'Gurukul' contestants get viewers' patron

MUMBAI: Students are now down to eight in the school, whose activities the entire nation has been following. We're talking about Sony's Fame Gurukul, where the plot becomes thicker due to cut throat competition with each passing day.

Viewers have always been an integral part of this reality soap opera and have had a hand in the future of the contestants by way of votes. Keeping this factor in mind, Sony has now unveiled a new advertising campaign, wherein viewers have pitched for their favourite contestants.

Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, SET vice president marketing Nina Jaipuria said that eight ads have been rolled out where eight different viewers are vouching for a contestant. Fame Gurukul has a tagline of 'Iske Liye Kuch Bhi Karega' and the ads stay true to the same.

While the contestants are ready to go to any extent to win the coveted title of the 'Fame Jodi', now its the viewers' turn to go to any extent to make sure that their favourite contestant wins.

"Qazi na jeeta to mooche saaf kar doonga," says a man with 'Veerapan-style' mustache."Chocolate ki shart lagi, mera Sandeep hi jeetega," says a small boy who loves chocolates.

An old man, who is a couch potato pledges that he will stop watching television if Arpita loses. A lady from the 'chawl' says she would keep a fast for Monica. On the other hand, a social activist says that she would go on a hunger strike if Arijeet doesn't make it to the 'Fame Jodi.'

Mumbai boy Rex has a young girl vouching for him by saying, "Rex ke liye har darga pe dua karungi." A college girl, on the other hand, wishes that she could give 100,000 votes to Shamit. A housewife, who is trained in classical music pitches in for Rooprekha pledging that she would stop practicing music of she loses.

Such is the new campaign of Fame Gurukul, which has managed to cut across gender, age and social status by having opinions ranging from a young boy to an old man. Jaipuria says, "It's now a matter of time when the Fame Jodi will be announced and there is a lot of drama happening among the contestants, faculty and the judges. The new campaign talks about the viewers' perspective and brings their views in."

The outdoor campaign was rolled out in 12 cities across the country on 5 September. Apart from this, television commercials have also been on-air, which take off from the theme of the outdoor campaign.

This campaign has been conceived by Euro RSCG. The agency's vice president (creative) Ashok Karnik says, "While on other reality talent hunts, it is mostly the judges who decide on the winner, Fame Gurukul is a different kind of reality show, where they viewers more or less decide the fate of the contestants every week. Hence, we decided to roll out a campaign keeping that premise in mind. The show has reached its climax and it is at this point in time that the viewers are most involved. Obviously people have their favourite contestants and we wanted to communicate the same with this campaign."

"The tagline of 'Iske Liye Kuch Bhi Karega' is very vital to our campaign as people are shown willing to go to any extent to make sure that their favourites win," Karnik adds.

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