MUMBAI: Media agencies usually help clients target consumers for their campaign and are usually never on the receiving end. Trying to bring such an interaction to media agency offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru is 9X Jalwa while promoting its new look.

On 10 June, the channel had donned a new avatar with the tagline 'Forever Young', targeting viewers across all age groups who enjoy music that is enduring. The tagline also reflects the Bollywood playlist and music construct on the channel that is perpetual and never grows old.

According to 9X Media VP marketing Kapil Sharma, consumers have been enjoying the new look on television and so it was high time to target the trade media to create the same amount of buzz. “It is the trade media that get their clients to spend high budgets on our channel. After attracting the consumer media the immediate next step we thought was to target the trade media and highlight this fact across the agencies.”

Rather than treading the traditional route, it chose to go with fun creative activities in developed by Pure Media. It has created a unique game titled ‘Pic Charades’, which is a fun amalgamation of Pictionary and Dumb Charades using emoticons from instant messaging apps.

The participating teams will compete with each other to guess the Bollywood songs using these emoticons. The songs featured in these games are from the 9X Jalwa playlist. The team with maximum points wins merchandises.

Sharma says that through the activation the channel wanted to convey the message that songs remain forever young. “Primarily the songs that we play on Jalwa currently are from the 90s and 2000s. If you like a particular song, no matter how many times you listen to it, it still remains fresh.”

As emoticons have become a part of everyone’s daily life, the channel thought it right to tap into it. “A lot of times you receive forwards on your personal messenger where you have to guess the name of a song or a movie by using emoticons. We thought this is something that people enjoy and have fun playing it. So why not draw an inspiration and create our campaign revolving around this entire thought,” he highlights.

Apart from the activities, branding exercises will be done even in Chennai. Different cut outs, standees, posters and tent cards have been put across agencies. Mailers, ads and advertorials are being simultaneously released across trade websites and magazines.

The engagement goes online as well. If a person misses the chance to participate when the contest is happening in the cafeteria, a tent card is left on the desk of the employee and he/she can email those answers.

Moreover, the pictures of people participating and people winning prizes will be shared on the 9X Jalwa Facebook page. At present, 9X Jalwa has 126,259 likes on Facebook at the time of penning this article. However its Twitter page needs a push with just 1,280 followers.

Sharma goes on to say that out of the total budget, 60-70 per cent is spent on the consumer related promotions and 30-40 per cent is spent for trade communications.