Comedy Central: Spreading cheer

The channel has tied up with BEST buses, Cafe Coffee Day, Shoppers Stop, PVR Cinemas and Religare Wellness for branding to increase awareness. The OOH campaign has been executed by Milestone Brandcom.

Viacom18's comedy channel, Comedy Central, was launched on January 23. Recently, it initiated an out of home (OOH) campaign to increase awareness and spread cheer. The campaign is designed in a fun and light hearted manner to reflect the channel theme.

Ferzad Palia, senior vice-president and general manager, Viacom18 Media, says, "Comedy Central has been accepted well by the Indian audiences. Our distribution, right from Day One, garnered initial sampling. The advertising campaign primarily aims to increase awareness."

Milestone Brandcom has executed the campaign, which involves branding of five Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) buses running along four routes (Dahisar to Worli, Mira Road to Worli, Colaba to Powai and Gorai to Colaba). The branding, with creatives in bright pink and purple, carries the message, 'Destress with Comedy Central - The World's Biggest Comedy Channel'. Small dialogue boxes in the creatives point towards the windows, with different messages such as 'Laugh it off', 'Relationship status complicated coz I'm always stuck in traffic', 'My job sucks' and many more.

The agency has also executed several billboards which feature characters from the various shows aired on the channel. The creatives are spread across billboards, cantilevers, gantries, multiple skywalks, kiosks, airport panels and bus shelters, with more than 200 touch points in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata.

Hanoz Patel, founder member and managing partner, Milestone Brandcom, says, "The communication objective was to create rapid awareness for the newly launched channel, and bring it in the top box consideration. The strategy adopted is high intensity and high impact visibility for the brand, along arterial routes, heavy traffic counts and congregation points reflecting the TG traffic pattern.

"The campaign spreads wider into the consumer neighbourhood, to catch audiences in the lighter moments of their lives - unwinding at coffee parlours, theatres, clubs, gyms, salons and shopping destinations."

The channel has also tied up with Cafe Coffee Day for Comedy Central-branded lattes and cappuccinos, along with branded napkins, chair backs, tent cards, floor stickers, posters and standees across select outlets in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad.

In another arrangement with Shoppers Stop, the channel has branded shopping bags, escalators, elevators, trial rooms, washrooms and staircases at various outlets of the retail chain in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Cut-out standees have been placed at the outlets, where people can place their heads and take pictures. The cashiers at the select outlets will wear smiley badges during the entire campaign period to spread cheer among customers.

"The campaign also saw some unique creative executions to register the brand logo and to tickle the funny bone of the audiences with laughing characters delivering the message, 'Laugh it off' to drive regular traffic to the channel and make it a preferred destination for comic relief," adds Patel.

In addition, the channel has also tied up with Religare Wellness for the 'Month of Happiness' (April). This arrangement will involve branding across 116 Religare Wellness stores across the country.

More branding exercises are being carried out at PVR theatres across Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.

The channel kicked off the campaign on February 28 in Mumbai and Bengaluru; on February 29 in Delhi and Kolkata, and in Pune from mid-March. The campaign will continue through April.