The second season of the Indian adaptation of American business reality series Shark Tank is expected to start next week (January 2) on Sony Entertainment Television and Sony LIV and is seeing strong traction among advertisers. With the first season creating quite a stir, experts say the new season is likely to command a premium on its advertising rates. SonyLIV had logged over 161 million views during the last season and the channel witnessed over 270 million views. The show will see a higher skew towards tier-II and III cities this time, with new audiences joining from the hinterlands, thanks to the tremendous word of mouth.
Some say the buzz around the programme last season was much higher than the ratings or reach. Being a new entertainment format it managed to whip up curiosity with clever social media outreach. Thanks to that, the traction among advertisers both on TV and OTT is high this year and enquires had started pouring in much ahead of time. “While we understand a few categories have been locked in, the expectation is that the show will have definitely sold out 80-90% of the inventory by now,” Jolene Fernandes Solanki, COO, Madison Media Ultra, says.
Linu John, VP, Zenith, says the programme will have higher traction among mass audiences this time; also there would be more people hoping to participate in the show. This will lead to more brands considering the programme, leading to higher clutter on the show in terms of advertising,” she adds.
Solanki believes digital-first brands in sectors such as online gaming, food delivery, personal technology and gadgets, fintech, e-comm and d2c will flock to Shark Tank India. The rates for this season will increase by 7-10% on TV and will see at least 30-40% jump on OTT.
Last season, the OTT platform partnered with upGrad, Acko General Insurance, and Black Dog Drinking Soda as the co-presenting sponsors, whereas Cashfree Payments was the payments partner, Flipkart was the digital partner, and Dell Technologies as its technology partner. For the new season, Sony LIV has partnered with Acko serving as the co-presenting sponsor, Cashfee Payments as the payment partner, Smallcase as ideas partner, and FI Money as the money partner. Among others, it has tied up PokerBaazi, EatFit and Lenskart.
The business reality show provides a platform for aspirants to present their business ideas to experienced investors and business experts — the “sharks”. Besides a new shark on board — Amit Jain, CEO & co-founder, CarDekho Group, InsuranceDekho.com — the new season will feature five judges of the last season.
Sugar Cosmetics’ Vineeta Singh says she expects many more high-quality pitches this time. “This season will be significantly more action packed because many more smart participants have come forward and a lot more deals have been signed. There’s been a lot of diversity in terms of age groups and women versus men skew and the participation from smaller cities.”
Amit Jain of CarDekho Group says the show changed the way the country looks at entrepreneurship. Last year it had featured 62,000 aspirants, of which 198 businesses were selected to pitch their ideas to the sharks.
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