Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin…?
Albert Almeida, Sunil Lulla & Nina Jaipuria, SET India Private Limited, Albert Almeida - Sr. VP, Marketing,Sunil Lulla - Executive VP,Ms Nina Jaipuria - Assistant VP, Marketing

The Indian television industry has seen an exponential growth since satellite television first came to India

Today, though cable penetration is only about 50 per cent (according to various industry estimates), this class of people is defined as the “consuming class” in India. By 2002, the share of cable & satellite television was 86.9 per cent of total television advertising as against a meagre 31.3 per cent in 1994.

Hindi general entertainment television is the fuel for growth in the television industry with a 46.8 per cent share of total viewership and an even higher 57.4 per cent share of total advertising revenue. Sony Entertainment Television is a key player in this space and has been a consistent and strong number two behind Star Plus, which has been the undisputed leader since July 2000.

In India most homes are single TV homes. Hindi is the preferred language for consuming entertainment across India (except the four Southern states) and that makes Hindi General Entertainment Television an intensely competitive space. It consists of five players. Star Plus has been the undisputed leader since July 2000 and has significantly consolidated its position thereafter. In September 2003, Star Plus had nearly five times as much viewership of its nearest rival Sony Entertainment Television. The other contenders are Zee TV, Sahara TV and SAB TV. The key factor is that in primetime (and specifically in the 9-10 pm band) which is the focus of this case, the female influences the choice of channel to view.

Business Challenge:
Star Plus with original programming from 7:30 pm to 11:30 pm at night has successfully funnelled audiences from one show to another and has today a strong loyal base of viewers. In contrast, Sony Entertainment Television has more “appointment viewing” wherein viewers come in for a select show, and tune out.
Sony Entertainment Television dominated the 9-10 pm band, with two of its leading shows, Kkusum and Kutumb up until mid 2002 after which the 4 daily shows of Star Plus took over.

Despite several high profile attempts to regain lost audiences, Sony Entertainment Television’s share in this band continued to erode. Star Plus had established a clear dominance over Sony Entertainment Television. (Star Plus average range of Television Ratings (TVRs) approx 13.2 TVRs, as compared to Sony Entertainment Television’s 1.3 TVRs). Besides, Sony Entertainment Television was now perceived as a “me-too” to Star Plus

Understanding Women
Sony Entertainment Television commissioned research among women, the primary target audience for the channel. The research “Understanding the woman” conducted in seven cities across India provided insights, which helped define its content/programming strategy, which is: “To provide intelligent and innovative entertainment to its viewers”.
The research threw up some startling trends and insights. One key insight was “The birth of the woman as a strategist.” Today’s women have “solutions in their grasp all the time” - be it at home or outside at work. These women are educated, modern housewives who easily identify with the working, real woman who strive to make it in the world out there. These women were looking for something different (yet relatable) from the routine kitchen politics that dominated television programming.
The challenge therefore was to create and sell a distinct viewing alternative, going beyond the clichéd family dramas with storyline’s revolving around family conflicts and kitchen politics which is the predominant fare on general entertainment channels today.

Defining Our Target Audience
While the aggregate Target Audience would be all individuals belonging to SEC ABC, 25-34 years from C&S homes, the bulls eye TG was narrowed down to — Mrs. Tanushree Salve residing in suburban Mumbai, SEC A, well educated, married and has two children. While she may be a homemaker, she is well aware of the world outside and sees TV as a window to it.

Product Offering
The product offering “Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin”, true to its title, has a truly unique protagonist in Jassi. She is a less than ordinary looking “Plain Jane”, trying to make her way in a world where good looks and glamour matter more than they should.
Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin is an adaptation of the hit Colombian series “Yo Soy Betty La Fea” (I am Betty the ugly one). The original Columbian Telenovella was a rage in Columbia and 25 countries around the world. In India however, we would recreate the serial unlike all other markets where it was merely dubbed or subtitled.

Marketing Objectives

• To drive sampling for the time slot and build reach in the shortest possible time
  • Slot reach prior t
• To grow channel share in terms of average TVRs as well as Audience Preference Indexes
  • Star was dominant here with Average TVRs 10 times that of Sony Entertainment Television
• To get “Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin” into the top ranked shows on Indian Television
  • Currently Star Plus dominates the list of top 50 shows
• To create hype around the launch in a manner as non-conventional as the serial
• To break the mould in terms of positioning of the serial and thus the channel

The Marketing Challenge
Conventionally, television advertising has always been about big, bold poster advertising depicting glossy lead actors shouting down at you from billboards. In this case, the protagonist “Jassi” was less than ordinary to look at yet was truly beautiful if you met her. The challenge therefore was how do we get viewers to sample the show?

Marketing Strategy
As in the old adage, we decided that we will not give the viewer an opportunity to judge a book by it’s cover — therefore never show Jassi in any pre- and post-launch promotional material and activity until we get a critical mass to sample the show.
Also keeping in mind the Indian culture, a literal translation of “ugly” was unlikely to cut ice with the viewers. Hence Betty was transformed into Jassi - and her extraordinary qualities were played up.
Like Jassi, her marketing was also unique. The Communication strategy built around the fact that if you create intrigue yet give people clues about the character you would be able to fuel their curiosity and get them to sample the show.
We decided to stay true to this strategy in everything we did, be it in print, on billboards, on TV and even on ground and at press meets.

Execution
The primary objective was to fuel curiosity about Jassi and build endearment for her as a character, by giving the viewers different facets of her personality. All this without ever revealing her.
Where all channels were treating the consumer as an unintelligent mass, the Jassi communication elevated the consumer to a status of a more discerning audience. Each piece of communication gave you a bite into Jassi’s persona allowing the viewer to create a personal image of Jassi, which made her real and identifiable. The campaign messages and various elements built up to fuel the curiosity around the launch and after.
The desired response was, “I’ve heard so much about her, now I can’t wait to meet her.”

A 360 Degree connect with the consumer
The execution of the strategy was designed to take the “Jassi” experience to the consumer across the entire spectrum of touch-points through appropriate media vehicle. The execution was unconventional, even if the medium was conventional. The media mix included a host of unconventional media vehicles such as sms, flash mobs, airport placards, leaflets designed specifically for traffic junctions, shopping malls, stations, trains etc. to create the buzz in addition to the conventional TV, radio, outdoor, press.
PR was used as a strategic tool and helped reinforce the Marketing strategy. At the media launch the channel presented the entire caste of the show (except Jassi), thus further fuelling the intrigue among the media building to the launch. On the day of the launch, the Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta Times supplements carried a picture of the entire cast with the caption “Jassi manages to give the cameras a slip yet again”.
Since Jassi was launching in a highly competitive slot against established shows with loyal viewership, it was decided to give audiences a special sneak preview of the show on Sunday (day preceding the launch). It was immediately followed by a half-hour capsule on the making of Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. This stunt was promoted in a unique way with the other Sony Entertainment Television stars inviting viewers for this special preview.

Communication Flow
The communication strategy started with building attributes that personified Jassi. The next phase had anonymous people talking about Jassi and then the campaign moved on to characters from the show talking about Jassi in their inimitable way; be it her parents, her boss, her peers.
Once Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin had generated some momentum and the initial feedback from critics, media and viewers was very positive, the channel seized the opportunity to use this feedback to fuel further sampling through the next phase of communication — the Shaher Shaher Mein Charcha campaign, which features people across all walks of life voicing their opinion about Jassi.

Sustaining the buzz post launch
While the Shaher Shaher Mein Charcha campaign continued to fuel the buzz on TV and billboards the channel embarked on yet another unconventional activity launching a Jassi’s Pals club. The objective of the club being to create a community of Jassi fans who will become apostles and advocates for the show.
In addition Jassi merchandise was now being made available - the ring tone download being the first in a series of items to be launched.
Having hidden her all this while, it was now time to get the viewers to interact with Jassi in character to drive further connect and empathy. The channel took Jassi to Delhi where she was the talk of the town. She was interviewed live in the studios of Aaj Tak and Red FM, feted by the Delhi Secretary’s Association. The frenzy on seeing her was akin to that generally reserved for film stars.
Each of these initiatives continues to drive audiences and build viewer affinity to Jassi and the show. What started as a buzz, turned into a roar, with Jassi-mania taking the country by storm.

The Results (Figures as of February 2004)
l Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin is today the top rated show on Sony Entertainment Television and continues to grow.
l Sony Entertainment Television share of the 9.30 pm slot is up from 8.2 per cent prior to the launch to 32.4 per cent by December, within three months of launch, and still growing. Star Plus is down from 81.8 per cent share to 62.6 per cent share
l Slot TVRs are up from 1.33 TVRs prior to launch, to 6.3 TVRs by December 6th.
l Slot reach grew close to three times within 10 weeks of launch.
l The advertiser response has been so overwhelming driving slot rates up by 50 per cent. The show today has a full house of 12 sponsors as against the single one when it launched.
l The initial pull campaign “want to know more about Jassi” resulted in an overwhelming response of over 2 lakh hits.
l A single burst e-mail campaign to 46,000 calling for viewers to enrol for The Jassi Pals Club yielded over 4000 members, a conversion rate of 8.7 per cent
l The consumer connect can be gauged by the fact that over 100,000 viewers participated in an sms based opinion poll, when Jassi was caught in a moral quandary.
l The first of the merchandising activity, the Jassi ring tone download has resulted in over 80,000 in just a couple of weeks
l At the time of writing this document, Jassi is being hailed by media, critiques and viewers alike as the new, refreshing and popular face of Indian Television.

Truly, Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin!

Questions to ponder

• Do you think Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi can do for SET what Kaun Baenga Crorepati did for Star Plus?
• What contributed to the success of the series — differentiated content or innovative marketing?
• How should SET capitalise on the success of Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahi to push up TRPs of its other programmes?

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