Category: Commercial Public Services incl. Healthcare & Medical
Advertiser: TATA SKY
Product/Service: DIRECT-TO-HOME SATELLITE TELEVISION PROVIDER (SET TOP BOX)
Media Agency: MAXUS, Mumbai, INDIA
Managing Director: Ajit Varghese (Maxus)
Managing Partner: Kartik Sharma (Maxus)
General Manager: Mangesh Korgaonkar (Maxus)
Senior Investment Director: Pratik Rathod (Maxus)
Business Director: Rrahul Deo Manerao (Maxus)
Investment Director: Amrita Choudhary (Maxus)
Business Manager: Vikash Modi (Maxus)
Business Manager: Tauseef Unea (Maxus)
Investment Manager: Rohith Sundararaman (Maxus)
Investment Manager: Ravindra Teli (Maxus)
Business Executive: Ramya Akhileshwar (Maxus)
Business Executive: Nivedita Ravishankar (Maxus)
Investment Executive: Sujit Singh (Maxus)
Media placement: Television - 10 Programs x 50 episodes - Sab Tv, Sony Tv - 25th December'2011
Insights, Strategy & the Idea
Indians are passionate TV viewers and follow their favourite programs obsessively. Missed episodes are followed up with peers. Tata Sky, a Direct-To-Home brand launched a first ever ‘Video-On-Demand-Catch-up-TV’. This service facilitates watching previous 5 days program episodes that one has missed. Though useful, it received low acceptance amongst prospects. Media’s role was to drive service subscriptions. Research showed, though the prospects were aware, they found it risky to invest in a new service whose usage they were not sure about. We had to overcome this risk to drive subscription. The insight “Sampling is a risk free way to experience new products” led us to do what has never been done before ‘live sampling of a technical service on TV’. We demonstrated the utility and ease of Video-On-Demand service to the viewers, using the content of their favourite soaps. Thereby, eliminating the risk of investing to try a new service.
Creative Execution
Imagine: Viewers tuned into their television to watch their favourite TV shows ‘Friends’ or ‘Desperate Housewives’. Just when the current episode was about to relay, viewers saw an unusual but interesting recaps of the previous 5 days of the show that they would have seen or missed. A screen message with voice over accompanied these recaps asking, ‘Did you miss any of these episodes? If you did, then you can easily see any or all previous 5 episodes of this program on Tata Sky’s Video-On-Demand service’. This was further followed by a demonstration video showing the ease with which the service can be used to watch a particular episode of that program. Regular program then resumed as usual. We replicated the same across popular programs. To make sampling relevant, the demonstration video was customised using the content of the program. Prospects experienced the product benefits without risking their investment.
Results and Effectiveness
21 million viewers experienced the sample of Video-On-Demand service over 25 days through 50 episodes of 10 most popular Indian television programs. It led to a record 120,000 subscriptions for Tata Sky’s Video-On-Demand Service. The brand track scores for ‘Product familiarity’ and ‘Intention to purchase’ increased by 11% and 9% respectively (GFK Mode Survey). This first ever customised product program sampling execution is a classic case of innovation that was not only relevant but also effective in delivering desired subscriptions for Tata Sky.