Fox History & Traveller (FHT) has recently unveiled a new look with an advertising campaign to mark a shift in the channels content from history to travel. The change in channels content offering was initiated in January this year,with the introduction of a dedicated traveller band,followed by the re-naming in May (earlier known as Fox History & Entertainment). The channels new content is youthful and edgy,which is reflected in the new packaging. In fact,FHT now plans to launch a new Indian show every quarter. Also,there will be more hours of travel programming. Debarpita Banerjee,VP,Fox International Channels says,We are talking to our viewers with a fresh philosophy and looking at new formats of travel. Rather than just focussing on the destination,we will explore the fun around it. Titled This journey is fun,the new campaign features Purab Kohli,Indrani Sengupta and Sugandha Garg all hosting different shows on the channel currently. The ad film captures the idea of journey from three different perspectives of the three hosts. Conceptualised by Grey India,the campaign has a plethora of personalised Fun is mantras by these avid travellers that makes their journeys fun. They will be aired across the Star network and other leading channels including music,movies,English and Hindi entertainment. Besides,there is also a robust cinema plan across the top cities in the country. The campaign is being supported by online engagement with consumers by inviting them to upload experiences and ideas that could make journeys / travel fun. Also,the channel has launched an outdoor campaign that reflects the new FHT look. The channel targets male and female viewers in the age group of 22-28 years. Stickiness on niche channels does not come easy and FHT is no exeption. Keertan Adyanthaya,MD,Fox International Channels India divides FHT viewers in three categories. Forty per cent of our total viewers tune in for 30-40 minutes daily. Around 10 per cent of our viewers are those who spend longer hours on the channel on a daily basis and rest for less than 30 minutes, he says. India is a young country and all the marketers have their eyes on youth. So our job is half done if we get the right way to talk to these people. With more travel content,we hope to attract advertisers from tourism industry especially airlines,online travel companies and hotel chains, adds Banerjee. While penetration of niche channels in India is still low,channels with English-language programming are becoming the first choice of some (if not all) upwardly mobile Indians. Says Sudha Natrajan,deputy CEO,Lintas Media Group,While,the overall viewership for any English content was 2.2 per cent in 2010,it has declined to 2.1 per cent in 2011 (till June). Also,the share of ad spends on English content has declined marginally from 20.7 per cent to 19.5 per cent for the same period. Though there is a marginal decline in investment,the share of investment is way ahead of the share of viewership. English news gets the maximum share of investment among English content channels followed by infotainement channels such as Discovery,NGC,TLC and FHT. This is largely because of male-led categories dominating ad spends recently in the form of BFSI,telecom,automobile etc. When asked if travel shows are an attractive proposition for advertisers,she says,Travel shows per se do not show big numbers as the channels they are part of,themselves do not have such high viewership. However,affinity and recall of travel shows is very high. There is no particular category driving the interest,all high-end male targetted or family lifestyle brands look at travel shows as part of their investment in TLC or FHT.
