With summer vacations around the corner, kids genre channels are building up their content line-up to engage their viewers for the months of April, May and June. Sony YAY!, the kids entertainment channel front the stable of Sony Pictures Network India claims to have doubled down on its content line-up for FY23. “Since our launch five years ago, Sony YAY! has grown multifold and has been able to garner more than 43 million viewers on television across the country. We have increased our investment in content by 50-60% for FY23 and over these three months of summer vacations, we have new episodes of our existing shows as well as new shows lined up for our viewers to be launched every 15 days,” Leena Lele Dutta, EVP and business head, Sony YAY!, told BrandWagon Online.
The channel has rolled out new episodes of its tentpole shows such as Oggy and the Cockroaches and anime show Obocchama Kun. Taarak Mehta Kka Chhota Chashmah which is an animated version of the broadcaster’s popular general entertainment (GEC) show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, will be back with a third season along with a movie based on the show for television slated to be launched in May. In June, the channel plans to launch its new IP titled Ha.Go.La. Furthermore, the channel will roll out a new anime show and new episodes of Haste Raho Henry and Ding Dong Bell. In July, Sony YAY! aims to launch its new IPs such as Pajama, and has two new shows lined up for festive season and Diwali vacations. According to Dutta, this year the focus will be on dubbing of international shows into regional languages. “Our scriptwriters are getting involved with kids and picking up the language nuances and Indian references. These nuances are being incorporated in the dubbing, allowing us to make our dubbed content more engaging and relatable to the kids,” Dutta stated, adding that the channel has incorporated this across languages including Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu, among others.
Interestingly, Sony YAY!’s content offering goes beyond television to digital medium as well. With nine YouTube channels in play, the broadcaster has a separate content line-up planned for digital. “Today we have limitations on the kind of programming we air on TV due to ratings; however, with digital, we have no such limitations. Hence, we are able to roll out content which caters to every demographic. While there are shows on YouTube which are based on characters from our TV content, we are also making shows exclusively for digital,” she explained. Currently Sony YAY!’s YouTube channel has 4.21 million subscribers while its tentpole digital show Adventures of Kicko & Super Speedo, which runs on an independent channel, has 3.09 million subscribers.
The broadcaster has planned a 360 degree marketing strategy for the year, giving equal importance to both above-the-line (ATL) and below-the-line (BTL) activations. Sony YAY! has inked an exclusive partnership with KidZania, wherein kids in Mumbai and Delhi will get a chance to interact with toons. In addition, the channel has planned canter activity in over 70 cities featuring Honey Bunny and Oggy. The channel also plans to do mall activations, and has partnered with a hotel chain for thematic brunches. Licensing and merchandising of apparels, promotional licensing with different categories such as ice-creams and confectioneries are also some of BTL activities planned by Sony YAY!. As for ATL, the channel claims to have taken a mix of channels for their ads which will be featured across GEC, movies and sports genres. “We run TV ads with an aim to capture new audiences and make them land on our channel. We usually plan ATL activations by buying ad spots for our regional channels where we don’t have a dominant position. Therefore, the plans will be specifically designed for regional markets such as Tamil Nadu or West Bengal to boost our regional viewership numbers,” Dutta elaborated.
As for advertisement revenue, while the channel didn’t share any specific numbers, Dutta highlighted that this year the channel is not looking at revenue numbers just as an FCT play but is focussing on providing a holistic branding experience to their advertisers – from airing advertisers’ ads on the channel, integrating the brand on the vans alongside the characters and allowing kids to sample their products, sporting characters on the brand’s product, to launching an exclusive casual game of the brand, providing them with engagement points. “It’s no longer about getting decent ad rates but about how we increase the overall association of our client on our channel. Brand managers are not looking purely at FCT as much as they are focussing on wholesome integration,” Dutta stated.
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