Colors to sell majority of Bigg Boss ad inventory before launch; hikes ad rate by 5%

Colors is looking at selling about 50-60% of the total ad inventory of Bigg Boss 12 before the launch of the show. The channel is also seeking to increase ad rates for the show by around 5%.

Colors has roped in five sponsors for the reality show and is looking at signing 2-3 more by the end of this week.

Raj Nayak, COO, Viacom18, said, “We have four sponsors and we are in process of signing 2-3 more by the end of this week. We haven’t started spot-buys yet. We will sell 50-60% inventory before the show is launched. We believe our advertisers should get value."

"Given the scenario in the marketplace, we have been realistic with a 5% hike," Nayak added.

On being able to seal deals with repeated sponsors, Nayak added, “When advertisers come again and again, it shows they trust us and they are sure of the value that they are getting, which is why they keep coming back. India’s Got Talent will always have Maruti and similarly for this show too. Look at any other big show, KBC or any other. It doesn’t happen there.”

While the advertisers flock the show, it still doesn’t seem to be a massy spot for them due to the content and controversies. Many believe that it has a cult following, but does that make a certain group of advertisers wary of coming on board the show?

Nayak denied, “There’s no category that has not come on Bigg Boss, whether it is FMCG, mobile handsets, car, television sets and mobile phone service providers.”

Bigg Boss during the first few seasons was a loss-making property . It broke even a few seasons ago and is now a profitable property. Though Nayak is quick to add, “It is a profitable venture, not very profitable though. But the buzz that it creates and the varied kind of viewership that it generates, the loyal viewership base that Bigg Boss has is unmatched. People get withdrawal symptoms once the show goes off-air. People write to us saying, ‘why can’t it be done 365 days!’ We have also gone into the regional languages, and wherever the format has travelled, whether it is Kannada or Marathi, it has been a huge success.”

Going by the content trends, this show too goes beyond the linear broadcast. It has a huge audience base on Voot and with the recent partnership with Jio, the show will be streamed through the Jio app. The OTT app will have the full episodes, voting options and extra footage. The show appeared on MTV last year, albeit with marginally different episodes, and the network will continue with that strategy.

Speaking about this, Nayak answered, “The audience on MTV has doubled between last year and this year. We also do certain screening of the house live on MTV for a couple of hours.” Why MTV? He said, “It’s our brand, our channel and is a hub of youth audience. This show is quite conducive to this audience. Whichever content is conducive to that audience, we feel that we should leverage the property within our own network.”

Colors will soon activate a high-voltage marketing and digital campaign for Bigg Boss 12, accelerating all touch-points and adding on to the already existing buzz. For all the digital-savvy viewers, Voot’s exclusive properties like Unseen Undekha and Cutless – full versions of tasks, nominations, fights and drama will be available. The channel will also launch season 2 of ‘Bigg-Buzz’ – the digital extension of Bigg Boss, which brings the entire social media universe onto one platform to discuss the weekly on goings in the house.

The winning combination

This is the show’s 11th season on Colors. The first season was telecast on Sony Entertainment Television. This is the ninth consecutive year of Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan associating with the show as a host. Khan laughed out about this being his longest relationship (any relationship).

Having hosted the show for nine consecutive years, how much has Bigg Boss affected his brand value and vice versa? Khan added, “I really don’t know how the two brands have helped each other. It’s just that we have found a chemistry between ourselves – Bigg Boss and me – that’s how it’s working well.”

Speaking about the rub-off of the Bigg Boss brand on Salman Khan and vice-versa, Nayak said, “We complement each other. It gives a lot of value to both of us. If he is on television, it impacts him since he is able to reach 180 million households. It’s a win-win. This jodi has really worked for me.”

The format

Describing it as an ‘educational programme on human psychology’, Nayak explained more on the format, theme and nature of the show, “The format of the show remains the same, only the theme changes, which this time, is about jodis. The beauty of this show is the casting and unless they enter the house, you don’t know how it will be. There is a rigorous process. If the casting is right, half the job is done. Common people create more buzz and we have found that they give a special affinity. It’s an intelligent game to play. It’s beyond voyeurism.”

Manisha Sharma, Programming Head, Colors, said, “We have a very good line-up of unusual pairings of family and friends from across India. It’s a challenge for us to take this show to newer heights every year since it’s the most popular brand in the Hindi GEC space. Non-fiction content from Colors has always set a benchmark, and now with the success of Dance Deewane and Rising Star, our endeavour is to make the 12^th Season of Bigg Boss a chartbuster.”

The show will premiere on Sunday, September 16 at 9.00 pm. Subsequent episodes will air Monday-Friday at 10.30 pm and Saturday-Sunday at 9.00 pm.

The 12th season of the show has a new twist, as always. The show has different jodis (mama-bhanja, pati-patni, saas-bahu, peon-madam and many others) under one roof in the Bigg Boss house under the surveillance of multiple cameras. Equipped with daily tasks, weekly tasks, luxury tasks, secret tasks, special tasks and lucky tasks, Bigg Boss in its 12th season will astound you with yet another innovative theme – ‘Iss bar aa rahi hai interesting jodi’. Amid the dreamy setting of a beach, #BiggBoss12 will pack a punch with its assorted couple jodis battling it out to survive 100 days under the constant glare of multiple cameras and host Salman Khan’s lively supervision.

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