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Dheeraj Kumar suggests fresh look at DD’s marketing strategy

In response to Prasar Bharati CEO, Rajiv Ratna Shah’s concerted drive to revamp Doordarshan, Dheeraj Kumar of Creative Eye Ltd has suggested a fresh look at DD’s marketing strategy in order to improve both its earnings and image among the viewers in general.

For starters, he seems to have managed to convince DD that he can rebuild the Friday feature film slot (9.30 p.m.) on the National Network to make it more interesting for the viewers.

His company has acquired the Hindi feature film slot on DD1 for every second Friday of the month, for one year. In addition, the company has also got the Hindi feature film slot for eight Saturdays and three national holidays. Apart from this, it has also bagged all the 52 Friday afternoon feature film slots on DD Metro, beginning from November 12.

The films which will be telecast on these slots include Yes Boss, which has already been aired on October 15, Beta, Umrao Jaan, Dulara, Amar Akbar Anthony, Khiladi, Sangharsh and Haqeeqat (new) among several others.

Kumar, whose company is a major software provider for Doordarshan since the mid-’80s, feels that Doordarshan is like a giant who does not realise its own strength. “It is our duty to apprise them of their own potential,” Kumar said.

Pointing that DD did not have a proper strategy for marketing and packaging of films, Kumar claimed that the slot has now been given a fresh impetus, thanks to DD’s acceptance of his suggestions. According to him, the first thing required to attract a larger viewership is awareness of a programme. “And to create this awareness the programme also needs to be packaged well. For instance,” he said, “the Friday film is preceded by as many as 21 promos daily on the National Network. We also have cross-channel promotions. Besides, we have quiz contests related to every film, with the incentive of attractive prizes,” Kumar said.

Revealing that he had suggested to DD that they should also make the telecast fee more reasonable for this slot, Kumar stressed that DD needed to create a “win-win situation” for the supplier, marketing company and the channel itself. “Buying cheap and flop films does not make sense at all,” he said. “So you will notice that most of the films we have chosen have been highly successful.”

Kumar said that as far as films are concerned, his ultimate dream was a scenario where film producers would treat DD just like a full-fledged territory, at par with other major territories in India where films are distributed.

Manoj Soral