Not everyone watches movies in cinema halls; over 5.6 million Indian subscribers enjoy the magic of movies on their phone by downloading paid cinema entertainment with original movie content, dialogues, storyline and song clips through Video Talkies. Maxus has harnessed these highly engaged users for Seagram’s Imperial Blue by tying up with most leading operators like Airtel, Tata Docomo and Uninor to launch Seagram’s Imperial Blue Superhits Movie pack by a process of rebranding and repackaging, for the 1st time ever.
Imperial Blue required Maxus to take its brand to newer audience and innovate beyond the traditional screens available for targeting and reiterating its brand proposition “Men will be Men”.
Video Talkies is a property where users can watch abridged versions of full length movies, reduced to 15 minutes with the essence of the story and best dialogues kept intact. Users subscribe to a monthly pack of 4 movies for INR 30. Users can download any 4 movies of their choice. Once the user downloads the movie, he gets a message from the Operator “Thank you for downloading Imperial Blue Superhits Movie Pack” which acts as a reminder & reinforces the brand association. In the same message the user gets a chance to win his next pack free for a month by taking part in the Imperial Blue contest.
Elaborating on this innovative initiative of bringing shortened Movies on a mobile platform Bikram Basu, VP Marketing, Pernod Ricard India said, “This is a perfect integration on the mobile platform for the audience of Imperial Blue with a series of short format movies in Hindi and other regional languages. The movies chosen are popular block busters as well as those which amplify the brand proposition of “Men will be Men”.”
The movies downloaded will remain in user’s handsets forever and each time he watches the movie, he gets to see the Imperial Blue brand commercial integrated before the movie begins.
Unny Radhakrishnan, Digital Head (South Asia), Maxus India says “Content is increasingly becoming a key enabler in media and marketing. Brands either create content or ride on existing content. Here it is even more interesting because we are driving on the new consumer behavior of consuming content on their mobile devices, on the fly.” The brand commercial integrated with the movie clip, enables multiple exposure and brings down the effective cost per impression.
When users pay for content the chances of it being seriously viewed are higher than free downloads. It’s about embedding brand communication within this sticky content rather than passive banner advertising hoping for a view through. The pack includes leading blockbusters like Don 2, Rockstar, Dabaang, Vicky Donor, Pyaar ka Punchnaama, Singham…etc. This ensures higher recall & salience considering the frequency of consumption of such sticky content.
“The fact that one goes beyond just a banner placement, where the brand is actually accomplishing two large agendas of the marketing KPI – reach & frequency. From the time the content is downloaded, consumed and viewed later too makes for stronger brand salience. Additionally, in the category where a significant proportion of consumption is out of home, this innovation makes it possible for the brand to communicate beyond static POP/POS & stay much closer to the consumer when he is out and about” adds Mr. Vinod Thadani , C.O.O Madhouse India
Niyati Shah, CEO, Shotformats (Video talkies), puts it succinctly, “Mobile screens are like chhota packet bada dhamaka. The brand registration is the highest and it also gives you the freedom to innovate and target, which is exactly what we have managed with Imperial Blue. There is no chance that the consumer will miss your brand as it is on a personal devise and at an average distance of under a foot.”
