Exclusive | Ruchir Tiwari on plans for the Hindi movie channels

ZEEL strengthens their movies platform, Revamps Zee Cinema and launches a new brand film for Zee Classic.

Over the years, Cinema has evolved and so have the audiences. In recent times, there is a generation which is eager to consume classic movies.  As is seen, today’s filmmakers are not creating that kind of content. Hence the generation is moving towards channels which showcase classic movies.

Zee Networks bouquet’s Zee Classic caters to the audience who want to see classic movies and Zee Cinema caters to both classic and modern movies. They have understood the taste of audience and they are catering to audience of both tastes.

In October 2014, the network revamped Zee Classic and recently, the network revamped Zee Cinema. This is indeed a part of their core network strategy to bring newer content, feel and look to newer audience in changing times. 

To get a deeper understanding of ZEE Cinemas’ overhaul and the new marketing campaign that the Network launched for Zee Classic, we got in touch with Ruchir Tiwari, the Deputy Business Head of Hindi Movie Channels, ZEEL.

On asking about the need to revamp the channel, Tiwari said, “Over the years we have noticed that Zee Cinema is the first preferred channel over all Hindi Channels. With the changing time and cinema, we thought that we need to get a fresh look and feel to the channel. And this is what was missing. So we did a print ad across the leading newspaper of the country on our anniversary to revamp the channel.”

He adds, “Apart from that, getting a fresh look and feel is an exercise that is done every 3-3.5 years and it is done by all channels to refresh with changing times. We also did a research and the feedback came strongly that we need a look revamp to attract more audiences. So yes, there was a need to revamp the channel.”

While the channel has all major premieres on our channel. Haider being the first premiere which was aired recently. In the months, the channel has lined up premieres for all major movies.

The channel has aggressively worked on the content front. They have a new library and have also beefed up their content. Tiwari adds, “We have had a constant loyal base for more than two decades now. Yes we have changed the content strategy. We have beefed up our content. We have a fresh new line up on a fresh new Zee Cinema. We have a mixture of both Old and New content which caters to the 90’s with movies featuring Amitabh Bachchan and we also have new movies like Haider. So we have a blend of both Old and New movies catering to different age groups.”

After having upgraded their content, the channel has also upped their ad rates. Tiwari said, “We have increased the ad rates.”

“We decided to reinvent our channel on our 21st and as mentioned earlier, the new line-up will have latest movies apart from the early 90’s,” he went on to add.

The group is present globally and it intends to consolidate their position to cater to a wider audience.

On 19th April, the Zee Classic was reinvented and on that day TVC went live. Apart from that they also did a print ad on that day in a leading national daily. So that was it to begin with. Further down, the channel intends to extend their marketing strategy throughout the year across more properties.

The agency which worked on the whole package was Super Studio, an Argentina based digital agency and the campaign was done by Draft FCB Ulka.

The channel has always had a robust distribution. Tiwari adds, “It is now how rural plays up and we are looking forward to that.”

The channel has always showcased movies in the early and late 90’s and that has worked well for them. But with changing times, one needs to change and that is exactly what the channel did. Not only did they change, they also looked at newer audiences. Tiwari adds, “We already have a set loyal base and apart from that all set of newer audiences are welcome to our channel. We are looking at targeting a young vibrant set of audiences. Also since we have made our look and feel more young and vibrant, we want to attract the youth to our channel. Today, movies are changing and the youth prefer watching them at a theatre level. So we want to cater to that audience and be relate-able to today’s audience.”

On asking their USP and edge over competition Tiwari said, “If you see our theme ‘Movies, Masti, Magic’ and our new content line up, we are way different from other channels. We have just opened up a new world of magic for the audiences and it is now their choice whether to come to us or go elsewhere.”

On asking about the new Brand film for Zee Classic, Tiwari said, “Since our revamp in October we have received a good response for our channel. We have got more eyeballs and got a new look and this is the second phase of our marketing campaign.”

He adds, “With Zee Cinema we will be having an aggressive marketing campaign. We plan to launch a series of activities in the months to come for the same. Like the tag line says, ‘Woh Zamana Kare Diwaana’ we want to showcase those classic movies which have comedy and light hearted anecdotes which the movies of today lack. We have been seeing that an age group of 25-40 years are coming to our channel and liking the movies that were played during the 60’s and later.”

The agency which has worked on the brand film is Whyness and the production house is Abstract. Tiwari adds on the brief given to agency. He said, “We had given them a simple brief. We explained to them our brand strategy and the energy of our channel, the look and the agency just plucked the right essence of our product and created this campaign. Together we arrived at a different world and created this film. We wanted to communicate that the charm of classic movies is different and the emotion is different and the best part is it caters to three generations. The Dilip Kumar of the 50’s and 60’s, the Amitabh Bachchan of the 70’s and the Rishi Kapoor of the 80’s.”

For the second phase of their marketing campaign the channel will use all possible of audio/visual mediums like Television, Digital and Cinema.

All in all, with the refurbish of Zee Cinema and the aggressive marketing campaign for Zee Classic, ZEEL is set to cater to all audiences, young and old for their Hindi movie channels. By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit