Enticing kids to their reserved space

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: Ben soon discovers that the “watch” can help him transform into 10 different aliens—but the spell lasts only for 10 minutes at a time. The endearing little boy uses his new powers to right wrongs and fight evil, and one adventure after another follows. One of Cartoon Network’s most popular characters, ever since he was introduced in 2007, the channel is now leveraging Ben’s pull across all platforms. So, you now have Ben 10 talking to Amitabh Bachchan to promote the BR Chopra film Bhootnath where AB plays a friendly ghost.

“Once you have the product, you take it across platforms from apparels, contests, tie-ups with other brands and so forth,” says Tata.

According to a Credit Suisse report, the kids’ genre is dominated by foreign players, after Disney’s purchase of the Hungama Channel from UTV. Turner Networks (Cartoon Network and Pogo) was the incumbent in the market, and now has a share of market similar to Disney’s suite of channels (Hungama, Disney Channel, Jetix) while Viacom’s Nick achieves a share of around 14%. Turner is stronger in the south than in Hindi speaking markets, where Disney and Viacom dominate.

On-ground activities

“The key task is to enhance sampling of the channel with a 360-degree marketing initiative. We take the characters beyond the TV to the home, school and mall,” says Jaipuria. One way of doing this is to extend the content to on-ground activities. “We even put TV spots in the channels kids watch,” adds Jaipuria. “We do a whole lot of engagement with kids. In the recent past, we have had 19 interactive sessions with children, featuring contests, drawings, making rakhis. We celebrate every festival in Nick style.”

For Tata of Cartoon Network, “the key challenge is to take the content out of TV and on to other platforms.” For one popular show, M.A.D (Music, Art, Dance), the channel tied up with Singapore Tourism and took the show to Singapore. Besides, there are M.A.D books and do-it-yourself kits online. Together with ICICI Bank, it launched a Tom & Jerry credit card. For summer, the channel is lining up a feast of movies, including the Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra starrer Krrish 3, and other new launches.

“Music and dance are very big at