GECs
Life OK to showcase Mallika’s Magic
MUMBAI: The countdown to Life OK’s much anticipated show The Bachelorette India has begun. Starting 7 October, every Monday to Friday from 9.30 pm to 10.30 pm, all eyes will be on Mallika Sherawat as she hunts for the perfect mate from among 30 eligible bachelors, who will pull out all stops to win the sexy siren’s heart… and hand.
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People will either hate it or love it believes Ajit Thakur
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“You will either hate it or love it,” says Life OK general manager Ajit Thakur about the non-fiction show.
Scheduled to run for five weeks with 28 hours of total content, 40 to 50 per cent of shooting has already been canned in the City of Lakes. Produced by SOL Productions with Lux Inferno and Ghadi Detergent as co-presenting sponsors, the show is in keeping with Life OK’s promise to add an Indian flavour to the much awaited reality series. As for Mallika, she is a magnet for publicity, whatever she does.
But why make the show a week day property? “This kind of content is universal in nature. If you view from a concept perspective, on other GECs, a week day concept is all about soaps and the emotional content is very high. So love is the corner stone for everything that happens on a GEC from Monday to Friday. Considering this fact, we thought this was the best time,” says Life OK marketing head Pratik Seal.
Marketing-wise, several activities have been planned. Digitally speaking, Life OK has organised a ‘live tweeter outdoor’ at Delhi University North Campus, where people can come and tweet their wishes to Mallika. “It’s a mood meter. Mallika’s mood changes on how you tweet. For example, if you criticise, she becomes grumpy; if you praise her, she is all happy. This activity is still on and students there are enjoying it,” explains Seal. Special tabs, games and apps, and video leaks on YouTube have been built into the digital activity.
Secondly, throughout the five weeks, Life OK will have a video diary, also known as a regular video blog, on YouTube that will be updated regularly.
Thirdly, there will be a live tweeter hastens during the show, where people can tweet about their favourite moments.
Fourthly, Life OK has undertaken on-ground activations in over 38 cities. Add to that, colleges in UP, Delhi and Gujarat will celebrate Rose Day as a prelude to the show. A Google hangout with the lady on 7 October is also in the pipeline.
Fourthly, Life OK has undertaken on-ground activations in over 38 cities. Add to that, colleges in UP, Delhi and Gujarat will celebrate Rose Day as a prelude to the show. A Google hangout with the lady on 7 October is also in the pipeline.
Radio and television activations have been undertaken on a huge scale and TV promos of the show have received a good response.
Speaking about hoardings, Seal says: “We did Phase I and Phase II of the campaign. The first phase was about selling the concept of war while the second phase was about showcasing love.”
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There will be people coming, who want a break from Hindi GECs, says a confident Pratik Seal
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Of the entire show budget, the channel is learnt to have spent around eight to ten per cent on marketing the upcoming show.
Will the show grab enough eye balls in the face of such stiff competition? “Our attempt was to reach out beyond the GEC audience. We want to target more youth, more men, and more family as a unit; that has been our objective. If we manage to do that, half of our job is done. So there will be people coming, who want a break from Hindi GECs, to see what new biryani is cooking,” says Seal confidently.
But comparisons with NDTV Imagine’s Swayamvar are inevitable and the industry isn’t too gung-ho about Life OK’s experiment with a similar format. “We’ve already seen enough of Rahul Mahajan, Rakhi Sawant and Ratan Rajput’s Swayamvar. What new is the show going to add? Just by changing the face of the person does not mean that the show is going to catch the attention of the viewers,” says a director.
“Forget the daily soaps on other GECs. I think Bigg Boss is going to be the show’s biggest competitor. I am watching Bigg Boss since three weeks and I am already glued to it. I would not like to switch to any other channel for that one hour,” says an industry professional.
GECs
ZEEL overhauls sales structure to chase growth across TV and digital platforms
New structure sharpens digital push as viewing habits fragment fast
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. is reshuffling its sales playbook as it looks to keep pace with a fast-changing media landscape, where audiences are scattered, screens are multiplying and advertisers are following the data.
According to media reports, the rejig is anchored in the company’s push to build a more integrated, data-led monetisation engine, one that can straddle both traditional television and fast-growing digital platforms with equal ease.
At the heart of the move is a reworked sales architecture designed to deliver cross-platform solutions. With connected TV gaining ground and digital consumption surging, ZEEL is aligning its teams to move quicker, think broader and sell smarter.
The restructuring is being led by chief operating officer, advertisement revenue, Sandeep Mehrotra, at a time when the company says it is seeing tremendous growth. The idea is simple: match the right talent to the right opportunity in a market that is anything but static.
As part of the overhaul, several long-serving executives have been elevated to chief sales officer roles across regions and content clusters. Sanjoy Chatterjee will head the east market, while Gunjarav Nayak takes charge of the west along with high-margin verticals such as hmg, brand works, intellectual properties and digital sales. Rajnish Gupta will oversee bengaluru and chennai markets alongside the kannada and tamil clusters.
In other key moves, Divjyot Dhanda will lead hyderabad and kochi markets and manage zee tv, zee keralam and the telugu cluster. Roshan Vasu Kotian will supervise a diverse portfolio including Zee Marathi, &tv, Zee Punjabi, Zee Anmol, Big Magic and Zee Biskope.
The company is also strengthening its bench, appointing national sales heads across retail, regional clusters, digital and brand solutions. Ankur Kapila’s appointment to lead digital sales signals a sharper push into a segment that continues to outpace traditional formats.
Behind the scenes, dedicated strategy and operations roles have been carved out for both linear and digital businesses. Nitin Shetty, Rajkiran Shrivastav and Priya Nambiar will take on key responsibilities to ensure the new structure runs with precision.
The broader aim is clear. ZEEL wants a bigger slice of advertising budgets that are steadily drifting towards digital and connected TV ecosystems. By integrating its offerings, the company hopes to deepen client relationships while unlocking new revenue streams.
The new structure takes effect immediately, with Mehrotra continuing to report to chief executive officer Punit Goenka and steer the company’s advertising revenue strategy. Senior executive Laxmi Shetty will support the transition, with her revised role expected to be announced soon.
In a market where content is everywhere but attention is scarce, ZEEL’s latest move is less about rearranging the org chart and more about staying in the game.
