ITV

Category: HBO

  • HBO to create media blitzkrieg around ‘Spiderman’

    MUMBAI: HBO is going all out to create awareness over one of its biggest properties of 2004 – Spiderman. The film airs on 30 January at 9 pm as part of its newly launched Big One slot.
     
     

    The integrated campaign will cover all media. In Mumbai and Delhi, major vantage hoardings have been rented. On air, there will be spots with new graphics that will talk about the film. For the first time, HBO will be promoting a film using SET through a barter arrangement. Other channels it is being pushed on include MTV and Discovery. The concept of Big One will see a sizeable increase in ad spend.

    Print and radio will also be used extensively. Online, a microsite has been created. Visitors can play games on hboaisa.com and win prizes. The broadcaster has also tied up with contests2win.com. The Spiderman contest on that site will see the prizes change each week. On the ground level a Spiderman bus will visit Delhi this weekend and Mumbai the following weekend. On account of the tie up with Pepsi the caped figure will visit key Pizza Hut outlets and spin his web. He will also visit shopping malls and the hot spots the youth frequent. The action will be rounded off with an on air contest which will air when the film is shown. Prizes up for grabs include Nokia Phones, Samsung TVs.

    Last year, despite cricket and the confusion over CAS, the channel saw double digit ad revenue growth. HBO South Asia’s country manager Shruti Bajpai says it has got 150 advertisers and is now being watched in 18 million homes. Bajpai said that this year there would be an on air and online contest around The Lord of The Rings: the Return Of The King when it is released. That should happen sometime next month. The winner gets a trip to New Zealand to see the sets. “We will also be involved with a special screening of the film in India. Passes will be given out. For an SMS and online contest run last year Bajpai said that around 95,000 entries were received.”

    It goes without saying that when Columbia Tristar releases the sequel to Spiderman later on in the year in July HBO will play an active role in promotional activity. As Bajpai pointed out,” HBO is perhaps the only movie channel which has a very strong relationship with its partner studios. Last year we had a contest around The Hulk when it launched. When the Matrix Reloaded was released we screened The Animatrix. We also screened the original film again at that time. This is how we have been working with Warner Bros. We used a similar strategy for Lara Croft: The Cradle Of Life. “

  • HBO to push ‘Band of Brothers’ home video in US

    NEW YORK: It may have been a damp squib in India, but in the US, HBO’s World War II show has done well both in terms of viewership and awards (six Emmies).

    Now HBO has announced that its series Band of Brothers will be available on home video from 5 November. The HBO video is backed by an extensive advertising campaign in the US. The campaign includes post street date advertising on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, TBS, TNT, E!, ESPN, FOX SPORTS, A&E, The History Channel, TMC, and CNN. Print advertising will include layouts in Esquire,GQ,Entertainment Weekly,Vanity Fair, Time,Fortune,National Geographic, the Military Times, USA Today,The New York Times,The Los Angeles Times and much more. HBO Video will also advertise the series in the top 40 radio markets in the US.

    The VHS and DVD copies also feature the exclusive documentary We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company. This one hour and 20 minute documentary tells the story of the men of Easy Company in their own words. It features recent interviews with the real-life company members whose deeds are dramatised in the miniseries, combined with rare and archival photographs and film footage.

    Additional bonus materials that are exclusive on DVD include a 30 minute feature showcasing The Making of Band of Brothers, Ron Livingston’s Video Diaries featuring the experience of making the miniseries through the eyes of one actor, a featurette of HBO’s premiere screening of the miniseries on the beaches of Normandy and an optional enhanced viewing Field Guide.

    The Field Guide is an extensive reference feature, which details the people, places and events associated with Easy Company’s campaigns through Europe and WW II as a whole. Access to the guide is context sensitive, so the viewer always gets information specific to the current episode being viewed first. From this access point, the viewer may continue to browse the entire collection of features spanning sections such as Soldiers, Timeline, Map, Chain of Command.

  • HBO serves up a movie treat this November

    Party on Saturday Nights with `Napoleon Dynamite’,

    `Against The Ropes’, `Man of the House’ and `The Longest Yard’

     

     

    New Delhi, October 30: As the winters dawn, HBO, the movie channel you have always loved, gives you reasons to stay home. This November HBO warms you up with some of the most celebrated movies and Original Series that will keep you hooked to the television. Don’t miss a super hit Hollywood movie on `Blockbuster of the Month’, a brand new premiere every Saturday night on `HBO Saturday Nights’ and charismatic action in the all new block `It’s A Guy Thing’.

     

    Make sure to catch Wesley Snipes, Jessica Biel and Kris Kristofferson in the HBO Blockbuster of the Month `Blade: Trinity’ on November 1 at 9 PM. In this third installment of the film series adapted from Marvel comics, a new challenge awaits the vampire hunter known as Blade (Wesley Snipes, The Detonator, Unstoppable). A group of vampires have resurrected the ancient and all-powerful Count Dracula (Purcell, Mission: Impossible II).

    To defeat him, Blade must team up with the Nightstalkers, a group of similar-minded hunters led by Abigail (Jessica Biel, Elizabethtown, Stealth). Director David S. Goyer successfully continues the Blade cinema series, satisfying fans with plenty of nocturnal monster mystique and leather-clad vampire slayers smashing through floors and ceilings, breaking windows with their bodies, and occasionally defying gravity.

    To spice up your Saturday nights this November, HBO presents a blend of Comedy, Drama and Action on HBO Saturday Nights at 9 pm. The life of a ninja-loving teenager gets complicated after he is introduced to some new aspects of life. Enjoy the story of this teenager in the fun-filled comedy Napoleon Dynamite on November 4. Meg Ryan plays a woman struggling to prove herself in the male-dominated, testosterone-laden world of boxing in ‘Against the Ropes’.

    Watch her being the proverbial woman succeeding in a man’s world on November 11. Tommy Lee Jones plays a no-nonsense undercover texas ranger trying to protect fun loving college girls from the drug mafia in a comedy that bursts with high energy – `Man of the House’ on November 18. Watch a revered football superstar, played by Adam Sandler, reluctantly training an inmate football team to play against the prison guards in a no holds barred game in `The Longest Yard’. Also starring Chris Rock and Burt Reynolds, the movie is scheduled for November 25.

     

    HBO brings non-stop action packed movies for all who love adventure and enjoy action with its new block `It’s A Guy Thing’ every Saturday at 2 pm. A group of martial arts warriors have only six days to save the Earth from an extra-dimensional invasion. Earth Realm Warriors battle against the forces of Outworld in ‘Mortal Kombat Annihilation’. Treat yourself to this master dose of martial arts on November 4.

    Be ready to blow your socks off with the adventure and action of ‘Starship Troopers 2: Hero of Federation’ on November 11. Catch all the fun and enjoy wonderful visual effects in this blockbuster directed by one of the greatest visual effects wizards in movie history, Phil Tippet.

     

    The cast and the fun of conning of Ocean’s Eleven returns with its sequel and blockbuster Ocean’s Twelve. Meet your favourite stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta Jones, Matt Damon in this cool crime caper on November 18. Clint Eastwood plays a veteran cop who gets stuck with a rookie cop (Charlie Sheen) to chase down a German criminal (Raul Julia.) in ‘The Rookie’ on November 25.

     

    Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award winning series ‘Deadwood’ Season 2, starring Ian MacShane, Timothy Olyphant, Molly Parker and others, continues on HBO every Wednesday night right after the 9 pm movie. Find out this November what happens in the lawless town of Deadwood in the five brand new episodes of the second season of this HBO Original Series exclusively on HBO.

     

    HBO brings the best of Hollywood by premiering the top blockbuster movies on television first in South Asia through exclusive licensing deals with four major Hollywood studios – Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Columbia/ TriStar), Universal and Warner Bros.

     

    Prime time viewing on HBO includes HBO Blockbuster Of The Month, a special television event that premieres a mega blockbuster movie every month, HBO Saturday Nights, which premieres a new box office hit each week throughout the year; HBO Sunday Super Hits, which showcases the blockbuster hits, star-studded hits, favourite genre hits, Asian hits, highly acclaimed hits and so much more. In addition, HBO features at least 3- 4 new movie showcases every month to offer viewers an interesting mix of Hollywood movies based on exciting themes.

     

     

     

    For further information, please contact:

    Manisha Manchanda, HBO Asia
    Tel: 0124 – 4028888
    Email: manchanda_manisha@hboasia.com.sg

    Nalini Neha, CMCG India
    Tel-fax: 011 – 29216471 – 73
    Email: nalini.neha@cmcgindia.com

  • HBO plans road show in B’lore to strengthen brand position

     MUMBAI: As the race among movie channels to draw viewers gathers steam, HBO is trying a spate of novel concepts to tap the uninitiated and keep the veteran movie buff firmly in its grip. In other words, to elevate and strengthen HBO’s brand position as top of mind recall.

    The HBO buzz is being built up through a road show in Bangalore, on air capsules, branding within colleges and theatres, radio spots and press ads in mainline dailies. The strategy, says the channel, is to optimize and integrate the on air buzz and translate it on the ground and online.

    The road show will involve a MC moving around the city interacting with the crowd, asking questions, shortlisting and rewarding some of the respondents. The show will also include games that will be played and winners rewarded on the spot. The HBO Bus will be parked in some key market areas also and the MC will make enough noise around the area. Through loud music a lot of buzz will be created. The MC will also give away HBO goodies and promotional material on the spot. The road show will be spread over three days from 25 July and will target colleges, bars, popular markets and the Infosys campus, says the channel. The selected winners will get to say their say about the movie channel live on HBO. The event is being promoted through press ads, radio spots, online through the channel’s website and branding in colleges and theatres.

    The on air capsule will incorporate audiences from major Indian metros talking about the reasons why they like to watch the channel, particularly properties like Friday Double Bill and Saturday Nights.