidZania tickets get a complimentary two-month Kaspersky trial subscription. Annual pass holders get a full year’s subscription thrown in. Discount vouchers go out at the exit gates.
The launch ceremony leaned into KidZania’s theatrical DNA — a diya lighting, a dance performance, a key handover, a parade through the miniature city, and a ribbon-cutting at the new centre.
Cybercriminals, it turns out, do not discriminate by age. Kaspersky and KidZania are hoping that neither will the next generation of people trying to stop them.
