Sony Max: Movie Mania 2.0

Sony Max, the Hindi movie channel from Multi Screen Media, has launched a new brand campaign titled 'Ab Khulkar Phailegi Deewangi'. The campaign is an extention of channel's current positioning of 'Deewana Bana De'.

The new campaign, that comprises of three TVCs, has been created by DDB Mudra. The TVCs talk about the little bit of filminess in all of us. The commercials are a visual manifestation of how 'deewanapan' can add flavor to ordinary moments in life. They showcase how the extremely passionate movie buff relates and gets influenced by movie characters, dialogues, music, scenes and how all this deewangi percolates down to his daily life.

The second TVC shows bridesmaids along with an old aunt making a war cry for the bride 'Chak De' to perk her up from the anxiety of her suhagraat. Meanwhile, the third TVC shows how a furniture showroom salesman bitten by the Bollywood bug replicates the iconic 'Zanjeer' movie scene while attending a customer.

Neeraj Vyas, senior executive vice president and business head, Sony Max and Max shares that the whole idea of the campaign is to always to have a real space in the heart and mind of a viewer, rather than saying that I want to be the biggest channel, the No.1 channel in the genre.

"This particular campaign talks about the inherent madness in the mind of an Indian movie buff because movies are close to not just the life, but to everything he or she does. There is so much of relateability with movies and somebody's life! This campaign is just an extension of the tribute to the movies."

While the first film has already broken on-air, the other two are expected to go live on TV, sometime soon.

Talking about the brief that was given to the agency, Vaishali Sharma, VP, Marketing and Communications, MAX, tells afaqs! that one has to continue to make the brand very relevant to the consumers and to ensure that people continue to remain connected with the brand, given the fact that the channel plays different movies.

"For us, the differentiating factor becomes the emotional connect of 'Deewana bana de'. Secondly, if one looks at Hindi films, the length and breadth of audiences it goes across - whether it's the metros or LC 1 towns, even in smaller districs, this is the main source of entertainment. So, how do we ensure that the campaign reflects the widespread of the audiences and finally really reflect the attitude of the Max viewer was another point in the brief."

Sonal Dabral, chairman and CCO, DDB Mudra Group adds, "India is a country passionate and obsessed with 'Bollywood' and what better way to capture this unique obsession than by coming out with a campaign which pays homage to Indian cinema. The new campaign is all about infecting people with passion and love for this great Indian cinema and to encourage people to see the lighter side in every walk of life."

Well-screened?

Gupta believes that a brand film will not help Max at this stage. "Sony Max is already an established channel and brand films work better for new channels because they need to build brands. For Max, what consumer wants now is content and that's the only things through which it can be built further."

Samit Sinha, managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting opines that the thought of the campaign is completely opaque and it takes considerable effort - which at the end of it is simply not worth it - to decode what it is trying to convey. "Trying to be a little too clever and failing miserably in the bargain. The Sony Max campaign is a rather elaborate, but ultimately a failed attempt to emulate the Piyush Pandey school of advertising. The key difference being that in terms of the idea and execution it comes through as the poor country cousin of the original style."

Sinha adds that the point that Max is trying to attempt to communicate is buried under layers of unnecessary detail. "There is a strong sense of deja vu, looking at a campaign (first TVC) like this, which look like Fevicol me-toos. When you eventually get it after much effort, you are left with a sense of anticlimax. A brand campaign can be effective for a TV Channel provided it is the kind of channel where the values of the brand are more sticky than the programme itself, otherwise people tend to be loyal to the programme and not the channel. The exceptions are news and infotainment channels."