Indian Idol 6 plays the emotional card

And it is Indian Idol time again for Sony Entertainment Television. The sixth season of the show that contributed significantly in Sony climbing up the Hindi GEC (general entertainment channel) chart is set to go on air from June 1, four days after IPL (Indian Premier League) season 5 ends.

Sony began Indian Idol’s promotions at the start of IPL season 5. The creative duties of the show have been handled by Leo Burnett India. The media agency for the channel is OMD and the OOH partner is Media Circle.

According to industry sources, the channel has earmarked one of its highest single show marketing budgets for Indian Idol 6.

The show has become important in Sony’s annual calendar. The fifth season had augured good results for the channel in 2011. The expectation this year, as Sony contests keenly to stay consistent on the number two position on the Hindi GEC chart but has faced enough challenges from Zee TV, is no different.

A media buyer explained, “The gap between the number one and number two is not as wide as it once was, so if Sony plays its cards right it can even look at closing in on the gap with Star Plus.”

Unlike previous years, this year, Sony has a strong fiction line-up and a few shows such as ‘Biyaah Hamaari Bahu Ka’ in the waiting. Indian Idol has the potential to augment the channel’s strength for it to give some tough competition in the Hindi GE genre.

Speaking further on the marketing plans for the show, Danish Khan, Senior EVP and Marketing Head, SET India said, “We are going the whole hog, using mediums such as television, radio, OOH, cinemas and digital to market Indian Idol 6.”

The TV campaigns for the show have been different from that of the previous seasons. At the end of every ad one of the three judges of the show say, ‘Sach he toh kehte hain, har idol ke peeche hote hain najane kitne idol.’

Sharing the thought process behind these campaigns, Khan said, “Indian Idol is an established show. We wanted to give it new positioning and thought process. The marketing challenge was to bring in a change and emotional effect. Hence, we came up with these campaigns on TV that would attract not only the youth but also their families and friends.

The channel also plans to do on-ground events as well as few campaigns on radio that will be on the lines of the same concept. “We plan to come up with a few more ads between May 20 and June 1 to build anticipation among viewers,” said Khan.

The channel is in talks with different radio stations across cities to be associated as a partner for this season of Indian Idol and the same will be finialised in the next two days.