How Bigg Boss will sail through sluggish economy and IPL clash

Despite a sluggish and challenging economic environment due to the Covid-19 crisis, and a clash with IPL, the reality television blockbuster show Bigg Boss 14 will match or slightly exceed last season’s revenues, suggest India’s top media planners.

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This season, Mobile Premier League is the Presenting Sponsor of the reality series and Dabur Dant Rakshak Ayurvedic Paste and Tresemme are the Powered by Sponsors. Industry sources closely associated with these deals informed BestMediaInfo.com that Colors has signed these sponsors at a price similar to last season.

A 10-second spot rate last year was quoted between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh and the channel is selling the inventories for the upcoming season at similar rates in an arguably toughest year, said multiple people involved in inventory buying.

Mahesh Shetty

Mahesh Shetty, Head, Network Sales, Viacom18, expects to sell 60-65% of the inventory before the season takes off in October.

“Last year was a blockbuster and in a normal year, you would witness a huge increase in terms of our pricing. However, because of the Covid environment, we are not running for that kind of increase,” he said.

He said many brands that partnered last year will come back this year and a lot many others are expected to associate as the season approaches. 

Kishan Kumar

“If you see, a large part of the Bigg Boss revenue happens due to the various sponsors that they have. 12-14 sponsors are always present throughout the season. Predominantly, Bigg Boss has always been doing well in terms of sponsorship numbers,” says Kishan Kumar MS, Chief Growth Officer & South, Head, Wavemaker India.

“The beneficiaries from Bigg Boss are people who are associated with a sustained period like a sponsor and for brands that want to create an impact quickly. A lot of engaged co-viewing happens around Bigg Boss, which compared to the co-viewing on IPL, which has lower engagement or attention among female audiences,” he added.

According to Kishan, the biggest advantage for brands associating with Bigg Boss is that there is a daily prime time presence for 2-3 months. It is a quick reach builder with impact and active engagement. “Our own past experience shows that a lot of brands can propel their image using Bigg Boss,” he said.

However, as this year is very different, the rates can get under pressure if the overall fill level is under pressure as it is also a costly show. More so this year, when extra precautions will have to be taken while shooting, said Kishan.

Tanmay Priyadarshi Mohanty

According to Tanmay Priyadarshi Mohanty, Group CEO, Zenith, and Performics. Resultrix India, “TV viewership has also increased by 12-13%, and there will also be an impact on their overall reach. This means they will be able to command similar prices.”

R. Venkatasubramanian

R. Venkatasubramanian, National Head, Buying, Havas Media, said, “Bigg Boss will go on till January ’21. Advertisers will definitely consider Big Boss in the period of November ’20 to January ’21 so that they can generate more revenue. The overall TV viewership has also increased compared to last year, so I’m sure Bigg Boss will deliver like last year (average of the entire season).” 

Shetty said the festive season will also generate more demand from different categories. “Bigg Boss has big traction for Diwali and as the country is coming out of the lockdown, and there is a lot of demand for different categories. The festive should unleash that demand as different brands want to capitalise on it.”

Due to the Covid situation, experiential marketing has also gone down and a lot of smaller businesses will start spending on newer categories. With the Mobile Premier League itself being a new category this year, other newer categories are expected, says Mohanty. “A lot of new categories are coming up now that will look at experiential integration with Bigg Boss, which helps the smaller brands,” he added.

K Srinivas Rao

K Srinivas Rao, National Director, Buying, MediaCom, said integrations are one of the biggest advantages of Bigg Boss and because it is a long-standing property and the kind of things that are possible on a show like that in terms of active and passive integrations is great.

“Last time, we had one of our clients there as a presenting sponsor and what they could get in terms of integrations was fantastic. ROI is very high with Bigg Boss,” he said. 

Info@BestMediaInfo.com