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Tag: Sony Max

  • The call of IPL7….

    The call of IPL7….

    MUMBAI: The call of the IPL so divine that you have to be there for the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

    This year’s campaign by Sony MAX for the IPL is with a tagline that revolves around the concept of ‘The call of the IPL’.

    “It is as if you cannot refuse a call from the god. In the same way, when IPL calls, you have to be there,” is how Sony MAX and Sony MIX executive vice president and business head Neeraj Vyas explains the thought behind the campaign for IPL7.

    Vyas, the Guest Editor of the day at Indiantelevision.com, was speaking on the finer details that go into the making of the campaign to promote IPL. MAX has the broadcast rights for the twenty-20 cricket tournament.

    “You have to be there when IPL calls you,” reiterates Vyas.

    Sony’s IPL campaign will be launched towards the end of the first week of March.

    The core theme of the IPL campaign continues to be entertainment but the broadcaster’s challenge is to every year come up with a bigger and bigger campaign idea.

    ‘Sirf Dekhneka Nahi’

    In 2013, Sony took its campaign to a much higher level bringing in a celebrity in choreographer and director Farah Khan.

    ‘Sirf Dekhneka Nahi’ was the punch-line of the 2013 campaign featuring Farah Khan, urging people to express themselves whenever a wicket falls or a boundary or a six is hit.

    The campaign for IPL season 7 is expected to be a step ahead of 2013 campaign. “IPL is an entertainment vehicle which appeals to families, friends, men, women and youth. It cuts across different target groups. And this was the brief given to the creative agency (Havas Communications),” says Vyas.

    The preparation for the campaign started in November 2013 with the first creative meeting. “This was followed by several meetings to come out with that one idea, that one hook to develop the campaign,” Vyas points out.

    While five 30 second creatives have been made with common people, one 60 second creative has been made, which will have a glimpse of Farah Khan. The music for the campaign has been composed by the duo Vishal and Shekhar.

    It was JWT that worked on Sony’s IPL campaign in 2013.

    So why hasn’t the campaign come out as yet? Vyas says, “Well, this time, neither the venue nor the dates have so far been announced. But, we will be launching the campaign towards the end of the first week of March.”

    MAX’s EARLIER CAMPAIGNS

    So, as people eagerly wait for the new campaign, we at indiantelevision.com, take you through the journey of past IPL campaigns.

    Sony MAX has since the first edition of IPL, which started in 2008, been promoting the new format to build an audience.

    What started with IPL being ‘Manoranjan Ka Baap’ with unknown faces, the campaign has grown bigger and better over the years.

    The ‘Manoranjan Ka Baap’ campaign, directed by Rajesh Krishnan of Soda Films, was a spoof from the 80s films, where the wife and her two sons are taunted every now and then for their missing father.

    While the villagers keep asking the mother and the sons ‘Kab aayenge Manoj aur Ranjan Ka Baap?’, the trio believed that he would come some day. And then when the wife gives up hope, her sons come running and point at the TV set which says, ‘Aa Gaya Manoranjan Ka Baap.’ The promo that got around 78,377 views on YouTube was aimed at positioning IPL as the ultimate entertainer.

    The second season saw two promos under the tagline ‘Ek Desh Ek Junoon.’ While one promo shows how god made one land, but man created boundaries, the other promo shows how one billion people are doing the same thing at the same time. It shows how people rejoice over a ‘Six’ and get sad on a ‘wicket’, but all these emotions are depicted at the same time.

    The promo was created in-house and took the communication one level up from the first season which had proved that the format was accepted across.

    IPL by its third season had built a huge fanfare and while the second season was played in South Africa, the format was back in India in its third year.  The channel went all out promoting the series and came out with the campaign ‘Saare Jahan Se Achha’.

    The video showed a red carpet laid for the players belonging to IPL teams from various cities. The video became hugely popular and this was quite evident from the 412,650 views it garnered on YouTube.

    ‘Bharat Bandh’ was the message the channel gave out to its viewers as the tournament stepped into season four. To send this message, seven promos were created.

    One showing how a politician was left wondering who had announced a 51-day ‘Bandh’ and the second promo showed a goon being upset with his business going down, considering there was a ‘Bandh’. The third showed a ‘Hot’ lady stepping out of the train and looking for help on the station but there was no one there to help.

    The fourth promo involved two female neighbours, who for long had hated each other but now have come together saying ‘nafrat bandh’ with ‘Bharat Bandh’.  The campaign was conceptualised by JWT and it too became popular.

    In the fifth season of IPL, MAX got more personal with its promos. The campaign was under the tagline ‘Mauka’, for a get-together for family and friends.

    The campaign saw five promos doing the rounds: ‘Mauka Phuphaji’ which garnered around 17,289 views on YouTube, ‘Mauka Stadium’ which saw approximately 45,229 views on YouTube, ‘Mauka Family’, with around 19,233 hits, ‘Mauka Father’ with around 17,898 views and ‘Mauka Friends’ with 15,663 views. The campaign was based on the idea of how IPL had the power to get people together.

    For the first five seasons, MAX roped in common faces, with no actors. But, as the game grew bigger, the channel knew that its campaign has to be at the same scale. It was then that in the season six of IPL, Farah Khan was roped in to promote its campaign ‘Sirf Dekhneka Nahi.’      

    The campaign had come from the insight that cricket is not just a game in this country but a passion that moves every Indian to get up to celebrate and dance.

    And to promote this thought, Farah Khan established three unique signature dance moves each for a four, a six and a wicket. Through the campaign, MAX invited the audience to shed all inhibitions and groove to the tune of Pepsi IPL 2013.

    The campaign featured three short films, three dance instruction videos and one big grand film. To make the campaign a nationwide sensation and to add to Farah’s dance moves, the channel had also roped in music director–singer duo Vishal and Shekhar who composed the tune for the Pepsi IPL 2013 campaign.

    The campaign was created and conceptualised by JWT and directed and filmed by ad film director Rajesh Saathi of Keroscene Films.

    Talking on the last year’s campaign and Farah Khan, Vyas says, “Farah Khan fit the bill completely. She directly connected with the audience and she cut across audience groups. She is a choreographer, a director, an actor and a mother. And she does all this with so much perfection. So when a Farah Khan says, ‘Sirf Dekhneka Nahi’, people know she means it. Also because she is a director herself, she could add so many other bits to the campaign to make it look even better.” 

    PROMOTING VIEWERSHIP

    “Since the inception of the game, marketing has been one of IPL’s strengths, and both TV viewership and stadium attendance were promoted simultaneously. One reason for IPL’s success has been that multiple entities (tournament owner, broadcaster, team owners, etc.) all promoted IPL, while ICL was promoted by Zee alone (as it played all those roles),” informs PipalMajik CEO Chandradeep (CD) Mitra.

    How different will be MAX’s IPL 2014 campaign?

    Pepsi, the title sponsor of IPL 7, has brought on board actor Ranbir Kapoor as an intern for promoting Pepsi IPL 2014.

    MAX will surely think bigger for this year’s campaign.

    For PipalMajik’s Mitra, marketers need to constantly promote their brands to break the clutter and keep their brands top-of-mind. “This is especially true for seasonal brands and time-bound events. Sports events particularly need to drum up excitement to engage fans. There has been some evidence of IPL viewership plateauing or declining in the last couple of years. This year, post last year’s scandals, and likely scheduling of matches outside India, the need for the IPL brand to be rejuvenated and promoted is even greater,” he adds. 

    Also, with other major sporting events like Football World Cup and T20 World Cup competing for sports lovers’ limited time and attention, this year “IPL definitely needs major promotion this year,” says Madison Media COO Karthik Lakshminarayan.

    IMPACT OF CAMPAIGNS

    Talking about the previous campaigns, Lakshminarayan says, “The campaigns so far have helped the channel garner good impressions in terms of ratings. Almost all of the marketing efforts are realised in the first week of the series as that draws in the viewers. So one can safely say that the ratings in the first week is largely the result of the media campaign that the channel runs. Post that the ratings are dependent on the matches played thereafter and the results etc.”

    So while there are loyalists for the series, there is also a huge chunk that is attracted to the game through the marketing campaign. “The campaign drives on emotions. There has always been general excitement around the marketing campaign of IPL, this year should be bigger,” adds Lakshminarayan

    The first leg of IPL 2014 mostly will be held in South Africa, and the second leg in India. “Keeping this in mind, the communication has to be more engaging this time. For me digital media should play a very critical part in the channel’s communication about the game,” says MPG planning head – west Soumya Sarkar.

    For Sarkar, it is not the brand ambassador that will drive the communication this year. “The channel has to keep interacting with the audience. So it needs to come up with more contests, fan clubs and online chatting among others to keep the viewers hooked,” he adds.

    (Following are links to Sony’s earlier campaigns)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MQ4Jbb_nns

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r41mcUzUkis

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RVg2mvNJDI

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHByZLDbPiw

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v5Nh_XtY_8

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBBIrcKBMWk

  • Celebrate Love with Sony MAX

    Celebrate Love with Sony MAX

    MUMBAI: This Valentine’s day, Sony MAX, the premium Hindi movies and special events channel brings to you  five epic romantic flicks to keep the magic of love alive all day long. Feel the triumphs and tribulations in each of these movies with your loved ones.

    Qayamat Se QayamatTak (7:00 a.m.):A young man and young woman fall in love against their feuding fathers’ wishes; Romeo and Juliet set in 1980’s India. Will their love survive?

    MUJHSE DOSTI KAROGE (10:30 a.m.): When Raj leaves India to move to England with his family, he leaves behind childhood friend and crush Tina. Tina’s friend Pooja has a crush on Raj, which she manages to keep secret from both of them while keeping an email correspondence with Raj under Tina’s name. When Raj returns to India, he will find out the truth, but who will he choose?

    Mohabbatein (1:00 p.m.): Three young men arrive at a famous private school in India, headed by a stern headmaster named Narayan Shankar. The headmaster has instituted a strict anti-romance policy. Sameer, Vikram, Karan are the three men who are encouraged by Raj Aryan, their music teacherto follow their hearts. As the story unravels, the three boys fall in love and the relationship between the headmaster and the music teacher begins to become strained.Who wins in the end – Raj or Narayan? Do the three boys finally find their love?

    YehJawaani Hai Deewani (5:30 p.m.): YehJawaani Hai Deewani is the story of the relationship between two characters, Bunny &Naina, at two separate but defining times in their lives. First, when they are just out of college and standing on the crossroads of multiple decisions that will shape who and what they become and then later on, in their late-twenties when they meet again, holding on to certain fulfilled and certain unfulfilled dreams, at a crossroads of another nature this time. What does the future hold for both of them?

    Aashiqui 2 (9 p.m.): Aashiqui 2 movie is a musical love story of Rahul Jaykar a famous, successful and self-destructive and ArohiShirke an aspiring female singer. Believing in her talent, Rahul gives her a helping hand and her career begins to eclipse his. Arohi is ambitious to become a star while Rahul’s career is his defense against a self-destructive part of himself that has led him into outrageous bursts of drunkenness, drugs, love affairs, fights and adventures that have made him a legend. Will they accept their success and live life together?

     

  • Max launches ‘MAX Fully Deewana Contest’

    Max launches ‘MAX Fully Deewana Contest’

    MUMBAI: MAX, the premium Hindi movies and special events channelis all set to tickle the funny bone of its viewers with a unique Bollywood property called ‘MAX Fully Deewana contest’ hosted by the inimitable duo of Krushna Abhishek and KikuSharda.

    This unique contestwill showcasefamous Bollywood movies and their well-known dialogues in the most humorous way. The on air contest is scheduled to air during the 9pm movie from the 9th to the 22nd of February.In this Bollywood-based contestthe viewers will have to answer 3 simple questions which would enable themto win prizes. There will be 3 questions asked daily which viewers have to answer via a SMS. Four lucky winnerswill each win an L.E.D. television daily. The winners will be announced on the channel the following day. The hostsKrushna Abhishek and KikuSharda, will be asking these questions through a series of spoofs and gags to keep the viewer entertained.

    On his association with the contestKikuSharda, said “Even though it is my first appearance on MAX, I’ve always been glued to the channel because I am a big film buff. When the opportunity came to work on this show with Krushna, I was very pleased. He is a fine comic actor and I think he has impeccable comic timing. We always have a blast when we work together and this will be no exception.”

    When asked about his filmy side KrushnaAbhishek jumps in and says “I have always been a Bollywood fan and there is a filmy Deewanapan and Deewangi in me right from childhood. I love to play different characters and the ‘MAX Fully DeewanaContest’ is a very good medium to showcase the same. Iwas really glad I would be doing this with Kiku. He is a phenomenal comic actor and I think we complement each other on our comic timing which I think is very important.“

    Commenting on the initiative Vaishali Sharma, VP Marketing, Sony MAX says, “We are very happy to bring such an engaging and humorous contest for our audience.We always strive to innovatively entice the viewers who have been our utmost priority. Havingfabulous and witty actors likeKrushna and Kikuon board for this out of the box concept, I think the viewers will be thoroughly entertained.”

  • Sony Max goes ‘badtameez’

    Sony Max goes ‘badtameez’

    MUMBAI: When television premieres have become a norm, the channels have no option but to come up with interesting campaigns to not only grab attention of viewers but to also be a step ahead of the competitors.

     

    Sony Max which has premiered some of the blockbusters over the years and has garnered enough eyeballs with its strategic campaigns, this time has come up with a marketing campaign – Yahan Badtameezi nahi chalegi, badtameezi chalegi toh sirf MAX par – around the premiere of last year’s megahit Yeh Jawaani Hai deewani.

     

    The campaign has been conceptualised by JWT over a number of brainstorming sessions. The core aim of the campaign is to entice the audience and grab more eyeballs.

     

    The 360 degree campaign entails the use of various tools like television, print, radio, outdoor, digital, and cinema. Some of the innovative initiatives include Ranbir Kapoor lending his voice to advise movie-goers to switch off their mobile phones during a movie across cinemas, auto rickshaws across Mumbai and Delhi will have his poster point out from behind asking people not to do badtameezi around or bouncers at various pubs and lounges wearing t-shirts that would be using the catch phrase of Yahan Badtameezi nahi chalegi, Badtameezi chalegi sirf MAX par with the logos.

     

    “At Max, we always try to do things differently with each movie premier. With Yeh Jawaani Hai Dewaani also our marketing campaign attempts to break clutter,” says Sony Max VP marketing Vaishali Sharma.

     

    When quizzed why such a huge campaign has been planned for a movie that has already been premiered on Sony earlier in 2013, Vaishali says, “It is a fun movie and since it is premiering for the first time on the channel, the campaign has been planned. The aim is to go all out and get people to watch the film as we feel that it still has potential to catch not only youngsters but the family as a whole.”

     

    Similar eye catching hoardings will also be seen on bus stops shelters at prominent spots in Mumbai and Delhi with the stars of the film in their iconic poses. She adds, “Mumbai and Delhi are on the radar and a lot of ground activities will be done in the metros. The tier II and III cities will be tapped through television, print and digital.”

     

    Radio too will be used extensively wherein contests will be run throughout the week asking people to talk about their badtameezi. Apart from this, the channel has also partnered with Facebook, where viewers can take a quick test to figure out if they are a funny badtameez, romantic, flirty or full on badtameez and get that stamped across their profile pictures. The Twitterati can use the hashtag #nobadtameezi and their friends to board the badtameez rail gadi on twitter.

     

    The film will be aired on 19 January at 8 pm.

  • Music, Hindi news genre on top in OTS week 2

    Music, Hindi news genre on top in OTS week 2

    MUMBAI: It seems the New Year celebrations are not going to fade away so easily. The TV viewers gave thumbs up to the music channels as they claimed the first position in the week two of the opportunity to see (OTS) as per Chrome Data Analytics & Media. Either too many good songs were released that kept the adrenalin-pumping of the music lovers, or they couldn’t get enough of the older songs. The genre rose by 1.3 per cent with MTV toppling over Sony Mix to top the charts with 89 per cent OTS.

     

    In fact, the genres catering to the Hindi speaking market (HSM) were on a roll this week.

     

    Call it the AAP effect or something else; the Hindi news channels too turned tables. From being in the bottom four, last week, the genre in the HSM took the second place in the top four with 1.1 per cent. Aaj Tak remained the undisputed king of the genre as week after week it has topped the ranks. This week, the channel garnered 93.9 per cent OTS.

     

    Hindi movies too saw a marginal rise with 0.4 per cent in the HSM with Sony Max being the blockbuster with 96.5 per cent OTS. Hindi GECs also didn’t stay behind and rose 0.1 per cent with DD National showing who is the boss when it comes to entertaining with 97.6 per cent.

     

    As for the bottom four, English entertainment channels failed to impress its viewers even after launching new shows. The genre saw the maximum drop with 3.5 per cent in OTS with AXN continuing to rule the roost with 79.4 per cent OTS.

     

    English movies channels too didn’t do well. The genre saw a drop of 3.1 per cent with Pix again topping the charts with 86.1 per cent OTS in the eight metros.

     

    English news as well as Business news in the eight metros were in the bottom four by registering a drop of 2.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent OTS respectively.

     

    Arnab’sTimes Now, however, never fails to impress its viewers. This time too it topped the list in the genre with 91.2 per cent OTS. As for the business news, CNBC Awaaz garnered 85 per cent OTS to be ranked one in the genre.

  • NP Singh’s triumph and challenges at Sony Entertainment

    NP Singh’s triumph and challenges at Sony Entertainment

    In 2009 when MSM India CEO Kunal Dasgupta resigned suddenly, industry insiders were betting that the COO NP Singh would take over. But that did not come to pass. MSM India chairman Man Jit Singh – who had taken charge as interim CEO and was also leading the search for Dasgupta’s replacement – was given the job after a nationwide hunt.

     

    Hence, when news emerged on Friday (3 January) that NP (as he is known by all in industry) was being elevated as CEO of MSM India, it was time to bring out the bubbly and cheer for him. The collective belief amongst most in the know is that NP has got his just rewards, finally!

    During the 15 years at MSM India, the turbaned NP has served the organisation well. Extremely low profile and mild-mannered, he was the perfect foil for the aggressive, innovative and outspoken Kunal Dasgupta.

     

    “He was always there, which gave Dasgupta the freedom to innovate and grow the network. He offered the rock solid stability which the organisation really needed,” says a person who has worked very closely with both Dasgupta and NP. “He is a very good leader, man manager and operations man. And he is extremely sharp with numbers because of his finance background. To top it all, he is a gentleman in every sense of the word – a rarity in the current cutthroat world of media and television.”

     

    His big win has been the biggest success of the Sony Entertainment Television (SET) Network in recent times – the channel Sab. After SET acquired it in 2005 for Rs 57 crore from Sri Adhikari Brothers, the management quickly moved it away from its comedy positioning which founder Markand Adhikari had given it and relaunched it as a youth-oriented channel. Not a very good move, really as its audiences disintegrated almost instantaneously. The team persisted with the youth demographic for two years, until NP proffered that it should stick to its original positioning of comedy, and went about cobbling together a clutch of funny shows along with Sab head Anooj Kapoor. Amongst the shows which emerged from those early huddles include the long-running Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chasma, Chidiya Ghar and FIR.

     

    The net result: the audiences flocked back and Sab, today at times, figures amongst the top 5 GECs. And it is highly profitable too. Mother channel Sony Entertainment, which it was supposed to simply flank, has comparatively not lived up to its potential and has been struggling to get its fiction show act right for several years now.

     

    NP’s second success has been Sony Max, which offers a cocktail of cricket and movie fare to its viewers. It arguably tops the Hindi movie channel category at all times of the year and it shines brilliantly through the annual flashy IPL tournament when it has at times moved to the number one spot (it has even beaten Hindi GECs).

     

    He and the team under him have been innovating with Max’s programming by bringing in more entertainment into the prizewinning Extraa Innings – new anchors, cricket veterans like Navjyot Singh Sidhu and Sunil Gavaskar (cracking jokes in Hindi), better sets, cheerleaders, a live band and even added doses of comedy and movie integration. Max has over the years also dabbled in Hindi and Bangla language commentary, much before ESPN and Star Sports did.

     

    The third six that the extremely articulate NP has hit is with Sony Pix, the international movie channel that in the SET portfolio. It is currently placed at the No 2, behind Star Movies. But it took some doing getting it there. From a classic movie positioning when it was launched, it was refocused as a channel which delivers new fare from the world of English cinema with the tag line ‘Stay Amazed’. NP has secured long term content deals with Sony Pictures and MGM which have delivered films such as SkyFall, Mission Impossible III and Spiderman, among several other films. It was NP who decided to acquire Slumdog Millionaire and air it in both English and Hindi which worked very well for the network as a whole. And last year he recruited Saurabh Yagnik from Star with a clear mandate to take it to the number one spot. 

    NP also pushed for the shift of AXN – the English general entertainment channel – from Singapore to India and has been acquiring content which suits Indian tastes more. And that strategy seems to be working for AXN even though it has tough competition from Star World and Zee Café.

     

    When he decided to launch the music channel Sony Mix a couple of years ago in an overcrowded market, not many gave it a chance. But today it has beaten back the leader 9XM with innovations such as music based programming on time bands and moods and also bringing in radio host Anurag Pandey onto the channel with his own show.

     

    Along with Man Jit Singh, NP  has also been quietly building a slate of low cost movies under MSM Motion Pictures, which should start adding revenues to SET’s top line and hopefully its bottomline in the coming year.

     

    That he is getting charge of one of the jewels in the Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) international crown shows how much confidence he has managed to gain from Los Angeles-based bosses Andy Kaplan and Michael Lynton. SPE, on its part, has been under pressure in recent times with declining profits and it even announced that it would prune its movie slate and focus more on television content. It hired a consultant firm Bain & Co in November 2013 to help it generate $250 million in savings. One of the options it is looking at is streamlining its international operations by setting up more joint ventures, apart from lowering head count.

     

    According to reports in the international media, its Indian network reaches about 484.1 million pay TV subscribers, but it would like to see more revenues emerging from India. MSM India annually contributes nearly $600 million in revenues and $130 million in profits annually to SPE’s media networks’ business which tots up $1.5 billion in revenues overall, reveal Media Partners Asia estimates.With India’s cable TV networks on a digital rollout nationally, the hope is that subscription revenues will rise substantially for all the major Indian broadcast networks, amongst which figures MSM India.

     

    NP has his work cut out. He has to focus on making the nearly billion dollar investment the network made in the IPL generate more revenues (the deal ends in 2017 and probably around 40 per cent of the investment has already been recovered), he has to make fiction work at Sony Entertainment, build a stronger creative team to bring in cutting edge series, and strengthen its non-fiction lineup at a time when fatigue is setting in amongst viewers.

     

    This apart, he has to strengthen the Sony Entertainment network’s channel bouquet, bring in regional language and niche services to take advantage of the monetisation opportunities that digitisation will throw up in the next four to five years. All this at a time when its US parent is putting the squeeze on money and trying to generate savings, which means the accountant in NP will really have to do some financial legerdemain.

     

    Most industry watchers are betting that NP will do the trick. “NP’s core strength is also distribution. Remember, he has been one of the architects of putting together the content aggregator One Alliance. So clearly, he will be able to work some magic on distribution and subscription revenues,” says a media analyst. “The problem with its major content offering – Sony the Hindi GEC – has been too many people have being driving it in the past, which has impacted its performance. With a single leader at the top in NP and a good programming head in place, expect Sony to really drive ahead on its programming initiatives. NP loves a challenge.”

     

    It is precisely this quality in him that will prove handy as he goes about building Sony Entertainment Television for a digital and young India.

  • The year of big movie acquisitions

    The year of big movie acquisitions

    By Neeraj Vyas

    If we were to reflect on the landmark moments of 2013, we could proudly say that it has been an impactful year with many highs. To start off, Indian Cinema celebrated 100 years of diverse and distinctive movies. It is a momentous occasion for the world’s largest producer of feature films with over 1200 releases a year in more than 25 languages. The casts got bigger, the designing of the film got more glamorous, the locations more exotic and the technical values are at par with anywhere else in the world.  

    On the flip side, most of this additional cost was passed on the broadcaster and acquisitions became hugely expensive. Surprisingly, these high costs have not deterred many broadcasters from acquiring big banner films at pre-production stage even though it is almost impossible to gauge how well the film will be received by television audiences. In future, movie deals will probably be governed by the revenue generated at the box office.

    On the digital front too, the channel focused on building its brand equity and connect, apart from trying to keep strengthening the positioning of the brand.With competition within channels heating up to garner maximum viewership, the stakes attached to such upmarket films has evolved to be much more complicated than it has been in previous years. Marketing budgets for the television premiers of these films is something which has seen a huge increase with each channel upping the level of spends and trying to be distinctively innovative with each premier. For Aashiqui 2, the biggest romantic musical of the year, at MAX, we raised the bar for marketing innovations across all mediums of communication. The channel engaged with its viewers across all platforms – print, online and outdoors raising to a crescendo with the stars of the movie engaging with some lucky viewers thereby creating a much required stickiness for the brand. The main aim was to attract fresh viewers and entice older ones to watch the film again.

    The digital space is constantly evolving and our endeavour is to customise everything we do on the digital platform. Some of the innovations on the social platform were the IPL Jhumping Jhapak app. Also, MAX was the first Hindi movie channel to integrate live tweets on Jab Tak Hai Jaan.

    From an overall industry perspective, I feel the highpoint was the rollout of digitisation across the country in phases. Although much delayed and slower than anticipated, it opened out a whole new opportunity for channels to increase shelf space. The proposed ad cap pushed many networks to launch new channels to adequately maximise their inventory supply. At MAX, our focus was to consciously deliver better films and energise the brand to engage with our loyal viewers.  

    Looking forward, the film channels will also need to re-evaluate the way advertising is sold so that the true value is gained in return for the delivery of this product to large chunks of audiences.

    (Neeraj Vyas is senior VP and business head, Sony Max. The views expressed in the above article are the author’s personal views)

  • No Talkies brings out maximum Deewangi in media agencies

    No Talkies brings out maximum Deewangi in media agencies

    MUMBAI: SONY MAX, the premium Hindi movies and special events channel which recently launched its latest initiative“NO TALKIES”-India’s first National Dumb Charades competition for Media Agencies across Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, has received an overwhelming response. The activity had its first ever regional rounds in Delhi on 18th September, followed by Bangalore on the 19th and Mumbai on 25th September. The media agencies who had enthusiastically registered for the initiative were waiting to get on stage and put their best foot forward.

     

    Five teams have qualified for the finale of NO TALKIES. Delhi MAXUS had a clean sweep by clearing the regional round with 2 winning teams namely ‘Engineers’ & ‘MAXUS ke Deewane’. From Bangalore, ‘Thakur ke Aadmi’ from MAXUS qualified for the deciding round. The teams which performed the best in the Mumbai regional round were ‘Eena Meena Deeka’ and ‘MEC Fimly Deewane’ from Mindshare and MEC respectively.

     

    The preliminary rounds of the activity witnessed team participation from top media agencies across Mindshare, Maxus, MEC, Motivator, Lodestar, Madision, Starcom, Lintas, OMD, MPG amongst others in the three cities.

     

    Witnessing the passion of the participants, Vaishali Sharma, VP Marketing, MAX commented, “We are overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm with which media agencies have connected and participated in ‘NO TALKIES’. Everyone has a little bit of filmy deewanapan in their life and ‘NO TALKIES’ has given them the perfect avenue to showcase it. We look forward to an even more successful finale in Mumbai.”

    The top 5 teams are now sharpening their acting skills to clinch the title of being crowned as the winner of ‘NO TALKIES’on 1st October at Blue Frog, Mumbai. It’s going to be a perfect recipe of a delightful & entertaining evening.

  • Max goes maxi on its campaign

    Max goes maxi on its campaign

    MUMBAI: Have you ever, in the middle of some important discussion got up and said something completely out of context and people thought it was too filmy. If it happens often, well you can easily blame the movies for it. Cinema has become a part of our lives which easily influences our thoughts and also adds drama, but in a cute little way. And this is what Sony Max, is trying to cash on through its newly launched three TV campaigns.

     

    “We wanted to take a step forward and discover the cuteness of this deewanapan that people have within themselves,” says   Sony Max senior VP and business head Neeraj Vyas. “All the three creatives are cute and whacky, but at the same time they are not over the top and not overtly dressed up to sound funny.”

    The campaign is Max’s tribute to the effect cinema has on people

     

    The three campaigns have tried to keep pace with the current trend of cinema. “The TVCs capture the deewanapan that remains as a residue of movie viewing,” he adds.

     

    The first of the three TVC’s which went on air on 15 August features a police officer who while describing the action of a criminal in a photograph, promptly says, “Shayad who poochh raha hai agar usne Aashiqui 2 dekhi”. The second TVC is about a girl who confesses to his parents that she is in love with a guy from a different religion, though the girl expected some drama around this revelation, she is upset that her parents are cool with her relationship and goes on to say, ‘Toh kya humare pyaar mein ek bhi kaanta nahi.’ The third TVC shows a boy who questions his mother on the death of his father and is disappointed to know that he died of a heart attack and says, ‘Ab main kiske khoon ka badla loonga’.  All the three ads conclude with ‘Deewana deewana deewana, jahan dekho wahan deewana.’

     

    “We use filmy tones and dialogues in real life situations to say something funny or nice. And that’s all the campaign is saying,” comments Vyas.

     

    Eyebrows do go up with the timing of the campaign. One may smell some competition coming in from the launch of Zee TVs new movie channel &pictures. So is it this which forced Max to connect with audiences through new campaigns? Promptly answers Vyas, “Well! This is mere co-incidence, that the launch of Max’s new TVC and &pictures happens at almost the same time. In fact we hurried the campaign because of the October deadline for implementation of ad cap.”

     

    Explaining further he adds, “We had campaigns even the last year, around the same time which was called Shuruwat Yahin Se, this was more of a sub tribute to deewanapan .  We have at least three creatives per campaign every year.”
    The campaign is Max’s tribute to the effect cinema has on people

     

    The key insight for this year’s campaign was to demonstrate the latent deewanapan in everyone’s life. “It is communication from the point of view of people. None of the TVC’s asks the audiences to watch Max, they are all talking of their personal issues which is a derivative from the residue of movies.”

     

    Max has bought space on 22 channels from other networks to promote the new campaign. These include news, music, kids and regional language genres. “It is a part of our massive media plan. It is a media need to reach out to ‘x’ number of people in ‘x’ number of times, which is what we are aiming at by tying up with these networks,” informs Vyas.

     

    The campaign has been created by JWT, the production house is Kerosene Films and the director for the film is Rajesh Sathi. While currently the campaign involves only on-air promotions, the channel will soon use the digital space as well. No print ads will be used. “How can you translate the TVC into print?” he questions.

     

    According to the chief creative officer of a Delhi based creative ad agency the commercials are reasonably well made and are likeable. “If the attempt was to establish that the channel is associated with Bollywood, this set of commercials delivers. However, they do evoke a sense of déj? vu as such filmy things have been done before. Also the ad may not be path breaking but certainly makes one smile.”

     

    A commercial is an attempt to create propensity among viewers to like the channel. “In my opinion, these commercials have achieved that,” adds the CCO. When asked if a channel needs to rope in big names for promotions he says, “Max is an established channel and so can afford to cast real people. But for a new movie channel like &pictures, to announce its arrival, it needs to shout louder, both creative- and media-wise. Therefore, it’s understandable why they have roped big names.”

     

    When asked if the commercial was an attempt to pre-empt &pictures promotions, he says, “Well I haven’t seen &pictures promos, so can’t comment on that.” Resonating the same another creative head said, “Well, I haven’t heard or seen &pictures on-air promotions.”

     

    The launch of the campaign at a time of the launch of &pictures is a mere coincidence or no, is something which we can only speculate. But, what comes as good news for Max is that while its campaign is being watched and appreciated, &pictures even with big stars seems to have gone wrong with the marketing. Which of the two make a mark in this campaign driven industry, is yet to be seen.

  • The coming storm?

    The coming storm?

    MUMBAI: The two-week long standoff between IBF, AAAI and ISA finally ended mid-last week as the three constituents came up with a consensus. However, if one goes through it, it clearly appears that the three bodies bought in a forced peace.

     

    Industry watchers are asking how long before something else flares up. A big question mark still hangs over the ad rate hike which is expected to be made by broadcasters following the imposition of an ad cap by the TRAI. 1 October is not so very far away. Will advertisers, agencies and broadcasters sort out any moves in this direction in a calm composed manner? Or will they get into another round of fisticuffs?

     

    “Rate hike is a definite thing now. The more important question here is that by how much percentage it’s going to go up by. Channels, of course, can’t increase it at one go and hence, will do it in parts,” says a south Indian media planner, who didn’t wish to be named.

     

    Even another media planner from the city feels that it is market forces which will define by how much one can charge and how much will one pay. Most agree that with the new TAM viewership metric television viewership per thousand (TVT) coming soon, the channels will try to make the best of it.

     

    Almost everyone agrees that GECs will benefit when the ad cap comes into play. However, none of them wanted to comment on it. Whereas smaller channels were more than pleased to express what it could do for them.

     

    Sony Max senior vice-president and business head Neeraj Vyas told indiantelevision.com last week: “It is the biggest blessing that is going to happen to the genre. One needs to understand that the biggest problem for the genre is the time spent, so our time spent was close to around 65 to 68 minutes a week and 122 to 130 minutes for the GECs. Now there are clear reasons, GECs shows you original content everyday; and out here, there are repeats all the time. So now, if ads come down, ad time comes down, a viewer tends to stick on and watch more.”

     

    He further stated that the time is right for the movie channels to push for higher ad rates. “Traditionally, the Hindi movie channels have been sold at a a very low rate. The correction should have happened years ago, which did not happen. So probably this is the right time to make that switch. It is a survival issue for all.” (Read interview: “Bollywood is not making films suited for home viewing on TV today”)

     

    Agreeing with him, Food Food channel promoter Sanjeev Kapoor states as a matter-of-fact that someone will have to pay for it. And broadcasters cannot afford to pay, so either the viewers will pay or the brands will. “Fortunately for us, it’s not much of a problem because we are a new channel. In a new channel the inventory consumption is not 100 per cent in the beginning, it builds over time. So we are in a process of building that. And hence, our impact may be lower than others whose inventory consumption may be 100 per cent. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t be affected at all. I think older players, where time for ads is much higher, will be impacted by about 25 per cent. So either the brands will pay or both or it will be a three way split.”

     

    Even news channels which have filed an appeal with TDSAT regarding the ad cap feel that the only way ahead they can see is through a steep increase in ad rates. Zee News’ CEO Alok Agarwal feels that there could be a 70-100 per cent hike in the genre!

     

    The only party which will have to shell out money from their pockets is the advertisers. But they are trying to find a silver lining in the dark cloud.

     

    HDFC Life EVP – marketing & direct channels Sanjay Tripathy asserts, “At this moment there is a lot of speculation going on. Once the ad cap happens, we will be clear on what exactly the scenario will be. To be frank, it will be a demand and supply situation. Popular channels will quite likely get better price increments. The less popular ones will face a tough time. So just let’s wait for the right time and let’s not speculate more on this without knowing any facts.”

     

    Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing , vice-president (sales & marketing) Kamal Nandi says, “When you say that it would be tough on the advertisers, I would say there is a flipside to it that the TV viewing experience of viewers will improve on account of and less clutter. We are internally speaking to our media partners to develop an ROI to work out the cost vs benefit. Also, because of the reduced number of ads, the possibility of our commercial connecting and being viewed by the viewer at home will be higher.”

     

    While an industry expert feels that it is a complicated situation and keeping in mind the current economic scenario, it will be difficult to come up with a “solution” soon. “I wish it was simple. But no other country in the world has more than 650 channels that too in various languages catering to a very wide audience. Hence, all parties will have to sit and work on the economics of price, time, volume and content,” he explains.

     

    So can one expect fireworks again? He laughs and says, “The intelligent channels have already started working out things while others are waiting and will blame it on the market or industry.”

     

    For instance, the Sun Network announced a hike in ad rates of 19 per cent for its weekday prime time slots in late-May. Then Colors and Star India had said that it was taking up ad rates by 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in late May too. Colors CEO Raj Nayak last week told indiantelevision.com that advertisers had responded well to the increase in rates and the channel had managed an average uptick of between 12 and 18 per cent following the hike.

     

    Another expert from the opposite side of the table says, “It’s a flea market. Anyone can demand whatever they like, of course, depending on the ratings. And whoever is willing to shell out that much will advertise on it or else look for another option.”

     

    He goes on to clarify, “If by any chance there is a standoff, then I don’t expect collective action from the three associations, as prices are dictated by market forces and intervention is not something that will work.”

     

    Knowing the hyperactive Indian Broadcasting Foundation, don’t expect it to take things lying down in case advertisers and agencies stonewall broadcasters. Will it be fireworks before Diwali?