MUMBAI: It has been seven years since 9XM launched in India. Owned by 9X Media, the flagship channel is dedicated to the latest in Bollywood music and has proved its place in its audiences’ hearts. This is clearly evident in the 5 million likes it has managed to garner on Facebook.
According to Vibha Gosher, Sr. Vice President – Digital, 9X Media, the company started using social media with its Hindi Music Channel 9XM when it joined Facebook in January 2009 but had little activity or traction till December 2010. From December 2010, 9XM shifted focus to build this community.
“We attribute the growth of numbers solely to the content created for the platform. We have constantly strived to keep innovating on the properties and changed strategy from time to time to keep the audience engaged and interested. We get an average of 800 shares per post, per day”, says Gosher when asked about the traction received by the Facebook fans.
Approximately 8-9% of 9XM’s total fan base is talking about brand 9XM on a daily basis. 9X Media, India’s largest music television network, interacts with around 15 million plus audience on the digital platform. Our digital eco system focuses on conversations and not the numbers alone.
Some of the best marketing campaigns 9XM made used of was, on Valentine’s day, the channel released the “Sanskaari Valentine’s Day” video with Alok Nath, created memes, imagery and textual jokes which were distributed across digital platforms. Immediately after Sanskaari Valentine’s Day, the channel released Bade Chote’s rap with Yo Yo Honey Singh, “Bakwaaspan”. This was amplified with 100s of memes and imagery on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. 9XM had started the year with “Tung Tucking Ting”, on World Music Day has generated a lot of buzz due to its catchy tune and digital amplification. Their weekly countdown, “9XMTop9”, is derived from votes from Facebook and Twitter. The activity has trended multiple times on Twitter. Our On-air property 9XM likes features songs and comments from 9XM fans on Facebook.
Over the past few years, 9XM’s strength on Digital platform has grown many folds. On Facebook, 9XM had 5 lakh Likes and now they have over 5 Million. On Youtube, the channel’s video views per day used to be around 4K but now they see 1 lakh of views every day.
“All the channel’s animated characters were popular only with the TV audience but now they have an extended life and longer shelf life in form of games n applications and VOD on various platforms. All of 9XM’s characters are ageless, irreverent and cut across cultures and geographies. The list is long but it depends on you what you call it – Growth or just a beginning”, continues Gosher.
To keep the fans continuously engaged, 9XM uses various interactive methods like: Pictorial News, Fashion Ki Class, What The Farak, X or Y – Faceoff between stars, Pehchaan Kaun, Best Of, Birthday Wishes, New Content promotions.
