Mass entertainers become UTV Movies' new-found focus

UTV Movies, the Bollywood movie channel from the Disney UTV Network, has donned a new avatar along with a new brand philosophy, 'Soch Mat, Seeti Maar'. The channel has been re-packaged with vibrant colours and a new logo.

Following an extensive research, the channel has arrived at the insight that movies with a lighter subject are watched and enjoyed more by the audiences.

Bikram Duggal, director, marketing, Media Networks, Disney UTV tells afaqs! that the channel analysed the viewership data of over 1000 Bollywood movie titles released on TV in the past four-five years. "What we realised was that there is a common thread running in these movies. While you can break the movies into various sub-sets or genres like comedy, romance, fantasy and action, most of the movies that were doing well could be clubbed into two sub-genres - Dhamaka Action and Dhamaal Comedy."

Therefore, movies like the ones by Rohit Shetty that have both action and comedy tend to do better with the viewers. After the in-house research, the channel went to the consumers to get an in-depth insight on the subject. The consumer-focused group discussions actually brought to light that movies like Boss and Rowdy Rathore are more popular.

"The reason was that largely the life people are living today is quite stressed, not only in the metros but also in Tier I, II, III cities. Even after the consumer switches on the television, there are genres that tend to build on the stress. Hence, people are looking at watching movies that are more relaxing. This is quite a recent change and, hence, our positioning is quite contemporary. With UTV movies, we will now deliver instant doses of entertainment that relax and unwind you immediately and the creative expression for that is 'Soch Mat, Seeti Maar'," Duggal adds.

The tagline of the channel, 'Soch Mat, Seeti Maar', implies that the channel airs movies for which the audiences do not need think much. While there have been other positioning statements like 'Deewana Bana De', Duggal feels that 'Soch Mat, Seeti Maar' is culturally relevant and resonates well with the males that form majority of the audiences of the movie genre. As per the data, males comprise 57 per cent of the viewership of movie channels.

Talking about the need for a different positioning, Duggal avers, "We believe that UTV is one such brand where we will build enduring values by making the strong brand and not treat it like transactional, title driven relationship with consumers. Hence, this positioning which will differentiate UTV Movies from the other movie channels."

To communicate the new positioning, the channel has launched a brand film that has been developed in-house. It will run on all the channels of Disney UTV Network, across its bouquet of movie, youth and music, and kids' channels.

The brand film shows a man being followed by his brain throughout the day. The brain is constantly talking to him, reminding him about various things he has to do. But once he reaches home and switches on UTV Movies, his brain stops talking to him, giving him some peaceful time. The voiceover at the end says, "Jab Dimag hi Dimag ko khaye to UTV Movies lagaye".

While the channel's new positioning will be promoted for 12 months, heavy promotion is slated for the next one month. The channel has allocated around 50-60 per cent of its overall marketing spend of the year to this campaign.

In addition to the brand film, the channel has a robust cinema promotion plan.UTV Movies will employ about 6000 screens (single and multiplexes) in 123 cities across the country, including metros, Tier I, II, III cities and LC1 markets. It will be promoted during the screening of movies like Bullet Raja and Dhoom 3.

The movie promos on the channel will also be treated differently. Instead of the best shot along with the time and day of airing, the new approach will air a clip from the movie that is in sync with the 'Soch Mat, Seeti Maar' philosophy.

To ensure that the programming strategy works with the brand strategy, movies like Khiladi 786, Race2, Welcome and Boss will form a part of the offer. In other words, these genres will become more prominent on UTV Movies Now and be the driving force from here on.