By Dhara Salla
After Colors with Bigg Boss and Sony with Kaun Banega Crorepati, it is the turn of Imagine TV to come up with a big-ticket reality performance show – The Voice. The Voice is an American reality talent show based on the reality singing competition The Voice of Holland, created by Dutch television. MxM India talked to Mr Nikhil Madhok, Senior Director Marketing and Communications, Imagine TV, about the show and what it means for Imagine.
Q: Imagine already has a great new lineup of content; why did you feel the need for this big-ticket?
One of the things we are trying to achieve is a good balance with fiction and non-fiction. We are revamping and refreshing the line-up of our show. We got our fiction shows line-up in place and it was the time to start the phase with non-fiction. Imagine TV has done a lot of reality shows like Rakhi ka Swavamyar, Shaadi Teen Crore Ki and Pati, Patni Aur Woh, to name a few, but had never tried a talent show. If you talk about Nach Le, it was a differentiated concept with Saroj Khan teaching the contestants to dance. Therefore, we never had a talent show per se, and The Voice is it.
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Q: Tell us about the show.
The Voice, which will start in January 2012, actually has a differentiated concept, we are not saying it just for the sake of it. We will have blindfold auditions; the judges will be blindfolded and will select the contestants only on the basis of the voice. The contestants cannot influence the decision of the judges with their looks, crying or an emotional sad story. Beyond this, there will be involvement of the coaches. There will be four teams, with 14 contestants per team and every week the coaches will only select the good and the bad from their team. With The Voice we want to ensure that the final talent will be a superlative talent. The auditions will go to 12 cities – metros and important states where we can pull the maximum talent. It will be positioned in cities where people can easily drive down to the location.
Q: Why an adoption of the international format, why not original?
If you see Imagine TV has already experimented a lot with original shows such as Rakhi ka Swayamvar and Shaadi Teen Crore Ki, and we thought that it is the right time to get this show on board. We did not want to experiment at this stage. The Voice has already been a successful show in other countries and its rating has proved it. This format has already been syndicated in 25 countries. It has proven itself in markets and the strength is the format of the concept.
Q: What is the show’s budget? We hear it is a big number…
(Laughs) If I tell you the budget then I will have to resign from my job. But I can tell you that we have invested a lot in this show and it is a big ticket in real terms.
Q: What part of the total budget will be allocated to marketing?
We are going to do a heavy marketing campaign and about 20 to 25 percent of the total amount of the budget will be dedicated to marketing.
Q: How will the marketing campaign be distributed, and what is the strategy?
It will be distributed among different phases. The first phases will be the call for entry, second will be about educating the viewers to know how the show is different and talent matters, third will be the launch campaign. The show will run for 12-14 weeks and we will be marketing throughout the time the show is on air. The campaign is still in progress and we will come out with it once everything is finalized and things fall into place.
Star Plus has partnered with DDB Mudramax OOH to create an awareness and buzz for the launch of its epic serial Mahabharat that starts today (Sep 16).
The route we used was to put up large 3D sculptures on the billboards ranging from 17 to 22 ft in height emerging out of the billboards. The three innovations of Arjun, Shakuni and Draupadi look dominating and dwarf the conventional innovations done so far on the OOH platform. These innovations have been entirely conceptualized and designed by our in-house OOH creative team.”
By A Correspondent
