What made BharatMatrimony choose TV for its content initiative

Online matrimony service BharatMatrimony recently concluded its content initiative ‘Find Your Equal – In Marriage, In Life’ on television to support its on-going multi-media marketing campaign ‘Find Your Equal’ that kicked off in December last year with a TV spot featuring MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador.

While various online and e-commerce brands choose traditional mediums like television, print, radio and outdoor to attract new consumers, few opt for these mediums for their content initiatives considering the high cost involved in a long and sustained effort.

An online matchmaking brand, whose target audience is mainly an evolved digital and social customer, has its own reasons to choose television for its content initiative. The fact that the content initiative was a part of the 360-degree marketing campaign and not standalone, which could have cost a bomb for the brand, could be one of the factors for choosing television.

Rajasekar KS

According to Rajasekar KS, General Manager, Marketing at Matrimony.com, the TV commercial starring MS Dhoni was on air across India and it did very well uplifting female profiles on BharatMatrimony by 10%.

On the rationale behind doing content on TV, Rajasekar said, “We felt sharing real customer stories on mass media would further reinforce our purpose of working towards a better India through happy marriages.”

Encouraged with the results, the brand supported the campaign with the content on NDTV’s English and Hindi news channels.

On choosing NDTV, Rajasekar said, “It has good reach in the Delhi-NCR region which is a key market for us. Besides the concept was nice.”

The content is in the form of a show that was themed around the changing aspirations of people looking for a life partner and how partners support each other. It was aired on NDTV India and NDTV 24x7 between April 21 and 27, 2019.

Speaking on the objective behind the content initiative, Rajasekar said, “It’s our contribution to making a better nation. All our initiatives are built around our purpose: The future of a country depends on its citizens. Good citizens emerge from good parenting. Good parenting happens in a happy marriage. And, we are the gateway to happy marriages.”

BharatMatrimony has previously produced a content initiative ‘Happy Couple of the Day’, which was featured across NDTV, Times Now and Headlines Today. Filmed across major cities, the initiative included a series of emotionally rich stories of how the couples met, fell in love and are living a happily married life.

Marriage is a serious and sensitive issue and content around it has to be crafted and curated carefully. Talking about the things to be kept in mind while creating content for BharatMatrimony, Rajasekar said, “We definitely can’t do over-the-edge, irreverent or insensitive topical content. It is a unique category and we have to be glued to the challenges of our users, understand their fears, be sensitive to their needs and create content and campaigns that resonate with them. Ultimately, the content should empower and offer a solution.”

BharatMatrimony’s TG is present across mediums and most certainly consumes a lot of digital content. 60% of the profiles on the platform are self-registered and lakhs log on to its mobile apps every day.

Talking about the media mix, Rajasekar said, “We are trying to drive conversations around our ‘Find Your Equal’ concept into the drawing rooms of Indian homes. We also did a social media campaign on the same theme. Going forward, digital is also part of the mix for the Find Your Equal campaign.”

But is the content distribution strategy different for the matrimonial brands compared to other sectors? Rajasekar said, “Digital and social work best for matrimonial sites likes ours. There’s no doubt that short snackable visual/ video content works better. While creating content, we need to keep in mind that content needs to empathise with users but at the same time empower users with solutions.”

One of the brand’s best content case studies has been www.HappyMarriages.com, an initiative to enrich the marital relationship and make it meaningful. The social initiative guides young married couples to improve their relationship. It is India’s first website that guides newly married couples to a happy marriage.

BharatMatrimony has been investing much more in content marketing than before. The brand has a five-member team that manages content and social media.