 "The over-40 Bournvita quiz logs in to YouTube")
One of the oldest branded programmes, the Bournvita Quiz Contest, is reinventing itself on Tuesday (today). It is shifting medium for the second time, the first being a little after India's liberalisation, in 1992 when it moved from radio to the telly.
A show with a dollop of nostalgia, with school-going quiz aficionados hooked since the seventies, it has had a chequered past on TV. Now, Mondelez, the global parent of Cadbury Bournvita, is taking it into the world of interactive videos on YouTube and mobile phone apps.
Starting Tuesday, the annual school quiz contest of BQC, as it is fondly remembered, will play out on Google's video sharing site, YouTube. But the transition would not be a mere placement of the video content online. Unlike the linear nature of the quiz show's TV avatar, the YouTube episodes will let the viewer play along.
BQC's digital avatar is not restricted to YouTube alone. The mobile app, launched as a preparatory app for the TV show last year, the team has made it into a full-fledged quiz app. So far, QuizUp, by Plain Vanilla Games, has been an award-winning multiplayer quiz game in the global app universe. "In our app, the user starts as a beginner, and then plays to unlock badges to show off on social media. It gives 24X7 access to BQC content," says Peres.
BQC is the only running branded programme from the 80s-90s. With the advent of satellite TV, there were other shows which found long-time sponsors such as Close-Up Antakshari on Zee TV, BPL Oye on MTV and then Channel [V].
Bournvita's association with quizzing began in 1972, for an inter-school contest. It made its radio debut the next year, with brothers Hamid Sayani and Ameen Sayani hosting it at various points of time. The innings on All India Radio was of nearly 20 years. Zee TV marked its longest spell on a TV channel, from 1992 to 2001, after which, Sony Entertainment Television began airing it. But its run from then on was often interrupted. It again went off air in 2006 and re-emerged in 2011 on Viacom18' Colors, before being discontinued in 2012. It was re-introduced on Colors in 2013. But Mondelez, perhaps, read the writing on the wall. Unlike the audience of the 90s, kids of all ages no more went by appointment-viewing, sitting down in front of the TV on Sunday mornings. They had moved to the Internet and cellphone a while back.
As Madhukar Sabnavis, vice-chairman, Ogilvy and Mather, which works on the creative duty of Bournvita but not the BQC digital mandate, says, "It was time BQC moved online because the current generation won't remember its earlier forms but by its presence on the Internet."
In fact, the 2013-TV revival, albeit brief, was spurred by requests on the the social network to have the competition back. For Bournvita, giving up BQC was, perhaps, not an option, as brands today try harder to invent branded content for themselves, in TV or digital. Its association not only was immune to seasonality (sports sponsorships) but was with a genre that is not about to die down. Sabnavis says, "Quiz competitions are not going to lose their popularity among kids any time soon, especially in a system that has exams every year."
Peres says, "Now the two-part approach gives everyone a chance to pit herself against a school participant. BQC is morphing into a quiz form that affords a one-on-one interaction. This would be the form and medium of the future. TV content flows according to the convenience of the broadcaster but digital is amenable to the viewer's choice. BQC will continue through the year even after the year's competition gets over."
But it is not that Mondelez is cutting back on the show's budget. "If anything, spends have gone up. Producing a show for the web is as expensive as for TV. The timing has to be right, the production tighter. So, when Derek asks a question, we need to pause for time to give the online user to answer before moving on. The user should not get lost in too much of stretched dialogue in the online versions, for example. Also, the app development is quite expensive." Well fleshed out mobile apps (engaging the user at multiple levels) can cost upwards of Rs 10 lakh, according to industry players. Peres only confirms that the spends on BQC are "an increase over where we were last year".
Sabnavis says the challenge would lie in getting the tech right for a seamless experience online or in the app. Sudhir Nair, senior vice-president and head, digital, Grey India, who headed the development work for the move, says, "When shifting the needle to interactivity, we had to keep in mind the tech challenge and there were lot of quality checks. So, easy of use, hosting numerous concurrent connections, syncing well with the school contest for a play-along - all met with rigorous testing. After all, the digital-native generation will not have patience for glitches."
While YouTube challengers like Interlude push the envelope globally on interactive videos (by letting the viewer call the shots on how she wants a video to unfold, for example), BQC is an example of YouTube stepping up the interactivity. BQC's new journey, being the first example of an offline show going all-online in India, might also direct the course of other sponsored TV contests looking for engagement beyond Twitter chatter and Facebook likes.
A show with a dollop of nostalgia, with school-going quiz aficionados hooked since the seventies, it has had a chequered past on TV. Now, Mondelez, the global parent of Cadbury Bournvita, is taking it into the world of interactive videos on YouTube and mobile phone apps.
Starting Tuesday, the annual school quiz contest of BQC, as it is fondly remembered, will play out on Google's video sharing site, YouTube. But the transition would not be a mere placement of the video content online. Unlike the linear nature of the quiz show's TV avatar, the YouTube episodes will let the viewer play along.
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Mondelez India Foods Director (beverages, gum and candy) Prashant Peres explains that on YouTube, the viewer, at her convenience will be able to log on and watch the contest, held between the top-16 schools across India. During the episodes (two per week), the viewer can answer and see her score go up, against other players. Pauses in the episode will allows the user to click an answer (within 8-10 seconds) even as Derek O'Brien, the show's inimitable quizmaster, waits for a reply from his band of school participants. A far cry from the jumping-on-sofa while crying out the answer that TV viewers of BQC were all-too familiar with.
BQC's digital avatar is not restricted to YouTube alone. The mobile app, launched as a preparatory app for the TV show last year, the team has made it into a full-fledged quiz app. So far, QuizUp, by Plain Vanilla Games, has been an award-winning multiplayer quiz game in the global app universe. "In our app, the user starts as a beginner, and then plays to unlock badges to show off on social media. It gives 24X7 access to BQC content," says Peres.
BQC is the only running branded programme from the 80s-90s. With the advent of satellite TV, there were other shows which found long-time sponsors such as Close-Up Antakshari on Zee TV, BPL Oye on MTV and then Channel [V].
Bournvita's association with quizzing began in 1972, for an inter-school contest. It made its radio debut the next year, with brothers Hamid Sayani and Ameen Sayani hosting it at various points of time. The innings on All India Radio was of nearly 20 years. Zee TV marked its longest spell on a TV channel, from 1992 to 2001, after which, Sony Entertainment Television began airing it. But its run from then on was often interrupted. It again went off air in 2006 and re-emerged in 2011 on Viacom18' Colors, before being discontinued in 2012. It was re-introduced on Colors in 2013. But Mondelez, perhaps, read the writing on the wall. Unlike the audience of the 90s, kids of all ages no more went by appointment-viewing, sitting down in front of the TV on Sunday mornings. They had moved to the Internet and cellphone a while back.
As Madhukar Sabnavis, vice-chairman, Ogilvy and Mather, which works on the creative duty of Bournvita but not the BQC digital mandate, says, "It was time BQC moved online because the current generation won't remember its earlier forms but by its presence on the Internet."
In fact, the 2013-TV revival, albeit brief, was spurred by requests on the the social network to have the competition back. For Bournvita, giving up BQC was, perhaps, not an option, as brands today try harder to invent branded content for themselves, in TV or digital. Its association not only was immune to seasonality (sports sponsorships) but was with a genre that is not about to die down. Sabnavis says, "Quiz competitions are not going to lose their popularity among kids any time soon, especially in a system that has exams every year."
Peres says, "Now the two-part approach gives everyone a chance to pit herself against a school participant. BQC is morphing into a quiz form that affords a one-on-one interaction. This would be the form and medium of the future. TV content flows according to the convenience of the broadcaster but digital is amenable to the viewer's choice. BQC will continue through the year even after the year's competition gets over."
But it is not that Mondelez is cutting back on the show's budget. "If anything, spends have gone up. Producing a show for the web is as expensive as for TV. The timing has to be right, the production tighter. So, when Derek asks a question, we need to pause for time to give the online user to answer before moving on. The user should not get lost in too much of stretched dialogue in the online versions, for example. Also, the app development is quite expensive." Well fleshed out mobile apps (engaging the user at multiple levels) can cost upwards of Rs 10 lakh, according to industry players. Peres only confirms that the spends on BQC are "an increase over where we were last year".
Sabnavis says the challenge would lie in getting the tech right for a seamless experience online or in the app. Sudhir Nair, senior vice-president and head, digital, Grey India, who headed the development work for the move, says, "When shifting the needle to interactivity, we had to keep in mind the tech challenge and there were lot of quality checks. So, easy of use, hosting numerous concurrent connections, syncing well with the school contest for a play-along - all met with rigorous testing. After all, the digital-native generation will not have patience for glitches."
While YouTube challengers like Interlude push the envelope globally on interactive videos (by letting the viewer call the shots on how she wants a video to unfold, for example), BQC is an example of YouTube stepping up the interactivity. BQC's new journey, being the first example of an offline show going all-online in India, might also direct the course of other sponsored TV contests looking for engagement beyond Twitter chatter and Facebook likes.