Kids' channels too were on a high this year as competition finally seems to be hotting up in the playground with new entrants like Disney Channel, Toon Disney and Hungama TV. Cartoon Network launched its Toon Cricket Tournament ground event with a huge multimedia plan backed by 360 degree promotions. A range of promos across Cartoon Network, Pogo and HBO were unleashed. School contact programmes have become a must-have of sorts on all kids channels' agendas and hence Cartoon Network went to 200 schools reaching approximately 100,000 kids to promote the event.

"The on air contest received over 90,000 entries from which the Apna Yaar winners were selected. The activity spanning over three months reached over 26 million households. The event was attended by over 45,000 children in Mumbai and over 25,000 children in Delhi," informed Cartoon Network and Pogo director marketing Vivek Krishnani.

Mickey learns Hindi

Mickey and gang on Toon Disney learnt to speak Hindi in 2005 and the company gave it the push it deserved. Outdoor, radio, cable trade and print campaigns, merchandise and the entire works were unleashed. "This was clearly the biggest marketing effort both in terms of media covered and the impact of the campaign. It was also a strategic launch for the channel during the year. Hindi language feed signified localisation at one level and an instant pull for the the Hindi speaking markets," says The Walt Disney Television International (India) director marketing Tushar Shah.

And the result is there to see: Toon Disney channel share grew by a whopping 357 per cent in the last four months and Jetix, the action adventure block on the channel grew by 381 per cent.

Sanya comes to town on Hungama

Homegrown Hungama TV too did its share of marketing this year, which was built around its new interactive show - Sanya. A multimedia marketing campaign using a mix of various media - newspaper, kids supplements, kids magazines, television, outdoor (both conventional and unconventional), school buses, street posters, leaflet distribution outside schools, in-cinema advertising, branding at kids hangout locations such as malls and multiplexes and targeted online activities were unleashed, informs UTV senior vice president marketing and communications Siddharth Roy Kapur.