Unlike adults, a child's relationship with content is not transactional: Sujoy Roy Bardhan of Sony YAY!

Sony YAY!, the kid’s channel that is celebrating its fifth anniversary, is set to launch a number of new IPs. The channel claims that its latest IP ‘Ha.Go.La’ is one of its biggest launches ever.

Speaking to BestMediaInfo.com about their marketing strategy, Sujoy Roy Bardhan, Head Marketing- OAP and Licensing, Sony YAY! said, that their marketing strategy is closely linked with what they are carrying on-air.

“Most of our marketing initiatives are related to what we are doing on-air. We just launched Ha.Go.La and the show promise to be one of the biggest shows we have launched. We will continue to build on it,” Bardhan said. 

Bardhan further stated that the channel has been focusing on licensing its IPs to other businesses and will be available on various platforms so that the channel’s characters get a better chance to interact with kids.

“I believe that marketing and licensing go hand in hand, we are creating multiple touchpoints for the characters to engage with kids. What better way to do it than actually making a business out of it. We will create a lot of awareness-building pieces for the new shows that are being launched and we will do a lot of character-building activities for the characters that exist,” he said. 

There are many places where characters from kid’s channels are displayed on random products. Asked if that is a challenge to control, Bardhan said, “Licensing is a new concept in India, a grey market exists for these things, but I have spoken to licensees. A lot of people don’t even know that they are doing something wrong by having these characters on their products. That is why we have been able to convert a lot of these people with fair deals.” 

According to Bardhan, unlike adults, a child’s relationship with content is not transactional. He said this is a challenge as well as a huge opportunity. 

“Most of us when we watch content, consume it and forget about it. The relationship/engagement is very transactional. However, kids want to befriend these characters and want them in their lives. That is a huge challenge. Kids would want to have bags, pencil boxes or play games with these characters. These explorations are challenging as licensing is at a nascent stage here. While we see a lot of licensing happening, we also see a need to educate people about licensing.”

“We are focusing on creating relevance through associations. We recently did an association with Dabur where we are on their packs, so slowly and steadily brands are realising the value of these deals. These characters are pretty much celebrities for kids and for them to be on your packs creates value,” he added. 

Apart from marketing its IPs in the linear space, the channel has launched six games featuring its characters. They are also tailoring their content to digital platforms like YouTube. They also launched a ‘pet rescue agency’ at the experiential kids' park called KidZania in Mumbai and Delhi. The activities here included one in which kids get to play as rescue agents and look for missing pets. 

Upon being asked how such activities help the brand, Bardhan said, “We are in the business of creating characters that build a bond with kids. The characters do what they have to through stories, but we also have to create relevance and engagement for each of these characters. KidZania is one such endeavour where the concept is unique where kids learn new things and get their hands on things. Most of our characters are pets, like Oggy, and Honey Bunny. We realised that to be able to create an engagement with kids, we have to explore the friendship between the kids and the characters.” 

The channel also has big plans in the metaverse space and will soon make a few announcements. “Metaverse is the new buzzword and web 3.0 initiatives are looked at by every marketer today. For us, while the platform is extremely important it is equally important for us to create relevance to our characters. We are in the process of figuring that out,” Bardhan concluded. 

Info@BestMediaInfo.com