Tag: Purab Kohli

By Anuka Roy

Times Network announced the launch of a 360-degree ad campaign for its English Entertainment Cluster (EEC), which includes Movies Now HD, Romedy Now and MN+. The network wants to urge viewers to improve their Hollywood movie viewing experience by subscribing to HD channels.

As part of this, an av campaign featuring Purab Kohli takes a dig at Hollywood movie viewing in India. The film follows how Kohli’s character is prepared to watch his favourite Hollywood movie on television, everything seems to be perfect around him, from a huge LED TV, a swanky sound proof living room to a beautiful companion. But once he switches on the TV set his dreams are broken as he is not subscribed to the HD channel where the movie is playing. The tagline of the campaign is: “It’s time to raise your standard to High Definition.”

So, what was the idea behind this campaign? “Most brand studies that we did showed that people had HD sets but were not subscribed to HD channels. It was not because they did not want to spend extra money; it is because you did not feel the need to view the content in HD,” said Vivek Srivastava, SVP and Business Head- Times Network EEC, adding: “There were people who said they were already watching the content in HD because from the analogue world when they had those small dots in the screens, the picture quality is much clearer now. And, then there were a set of people who said that once we started watching content in HD we can never go back to Standard Definition (SD). The key was how do you grow this base. India has about 115 million television homes right now, but only 6 million subscribe to HD and about 15% subscribe to HD content. That’s like a small amount. It is not the question of affordability as everyone is buying it. So, the key insight in this case was if you could persuade people to experience or talk to them about a better and higher experience you would possibly get them on board, that is what the campaign is all about.”

This campaign is targeted towards anyone who has an SD product and is watching Hollywood content. Srivastava gave the example of Jungle Book breaking records of Bollywood movies, proving the rise in consumption of Hollywood movies but the platform to view it is limited and that is exactly what they want to educate people with this campaign.

But with people moving  from television sets to digital platforms, how does the network intend to attract viewers? “SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand) sites and platforms are on a rise. They are here to stay. If you compare that to a matured market like US, the total amount of television viewing which has gone down last year is about 1%. Therefore, they have really not taken viewership away from television. That does not mean there is no market for them, there is a significant market for that segment. So, these SVODs will compliment the television viewership and add on the entertainment hours that we are spending. I don’t see it as a threat and if anything it will add to the popularity”

The campaign will be launched today (May 2) across various platforms.