English Entertainment
Want Colors Infinity viewers to experience the brand: Viacom18’s D’Souza
MUMBAI: Indian audiences are refining their taste for content, giving rise to several niche genres. The best way for a niche channel can make itself visible through the clutter is by creating an impactful brand image.
Launched two years ago, Viacom18’s niche English entertainment channel, Colors Infinity, promised a range of exciting never-before-seen shows for die-hard Indian viewers of American and British TV series. Some of its best shows include Arrow, Orange is the New Black, iZombie, America’s Next Top Model, Humans and Fargo.
In an exclusive interview with indiantelevision.com, Viacom18’s English entertainment marketing head Sabrina D’Souza shares insights on the challenges of marketing a niche channel to the country’s youth and how the channel stays at the top of its game.
How have your marketing initiatives helped the channel so far?
Through our campaigns and brand initiatives, we have always focused on building brands and not just TV channels. Colors Infinity has successfully carved a place for itself in the competitive English entertainment landscape, thanks to a groundbreaking launch campaign, innovative show campaigns and relevant initiatives consistently through the year. We are confident of maintaining our distinction with many more forward-thinking campaigns and initiatives.
How has your messaging evolved since the launch in 2015?
The launch campaign of Colors Infinity was focussed on driving awareness and creating a favourable position in the viewers’ mind. Over the last two years, Colors Infinity has proven its pedigree with class-leading international and original content. We are tapping into new markets and expanding our viewership base, as English entertainment becomes more widely accepted in India. Thus, we are evolving from driving awareness to enhancing engagement, to enable our consumers to experience our brand. Our increasing direct engagement makes shows more memorable in an otherwise cluttered environment.
What are the key points to consider while forming marketing plans?
The primary objective of our marketing plans is to expand the viewership and target group in our priority markets, guided by research. Beyond the basics, we innovate to build a favourable perception and positioning for the brand in our consumers’ mind.
Whom does your initiative target – existing viewers or new ones? Who are the new audiences and how do you target them?
Our initiatives are targeted at our existing viewers as well as potential viewers. Since the English language is increasingly becoming mainstream in India, we believe that there will be growing demand for English entertainment in the following years. We expect more youngsters to take to international shows going forward, due to their access to the internet and social media. Hence, we are actively exploring many youth connect initiatives to stay in sync with our consumers.
Do marketing efforts on some shows add more value?
While the campaign’s contribution to the overall brand image of the channel is a crucial factor, this also depends on our prevailing business priorities.
What are the marketing campaigns undertaken to promote The Stage S3?
With the launch campaign, we set with the challenging task of drawing new viewers and simultaneously excite the fans with this year’s talent repertoire. The marketing campaign has managed to successfully stimulate viewership by mounting a holistic multi-media campaign spanning over 20 cities, with a combination of above the line and below the line methods.
Which medium works the best? Which location or demographic is your focus?
Each media in our marketing mix serves a specific purpose. We do not evaluate media choices in isolation but assess the cumulative campaign effect. While we are constantly pushing our boundaries to include more viewers, currently the demographic focus is to consolidate our position in 15-40 age group of socioeconomic classes A and B in metros.
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English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
