With increase in the number of Hindi movie channels and resulting fragmentation of audiences, leading channels are now marketing not only the content they serve, but also the brand equity and brand ethos they hold on to.
Set Max recently launched a campaign called ‘No Talkies’. As per the channel, the campaign is India’s first national dumb charades competition for media agencies across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore; it has gone a step ahead in engaging media planners. Market experts believe that the effort of the channel is to position itself as a complete filmy DNA, which might help in brand recall.
Vaishali Sharma, Head – Marketing, Set Max said, “The craziness regarding movies in people’s lives gave birth to this idea. At Max, we constantly engage with different types of consumers, one of which is also media agencies that include us in their media plans. We decided to take the idea of playing dumb charades in the form of competition to them. The game is all about movies, and that is what we serve. The competition fits very well with our brand ethos. With the kind of responses we have received, I think we have been successful in our objective.”
Anil Saithiraju of Mudra Max shared, “The campaign initiated by Max is good. Through the campaign, the channel, at its very best, has tried to retain the brand at the top of the mind of media planners. As far as overall marketing of the channels in this genre is concerned, I believe that at the end of the day, planners need to be served and engaged in a different way than consumers, and that is what many channels have been trying to do.” Of late, contemporary movie channels are coming with new levels of consumer engagement. Recently, UTV movies, which premiered Yamlaa Paglaa Dewanaa, showcased and gave cut-out face masks of the lead characters to media agencies. Bikram Duggal, Director, Marketing, Media Networks, Disney UTV said, “The products of the genre are almost the same. Therefore, the need for marketing is far more intense in this genre as compared to any other. Unless one provides creativity and differentiation to the campaign, it won’t work. Marketing becomes extremely relevant in our genre.”
Hemal Jhaveri, EVP and GM, Movies OK and Star Gold said, “It is unfair to call the genre non-interactive. A vast amount of marketing and interaction efforts are put in place when big premieres are launched on any channel. The channel and brand is marketed to agencies as well as regular audiences.”
Experts believe that apart from acquiring a robust library of films, Hindi movie channels are also benchmarking marketing in a 360-degree way. This includes live tweeting (social media interaction) while a movie is on-air, campaign supporting the idea of a movie before the premiere, digital campaigns, BTL activities, agency marketing, character marketing, etc.
There has been a surge in OOH and digital spends by major movie channels. A senior planner shared, “I see digital spends of movie channels rising sharply. Earlier, the campaign was confined to the mention of the date and time of the movie premiere, while today it is about creating a virtual identity and experience. Almost all the movie channels have increased their digital spends by 10-15 per cent in the last few months. This is a significant number.”
Source: Exchange4media.com
