PVR sets aside Rs 10 crore for PVR Premier

PVR (Priya Village Roadshow), a brand which changed the way movies are viewed and ‘experienced’ 10 years ago, has come out with a new offering – PVR Premier. With an investment of Rs 24 crore, the first PVR Premier theatre was launched yesterday in New Delhi at Select City Walk in Saket.

PVR Premier is targeted at urban consumers in the metros, with premium offerings such as leather upholstered fully reclining seats and unparalleled legroom in two Gold Class and four Premier Class auditoria. Moviegoers will be offered a personalised menu, overseen by a maitre d’. Exclusive lounge areas will contain well-stocked bookshelves.

PVR’s target is to set up 30-40 such screens by 2010. With this new offering, PVR becomes a comprehensive brand, with PVR Cinemas for urban and semi-urban cities; PVR Talkies for Tier II and III cities, and now PVR Premier for high-end urban catchments.

Following the Delhi launch, five more PVR Premiers have been lined up – one each in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Kolkata, and two in Bangalore. These theatres will contribute 15-20 per cent of the revenues for the next five years.

PVR Cinemas and PVR Premier are advertised to tell the consumer about the core differentiators – ambience, hospitality, etc. – which provide a complete cinema experience. Dutta believes that the differentiator at PVR is not the physical attributes, which can be achieved by any other player in the business, but the larger focus on the consumer, his needs and how he is treated.

Looking at the audience that the company has in mind for PVR Premier, the range of movies will focus more on world cinema. PVR Cinemas, which targets the middle belly, will be more Bollywood inclined. The ambience at PVR Premier is more classic as compared to the young, retro look that PVR Cinemas sport.

“Our focus will be on understanding how to take PVR Premier, which is a lead brand, forward, to irrigate and nourish the brand, and most importantly be a part of the perception of the consumer, rather than just be remembered for our physical attributes. The communication will also follow the same lines – the advertising has to match the experiential part of the product,” says Dutta.

In order to maintain exclusivity, PVR Premier will not have more than one or two outlets in a single market. It may coexist with a PVR Cinema in a market, but not with a PVR Talkies, which is a product designed to suit a different set of people altogether.

Two corporate print campaigns, which are designed to suit the specific communication needs of the three offerings, are in the pipeline. Print advertising, which is crucial on a day to day basis, is the primary medium of communication. Newspapers are considered for listings, which bring business. Advertising in magazines is essential for building the image of the brand in the minds of the target consumers. Television is being looked at in a big way, but there is still time to go for a corporate campaign.

PVR has set aside Rs 9-10 crore for its advertising and marketing activities for the fiscal. Saatchi & Saatchi is its creative agency, and Initiative handles its media duties.

PVR plans to put up digitised banners and branding in the premises, rather than traditional printed banners. At PVR Premier, consumers will be given the option of downloading ringtones, pictures, movie schedules, etc., free of cost. With a footfall of 20 million, PVR is looking forward to various sponsorships and tieups. Very recently, it was an on-ground sponsor for the Twenty20 Cup. A number of advertisers – big brands such as Airtel, Maruti and Hero Honda, to name a few – have entered into various on-screen, off-screen and other promotional tieups with PVR.

Dutta concludes, “Cinema is a complete unique media wherein the consumer himself volunteers to be a part of the experience and is not forced into consuming anything. We plan to leverage that to the best of our abilities to get the consumer back again to PVR in the future, after each visit.”