Zee TV's app gets a million downloads

Instead of new apps for each of its reality shows, Zee has decided to convert the existing app for the new reality shows.

Zee TV's mobile app for its non-fiction shows such as Dance India Dance, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and India's Biggest Dramebaaz has crossed the one million downloads mark. It took around 12-14 months for the app to reach this level. Instead of launching a new app for every new reality show, the channel has adopted the strategy of converting the existing app for the new shows.

The story began with the launch of Zee TV's Dance India Dance Season 3 in 2012, when the channel launched an app for the first time. Titled 'Dance India Dance', the app did not do well and got only 38,000 downloads. The research and analytics team of Zee and Mobilox Solutions, the designers of the app, identified several key reasons behind this, including insights on different consumption habits of users on the mobile platform, kind of content offered, time spent on the platform, target audiences and others.

The research revealed that the app offered a multi screen experience to audiences and it had to show something beyond what was already shown on television.

The insight led to addition of new features to the app, such as dance tutorials, practice session videos, interactions with the choreographers and other behind-the-scene information that helped increase engagement.

Now, with every new show launched, the channel adds new features to the app, such as Live Chat with audiences, judges, voting, and dancing/theatre/singing tutorials that help pull the crowds.

Zee TV actively promoted the mobile app by using its primary medium - television - effectively. It created large scale awareness about the app, which in turn led to downloads.

After Dance India Dance, the downloads picked up speed in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and have been the highest during India's Biggest Dramebaaz.

The app is now titled India's Best Dramebaaz. It will be rebranded again with the next non-fiction show of Zee, Dance India Dance - Super Moms.

Speaking about the strategy, Akash Chawla, marketing head, national channels, Zee, says, "Our research showcased that during the show we create a huge audience base on the mobile/iPad platforms but if we develop a new app for the next show, we simply leave the audience behind and have to start altogether again. So we decided otherwise and planned to convert the app every time we launched a new show."

The app is free of cost and is available on all platforms - BlackBerry, Symbian, iOS and Android. The channel, along with Mobilox Solutions, associated with several app stores and worked out an app store optimisation plan to increase its visibility in the stores.

Rohit Kaul, COO, Mobilox Solutions, says, "Three key factors which Mobilox focused on helped the app scale to million downloads were - strong product concept, app store optimisation and app store affiliations."

He adds that of the million downloads, more than 90 per cent users are active.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited is a major player in the television, media and entertainment segment. It offers entertainment and news through several offerings such as Zee TV, Zee Cinema, Zee Premier, Zee Action, Zee Classic, Ten Sports, Ten Cricket, Ten Action+, Zee Cafe, Zee Studio, Zee Trendz, Zee Khana Khazana, Zee Salaam, Zee Jagran, Zing, ETC Music and ETC Punjabi. It also offers channels such as Zee Marathi, Zee Bangla, Zee Telugu, Zee Kannada and Zee Talkies.