UTV Action celebrates anniversary with action heroes

The channel brings superheroes such as Spiderman, Superman and Batman back on screens and surprises commuters by bringing them on ground, too.

Don't be too surprised if you see Spiderman or Superman walking towards your bike at a traffic light, asking you to put on a helmet.

Action channel UTV Action, which completes one year in the country, is celebrating this month by bringing legendary superheroes such as Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Blade Trinity and Hancock to screens and beyond.

The channel has executed various ideas to promote the Big Bang Action Heroes property. To start with, the channel has a line up of superhero films every Saturday at 8:45 pm, which include films such as Superman Returns, Hancock, Batman Returns, Blade: Trinity and Spiderman.

Taking this offering forward, the channel has engaged with Radio Mirchi across 10 cities, running a contest which gives off cash prizes worth Rs 10,000 for the listeners every day in each city, cumulating into total cash prizes worth Rs 20 lakh in 20 days.

Furthermore, huge outdoor innovations with larger than life cut-outs of the superheroes have been put up across the city on buildings and mobile vans.

In a below the line activity, people dressed as the three superheroes - Spiderman, Batman and Superman - have got down on the streets for a social cause, where they will talk to citizens about road safety and city cleanliness. With this activity, UTV Action is calling its consumers to 'action'. This activity is being carried out in Mumbai and Delhi in January.

Kunal Mukherjee, marketing head, UTV Action, tells afaqs!, "UTV Action completed a year this January and we are celebrating its success. So, in January, we are celebrating our anniversary with the biggest action heroes from Hollywood, including Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Hancock and Blade."

Sharing the high points of UTV Action's one year journey, Mukherjee adds, "Year One has been a high year. From the first day, UTV Action has surpassed all expectations and has been received extremely well by viewers across markets. With 50+ GRPs, UTV Action is bigger than male focused channels ranging from Hindi news channels such as Aaj Tak, STAR News, India TV, Discovery and sports channels in non-India cricket weeks.

"While most of our films are first in Hindi, we have also had a slew of premieres which have been a first in any Indian language, including District 9, Universal Soldier 3 and Forbidden Kingdom."

Over the year, the action channel also reached out to its audience with a variety of consumer activities such as rock climbing and stunt biking across malls, colleges and other hangouts.

On the trade front, the channel set a record of taking the maximum number of Indians for skydiving from a single location at Cape Town, South Africa. It also engaged viewers through a host of action activities ranging from Formula 1 to Panja Challenges.