When everyone's talking about Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and the next big social platform, here's a contrarian take that might surprise you: TV advertising isn't dead, it's thriving, especially for regional brands. Creative execution has room to breathe, and retail brands are building household dominance across entire states.

Welcome to regional television marketing.

We sat down with Chethan Shenoy, Vice President Marketing at Zee Kannada and Zee Power, whose career spans agencies (TBWA, FCB Ulka), global brands (Acer, Samsung), and now regional TV leadership. His journey offers a masterclass in understanding where audiences actually pay attention and why challenging digital-first dogma sometimes makes the most strategic sense.

The Attention Advantage: TV vs Digital

Let's talk numbers. On Instagram, users skip ads within 2-3 seconds on average. On TV? That same skip threshold extends to 8-9 seconds that is nearly 3x longer.

"TV is still the largest medium in the country," Chethan explains. "It has the highest eyeballs, highest impressions. And when it comes to advertising, the attention rate is much higher when it comes to TV watching."

What 8-9 Seconds Actually Means

When your audience gives you nearly a full 10 seconds instead of 2-3, your creative strategy transforms:

• You can establish context before the hook

• You can build emotional arcs instead of just pattern interrupts

• You can tell stories that drive recall and conversion

• Your brand messaging has room to land

For marketers fighting creative fatigue and declining engagement rates, this isn't academic. It's the difference between being seen and being invisible.

The Regional Goldmine: Where Retail Brands Win Big

Here's where it gets interesting for performance marketers: while national GECs (General Entertainment Channels) like Star Plus and Zee TV attract major B2C retail brands, regional language channels are dominated by retail brands.

On Zee Kannada and similar regional channels, Chethan notes that "more than half of our clients are from retail who are doing very well in either Bangalore or all 31 districts of Karnataka."

These aren't just any retail brands. We're talking about:

• Jewelry retailers expanding across districts

• Furniture and interior design brands

• Regional FMCG and soap manufacturers

• Local service providers building household name recognition

Why Regional TV Works for These Brands

Precision audience mapping.

"We actually map the core audience and we make the content for that core audience," Chethan explains.

Unlike probabilistic digital targeting and lookalike audiences, TV channels know exactly who's watching and when. Zee Kannada's core audience is the 30-35+ homemaker, the household decision-maker who discusses show plots with neighbors, sees herself in the storylines, and watches TV as her primary relaxation medium.

For retail brands with physical locations in Bangalore or across Karnataka, this precision is invaluable. You're not wasting impressions in Mumbai when your stores are only in Karnataka. You're reaching families in specific districts who can actually walk into your showroom tomorrow.

Launching Zee Power: Bridging Traditional TV and OTT

Zee Kannada recently launched Zee Power, replacing their movie channel Zee Picture with a hybrid GEC (General Entertainment Channel) targeting a gap in the market.

The strategic insight: There's a wide audience between traditional dramatic TV serials (too exaggerated) and raw OTT content (too explicit for family viewing). Zee Power aims to create content where parents, teenagers, and kids can watch together.

The launch playbook:

1. Leveraged their biggest asset first: Zee Kannada itself (40% market share, number one channel for seven years)

2. Physical activations: Branded trains, carnivals in 15 district headquarters with local influencers

3. Platform partnerships: Innovations with Swiggy

4. Traditional hygiene: Bus branding, outdoor, print

The multi-channel approach reflects a sophisticated understanding that different audiences need different touchpoints and that your owned media can be your most powerful launch vehicle.

Social Media at Scale: 9.5 Million Instagram Followers

Zee Kannada is the #2 Instagram channel in India's media and entertainment category with 9.5 million Instagram followers and 11 million on Facebook.

Their secret? In-house operational excellence.

"We have about 16 people in our social team," Chethan explains. "And there's a reason we've built this following, it’s in-house team plus brutal operational excellence."

The Content Machine

The team structure is surgical:

• Social media lead managing overall strategy

• 2-3 people per show creating dedicated content

• Reality show specialists on-set capturing behind-the-scenes moments

• Weekly planning meetings mapping content 1.5-2 months in advance

• Daily standups (when possible) for real-time adjustments

The content philosophy: Give audiences what they came for.

"75-80% of our content is show content itself," Chethan notes. "Our average reel gets minimum 1 million views. These followers aren't by fluke, they're waiting for that content."

Many viewers don't watch full TV episodes anymore. They track storylines through 3-5 minute social snippets. Zee Kannada's social strategy isn't just promotion, it's become a primary consumption channel.

The AI Reality Check

When asked about AI's impact on their marketing, Chethan's answer was refreshingly honest:

"In our team, there's no much change. We try various AI tools for topical content like Mother's Day. But otherwise, people want original. Our audience is crazy about those artists, the real people. Anything artificial disturbs the equilibrium."

For content-driven brands where authenticity and specific talent are the draw, AI augments rather than replaces. They use it for lightweight topical content, but human creativity and star power remain irreplaceable.

Sentiment analysis? Still largely manual, with the team spending significant time on ORM (Online Reputation Management) to understand audience feedback and feed insights back to fiction teams for story adjustments.

What Digital Marketers Can Learn from Regional TV

Before dismissing TV as legacy media, consider these strategic takeaways:

1. Attention is the real currency

Stop optimizing for impressions alone. If your digital creative can't capture attention in 2 seconds, it's invisible. TV's 8-9 second window proves that when you earn attention, creative quality compounds ROI.

2. Geographic precision still matters

For brands with physical presence or regional ambitions, hyper-local targeting beats broad national reach. Regional TV delivers this in ways digital platforms are still catching up to.

3. Content-audience fit drives everything

Zee Kannada's approach mapping core audiences and creating specifically for them, mirrors what performance marketers do with landing pages. The principle is universal, regardless of channel.

4. Operational excellence beats platform novelty

Zee Kannada's social success isn't about chasing the newest features. It's about planning 1.5 months ahead, assigning clear ownership, and executing consistently.

One Final Piece of Advice

When asked what he'd tell young marketers today, Chethan offered something unexpected:

"Remove those earphones and go anywhere you're going. Don't close yourself. Smell it, hear it, listen to it, look at it. Be a passive listener in buses, in metros."

Key Takeaways

• The 3x Attention Advantage: TV viewers engage with ads for 8-9 seconds vs. 2-3 seconds on social platforms, giving your creative actual room to land.

• Geographic Precision Matters: Regional TV delivers hyper-local targeting that reaches customers who can actually walk into your store, not wasted impressions across irrelevant markets.

• Proof in Performance: Zee Kannada's 40% market share and 9.5 million Instagram followers prove that mastering where your audience engages beats chasing the newest platform.

• The Real Lesson: Understand where your audience actually pays attention. Challenge digital-first dogma when data points elsewhere. Brands live beyond any single channel or campaign.

• Integration Over Isolation: The most sophisticated strategies don't abandon traditional channels, they integrate them based on where audiences genuinely engage.

This post is based on our conversation with Chetan Shenoy in Episode 5 of Velocity: Performance Marketing Podcast by Hawky. Want to optimize creative performance? Learn how Hawky helps brands analyze what's working, generate fresh variations, and fight creative fatigue at scale.

More Episodes:hawky.ai/podcast