Its 'round the clock' marketing for Khatron Ke Khiladi

Sumedha Srivastav - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who is hosting the second season of Fear Factor - Khatron Ke Khiladi (KKK), will be seen all across the Mumbai city now. Colors has cooked up an innovative marketing plan along with the six-sigma performance oriented dabbawalas.

Colors, which has tasted success on the small screen with the first edition of the reality show, wants to make this second edition even bigger and promote it in a big way. Since Akshay can't visit every Mumbaiikar, the channel has teamed up with around two lakh dabbawalas, who will wear masks with Akshay's face printed on them, while delivering food.

The channel has undertaken a 'round the clock' marketing activity to make an impact, through press coverage in around 89 cities and an outdoor campaign spanning 70 cities. The most unlikely modes of communication have been employed this time to promote the show.

Speaking to Televisionpoint.com, Rameet Arora, marketing head, Colors, says, "This is an important show for us and its magnitude calls for this kind of marketing activity. So, in addition to hoarding's, bus shelters, bus cantilevers, we had to come up with something really exciting to get people to pause and take notice."

Arora adds, "KKK is a bigger version this year and we are leaving no stone unturned to promote it. We have tagged almost two lakh dabbawalas in Mumbai. Each dabba has the channel logo and the logo of the show. Apart from this, each dabbawala will sport special masks which will make them look like Akshay Kumar."

In Mumbai, across all railway stations, the train announcements were followed by the launch announcement of the show every three minutes. Foot over bridges were branded with messages such as 'Crossing railway tracks is unwise, for real stunts watch Fear Factor'.

The channel has tied up with coffee outlet chain Barista to launch a Fear Factor special edition coffee, called F2. A contest, called Meet the Divas, has been created in association with Big Bazaar, where select 13 customers from across the country can win an opportunity to have lunch with the thirteen participants of the show.

In Delhi, Colors is branding the the BSES bills and each bill will carry the channels and the shows logo. It is also sending out CDs containing the promo of the show through the LPG distribution system across Maharashtra and UP.

Around 450 traffic poles across Mumbai will bear 900 messages, spreading awareness about various traffic rules and regulations. Road shows will also be carried out in 80 cities, encouraging people to perform stunts and giving away KKK merchandise.

KKK opened to a viewership of 2.9 per cent of the total cable and satellite viewership (not counting South) on Monday in the defined 9 pm to 10 pm prime-time slot. That is high in the fragmented game and the second day was even better at 3.7 per cent, as per aMap data.

More than 9 million viewers watched the first episode of the action and adventure reality show. The opening was 70 per cent higher than the 1.5 per cent opening episode viewership of the show last year. The first season never exceeded a rating of 2 per cent.

But notably, KKK opening could not shake rival Star Plus and Zee TV's half-hour shows in the same time slot. Star Plus' Bidaai and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai recorded a viewership rating of 5.3 per cent and Zee TV's Pavitra Rishta and Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo notched up a 4.9 per cent viewership.