MUMBAI: Events and movies channel Max’s latest innovation Hollywood Hungama has hit the bull’s eye. The first movie off the block Anaconda that aired on 27 June has generated an excellent TVR of 4.1 from the Hindi speaking markets (all-India numbers 2.9).
The thumping opening Hollywood Hungama has received has helped Max to break into the top 100 programme-club for the week 27 June to 3 July according to the latest TAM figures.
The channel had adopted an aggressive marketing strategy for Hollywood Hungama. Advertisements appeared in all mainline newspapers in Hindi-speaking parts of the country. Then there were branded vans traveling across India carrying huge hoardings. Tied in to the outdoor campaign were on air promos on cable TV and on all channels belonging to the One Alliance bouquet.
Explaining the marketing strategy behind Hollywood Hungama, Max vice president marketing & commercial Tushar Shah says the communication was shaped in such a way that though exaggerated, it conveys the core value of the Sony Max tagline Deewana bana de to the target group. Quoting informal market reports, Shah claims the campaign is one of the huge hits in recent times.
“Max treats its communication very differently, and the effort is to reinforce its commitment to viewers. This often gets reflected in the results in our case. The challenge was to break the language and culture barriers and at the same time to do justice to our value proposition of Deewana bana de. “The word Hungama gives an instant idea about entertainment, jubilation and celebration to the masses,” says Shah.
The brief given to Max’s media planner MediaCom India for the campaign was, ‘to address an audience interested in Hollywood fare, but comfortable in Bollywood lingo.’ Says MediaCom India president Jasmin Sohrabji, “Resisting the temptation of a ‘high’ statistical reach number, we remained true to the target group we needed to address. With a clear focus on the vernacular, our lead mediums were outdoor, print and cable, in addition to our own network channels. While outdoor and cable generated the build up and interest, vernacular print and our network channels added ‘recency’ to this build up – all culminating into a high 4.1 per cent tune-in!”
So we have this village belle from Gujarat in dandia costumes holding a nanchaku, the guy from Rajastan wearing a Mexican hat and the Bengali woman wearing a blond wig, scoring big for Max, catching the fancy of the common man who was obviously the target audience of Hollywood Hungama.
According to Euro RSGC vice president creative Ashok Karnik, who handled the creative for Hollywood Hungama, there was nothing new about the whole idea and even the campaign. But he feels nobody ever made an effort to market and advertise the innovation in the way Max did. Karnik explains how the agency went about dealing with the challenge of wooing the Hindi-watching masses to the world of Hollywood:
“The brief was, ‘Hollywood movies are to be shown in Hindi and Sony has the best titles in its Columbia Tristar library.’ The challenge was to reach out to the masses, who are only familiar with Hindi movies, and capture their attention. We wanted to make the creative interesting and appealing. So in our ads, we showed normal people wearing something which is Hollywood through various visual imageries.”
One key aspect of Hollywood Hungama’s success with its opener Anaconda is the fact that it was not a world premiere of the movie. The channel took up a movie that has been shown on various channels ‘n’ number of times. So the introductory offer had nothing much to rave about. Still Max scored it big with this relatively low profile movie and full marks goes to the effective communication campaign it pulled off.
According to data provided by the channel, June was a dream month for Max. The projected TAM market reports for the month show the channel emerging as a clear leader among movie channels in all time segments for the Hindi speaking markets.
In the 7 am – 12 am slot, Max has collected 0.78 per cent of TVR ahead of Zee cinema (0.67 per cent) and Star Gold (0.58 per cent). In the prime time segment of 9 pm to 12 am, Max leads with 1.34 per cent followed by Star Gold with 0.77 per cent. In the evening slot of 5 pm to 8:30 pm, Max has topped with 0.89 per cent.
Tam all-June TVR percentage in Hindi speaking market all India in C&S homes minus South
Shah feels the channel’s strategy to constantly innovate with its programming and at the same time maintaining a long term relationship with the viewers have been paying off.
“In terms of programming and marketing efforts, we have adopted a carpet bombing approach,” says he.