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Tag: MTV Nishedh

  • For Season 2 of MTV Nishedh series

    Viacom18 and MTV Staying Alive Foundation roll out campaign

    By Our Staff

     

    Viacom18 and MTV Staying Alive Foundation are back with Season 2 of television series MTV Nishedh.

     

    Speaking about the campaign, Anshul Ailawadi, Head – Youth & English Entertainment, Viacom18, said: “We believe that doing good is good for business, and that ethos drives our content choices too. The maiden season of MTV Nishedh performed well with a consolidated viewership of over 11 Mn and a growing digital following. We are excited to push the boundaries when it comes to content narratives and to shine the spotlight on topics that might be considered taboo.”

     

    Added Georgia Arnold, Executive Director of MTV Staying Alive Foundation: “I’m excited that we’ll be able to reach even more young people, empowering them to make informed choices about the social and health issues they encounter. With partners like Viacom18, it gives the campaign monumental leverage in terms of reach and engagement.”

     

    Commenting on the partnership, Sarthak Ranade, Managing Director of Janssen India & South Asia, part of the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson said: “Johnson & Johnson continues its fight against TB in India, building on our longstanding work in collaboration with the Government of India, NGOs and other partners. We believe that there is tremendous power in multi-sectorial partnerships to help turn the tide against this devastating disease. Through our partnership with the MTV Staying Alive Foundation on Season 2 of MTV Nishedh, we aim to empower the youth of today to make a real change and champion the cause of a TB-free India.”

     

  • It will address the challenges of tuberculosis and Covid-19

    Viacom18 & MTV launch MTV Nishedh launch drama series starring Sania Mirza

    By A Correspondent

     

    After the success of Phase 1 of the MTV Nishedh campaign, Viacom18 and MTV Staying Alive Foundation, supported by an educational grant from Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., are set to bring back a digital-only miniseries MTV Nishedh Alone Together.

     

    The 5-episode mini-series will stream on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook handles of MTV India and MTV Nishedh, starting every Friday, from November 27, 2020 onwards.

     

    Speaking about the campaign, a Viacom18 spokesperson said: “We believe that meaningful content, when delivered in an entertaining format to mass audiences, can go a long way in driving instrumental impact. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, health and wellbeing has taken forefront in our lives; however, we still choose to shy away from conversing about TB – the world’s leading infectious killer. A global modelling study has suggested that, with every month of the lockdown, TB is expected to claim an additional ~70,000 deaths in India during 2020-2025.  Thus, the timing couldn’t be more appropriate to engage our audience through entertainment on social media to create awareness of TB in the times of Covid.”

     

    Added Georgia Arnold, Executive Director of the MTV Staying Alive Foundation: “MTV Nishedh saw positive results in sparking conversations around taboo topics including tuberculosis and the stigma around it. Through MTV Nishedh Alone Together, the aim is to continue this conversation and more importantly help those who may be suffering from symptoms of TB to ensure that they know where to go to get tested, and to continue accessing their meds during the pandemic.  We want people to know that there is always help available for them and they should never give up on themselves, no matter how dark the times may seem.”

     

     

  • Viacom18 veteran Sonia Huria to join Amazon Prime Video to head India comms

    Sonia Huria
    Sonia Huria

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sonia Huria, Head of Corporate Marketing, Communications and Sustainability for Viacom18, will move to Amazon Prime Video to lead all communication efforts for its India business. Huria will be a part of the global communications team – leading PR and Communications for Amazon Prime Video in India. She will report to Tobias Tringali – Head of Amazon Prime Video PR Asia Pacific & Canada who is based in Seattle.

    Widely regarded as one of the most influential PR heads in the M&E space, Huria has moved up the ladder at Viacom18 from heading PR for Colors in 2008 to the entire Viacom18 brand portfolio including corporate and then the key roles of corporate marketing and sustainability.

    In the areas of sustainability, Huria successfully created a model of multi-partner-funded behaviour change communication content at Viacom18… from the Navrangi Re! series to the more recent MTV Nishedh. In addition to managing internal and external communication, she also spearheaded trade marketing and digital media for the organisation.

    Huria serves as a managing committee member at The Advertising Club. Under her leadership, Viacom18 has won several awards on the global and India stage. She has been featured in Impact magazine’s Top 50 Women Leaders in Advertising, Media & Marketing for four years in a row.

     

  • Viacom18 and MTV Staying Alive Foundation partner with CIFF, UNICEF, BMGF, Ashoka University, Packard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson as funders for the campaign

    Viacom18 to roll out ‘MTV Nishedh’

    By A Correspondent

     

    The MTV Staying Alive Foundation has partnered with Viacom18 to launch a new campaign titled ‘MTV Nishedh’ that will focus on fostering healthier attitudes and behaviours and removing the stigma surrounding several health-related issues, including sexual reproductive health and wellbeing, contraceptive care, tuberculosis (TB) and nutrition. Other funded partners include: Through the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and The Centre for Social and Behaviour Change, Ashoka University, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Johnson & Johnson.

     

    MTV Nishedh, produced by Mumbai-based production company Victor Tango, will premiere on MTV India starting January 25 every Saturday and Sunday at 8pm and on Colors Rishtey starting February 1, every Saturday and Sunday at 10:30pm. MTV Nishedh will also be available on Voot.

     

    Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD, Viacom18: “I’ve always believed that doing good is good for business. We have, since inception, created content on social causes and built a successful broadcast business around it – from Balika Vadhu to Shakti to Laado – we have covered a gamut of socially sensitive issues through our TV content. Furthermore, through our youth brand MTV, we continue to create multimedia campaigns, over and above our TV shows, that highlight various social themes. We have explored issues as diverse as women’s empowerment to sanitation through our films like Queen and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. This business philosophy of doing good was underscored last year when BMGF worked with us to bring forth a behaviour change content series called Navrangi Re! on the issue of Fecal Sludge Management. The sheer number of social organisations and like-minded corporate who are partnering us to launch MTV Nishedh bears testimony to its scale.”

     

    Added Georgia Arnold, Executive Director of The MTV Staying Alive Foundation and Executive Producer of MTV Nishedh: “MTV Nishedh marks an exciting point in The MTV Staying Alive Foundation’s journey. Bringing the highly successful MTV Shuga model to India facilitates young Indians to take up more space on issues affecting their everyday lives. The power of MTV Nishedh is in its reflection of real life – we engage young people in all stages of its development to ensure the stories are relatable, entertaining, and highly engaging. Crucially, all of our content drives the audience to health services where they can receive valuable help. We believe MTV Nishedh has the potential to be a genuinely relevant cultural asset, as well as a successful public health campaign.”

     

    Said Sonia Huria, Head – Corporate Marketing, Communications & Sustainability, Viacom18: “Well, more than a conscious strategy, I think it is an ingrained thought process at Viacom18. Allow me to explain in some more detail. Our mission is to connect every story to its audience and every audience to its story. And over the last 12 years, we have created stories that resonate with our audience across platforms. Interestingly, some of our biggest successes have been stories that speak of societal issues or regressive societal norms – be it Balika Vadhu, Its Not That Simple, Angels of Rock, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha…the list goes on. Projects like Navrangi Re! and MTV Nishedh are natural extensions of this philosophy of using content to amplify social change. What encourages me is how more partners are recognising the relevance of this approach and reaching out to us to use entertainment to bring forth such stories of social impact.”

     

     

  • At the heart of it, MTV Nishedh will be the centrepiece of a MTV Shuga-styled mass media behaviour change campaign in India

    MTV Nishedh gets set for an India launch soon

    By A Correspondent

     

    At the Family Planning 2020 summit in London, Viacom18 announced its intention to launch MTV Nishedh, a localised format of the critically and commercially acclaimed drama series MTV Shuga, in India. The summit, which was co-hosted by the UK Department for International Development and UN Population Fund, in association with USAID and Global Affairs Canada, saw Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN) announce its plans to expand MTV Shuga with two new localised versions in India and Egypt by 2020.

     

    According to a communique, MTV Nishedh will be the centrepiece of a MTV Shuga-styled mass media behaviour change campaign in India, aimed at increasing knowledge and generating positive attitude towards contraceptive use, gender violence, HIV prevention and child abuse. MTV Staying Alive Foundation had pioneered MTV Shuga, its most successful behaviour change campaign till date, in Nairobi in 2009 with a long-running drama TV series and multimedia campaign that follows the lives of young people on the African continent.

     

    “Education and awareness must form the backbone of liberation – be it economic or sexual. With just 15 per cent of the total youth population having being exposed to any form of sex education, as a society we have allowed social stigma to overpower our responsibility to educate and empower our future,”observed Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO – Viacom18. Adding further he said: “‘Entertainment’ is our business, ‘engaging’ consumers, our strength and ‘enriching’ their lives, a responsibility. These 3 Es together form our legacy, that of a network with a humane purpose. With MTV being the country’s most resonant youth brand, we are optimally poised to dial up the reach of sex education in our country, through MTV Nishedh.”

     

    Georgia Arnold, Executive Director of the MTV Staying Alive Foundation and SVP of Social Responsibility for MTV International: “We know that storytelling has the power to catalyse positive social change, and have seen that first-hand in Africa with series like MTV Shuga,” said. “By bringing this format to new countries and new continents, we are committed to challenging misconceptions and inspiring our audiences to talk openly and honestly about their sexual health, encouraging more young people to protect themselves.”