Emirates, a major airline based in the Middle East, has launched the first Bollywood variety show to be fully produced and aired exclusively in North America?and there is a mobile component.

The Destination: Bollywood show airs Saturday mornings in the United States on Star India Plus (9 a.m. ET), SET Asia (noon ET) and Hulu (4:00 p.m. ET), and in Canada on Rogers video-on-demand. The program will run for 10 weeks and feature singing, dancing and Hindi music videos, including two reality television segments where Web and TV viewers pick the best local dancer and singer by texting in a là American Idol.

?The Emirates Destination Bollywood program has a multi-platform marketing mix?TV, Web and mobile, print, in-theater, even radio promoting this,? said John Demarchi, executive vice president of sponsorships and social media at Saavn, New York. ?The mobile elements of the Emirates sponsorship is mobile voting and also surveying after votes are cast.

?When people watch on TV, we ask them to vote using mobile voting, texting a keyword into a short code, and based on that mobile voting, we determine each week?s winner who will advance to the finals,? he said. ?Mobile voting is very important to see who wins?each week five contestants perform and each has a mobile keyword.

?Emirates wanted to do almost like a Bollywood power hour, where they have a singing show and a dancing show?each competition is about 15-20 minutes in length, with four or five contestants a week, and Bollywood music videos to fill out the hour.?

Emirates airline partnered with Saavn, a Bollywood entertainment and digital distribution company, to produce the program and with ZenithOptimedia on the program placement.

ZenithOptimedia is part of Starcom MediaVest, itself a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe.

A year ago, Saavn inked a deal with Sprint, making its content available on-deck with the top five carriers in the U.S. (see story).

Bollywood SMS
Destination: Bollywood is the first reality program that lets Hulu viewers vote at the same time as TV viewers to determine a winner.

Emirates executives are said to have liked the idea of being able to target such an important segment of its market?Bollywood fans?with this TV program and the interactive elements that SMS voting enables.

After fans vote for their favorite singer or dancer, they receive a text message in response that thanks them for voting and asks them to fill out a short survey with a few questions about Emirates: ?Did you like the show? Do you know that Emirates flies to India??

If they fill out the survey, they get $10 in free Bollywood music from Saavn.

The one-hour show consists of three segments:

? Destination: Bollywood, Dance Edition?Soloists and dance troupes step to the beats of the best Hindi songs and compete for the title of Emirates Dance Champion?and a cash prize of $2,010.

? Destination: Bollywood, Singing Edition, brings 20 talented Bollywood singers from North America to one stage to perform Indian music and compete against one another for a cash prize of $2,010 and the Emirates Singing Champion title.

? SmasHitsTV features the best Bollywood music videos, including the latest hits and Bollywood classics.

Star India Plus and SET Asia are available by subscription on most cable and satellite carriers.

Each episode will also be made available online at Hulu.

?Mobile voting really chooses the winners, which makes sense for target demographic, and the response has been really good,? Mr. Demarchi said. ?Emirates does beautifully already with global travelers ages 35-54, which is their core audience, but for this particular campaign, they wanted to reach younger folks?influential global travelers ages 18-34.

?The best way for Emirates to get in front of these young global travelers who are high-value consumers is to hit people in the heart and play to their passions,? he said. ?We know that South Asians in Asia and here in the States love Bollywood, and that they?re digitally engaged and digitally-aware people?very tech-savvy.

?This is the first time we?ve done a mobile component to a TV show, which is a very big deal, and we plan to do a lot more of that in the future.?