I was heading Cartoon Network Enterprises in India when we revived the fortunes of PowerPuff girls after its spectacular launch and demise in 2005. Its amazing that four of those team members are now part of Dream Theatre and we were very much up for the challenge of reviving Pokemon in India. The property was a spectacular success more than a decade back in India and post which, had seen seasons languish unattended at some deep recesses of TV programming on prominent channels. We at Dream Theatre knew that if we had to get the consumers attention; we needed to have a triad partnership: the brand owner, broadcaster and us!
The Pokemon Company is amazing, as it has built a company laser focused around one property. This is creditable in a time where all companies try to mitigate risk via a portfolio of properties. Dream Theatre made a pitch to the company to represent the revival story across all lines of business. They agreed to our proposal and what we needed is the belief of a broadcaster.
We shared our vision with the Disney team who completely backed it bigger than what we envisaged. Though we have a long road, phase one has been achieved! The show debuted on Hungama with a massive push by the Disney team by way of on-air promotions and here is the top line upshot in the first 4 weeks.
Ratings for the week: It’s been a steady rise of:
Week 1: 1.7
Week2: 1.8
Week3: 1.9
Week4: 2.1
Pokémon Viewership top lines:
1. It is the best yet show launch of 2014 in the kids genre.
2. Show Reaches out to 57.1 Mn audiences across All India of which 24.2 million audiences are kids in till now and the show has ranked #1 in its prime play slot every week since launch
3. Time of air: 1.00 pm, 4.00 pm, 6.30 pm and 8.00 pm Monday – Friday
4. TV Rating: The rating in the 1st Week – 1.7, 2nd Week – 1.8, 3rd Week – 1.9, Week 4 – 2.1
5. Viewership during the prime play slot has strengthened by 15%, post the launch of Pokémon
6. Age Group: 4 – 14 year
7. Target Region: Covers the entire north, west, central India and large parts of the east and north east.
We are now 2nd month in the running and the show continues to be rating over 1 TVR!
We will update as things progress but we are very happy with the experiment. What you will see is MORE episodes, MORE movies, MORE promotions and finally MORE products. Watch this space!
Jiggy George