The 3 ‘R’ s that define content success amongst Indian audiences

No, I am not introducing a new terminology similar to the 4 Ps of marketing. By 3 ‘R’s I am referring to the 3 reactions that a content should elicit from the audience in order to be successful.

Ever imagined why does a housewife tune into a particular show everyday despite her overloaded schedule? Or why does a teenager or say a metro professional, wait eagerly for the next episode of his/ her favorite web series?

The answer is that content not just entertains but transports us in to a different world where we all are living a second life subconsciously.

Traditionally content has been classified under various heads like fiction, non-fiction, mythos, reality shows, singing reality show, musicals.. etc.

However, I would like to re-categorize all of the above in to 3 simple audience reactions. And having dealt with Hindi shows and Hindi speaking audience for a large part of my career I am capturing these reactions in Hindi (with English versions)

R1. Oh! Aisa bhi hota hai  (I am curious/ I am shocked/ Wow!!!)

R2. Haan! Aisa hota hai (This is true, I empathize)

R3. Kaash! Ke aisa hota (I wish this was true)

The important thing is that no single piece of content will ever have the same reaction from everyone. And there is no reason why everyone should respond in a similar way.

Ever imagined, why two different individuals who are in different geographies, having a different socio economic and education level end up loving the same piece of content? – The reason is that their reactions are different and the way they have connected with the show is totally different. For one it might generate curiosity but for the other it can be empathy. We have seen this happening on television and I won’t be surprised to see a similar trend on web content also as we continue to evolve in that space.

 It’s important to know your audience segment very well and the role that your content is going to play in their lives. And this applies to all genres of the shows. We just need to break every show in smaller elements to understand this. Let me illustrate this with some examples where the 3 ‘R’s come into the picture.

Take any popular daily soap –Some people have fallen in love with the protagonist and somewhere deep inside their hearts they are saying “I wish I had a husband/wife like that” (R3 – Kaash! ………)

Some people identify with a character on the show and see the person going through similar situations in everyday life (R2 - Haan! …). Once this is established then this audience will never leave the show and would want this character to achieve something that they haven’t been able to in real life.

Similarly there are situations in the show that generate curiosity (R1 – Oh…). For example when a small town audience looks at the lifestyle of people from metros or other countries they get attracted and want to know more.

Now all the above can happen in a single show for different audiences.

Lets take some other genres.

A non-fiction reality show – Music lovers fall in love with a show and its performers as someone is seeing himself/herself in those performers on stage (R3… Kaash!!!).

But when there is an underdog story of a contestant then there is another set of audiences who start empathizing (R2…. Haan! …..).

And when you see a performance that you never thought would be possible then the feeling of shock/surprise comes in (R1… Oh!!!). Just think of a stunning dance act, or singing performance or even a mind-boggling recipe on the cookery show and think about your first reaction to it.

 Similarly a chat show can generates curiosity for some and aspiration for someone else. Crime shows largely generate R1 and R2- curiosity and empathy, as they reflect what is happening in the world around us. Mythogicals/ period dramas talk about things which we have somewhat heard of but are not fully aware; again generating curiosity.

Even horror shows/ thrillers need to have some connect. In fact they work the best when you bring in the power of supernatural in day-to-day situations that people can relate to. While the audience may or may not believe in the power of super natural, they will still connect to the situations that are shown.  

The clutter in the content and media space is growing by the day. And creating a content that connects with your consumer is very challenging. These 3 reactions can be a good guiding principle for people in the content space.

By no means I am discounting the power of the other elements in terms of the production quality, celebrities, execution, music, editing… All these elements come together to create a blockbuster show. However, I just feel that human emotions are at the core of any success story.

If we know our audiences really well, then the only question that one should ask himself is – Will I get one of the above 3 reactions to my content from a majority of the audiences? If the answer is “YES” then we have a potential winner on our hands.

News channels back to usual business

Now that Anna’s fast is over ‘insanity’ seems to be returning to our news channel.   All speculations about Parliament accepting Anna’s demands have now been put to rest… Anna Hazare finally broke his fast today morning and the country has been celebrating.

And with all this News channels are back to their usual ways. Since there is no more breaking news and all the people associated with the movment and those against the movement have been reasonably exploited its time to find a new celebrity… and guess who is this celebrity – its IKRA !

Who is Ikra ? Ikra is one of the two little girls who gave coconut water to Anna today. Her 5 minutes of screen presence this morning has made her a celebrity (at least in the eyes of some reporters). I am sure that  if Ikra had any idea what she was going to go through after doing this noble act, she would have thought twice.

News channel reporters were asking her some of the most stupid questions and I can’t help but replicate them verbatim over here

Reporter: Aap ko kaisa laga jab Anna ne anshan toda?

Ikra: Accha laga (obviously J)

Reporter: Aap ne Anna se kya kaha ?

Ikra: Paani Pilo (obvious again J)

Reporter: Anna ne aapse kya kaha ?

Ikra: Thank you (what else do you expect Anna to say)

Poor reporter couldn’t get any dramatic answers  from the kid so he turned to Ikra’s uncle who he initially thought was her father.

The uncle was part of the committee that was managing the event and hence could answer the questions much to the reporter’s satisfaction. ..But even he had to answer some really stupid questions first.

I guess someone will have to start an equally massive agitation to bring an end to this insanity and insensitivity of the news channels.

Ab to Mera Channel bhi Anna !

The Anna Hazare fever has gripped the entire nation for the last couple of weeks. It has brought people from all regions, religions, classes and age-group together and everyone is wearing the same cap – “I am Anna”. I was not born during the freedom movement but I am sure it must have been similar.

What was not present during the freedom movement was the minute by minute coverage by numerous television channels. And that according to me has helped Anna’s movement spread like fire. The news channels have unanimously supported the cause unlike what happened during Baba Ramdev’s movement where it was a divided house. So kudos to the Indian News channels for their unrelenting support to this movement.

But I have an interesting observation to make here. Life has just not been easy for our News channel reporters. They all survive on ‘Exclusive news and interviews”. This is something that they have been struggling to get ever since the fast began. And the credit goes to team Anna, who has been absolutely transparent about all its meetings and discussions leaving no room for speculation. No exclusive bytes have been given and it looks like all the news channels also saying – “Main bhi Anna – tu bhi Anna”

So the channels are trying out various other things to make up for this loss. They are getting all kinds of panelists for debates and discussions (saw yesteryear’s actor Raja Bundela also) but that’s still not making any difference.

And what they did yesterday was hilarious. As soon as there was some news about what  steps the government might take to end the fast, anchors on a few channels jumped with excitement saying that it was only their channel that had predicted that these actions could be taken and how accurate they were – what an achievement, I say. But after two hours when things turned out the other way, they didn’t know where to hide their face.

I think the news channels are doing a fabulous job and at this stage should not bother about exclusive news. My request to them – lets follows Anna’s strategy of being ‘inclusive’ and lets forget ‘exclusive’

Main bhi Anna- tub hi Anna, ab to saara desh hai Anna.

What happened to the Sunday morning TV viewership?

Remember the days of Ramayan and Mahabharat on Sunday mornings? People would have finished most of their daily chores at least 5 minutes before the telecast. And if there was any work left then the work had to wait for an hour at least. Because it was the time when the entire family would sit and watch their favorite mythological show.

Sunday morning in those days was considered as a weekend prime time slot. Of course those were the DD days and one ad spot on these shows used to give you very high GRPs.

With the advent of satellite TV in India, TV viewing has gone through a sea change. Weekday prime time has got extended to 11:30 pm and we discovered the potential of week day afternoon slots. However, one slot that has not seen enough action is the Sunday morning slot. I would say that the slot has been NEGLECTED by the broadcasters and as a result it’s become a dead slot.

No broadcaster is willing to invest in this slot and I really don’t understand why? Colors made an effort with some costume dramas in the morning but that certainly was not the best content they had.  Some of the channels will argue that there is not enough viewership on that slot and hence it doesn’t make commercial sense to invest there. The question that I would like to ask is that do we really need to look at the TAM numbers in this case? The ratings are low because there is no good original content being aired at that time.

Isn’t it common sense that majority of the people are at home at that point of time probably relaxing or doing some weekend work. Yes there will be a segment from the metros that will go out of home for recreation but that is a very small segment. The fact is that if you put up a good show and promote it well you can get ratings that are higher than you weekday prime slot. Don’t we get a good rating for an India cricket match if it’s on a Sunday morning?

I would like to cite the example of the hindi movie blockbuster premiers. Traditionally all channels used to premier e movies on Saturday night. However one of the movie channels experimented with the Sunday afternoon slot and today all premiers happen on Sunday afternoons.

Now my questions is… if there are audiences available at home to watch the movie at 1:00 pm, wouldn’t this segment watch a good show at 10:00 in the morning too?

Yes it will be challenging to decide what kind of content would work?-  Mythos, kids programing, reality shows .. or something compeletly new ? However one thing is certain …. If a channel gets the right content and puts the right weight behind its promotion it will change the game for the industry

I will wait and see as to who takes that first step….

The race for a ME TOO show on Indian television

Time and again we have seen similar shows being launched on two competing channels. Either the basic theme is similar or sometimes the entire story line is the same.  So a few years back when Zee launched a show called “Ghar ki laxmi betiyaan” Star One launched a similar show “Betiyaan apni ya paraya dhan”. And then there was “Sabki Laadli bebo” on Star Plus and “Nanhi pari” on Colors. While a lot of controversies have happened over these shows, what I don’t understand is that what does a channel gain by launching a “Mee too” show?

Even if I give the benefit of doubt to the channels when it comes to some fiction shows like those mentioned above,   I fail to understand why do they try and counter competition by a same genre show when it comes to the reality shows.

Often you will see that a Saregamapa on Zee being countered by a Voice of India on Star Plus, or a Dance India Dance competing with a Nach baliye of Dhoom machale on Star and Colors respectively.

This certainly is not a win-win situation for the channels because the same viewers are watching all the channels and this kind of bombardment only results in an overdose of singing or dancing for the audience resulting in an overall drop in the TVRs.

The latest in this trend is the launch of comedy shows – a supposedly IPL strategy for the channels.

Last week saw the launch of a ‘Comedy ka maha muqabbla’ on Star Plus and at the same time Colors has launched another show in the same genre called “Dekh video dekh” which is somewhat similar to America’ funniest home videos.

While one might argue that the show formats are different, we must also see the message that is going out to the audiences. Both of them are pitching themselves as a comedy show.

So if the content of one show is really very strong then it will do better. However I strongly feel that if the two had been launched at different points of time both the shows would have got better ratings.

I am not saying that the channels should not counter each other moves. But then why can’t they attack a comedy genre with a singing reality or a dance reality?

Why use a dance show against a dance show or singing show against a singing show?

If they really mix it up I am sure it will work better for the channels and they will also be doing a favour to the audiences.

India’s Republic Day parade – Grand, colorful, spectacular, but still not a big event for Television

I still remember the morning of 26^th January 1982. It was a cold pleasant morning and the best part was that it was a school holiday on account of the Republic day of India.  On any other day I would have slept till late in the morning (I was just 7 yr. old then). However, that day I was up early and all set along with my siblings to watch a grand event on the television – The Republic day parade.

I am sure a lot of you who have been born and brought up in India would recall how big this event used to be for every Indian household. The morning was spent with the family glued to the black and white TV sets watching the fabulous tableaus of all the Indian states one by one, listening to the stories of the acts of bravery committed by some small children who were being rewarded and the stories of the brave personnel from the security forces who were ensuring that we all lived in peace. And post the event the discussions of the event would continue for the next few days at least.

However, over a period of time as media and entertainment evolved in India, the interest levels of people in this spectacular seem to be diminishing.  Today for some strange reason I decided to watch the event in the morning and my instant reaction was “What an event!!!”

Such a grand event, so colorful…. where else do you get to see all the colors of India coming together in one place? But then why are people losing interest in this? why is no one bothered? Why does this event not attract enough eye balls on television?

This is by far the biggest and the oldest National event of India but it still doesn’t generate the same amount of interest as some of the other events do. It is unfortunately not the most awaited event on television. By this I don’t mean that people in this are no more patriotic and don’t have respect for the Nation. They are probably as patriotic if not more as what people were 60 years back. I think somewhere media has to play an important role here.

Over the last few decades the face of media has changed, entertainment industry has evolved. Everything right from movie making to news presentation has undergone a sea change. Hence may be the event doesn’t seem to be of any relevance to today’s generation mainly because of the way its presented.

And it’s all about creating hype. I am not saying that  26^th January does not generate any hype but I am talking more from the perspective of the morning event that happens in New Delhi. Why can’t TV channels create hype around the event? All they talk about is the security arrangements that are being made for the day. Why can’t they highlight the things that viewer can expect from this? The event is so full of information. Why can’t we build interactivity along the event? Why can’t the event be viewed on media that is more relevant to today’s generation? Why not mobisodes?

These are some of the questions that come to my mind when I think how I could have made this event more popular. I am sure if a channel really wants to promote this we can come up with many more innovative ideas. The recently concluded common wealth games opening and closing ceremonies did attract a lot of audiences. If you ask me the Republic day event is much bigger than that. The only difference was that the CWG was promoted by all news channels while the Republic day event does not get any importance. If we can generate buzz around the live bidding of IPL players I am sure a lot can be done for our National event also.

My intention is not to commercialize the event. But it is important to make it relevant to today’s generation so that they remain involved and make it bigger and better in the years to come. Otherwise we may soon land up in a situation where TV channels might not want to telecast the event at all for lack of viewership.

The 'E' in News becomes bigger...

No, I am not trying to make any changes to the spelling of ‘News’, however if you look at news channels closely in India you will know what I am trying to say.

What does “E” in News stand for? – East…? (North, East, West, South… we have all heard about it). The answer is NO… not any longer. ‘E’ stands for ENTERTAINMENT.  Yes. Entertainment is the key word around which the TV industry today revolves.

Recently when I visited a friends place his mom generally started talking to me about the good things and bad things on television (this usually happens with me wherever I go given my long association with the advertising and media world).  And as it happens all the time there was this one show which she was really upset about and also upset with the industry for showing such crap on television. The discussion was about ‘Big boss’. She went on and on explaining me why such shows should not be aired and how no one in her house is allowed to watch that show.

I couldn’t agree with her more but what happened next was really an eye opener for me. Just a mention of the famous ‘Dolly Bindra’ and the lady knew everything that she had done on the show and also what she was going to do in the next episode. Now, how does she know all this when no one is allowed to watch the show?. I asked her this question and pat came the reply ‘ Aree woh to sab news channel pe dekha hai’ (I have seen it all on the news channels).

I started thinking about it and realized that if you follow any of the hindi news channels today you will get all the highlights of all major shows on Indian television. So if you can’t catch your favorite show on the entertainment channel, switch on to the news channels. I recommend the Hindi channels for this as the English channels (most of them) still seem to be in the business of news.

It’s only ‘Breaking News’ now

There was a time when ‘Breaking News’ was a really a big thing to happen on news channel and what used to follow was a detailed report on the story. But now the channels flash the breaking news story and quickly go back to where they had left the entertainment channel update. Sorry state of affairs but since every news has become breaking news today, this was bound to happen.

It’s all about Eye balls

Let’s be a little realistic and let us not blame the news channels for everything. It takes a lot of money to run a channel today – satellite costs, cable distribution costs, studio and staff maintenance…. All this requires a lot of money. The channels primarily rely on advertising revenues and advertisers only pay for eye balls. The more you attract the higher price you get for your 10 sec slot. Obviously entertainment programs attract more audiences and hence find their way on to the news channels.

How much news content can you generate in a day?

Remember those days of DD? One half  hour news slot on DD used to give you an update on all that happened in the world today (yes  – 5 mins was dedicated to international news also). Now if you think about it how much can you extend that slot even with today’s fast paced lives and modern communication gadgets? 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours….? Imagine if someone has to fill in 8-10 hours of original programing content today. It’s an uphill task ! Here I am not talking about the days of exceptional days of natural calamities and terrorist attacks…. I would never want these to happen.  

Siblings after-all

 Ever wondered then that today when every channel is trying to outsmart the other and attract more eyeballs why would someone share their content free of cost with the news channels. The fact is that they are no longer competitors. News channels need the content to fill up their programming hours and the entertainment channel need the news channels to promote their shows. Who will not want a free of cost 30 min advertising slot when every 10 secs cost a bomb? For the news and GEC channels – it’s all in the family.

While I am not at all happy with the present state of affairs and would want the news channels to seriously think about the “news business”, I am not completely against the “E” content on News. After all everyone has to survive this mad battle for the eyeballs. But just a word of caution …. Let News remain News.